Reclaiming PPI - Gladstone Brookes

plutus1947 · 24 March 2010 at 5:33PM

Hello all from Plutus the Nrewbie,

I have just read the section on MSE regarding reclaiming mis-sold PPI on a loan.

This morning I saw a TV advert placed by Brookes Gladstone. This ad convinced me to contact them as I felt I may have a case to reclaim the PPI I am currently paying on a Lloyds TSB Loan.

They told me that I do have a claim and that they will happily deal with it for me. For a price of course.

Their fees are:

1. £50 up front in order to register the claim with them. They assured me this would be returned whether I got my PPI back or not.

2. They retain 25% plus VAT from the amount I get returned from the PPI I have paid.

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

I asked them why I cannot pursue my claim against the insurers rather than have to pay them for doing it for me and was told that if I made a claim against them and if unsuccessful I could not claim again using them or any other Claims Management Service. I do know that if I asked the Ombudsman to investigate my claim and they found in favour of the insurers then I could go no further.

Is the information given by Gladstone Brookes correct?

After reading how to make a claim myself for reimbursement on the MSE website, I feel I should be able to handle this without too much difficulty.

Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards

Biciitalia · 24 March 2010 at 8:02PM

Hi - my wife was successful with Brunel Franklin who took 25% plus vat after successfully claiming against xxg, a claim that only took about 3 weeks in total. The loan dated back to 2004 - thought nothing ventured nothing gained got the full amount of ppi plus interest that covered the 25 percent BF wanted.

The only small niggle was BF chasing up the 25% plus VAT - the invoice never stated the method of payment so we sent the cheque - turns out you can pay online - was chased up quite a bit until the cheque cleared.

andys15 · 25 March 2010 at 10:38AM

Why would you pay anyone to do this. It is the easiest thing to do yourself. I wrote a letter using the template from MSE, posted it. 1 week later HSBC admitted we were missold. They said they would be in touch within 4-6 weeks as they have so many to deal with. 6 weeks later, they paid £1900, which included 8% interest. 6 weeks and 1 day later, flights to Barbados booked. Do it yourself.

andys15 · 25 March 2010 at 10:50AM

Further to my last post. I didn't even know if I had taken PPI on the loans I got refunded for. I phoned HSBC, they told me I had 3 loans with them since 2002, and they posted me the paperwork free of charge for all 3. I sent the PPI template letter for all 3 in one go. They replied and said 2 had a case, 1 didnt have PPI. No solicitors are involved its so straight forward especially with the bigger banks, they have a team solely working on PPI reclaims. If I had gone with the company you want to, out of my £1900 I would have been charged £525 for someone posting a letter. Now if you want I will post your letter for £100 or better still post it yourself.

plutus1947 · 25 March 2010 at 5:35PM

For Bicitalia,

Thank you for your reply and for taking the time reading my post.

I must admit I would rather claim myself and cut out the middlke-man and of course save myself a few pennies too.

My only concern is that if I make a claim myself and Lloyds TSB come back and say I am not entitled to a refund then I will not be able to pursue my claim via a professional body like Gladstone Brookes. This is what the operator at GB told me.

John
(Plutus1947)

ADDENDUM

I have just phoned BF who tell me that they do not ask for an upfront payment as it is a no win, no fee operation.

This is of course different from Gladstone Brookes who said before they could register my claim and carry it forward I had to pay them £50.

plutus1947 · 25 March 2010 at 5:56PM

For Andy15,

Thank you too for reading my post and your reply. It was most welcome and informative.

I have noted in my Loan Protection Insurance Booklet issued when I signed up for the loan with Lloyds TSB that it says if I am unemployed at the time of signing I am not covered. Neither am I covered for 'critical illness' due to any pre-existing conditions.

When I was offered and signed up for the loan I was unemployed and in receipt of Income Support. I also had, and still have, a heart condition.

These facts were made clear to the person dealing with my loan prior to my signing up. At no time did he advise me that I would not be covered for illness or unemployment.

He also told me that in the event that I died before clearing the loan my debt would be deemed to be have been paid in full. In the event I died prior to the debt being paid in full I was also informed that any monies I had already paid would be returned to my estate.

A couple of months ago I contacted the insurers, Lloyds own insurance company to ask if this was in fact the case and I was verbally told yes.

There is nothing in my policy stating this and everyone I have spoken to seems convinced that this simply does not happen.

The reason I agreed to take out the insurance was for the fact that I could 'pop' off before the debt was repaid as at the age I was It was very unlikely that I would have ever got other employment.

In fact I was amazed that I was offered the loan in the first place because of my financial and medical condition.

Although all this happened prior to my taking up the loan the problem is that it was all verbal and I have nothing in writing. So it is my word against his.

John
(plutus1947)

plutus1947 · 13 April 2010 at 3:40PM

For Andys15,

Thank you again for your advice.

I took it and sent a letter to the company who sold me my PPI, using a modified template supplied by MSE, and today received a letter from them agreeing that the policy was mis-sold and that they would repay all my payments so far, 8% interest and another interest payment. I am not sure what this is.

All in all it is worth about £1000.

It certainly goes to show that these kind of things can be done without having to pay other companies through the nose to do it for you.

Thank you also to MSE for the easily understandable way you informed us about mis-soll PPIs and for the excellent templates you provided.

John
(plutus1947)

trb_88 · 2 February 2011 at 5:21PM

i called GB to reclaim back some ppi and agreed to pay the £50 deposit but after hanging up i read on here about doing it myself so i then called them back 15mins later and asked if i could cancel the claim and they said yes no problem but it will take three days to refund your deposit, i said that wasnt a problem, but now a week and a half later still no refund, i called on monday and was told there was an admin error and i should see the refund in my bank in three days yet again still no refund!! will i ever get it back? is there anything i can do or action i can take against them to get back my £50?

geoffky · 26 July 2011 at 9:50PM

25% plus vat...anyone who pays that must be a mug....its your hard earned money for crying out loud.

Freedomland · 14 March 2012 at 12:16PM

Hi All,

It has been over a year when I called GB PPI claiming company. After listening about my case, they asked £50 but I said I didn't have £50 but accepted to £pay £10 instead, to start the procedure. There were PPI claims for my CC and Loans. I got CC PPI within a few months and paid the the 25%+VAT.

For my loans the bank refused therefore the case went to FOS and now the bank has agreed to pay after over a year.

I heard and now I can understand how straight forward it is to put a claim forward.

At the time I made the claim, I was lead (mis-lead) to believe (based on the ads) that an individual (myself) cold not do it and needed expert advice/intervention.

£25+vat is lot.

Since I was 'mis-lead' into believing that I needed their expert advice and did not inform me that I could do it on my own:

1. Can I launch a complaint and ask to annul/void the contract.
2. and when GB said no, what would be their possible actions?
3. Would be better to go through the court to argue the case and may be set a precedent?

What else, please.

It's my hard earn money and it's a huge chunk the want from it.

Thank you all for reading...:(

Apples2 · 14 March 2012 at 1:08PM

You're claiming Mis-Sold against a company who are claiming Mis-Sold on your behalf?

How many Mis-Sold's can you have in a single chain?

In what way did the Ads suggest you could not do this on your own?
You did, after all, call THEM and ask for their assistance. They being a profit making company and not a free financial advice service.

I don't defend them at all, most are happily dropping into the wilderness but they did offer a simple service which you were all to eagre to pay money for... at the time.

Reclaiming PPI - Gladstone Brookes

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free