Frequently
Asked QuestionsPlease refer to
these common questions or ask our experienced team for further
information on how we can help you secure compensation of you
What is Payment Protection Insurance (PPI)?
What does PPI cover me against?
I have a loan, do I also have PPI?
How can Victory Claims help me?
Is there anything to pay Victory Claims upfront?
Is Victory Claims Ltd regulated and how secure are my private details?
How long will the whole process take?
How much will be refunded to me?
Can I claim for a closed accounts or repaid loans?
Will any claim affect my credit rating?
What is
Payment Protection Insurance (PPI)?
If you have any credit cards, store cards, catalogue
accounts, car finance personal, secured or mortgage loans,
may have Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). PPI is a
financial product designed by the lender to cover your cost
of loan / repayment in the event that you are unable to work
due to sickness or become unemployed.
PPI is also known as Accident, Sickness and Unemployment
cover (ASU), Life & Accident, Sickness and Unemployment
cover (Life & ASU), Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI),
Personal Loan Protection (PLP) or Credit Card Repayment
Protection (CCRP). Policies can be sold alongside your
credit card, loan or mortgage, or are ‘stand alone’ policies
which are not linked directly to a specific credit product.
As the lending market became more competitive, banks looked
for new ways to increase their profit, and PPI has been a
highly lucrative source of profits for all the major banks
and lenders. Some companies sold these policies without
informing the clients they were optional, and most included
the all premiums in the loan balance, resulting in thousands
in extra interest over the term of the loan. Credit Card and
Stand-Alone policies can result in over insurance during
periods when your balance is less than the cover you are
paying for.
Read more about
'PPI in the News'
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to questions
What does PPI cover
me against?
In general, PPI is designed to cover an individual from
having to pay interest on mortgages, credit cards and other
loans in the event that they become unemployed, or unable to
work. PPI has protected many consumers for severe financial
difficulty when they were injured in a car crash, or were
unable to work after an operation, however they do not
substitute your income or even pay capital form the loan,
they simply pay the interest on your loans when you are
unable to.
In common with all insurance products, the devil is in the
detail, specifically the exemptions relating to employment
and residential status, and previous medical conditions. A
large percentage of people who have been sold PPI did not
need it, were unlikely to be able to claim even if they were
made unemployed or were unable to work, and were almost
certainly paying many times more for the insurance than its
true cost or value. If you have PPI, you could be eligible
for a full refund of premiums you have paid or compensation.
I have a loan,
do I also have PPI?
In most cases the full costs of any PPI Premium is added to
the loan balance when a loan is advanced, although
occasionally it will be added each month as a monthly
payment. If your loan balance at the start was immediately
higher than the amount you received, or there is a
mysterious charge of £10-£30 each month, then it is likely
that PPI is responsible.
If you are unsure whether you have PPI on a loan, credit
card or mortgage, simply contact our experienced advisors
who are ready to help you.
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to questions
How can Victory
Claims help me?
Victory Claims Ltd helps consumers compile and pursue
complaints by exhaustively investigating the sales methods
used by the advisor at the time the endowment was sold to
them and constructing a case based on our knowledge of the
regulatory environment. Once we have assessed your case, we
lodge a written complaint on your behalf that
comprehensively addresses the specific grounds. We ensure
that your complaint is pursued with vigour and
professionalism, in order to increase the speed and
likelihood of a successful compensation award.
Our knowledge of the process and experience in dealing with
the Insurers and the Regulator ensures that all the
necessary information is prepared and submitted to reduce
delays processing your claim. We pursue all complaints to
conclusion by driving the process with continual monitoring
of the work by the Insurers claims team, ensuring that they
comply with the regulators deadlines and answering any
questions raised immediately. Finally we make sure that the
offer satisfies the guidelines established by the Financial
Ombudsman Service, in order that you are compensated for
your financial loss.
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to questions
What is
the process?
Once we have received your signed Letter of Authority and
Client Agreement, we shall write to you to acknowledge
receipt of your documents and introduce the Claims
Specialist who will handle your case. We shall also provide
you with further information and confirm that you have 14
days to inform us should you change your mind and decide not
to proceed with your claim.
During this period we shall prepare your case and request
further details from you about your policies, the advice you
received and your personal financial circumstances at the
time of the when you were sold the policy. We shall use this
information to formulate your claim, identifying the
specific grounds upon which we shall base your case. We are
then able to submit your claim to the insurer responsible
for the advice you received.
We shall also use the information you have provided to
complete documentation from the insurer, which they will
require to investigate your complaint. This usually includes
a Letter of Authority and/or a PPI Questionnaire which we
will send to you for review and signing. We should receive a
decision letter or these documents within 56 days.
The insurer may make an offer, reject your complaint or ask
for further time or information. An offer maybe for the full
amount, or a reduced amount, which we shall carefully review
to ensure you receive the best deal. If we are not happy
with the offer, or the firm rejects our complaint and we
believe your complaint remains unaddressed, we can refer
your case to the to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
Cases referred to the FOS require further forms to be
completed, which you will need to review and sign. We will
let you know more details about the process, the risks
involved and your options.
When we receive an offer which we believe is reasonable we
will contact you with details of the offer which you will
need to sign and return to your bank. Most insurers make
payment within 28 days, although we continue to keep chasing
this where the bank delays for whatever reason.
Find
out if you are entitled to claim...
Can I
make a claim on my own?
As an alternative to using our professional services to
assist you in securing compensation, you may choose to
proceed with your claim yourself, or with another firm
without using our services. To be successful in claiming,
you will need to prove that the insurer or adviser did not
comply with the specific selling rules relating to the sale
of your policy. In many cases, individuals may not know what
the rules were at the point of sale and whether they were
correctly applied by the advisor. If you decide to undertake
the claim yourself and build a strong case of mis-selling
against your advisor and the suitability of the product, you
may find that this works relatively simply for you and you
receive compensation. In other circumstances where a
favourable response is not received, you should maintain the
pressure on your advisor and if your claim is initially
rejected or responsibility denied, you have the right to
refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) or
the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Both
services are available at no cost to you, however it will
involve time and communication costs to ensure that the
correct procedures are followed. You can expect your initial
claim to take between 2-6 months and further 6-18 months
should you refer the matter to the FOS and 6-12 months with
the FSCS, although these timeframes depend on the volume of
work at the responding party.
These options are available to all policyholders and many
have secured compensation directly without using our
services, or that of another Claims Mediation Specialist, in
the same way that some people successfully defend themselves
in court without using the services of a solicitor. However,
policyholders using the services of Victory Claims Ltd have
commented that they would not have known where to start
their complaints and vitally, that they would have abandoned
their complaints at the first hurdle in the absence of
advice we provide which is grounded in our experience of the
claims process. We believe that our explicit knowledge of
the claims process is the major benefit of utilising our
services.
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to questions
Is
there anything to pay Victory Claims upfront?
No. We offer our service without any upfront fee or payment
to our firm. Should we agree that it would be prudent and
productive for your case to be referred to the courts or the
FOS, we shall pay the Court Fees and Solicitors Costs until
the case is settled, and in the unlikely event we fail to
secure a refund for you we shall not charge you anything,
regardless of the cost to our firm.
Is Victory Claims Ltd regulated and
how secure are my private details?
Yes. Victory Claims Ltd is authorised by the Ministry of
Justice to provide regulated claims management services. Our
registration is recorded on www.claimsmanagement.gov.uk. We
are also registered with the Information Commissioner as a
Data Controller. We handle your personal details securely
and confidentially under the Data Protection. For more
details please refer to our compliance fact sheet.
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to questions
How long will
the whole process take?
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) states that
complaints should be completed within 56 days, although in
some cases these timescales are not able to be complied
with, where the firm requires further information or is
unable to respond in time. We monitor the firm dealing with
your complaint continually to ensure that your claim is
dealt with as quickly as possible, however as referral to
the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) may take 6 months, we
prefer to work with insurers to enable them to conclude
their investigation by providing information and reminders
in the first instance.
Where an offer is made, the case is usually completed within
56-120 days. Where a claim is rejected and is referred to
the FOS for adjudication it may take significantly longer to
receive a final decision, so it is difficult to give precise
timescales. Our team is committed to completing your case as
soon as possible by providing the insurer with the necessary
information at the beginning of the claims process, and
ensuring that requests for further information by the
insurer are dealt with quickly and professionally.
We are ready to start working for you today
How much will be
refunded to me?
We shall claim the full amount of premiums you have paid
plus interest on that amount, should be refunded to you. If
your lender makes an offer of less than this full amount
plus interest, we shall help you decide if the offer is
acceptable to you and advise you of your options. We will
determine whether the firms calculations are arithmetically
correct and regulatory compliant, and write to you with our
opinion.
The insurer may make an offer to resolve the complaint which
may be lower than the amount we originally requested. We
will inform you of these offers as soon as they are
received. You may decide to accept the offer and our fee
will be based on the amount you have accepted. However if,
after considering the offer and your options, we both agree
that it is worth appealing to receive a higher offer, we
will continue to work on your behalf to build an appeal.
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to questions
Can I claim for a closed accounts or repaid loans?
Yes, you can claim for closed accounts and loans you have
repaid. If the policy was sold to you more than 6 years you
will need to provide documentation as the advisor is not
obliged to retain it after this period.
Return
to questions
Will any
claim affect my credit rating?
No. You are legally entitled to complain about your PPI
Policy and the bank or insurer cannot change your credit
rating as a result.
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to questions
How do
I get started?
Our experienced team are ready to secure a refund for you.
Call 0800 011 2510 or complete our online form.
