Payment Protection Plan (PPI) is an insurance policy for consumers to keep them protected, to ensure that payments will still continue on the loans they have taken out, whether a mortgage, credit card or car loans should the borrower find themselves in a situation where they have fallen ill or if they’ve lost their job. It is a good product and it’s definitely useful however there are thousands of PPI policies that were mis-sold to those customers who aren’t eligible or to those who didn’t want or need it.

PPI is made to cover several financial products and there is a big possibility that it was equally mis-sold in the UK. If you have taken out any form of loan, here are a few products you can check and see if you think you were mis-sold PPI:

* Mortgages

* Credit cards

* Personal loan

* Car finance dealership

* Secured loans

* Insurance with monthly payments

Do you have any of these? Then there is a big chance that you can make a PPI claim. To give you the best chance of creating a successful PPI claim, here are a few things you will need to determine first:

* You will have to provide all the evidence if it has been more than six years since your PPI has expired. The financial institution that sold to you the policy is no longer required to keep any paperwork after that time period, so it’s essential that you have kept those paperwork yourself to make the claims easier for you.

* Check back if you were unemployed, self-employed or even retired when you took out the insurance – you shouldn’t have been sold or even be eligible for the policy.

* Check if you had a medical problem that would hinder you from working during the time you took out a financial product – if it wasn’t explained that the insurance isn’t suitable for you, then you can file a claim.

* Ensure that you will get a fair refund. If you only got a fraction of the cost you have paid, you can claim for a fair refund. If you have cancelled the PPI but the

loan was redrafted for a less favorable rate, you can also claim to get your money back.

* If you have an active loan and you see that you are paying for PPI that you were unaware of in the first place or it was added by the seller without your knowledge and you don’t recall agreeing to this or it was explained to you properly, then you can also file for a claim. Just make sure that you can back up this claim with concrete evidence as there is also a possibility that your claim might be turned down.

There are a lot of major financial institutions that are repaying back customers. You can make a claim by complaining to the firm that sold you the policy and write to them. Even if the company who sold you the PPI has gone out of business, you can still go ahead and claim through Financial Services Compensation Service (FSCS) that can deal with your claim. You can make the claim yourself, however if you do have several claims you think you will need a refund from and you feel that it seems like it’s a lot of work to take care of, the have it taken care of through third party companies that can process your claim for you.

James Hendrickson

James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.