Credit card insurance claim

Mr_Linnet

I took out a credit card with a well known building society April time 2008 and had payment protection insurance included.

In February 2009 I took voluntary redundancy rather than have my weekly working hours cut further but when I went to claim on my insurance they informed me voluntary redundancy was not covered. I spoke to one of their advisers over the telephone and mentioned that I would be struggling to pay the monthly repayments and could I freeze my account until I was back in work.

I was informed that I would have to demonstrate I was struggling to pay. This I would do by paying a lesser amount and or paying it late! Couldn`t believe what I was being told but nevertheless did what they said.

My credit rating has now been affected I asssume and my written dialogue with them continues.

The only light at the end of the tunnel is that I claimed the insurance policy was mis sold to me, after more written dialogue with them I have received a letter saying that they have upheld my complaint. They have responded with :- Where a credit card you hold is in arrears it is our policy to offset the amount of the redress we are offering against any outstanding balance, over and above your credit limit. By taking this action we are helping you to ensure the interest and or charges in relation to your credit card are reduced. Therefore, if you are in arrears, the redress will be used to reduce or clear the arrears. Any surplus will then be paid to you by cheque.

How would I fair if I didn`t accept this proposal and took them to court?

di3004

Mr_Linnet wrote: »

I took out a credit card with a well known building society April time 2008 and had payment protection insurance included.

In February 2009 I took voluntary redundancy rather than have my weekly working hours cut further but when I went to claim on my insurance they informed me voluntary redundnacy was not covered. I spoke to one of their advisers over the telephone and mentioned that I would be struggling to pay the monthly repayments and could I freeze my account until I was back in work.

I was informed that I would have to demonstrate I was struggling to pay. This I would do by paying a lesser amount and or paying it late! Couldn`t believe what I was being told but nevertheless did what they said.

My credit rating has now been affected I asssume and my written dialogue with them continues.

The only light at the end of the tunnel is that I claimed the insurance policy was mis sold to me, after more written dialogue with them I have received a letter saying that they have upheld my complaint. They have responded with :- Where a credit card you hold is in arrears it is our policy to offset the amount of the redress we are offering against any outstanding balance, over and above your credit limit. By taking this action we are helping you to ensure the interest and or charges in relation to your credit card are reduced. Therefore, if you are in arrears, the redress will be used to reduce or clear the arrears. Any surplus will then be paid to you by cheque.

How would I fair if I didn`t accept this proposal and took them to court?

Hello there

Sorry to hear of your issues here.

Are you aware that you can use the Financial ombudsman service (FOS) who are free to use on these complaints?
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm
They have 8 weeks to resolve this for you or to at at least respond, if they do not resolve in your favour you can then move on to the FOS, its up to you if you want to use the courts, but money wise as you know will it be worth you paying out on doing it this way in the long run?

Unfortunately, where there are arrears they do tend to work it this way, however, some do this anyway even if there are no arrears and just as long as that card is still active, if settled then it would be paid directly back to you.

If your struggling financially you can come to some sort of arrangement, where you can pay just token payments, but on review, say for instance you found new employment, you can contact them to make new arrangements.

For more information on this matter, you can post on the debtfreewannabe thread here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=76
You can ask for help in regards of templates and sort out an a budget sheet to send to the creditor, to make them understand that your in financial difficulty, but please do post on that thread for more help on this matter, it will be worth it, good luck and good luck with your complaint as well.;)

marshallka

Mr_Linnet wrote: »

I took out a credit card with a well known building society April time 2008 and had payment protection insurance included.

In February 2009 I took voluntary redundancy rather than have my weekly working hours cut further but when I went to claim on my insurance they informed me voluntary redundnacy was not covered. I spoke to one of their advisers over the telephone and mentioned that I would be struggling to pay the monthly repayments and could I freeze my account until I was back in work.

I was informed that I would have to demonstrate I was struggling to pay. This I would do by paying a lesser amount and or paying it late! Couldn`t believe what I was being told but nevertheless did what they said.

My credit rating has now been affected I asssume and my written dialogue with them continues.

The only light at the end of the tunnel is that I claimed the insurance policy was mis sold to me, after more written dialogue with them I have received a letter saying that they have upheld my complaint. They have responded with :- Where a credit card you hold is in arrears it is our policy to offset the amount of the redress we are offering against any outstanding balance, over and above your credit limit. By taking this action we are helping you to ensure the interest and or charges in relation to your credit card are reduced. Therefore, if you are in arrears, the redress will be used to reduce or clear the arrears. Any surplus will then be paid to you by cheque.

How would I fair if I didn`t accept this proposal and took them to court?

So you won your complaint for misselling and they want to take this amount from the balance you owe to them? I would perhaps accept it as they are saying that this would reduce your debt to them and surely that is good in some way. If not you can refer this to the Ombudsman Service for them to look at but this again would be a long time and probably they could see the redress in the same way as the building society. Maybe its best to accept you have won and accept their offer. You may get some in a cheque as they have said. Sorry this is not what you want to hear but from what i have seen on here then this is a way in which the ombudsman service lets some firms offer redresses. I have no idea what the courts would do and maybe this would cost you money too.

Mr_Linnet

Many thanks for both prompt responses and the details enclosed :beer:

I am dialogue with them at the moment trying to arrange a reduced monthly repayment.
Without wanting to sound mercenary I was wondering whether I am entitled to more than what they are offering. Even though amounts haven`t been mentioned yet, I didn`t want them to think they were escaping a serious mis-selling of a service I can not use, with just a token gesture. I appreciate taking them to court would cost money which I don`t have, nevertheless, thats why I started this thread to ask for advice and to see what my next move should be.

Thanks again for your reply, much appreciated;)

marshallka

Mr_Linnet wrote: »

Many thanks for your prompt response and the details enclosed :beer:

I am dialogue with them at the moment trying to arrange a reduced monthly repayment.
Without wanting to sound mercenary I was wondering whether I am entitled to more than what they are offering. Even though amounts haven`t been mentioned yet, I didn`t want them to think they were escaping a serious mis-selling of a service I can not use, with just a token gesture. I appreciate taking them to court would cost money which I don`t have, nevertheless, thats why I started this thread to ask for advice and to see what my next move should be.

Thanks again for your reply, much appreciated;)

If this was misselling you can ask for 8% statutory interest on top of what they owe you too. I would perhaps ask them for a breakdown of the calculations and post them up.

Mr_Linnet

Thats an "interesting" ( no pun intended ) piece of information. :beer:
I`ll certainly post a breakdown of their calculations on here once I receive them. Thanks again for your input, its much appreciated;)

marshallka

Mr_Linnet wrote: »

Thats an "interesting" ( no pun intended ) piece of information. :beer:
I`ll certainly post a breakdown of their calculations on here once I receive them. Thanks again for your input, its much appreciated;)

Its what the Ombudsman service can ask for as you have been deprived of the monies and also what a court would award.

Mr_Linnet

Just a quick update for everyone who has previously replied.

I received a letter/statement from Halifax dated 13th June saying that I owed them £112.84. This amount would bring my account upto date.

I have today received another letter from the Halifax saying enclosed is a cheque for £159.26 relating to settlement as per previous correspondence.(I assume back pay for the mis-selling of my PPI)

There are no calculations showing how they arrived at this amount something which I had previously requested in a recorded delivery letter sent to them.:mad:

Should I accept this cheque? Should I bank it and ask again for calculations?

I don`t think they have acted very professionally throughtout my attempted dialogue with them. I send recorded delivery letters each time addressed to the person who had previously communicated with me, usually to receive another letter back from a completely different person.:mad:

Any help and advice who be greatly appreciated

melorablack

Sending recorded deliver letters to the person who last wrote to you is pretty pointless really because your case is looked at by quite a few diferent people during your claim and some of them only have to send out the regulatory ack, 4 week and 8 week letters - they don't actually have anything to do with the investigation. The only person who had any ability to reply to your letters was the person who sent the letter saying it had been upheld because they were the person who looked at your complaint.

They show the breakdown of the amounts to be refunded but as for showing how they arrived at it, as it is a credit card someone actually had to find every one of your statements and add up the PPI added each month, calculate the interest and add 8% to it so there the only way they could show you the calculation would be to send you every single statement.

With Halifax, you won't receive a token gesture, they will have refunded you the PPI paid, interest on the PPI and the 8% interest - which is what the FOS would have awarded you.

If you aren't happy with what you have got, go to the FOS.

Mr_Linnet

Thanks very much for your reply and the contents enclosed.

Looks like they have paid me the bare minimum.

I have previously requested a breakdown showing all calculations of the redress, this request was sent recorded delivery to the person who informed me of the mis-selling and the fact I was entitled to the redress. It doesn`t appear that I have kept all my statements so I can`t double check.

I feel aggrieved because I`ve done all the chasing in this matter, at no stage have the Halifax helped with my current situation of trying to negotiate a repayment agreement with them whilst I`m unemployed ( sent via my local Citizens Advice Bureau ) and when they are wrong it seems as if they have paid the minimum amount possible.

I placed a mechanism in place to help safe guard me and my family in times such as unemployement. The piece of mind of this mechansim has been taken away at a late stage but I`ve been repaid. Feels like I`ve been burgled and the burgular has got away!

Mr_Linnet

Listed below are the redress figures :-

Refund of premiums paid £197.61
Interest charged on premiums £ 9.37
Compensatory interest at 8% £ 7.95
Total £ 214.93

As my credit card account was in arrears they used part of the redress to clear these arrears and sent me a cheque for £159.26.

I`ve contacted the local CAB to help negotiate a repayment plan several months ago, The Halfax have so far failed to respond to them either despite the CAB writing to The Halifax on two occasions within the last two weeks including my consent form for the CAB to act on my behalf. I`ve previously contacted The Halifax and I am currently continuing to pay £10 per month.

I have today received a letter from The Halifax stating that they have terminated my credit agreement and placed my account in the hands of a debt recovery agency.

I`ve forwarded a copy of this letter to the local CAB who are going to contact The Hailfax again!

I`m absolutely amazed at the conduct of The Halifax! I wonder whether the goverment where more sympathic to their cause when they bailed them out a while ago? I have been constantly advised to make contact with the lender, which I have done but they appear to be completely ignoring me.

What course of action should I take next?

Any contributions most welcome. Steve