Are there any self-employed people out there that had their PPI mis-selling complaint upheld by Barclaycard?

[freelance]

I have two PPI complaints with Barclaycard awaiting a decision on behalf of a friend - on one of them she was self-employed at the time of taking out the card, the other she was employed but then became self-employed shortly after and unaware that the PPI was no longer appropriate as Barclays had never provided any details or policy documents for either policy. The second claim is less likely to be upheld because it's the situation at the time of the sale that is taken into consideration. However as Barclays had failed to fully inform her and she was considering self-employment at the time it was taken out it's still worth complaining about anyway, nothing ventured nothing gained etc. Their time is up this week for responding so I'll let you know what their response is if it helps.

 

I'm also self-employed and I've had no problems having any complaints upheld except for HSBC, which has now gone to the FOS. That was MPPI so I was also nervous about mortgage and current accounts etc if they turned nasty. It's my understanding that if you take them to court they're more likely to end their relationship with you - to be honest the FSA etc can take a dim view but what they can actually do about it I'm not sure. A bank can certainly end their relationship and close the accounts of any customer for no reason at all if they want, as long as they stick to their own published rules about giving notice. Not sure about whether they can do this with mortgages - I'd like to think it was more complicated for them to shut a mortgage down!

 

Personally if you're not in a mad hurry for the money I'd go FOS first, despite the wait (and the 8%, if applicable, keeps accruing during that time). If the FOS don't uphold you can then still go to court - you can't do court then FOS.

Edited November 30, 2011 by freelance

[freelance]

Many policies do claim to offer cover for the self-employed. The problem is that the 'exact terms' which apply to the self-employed in the ever-elusive policy documents made it almost impossible for anyone self-employed to successfully claim on the policy. Just because they say they cover something doesn't mean they'll ever pay out on a claim. Most people selling these policies didn't even understand what 'self-employed' meant, let alone asked any questions about the nature of that person's self-employment, explained the terms or any exclusions or provided policy documents. It's also a standard response of banks, when confronted with a mis-selling complaint, to just blindly quote that they do 'cover self-employed people' regardless.