Author: Admin

What to Do When You’ve Been Mis-Sold PPI

Before we get into the article, PPI = Payment Protection Insurance. It is something that lenders often offer – or enforce – when you borrow money to ensure that they get their cash back.

 

The tables have well and truly turned on those banks and lenders who mis-sold PPI to unwitting customers. There are many ways for victims of this practice to claim cash compensation for any mis-selling that led to a financial loss or other hardship.

Check entitlement

Lots of people are entitled to claim compensation for PPI mis-selling, but simply are not aware of this. There are many reasons for this. Some people will have refused PPI on application for finances, but due to an error or oversight the bank may have charged for PPI cover anyway (reputable lenders are less likely to make these kind of mistakes). There is no other way to check other than to go back to your original loan agreement and check the payments that actually went out of your account. You should keep an open mind when checking as remember you may be a victim of this practice, even if you stated specifically that you were not interested in PPI at the time.

Get impartial advice

Getting impartial advice is the first thing you should do if you discover that you have been mis-sold PPI or that you may have been mis-sold any financial product. People can get independent advice from the Citzens’ Advice Bureau or from a solicitor. Beware though that a solicitor may charge you for the advice whether or not you choose to go ahead with a claim, although some lawyers will agree to waive all initial fees and merely take their fee from the settlement funds on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis. Depending on your income levels you may be entitled to free legal aid and advice on the subject of whether you were sold PPI. You can check this be enquiring with a potential solicitor or seeking advice from an organisation like the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. You will find the contact details and the address of the local Citizens’ Advice Bureau in the phone directory or on the internet using Google.

Consider mounting your own claim

You don’t need to hire a third party to do the claim for you. If you know what to do to reclaim your funds, then one thing you should consider if doing it yourself and avoiding the costs of hiring someone else to do it. You could choose to get someone impartial to explain the process and then simply take these steps yourself. Be careful though that the advice you receive is quality, reliable advice and also be careful to check that you are doing exactly the correct thing as if you choose to go it alone and make a mistake then you are fully responsible for any losses or mistakes you may make.

Claims management companies

There are some companies who offer to manage the claim on your behalf. You should always do research into the quality of such companies and their reputation for dealing with consumers. You should also check if they are registered with the appropriate financial oversight bodies.

 

There are steps you can take if you’ve been mis-sold PPI. Make sure to follow the proper process.

Financial Roundup: Taxes Edition

This week is the week that I finish my taxes.

I’ve been doing them for the past couple of months, since I got my T4 in the mail. It should have been a all-in-one-go type of tasks, but I find it really draining because there is so much that I don’t know and I have to learn about taxes. Bite sized chunks was all I could handle.

I know that I will end up owing likely quite a bit. I made some good online income last year, so I’ll owe taxes on all of that. Luckily, I did contribute to my RRSP, donate some money, and I have some write-offs as well, so that will help lower my taxes.

The end of the month is always quite busy for me. I have a whole bunch of freelancing projects that are due at the end of the month, plus some work stuff and other deadlines, so I’ve been scrambling. My tenant is moving back in (ie my brother, haha) at the beginning of April, and my fiancé’s birthday has just passed, so this weekend is going to be busy busy!

I have still been able to read a few awesome articles over the past few weeks. Here were some of my favorites.

Favourite Posts

I really enjoyed the post “Breaking Free of the Hold Stuff Has Over Me” on Money Misfit. I have never, ever been somebody who holds sentimental value in items, but I do like “stuff” (shoes, clothes, gadgets). It’s expensive and unnecessary.

My wedding approaches, so I really enjoyed “Don’t be a Money Moron” on DINKS Finance. I really enjoy the show Money Moron, and I think it scares my partner and I into keeping our lines of communication open.

Ryan reminds us that clothes don’t equal success, on Impersonal Finance. Ryan’s story is an interesting one, about buying children clothes from thrift stores, which I would be 100% behind. Why do we always have to have new in the Western world?

CBB at Canadian Budget Binder just posted about tattoos being the next advertising phenomenon. It reminds me of when I was a teenager and my boyfriend at the time said that he wanted to get a tattoo of the logo of the company he was working for as a server. I thought he was crazy. I don’t know if he ever ended up doing it but why let a company own space on your body?

On Blonde and Balanced, TK lists 5 awesome things about being 20. I am in my mid 20s, and many of the things listed don’t ring true for me (friends being my life, though I do appreciate them.. money being a secondary thought) but it’s still a nice read.

Brick by Brick Investing posted 4 things you need to know about self employment, which is an interesting read for those of us who are not 100% self employed.

Jessica at Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses asks whether long-term goals are getting in the way of your life.

As somebody who loves fashion and simplicity, I definitely enjoyed Save. Spend. Splurge’s post about getting a Parisian wardrobe. She has a 3 part series on her site, but my favourite had to be the ones with the pictures of must have’s ;).

My Contributions

Finally, I’ve also contributed a few articles to Credit Walk, such as the costs of flying out of US Airports, and a post about the best method of payment for Canadians travelling overseas, among others.

The Wolf of Wall Street Shows Why Online Trading Doesn’t Work

Online trading is extremely popular these days either in the form of stocks, options or forex. The majority of the companies that offer online trading services claim that you can make a lot of money by trading online without actually having to invest a lot of time and effort.

Below you’ll find a lot of reasons why this isn’t exactly true:

Did you watch The Wolf of Wall Street? The way brokers are being represented in that movie is precisely how most online trading brokers function these days as well… only that they will let YOU lose all the money.

They will approach you will promises of massive income that you will be able to cash in without much effort. Then, they will persuade you to deposit as much money as possible, claiming that the more you invest the more profits you will make.

However, unlike Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, these brokers will not execute trades on your behalf. Instead they will let you make your own decisions, resulting in you losing your money yourself. This way they can’t be held liable for any losses, since it was actually you who traded and not they.

Like in the movie, these online brokers will make a commission on every transaction you make regardless if you win or lose. So, basically they couldn’t care less about you. They are just in for the commissions that they will get after you.

Probably the most dangerous form of online trading are binary options. Binary options are at this moment very popular in the USA. This form of trading is dangerous because all the money you lose will go to the broker, so the broker will have a direct incentive to determine you to lose money.

Forex is very similar, however it’s safer, since the lost money will not go to the broker. In this case the broker is not necessarily interested in you losing. Nevertheless, they will still earn a commission for every transaction you make.

It’s not necessarily a scam it’s just that normal people can’t make money.

The reason why these forms of online trading are not illegal is because they aren’t necessarily a scam. Online trading is perfectly legitimate and can indeed make certain people a lot of money. These people are called professional investors and traders.

The same way a random person can’t perform brain surgery, the same way a random person also cannot become a “professional trader overnight”. This is why all these claims that you can make money with online trading while you are sleeping are completely ridiculous.

All those people in The Wolf of Wall Street that have invested money in the shady companies promoted by the DiCaprio’s brokerage firm believed that they can become rich as well overnight without actually having to work anything at all.

The same is being promised by all the online brokerages as well, be it forex, stocks or binary options. So, be smarter than them and stay away from online trading no matter what kind of offers you may be getting.

Trading that can actually make you money.

There are however forms of trading both online and offline that can indeed make you money without you actually having to do anything. These are called investment funds, hedge funds, retirement funds, mutual funds and others.

The difference between these and he online brokers is that these companies will actually invest your money themselves and will only make money if you make money as well. In other words, these investment funds will not charge you a commission per transaction but will charge a percentage of your profits.

So, if your investment is not profitable then the investment funds will lose money themselves. They have a direct incentive to make you profits, as otherwise they themselves will end up empty handed.

The “disadvantage” of these funds is that they can’t promise you supermassive profits in short time. However, remember, “supermassive profits in a short time” is nonsense anyway, so if an online trading broker promises this to you then it’s not like that it’s going to happen.

So, in short, if you want to invest money and do not personally have the knowledge and skill to do so then you can do this at large and reputable investment funds. Under no circumstance do this at online trading brokers, as you will just lose all your money.