PPI Question

Royal Legend

Hi,
I am sure that this has been beaten to death here over the last couple of years but was a bit oblivious to this.
I am 12 years through a 25 year variable mortgage taken out for 140k from PTSB in 2004. Lately i have been checking through my finances and where my money goes and one of the things i thought I was sure of was mortgage protection insurance etc.
My mortgage statement arrives once a year and in the columns it shows how much I have paid off of my mortgage per month with a total in the parallel column and underneath it shows a figure of €60 with nothing in the corresponding parallel column, which i took to mean that insurance was not been taken.
Lately I got a letter to say that my mortgage was reducing slightly (by about €1 per month to do with tax relief collected at source) and it showed the total new payment of €740 + €60 to make up the payment of €800/mth, previously paying €801/mth.
Beside the €60 on the letter which was marked as insurance and it had an asterisk, which I take to mean read the small print elsewhere, lo and behold there was nowhere on the letter front or back that showed what the asterisk meant.
I rang PTSB to find out what the €60 was about and was told that it was mortgage protection insurance, I told them that I had separate mortgage protection insurance, I asked how could I find out what was covered in the policy and I was told that I would have to call the insurance company, I said I have not details of who to call or have never received any correspondence of same. I was told the policy was with Genworth and I was given a number to call and also the insurance policy number reference.
When I rang the number the first message I received from the auto answering machine was that if I was inquiring about the sale of PPI that i should call PTSB on a different number, did not take any notice of this as I did not think it was relevant to me.
When I got through it was to AXA insurance and the person that i talked to there said that they were the underwriters for the PTSB and that the insurance i was paying €60/mth was PPI. I asked could they send me out a policy schedule and they told me no that PTSB who held the policy and that I would have to request it from them. I asked what the policy covered and could I get a copy of that and the person said that they could send this out to me but it could take 7-10 days. I also asked could I cancel the policy as it was not relevant to me and that I had life cover for the mortgage, they said I would have to request in writing from the PTSB who would then inform them,


I then rang the other PTSB number and explained that I was looking for the policy schedule and they put me onto another girl in the PTSB.
She said that I would have to contact Genworth? I told her who I had already spoken to and that I was given the AXA number and they had told me to ring the PTSB. Then she said that after Genworth it was Allianz who held the policy and could I hold while she checked into the details,
After 3-4 minutes she came back on and said she could not find the details and mentioned Genworth and Allianz again and that she had spoken to her supervisor, but that she would take my details and would look into it and call me back in the next couple of days to see of she could find the schedule.

It was then I looked up the the issues with the PPI. I know for definite that we took out the mortgage in 2004 and we were told that we had to take out PPI as they also asked did we want to take out life cover and I said no that we would look after the life cover ourselves, which we did. I had started a new job less than a year before and i was not sure if it would last as at the time you were not classed as full time unless you had been at a company for over 2 years if I am not mistaken.

For the last 12 years I have had no correspondence from the PPI insurance company, PTSB had to give me the policy number today and they don't seem to know who has the policy schedule.

So my questions are should I cancel this policy straight away or hold off to ensure that I get the records first?

Secondly is €60/mth a lot to be paying for PPI on a 140k mortgage?

and last do I have any recourse in relation to being mis-sold a PPI?

Royal Legend

Anyone any ideas?

Peregrinus

You might to better to put this the "banking, insurance and pensions" forum. You're asking us whether PPI insurance is a prudent thing for you to be paying for. That's a financial issue, not a legal one.

Royal Legend

Peregrinus wrote: »

You might to better to put this the "banking, insurance and pensions" forum. You're asking us whether PPI insurance is a prudent thing for you to be paying for. That's a financial issue, not a legal one.

In relation to my last question I would have thought that it was valid in this forum?

"and last do I have any recourse in relation to being mis-sold a PPI?"

Peregrinus

Sorry, missed that.

You may have a case for mis-selling, but without knowing a good deal more about the circumstances it's hard to say. My eye is caught by this sentence:

Royal Legend wrote: »

. . . I rang PTSB to find out what the €60 was about and was told that it was mortgage protection insurance, I told them that I had separate mortgage protection insurance . . .

It could be that it's the separate mortgage protection insurance policy that was missold to you, if in fact mortgage protection insurance came bundled with the mortage, and whoever sold you the separate policy either failed to ask about this, or failed to appreciate its significance.

But I think you're a little way off deciding whether insurance has been missold. At the moment you're having trouble even getting clear information about what cover you have, and without knowing that it's impossible to say whether the cover you have is wrong for your circumstances. I'd have no hesitation in saying that you're getting a very poor level of service in relation to this insurance, but it's too soon to say if you are victim of mis-selling.