Loan customers ‘better off without PPI’

Those who took on a loan in the recent past may have been burdened with a costly and not very useful payment protection insurance (PPI) provision, but this is now no longer the case, an expert has said.

Editor of Which? Money James Daley commented that PPI has been attracting controversy since the first claims of mis-selling arose in 1998.

He said: “Basically, it was a poor product, poorly designed, overpriced and often sold to people who didn’t need it or who could never claim on it.”

Worse still, it usually excluded claims based on stress and back problems – the two most common causes of absence from work, the expert added.

He added: “It was often rolled into the cost of a loan so people didn’t even know they were being sold it,” adding that many of these were taken out by people who were ineligible for cover through being self-employed or out of work.

Those who have been suffering debt management problems as a result of the high cost of such loans may be among those Mr Daley noted are set to receive compensation, with the final bill unknown as it has not been established just how many consumers could be eligible to get some money back.

Mr Daley’s comments follow a recent High Court ruling finding against the British Banker’s Association’s (BBAs) attempts to block claims for compensation.

After the ruling was delivered, the BBA admitted defeat, claiming this was being done to provide customers with more “certainty”.

An alternative view has been provided on a  successful PPI product for people in IVAs.