How do I know if I was mis-sold PPI on my AmEx card?

Over the years, American Express (AmEx) has built a reputation for superior service, but, like many other lenders, it too was involved in the mis-selling of payment protection insurance in the UK. The scandal is estimated to be costing well over £20 billion between all the lenders involved combined.

Following the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation into the PPI scandal, AmEx were also cautioned by the OFT in 2010 for using so-called ‘charging orders’ against customers in debt. What this involved was essentially pressuring people into turning unsecured loans into debt secured against their homes, even when the amount owed was less than £600.

If you think you’ve been unfairly charged for PPI on an American Express credit card, you may be considering attempting to reclaim what you’ve been wrongly charged. You have a few options for going ahead and doing so.

How do I know if I was mis-sold PPI on my AmEx card?

There is no fixed definition of mis-selling, which can make the process of claiming money back confusing. However, a number of different circumstances could mean you were mis-sold. For example:

• You were sold a policy by American Express despite the fact that you already had another policy that would have covered you
• You were not aware you had been sold a policy when you had and American Express made no effort to inform you at the time of purchase that you were also buying one
• You were not given sufficient information about the policy by American Express at the time of taking out your Amex card
• You were told that taking out PPI on your Amex cards would either increase your chances of being successful in your application or would mean more favourable interest rates

What Should I Do Next?

You could either:

• Contact American Express directly to find out how to pursue a possible PPI claim. The main benefit of doing this directly yourself is that you will keep 100% of any successful claim.
• Use the services of a PPI claims management company (this will often incur a fee of between 20% and 30% of your successful PPI claim amount plus VAT at 20%). This does mean someone can deal with the paperwork (and general hassle!) for you, but there’s a cost associated.

Claiming directly is not a complicated procedure. But indeed, there are individuals who would rather use services to do this on their behalf. If you do use the services of such a company, make sure you’ve researched the company and familiarised yourself with their terms, conditions and fees before signing anything!