Help!!! I Don't Know What To Do!!!!

kwackerman

Hi All,

I will be really grateful if someone out there could advise the best course of action I should take with regard to PPI with First Plus.

In June 2004 my wife and I took out a secured loan of £60,000 payable over 12 years.
We also took out the PPI cover which cost £14,538. This protected us for the first 5 years and was a cashback policy.

The policy is due to end on the 28th of this month.

I am hoping to claim the money back but we have been in arrears at various points of the 5 year term and I am afraid we may have fallen foul of the qualification rules for the cashback. Apparently even taking a payment holiday after October last year will count as arrears now!
In the mean time I have been approached by the Claims Guys ( don't know how they got my details or how they know I had a PPI ) who have told me I have in all likeliness a very good chance of claiming the money back under mis-selling.

Now I don't no what to do. Shall I just try and claim under the cashback terms of the policy or should I let the Claims Guys get straight on to the case. If I don't get the cashback because we are judged to have gone into arrears more than three times will it then be too late to try and claim it back using the Claims Guys?

I am really unsure what to do. We desperately need this money and even if we get the cashback we will still be paying around £260 per month for the next 7 years for the policy on it's own. I feel really stupid taking this out now but when we needed the consolidation loan we really did feel like it was unlikely we would get the loan if we did not take out the payment protection especially as we did not have the best of credit history. The chap virtually sold us the policy as a 5 year savings plan but it's a bloody expensive savings plan!

Here's hoping you can help me make the right decision.

Kind Regards

Andy

brand_no_7

A quick call from Firstplus will be able to tell you whether you qualify for the cashback. They will tell you whether your payment history disqualifies you.

Can't help you making a decision as to whether you should claim the cashback then proceed with a claim for the PPI. I recently posted in confusion because firstplus have told me that because of the cashback when they restructure my loan the monthly payments would increase. Certainly any cashback would be taken into consideration.

if the policy has been missold you are entitled to the payments made relating to the PPI, statutory interest at 8% on these payments and the loan restructured. Basically putting you back into the position you were had you not taken out the PPI - However it would seem from my conversation with Firstplus that having the cashback complicates matter (until i see their calculations i cannot assist any further on how it complicates matters)

I have had recent success complaining about the PPI to the Financial Ombudsman. Would certainly recommend it but not a quick thing - FOS are dealing with a load of these and taking about 6 months possibly longer.

Careful proceeding with claiming through a Claims Company as a lot work on contigency fees and you need to make sure they don't take any of your compensation from you.

Going alone to the FOS is quite simple and there is so much on this forum to help you.

Two things to be aware - there is a time scale to claim the cashback but you should have received a letter from Firstplus advising you of these. There is also a 6 year limitation period so if you choose to complain about the PPI make sure you do it before June 2010.

I will be posting back when i have discussed further with Firstplus about how the cashback can complicate matters but this will not be until July so doesn't help you now. You can keep an eye on my recent thread as well as I have asked a similiar question and any response may assist you.

Whatever you choose to do best of luck

Juneno

Hi,
Brand no 7 is quite right - you can reclaim your cash plus 8% interest and get your loan restated.
If you go to the complaints against Firstplus site (google it), the guys there are all in the same boat and are exremely knowledgeable about how to go about this. They even have solicitors on board who are starting to take cases!
Good luck and go for it!
Oh, and sign the petition! The more of us that do, the more impact we may have on this company.

russt2000

HI, the ppi premium was front loaded , at 5 years you get the premium only back {or not} you dont get back the interest you have paid on it to date and you still keep paying interest on it for the whole of the loan period. very expensive.

You can lodge a misselling complaint yourself, see what FP do , and if necessary got to FOS to deal with it.
there a lots of claim companies and nearly all want money off you so do be careful.
Ihave been successful in my ppi claim against fp and very lucky took just 2 months and four letters, so I know it can be done.

as firstpluscomplaints, we know lots of ways to deal with FP.

rust2000

brand_no_7

russt2000 wrote: »

HI, the ppi premium was front loaded , at 5 years you get the premium only back {or not} you dont get back the interest you have paid on it to date and you still keep paying interest on it for the whole of the loan period. very expensive.

You can lodge a misselling complaint yourself, see what FP do , and if necessary got to FOS to deal with it.
there a lots of claim companies and nearly all want money off you so do be careful.
Ihave been successful in my ppi claim against fp and very lucky took just 2 months and four letters, so I know it can be done.

as firstpluscomplaints, we know lots of ways to deal with FP.

rust2000

Rust, well done in your success against Firstplus. I have also been successful but interested to know whether your complaint was before or after the 5 year rebate?

Mine was after the 5 year rebate and according to firstplus this complicates the calculations!