Sussex Woman Paid For Worthless Ppi Policy
The cover was actually worthless but Joya was charged for the insurance every month
Joya Antao of Haywards Heath, West Sussex, took out a credit card in 2001 but had no idea that payment protection was included in the agreement. Since she was unemployed at the time, the cover was actually worthless but Joya was charged for the insurance every month. The unexpected fee, coupled with her own spending, meant that the bills soon began to spiral out of control leading to months of worry for Joya. She eventually had to raid her savings and even sell some possessions in order to clear the debt and is now adamant that she will never take out a credit card again.
“I had no idea I was going to be paying for payment protection on top of what I was spending as nobody ever told me about it,” she explained. ”It wasn’t mentioned at any point and I just noticed it on my bills. I feel very strongly about what happened as I struggled with the repayments and the insurance was no use to me anyway. I was very worried about my finances for a long time and eventually got help from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau but it took me two or three years to sort it all out. Thankfully I’m debt free now but I really want to warn other people about my experience so they don’t end up in the same position.”
Joya, 58, is particularly concerned about just how widely credit cards are promoted. “I went into the Alliance and Leicester to set up a savings account and they tried to sell me another credit card even though I was asking about something completely different,” she said. “I was still unemployed and it wasn’t what I’d gone in for. In fact it was the very opposite because I wanted to know about savings not credit.”
Joya was surfing the internet looking for help with her finances when she found the website for conkersclaims.co.uk, a division of claims handling experts BrunelFranklin.com. She took the company’s online 60-second test and discovered that she might be eligible for compensation on the grounds that the PPI policy was mis-sold and conkersclaims is now pursuing her case.
Ian Allison, corporate relations director for Brunel Franklin.com and conkersclaims, said: “Paying for insurance that you’re not aware of is bad enough but paying for a policy you could never claim on in the first place is absolutely appalling. It is ludicrous that people are being sold PPI that won’t offer them any cover at all because of their circumstances. Being unemployed is an immediate bar to this type of product because these customers have no income to protect.
”It’s the vendor’s responsibility to get the necessary details and ensure the product is suitable but we are seeing more and more cases where this just hasn’t happened and it’s yet another example of an abuse of trust on the part of lenders. Many seem very reluctant to tell people that PPI is optional or that they’re entitled to shop around for a better deal. Instead they keep customers in the dark knowing full well they’ll get a nasty surprise later. Anyone who thinks their PPI policy was mis-sold should get specialist advice straight away,” he added.
To find out if you might be entitled to compensation for a mis-sold PPI policy, just log on to www.conkersclaims.co.uk and take the quick and easy 60-second test. If you have grounds for a claim, it will be pursued on a no-win, no-fee basis by a team of experienced staff dedicated to achieving the maximum payout you are entitled to. You can also telephone conkersclaims free of charge on 0800 051 54 51 or email info@conkersclaims.com.