Consumers told to check the small print
When customers first began to complain that they had been missold payment protection insurance (PPI), many claims were turned down on the basis that the information was all there in the contract.
As a result, the small print – the detail that sets out the exclusions and terms of a product or service – has become the subject of clashes between disgruntled consumers and unrepentant providers.
The official advice from consumer rights groups is: read the small print and shop around. But there is a tacit understanding from the groups, backed up by the government, that many consumers are ill-served by pages of terms and conditions written in legal jargon.
Not only is the technical language in the documents dull, but descriptions of terms vary from provider to provider, making it hard to know if conditions for one product are out of the ordinary or not.
European legislation is moving to standardise the terminology, but even this will not guarantee a more helpful reading experience.
Although consumers have an obligation to check the small print when they make a purchase, providers have responsibility too. By law, it is not acceptable for companies to use confusing language to hide data. Any important exclusions or clauses must be highlighted.
Evidence that these were not made clear in PPI policies could be key to the successfor hundreds of thousands of future consumer claims.
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