BOI payment protection refund - ripoff?

I had a personal loan with Bank of Ireland and had taken payment protection out on it last year. I've just topped up the loan but decided to stop the payment protection on the new loan. The original total for payment protection was €2468 which was added to my first loan at the very beginning and the amount they have refunded to me 13 months later on a 60 month term loan is just €1276. I know that you have to expect to pay more payment protection on the loan in the first few years etc...but to take 50% of the policy in just over 1 year on a 5 year loan (and having to pay interest on top of the lump sum also), is this going to far? I rang up customer service to complain, but I got no real satisfaction. Is there anywhere else I can turn to to make my voice heard on this?

I would imagine that this is not a rip-off on the basis that the detailed terms & conditions of the loan/payment protection agreement presumably explained the workings of the agreement and the charges applicable. The fact that many consumers fail to read the agreement that they sign is hardly something that can be blamed on the banks. Whether or not payment protection is good or bad value for money depends on the specific policy, its terms & conditions (e.g. when and for how long it pays out) and the premiums charged. You may have an expensive or poor value for money policy but I would doubt that it's a genuine rip-off unless it was missold to you or the terms & conditions and charges were not divulged to you in the beginning.

I never actually received any documentation relating to the payment protection policy at all with these loan. The only reference to it at all was the total of payment protection which was outlined on the original loan agreement. I was quite worried about this at the time, but despite having rung them up to request further documentation, nothing was ever sent out to me. I was surprised at this because when I took out a payment protection loan with AIB, I got a separate policy agreement detailing the underwriters of the policy etc. But I never got anything like this from BOI, despite having requested it. And even when I did make the request the customer service agents didn't seem to know much about it which is why I didn't pursue it at the time. Do you think this would offer grounds for further complaint at this stage?

Maybe you have grounds for a complaint and perhaps a refund of premiums paid. However I personally find it very odd that anybody would sign up to an agreement without any knowledge of what it entailed/implied.

HI bb

You bought an insurance product with a once-off premium up front. The legal position, as I understand it, is that they are under no obligation to refund any part of the premium of the insurance is no longer required.

It is very odd that you got no agreement. You should ask them for a copy of the agreement. If you did not get one, then you may have grounds for a complaint which should be made to the company first and then to the Ombudsman for Financial Institutions if you get no response.

Brendan