Payment Protection Insurance FAQs

What is your fee charged on and how do we pay? If we are successful we charge 25% plus VAT (only on the 25%) of any compensation we win for you. For example, if your compensation is £1,000 our fee would be £293.75. You don't pay anything if we are unsuccessful.

The provider we are complaining to on your behalf will pay your compensation directly to you (not us) and we will send you an invoice for our fee. This is payable within 10 days of the invoice.

If your loan is still going, then your lender may either compensate you partly in cash and partly by reducing your loan balance or, possibly by taking the entire amount off your loan. We calculate our fee on the total compensation, less any rebate you would have had back had you simply cancelled the policy yourself. Although some element of the compensation may not have immediate financial benefit to you (you will see the benefit by reduced loan payments or an earlier loan repayment date) our full invoice is due within 10 days of the compensation being paid to you or credited to your loan account.

If you have a credit card which has an outstanding balance, it is likely the compensation will be applied firstly to reduce the balance on the card, with any residual being paid to you in cash. Return to FAQ list » Is there anything to pay Renaissance upfront? No. If we are unsuccessful with your complaint you won't owe us a penny and you don't pay Renaissance anything upfront. Return to FAQ list » How much am I likely to win? We can't say at this stage but the compensation is likely to be a full refund of the premiums you paid plus interest. Therefore the amount you get will depend on the size of your premium and when your loan or credit card started. For example the interest element could be quite substantial if your policy started a long time ago. If the PPI premium was added to your loan, then it is likely the bank will compensate you by reducing your loan balance so the loan will finish earlier or it may be repaid in full and/or you may get cash back depending how far through the loan you are. Similarly if you still have an outstanding balance on your credit card then, if your claim is successful, it is likely that the card provider will repay you by reducing your credit card balance or it may be repaid in full and/or you may get cash back depending on the credit card balance at the time. Return to FAQ list » If I complain will it affect my policy? Yes. In the majority of cases, what we are complaining about is the fact that you should not have been sold the policy in the first place because it was not right for you. If we are successful with your complaint, your compensation will be a full refund of all your premiums plus interest and your cover will cease. Return to FAQ list » How long does the process take? This varies a lot. It could be 2-3 months but if we have to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman, it could be 6 months or longer. However, you do not have to pay us anything until you get your compensation at the end. Return to FAQ list » What is the process? Once we have received your signed Authority and Agreement form, we will write to you to acknowledge receipt and advise you that you have 14 days to change your mind. If we don’t hear from you during the 14 days then we will assume you still wish to proceed and will go ahead and prepare the complaint on your behalf.

We will complete all the necessary forms to make the complaint on your behalf, based on the information you provided over the telephone or via our website and confirmed in your Summary of Complaint. We may need to contact you for more information at this stage. Where necessary, we will then send the forms to you to sign. Please note that, if your signature is required, you are responsible for ensuring that the contents of the completed forms are accurate to the best of your knowledge and you will be signing to confirm this.

Once we have all the information and documents we require, we will send your complaint to the company that sold you the policy who will start their investigation. If they have any further requests for information we may need to contact you again. We will normally get a decision from the company within 2-3 months. They may agree that they missold you and offer compensation or they may reject your complaint. Some companies offer compensation which they call a “goodwill payment” even if they do not admit they missold you. In any event we will contact you to inform you of the decision. Should you receive an offer from the company directly and haven’t heard from us within a day or two, please get in touch.

Once we have an offer of compensation and have checked the amount offered, you will need to sign an acceptance form from the company and send it on to them. Payment usually follows within 2-3 weeks after you have returned your acceptance. The company should pay the compensation direct to you (or credit your loan or credit card account) and we will invoice you for our services.

Should your complaint be rejected, we may, if we feel it is appropriate and we have a good enough case, take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for adjudication. If this happens we will contact you to let you know. Unfortunately, the FOS may take 6 months or more to deal with your case, as they generally have a large backlog, however, our fee remains the same. We do not charge any extra for referral to the FOS.

Sometimes having taken on a case, it proves to be something we didn’t expect, for example, through no fault of the customer, we may find that the policy was sold by an independent financial adviser, or we may find you are out of time to make a complaint. In any event, if we are forced to drop a case at any time during the process we will let you know. Return to FAQ list » Can I still complain if I no longer have the policy. You can as long as you still have the policy, loan or credit card details and you did not get any payout of benefits under the policy while it was in force. Return to FAQ list » What is time-barring? These are rules laid down by the Financial Services Authority which allow companies to say people are out of time to make a complaint. The rules are fairly complex but you may be out of time, for example, if you tried to claim benefits under the policy and had your claim refused more than 3 years ago. Return to FAQ list » Can I complain myself and if so why should I go through you? You are of course free to make the complaint yourself. If on the other hand you feel daunted by the process or don't have the time to fill in all the forms and liaise directly with the company you are complaining to, Renaissance offers a hassle free alternative. Whether you choose to use our services or not, the most important thing is to act quickly so that you do not miss out on compensation that is rightfully yours. Return to FAQ list » What experience does Renaissance have? We are a specialist Claims Management Company and have been concentrating on winning compensation for victims of financial mis-selling since August 2004 and have won in excess of £50 million for our customers. We have particular expertise in the field of payment protection as well as many years of commercial experience in the Financial Services Industry. Our Managing Director was previously a director of one of the largest insurance companies in the industry so we know how these companies work and how to deal with them. Return to FAQ list »

Renaissance Easyclaim is a trading name of Renaissance Endowment Review Services Ltd. Renaissance is regulated by the Ministry of Justice in respect of regulated claims management activities; its registration is recorded on the website www.claimsregulation.gov.uk