Post history - Five years ago: Post Office pushes new PPI product

The Post Office has thrown down the gauntlet to its competitors by launching a new "aggressively priced" payment protection product this week.

Lifestyle Protection will see the Post Office form a partnership with insurer giant Axa for the first time. It will be sold through call centres and online.

The Post Office claims it will offer the cheapest and most flexible form of income protection on the market - at £4.50 per £100 of cover. Post Office managing director Alan Cook said he believed the product would stir up the market due to its pricing. "There has been concern for some time about the levels of commission paid on creditor, which has kept premiums up. Our deal with Axa is not like that — a lot of creditor cover is designed to prop up the profitability of the loan itself but there's no loan associated with this. We are challenging the market with this new stand-alone product, offering fewer exclusions and unique back payment to day one."