Black Horse PPI

tigerlily59

Hi

Me and my husband took out a loan in Dec 04 with black horse, which is still ongoing. He had a pre-existing medical condition, the following year he had a major operation because of this condition, we didn't even realise we had the ppi so didn't even try to make a claim.

Some time later he had another operation, but due to a house move, I had reason to look into the loan (as it is secured on the property) and realised we had insurance so for this second operation we tried to make a claim. We were told we couldn't because it was a pre-existing medical condition. We asked if we were able to cancel the policy as it was pretty useless, they informed us that our payments would be reduced by around £20 per month even though the PPI is over £80 per month! We left it as it was.

I then discovered this site and wrote my first letter to Black Horse, it has been just over 8 weeks and no reply from them, apart from one strange phone call asking us if all is ok with the loan (we have some arrears due to the last operation but have been paying the full repayments for a number of months now) and should we need any more reductions we only have to ask!! I mentioned the fact that I sent them a letter regarding the ppi, and was informed I would hear within 8 weeks.

I am preparing to send my 2nd letter, but was wondering if I should first telephone them, post can be a bit dodgy in this area, just to see if they did post anything to me.

The other problem I have, is that the loan was taken out just before the fos became the regulators in Jan '05, according to what I have read on here, people are suing the underwriters. How do I find out who the underwriters are, there is nothing on my paperwork. Could this be why they haven't replied, if indeed they haven't?

I don't really know what to do next, can anyone advise me please.

Thank you

Michelle

di3004

tigerlily59 wrote: »

Hi

Me and my husband took out a loan in Dec 04 with black horse, which is still ongoing. He had a pre-existing medical condition, the following year he had a major operation because of this condition, we didn't even realise we had the ppi so didn't even try to make a claim.

Some time later he had another operation, but due to a house move, I had reason to look into the loan (as it is secured on the property) and realised we had insurance so for this second operation we tried to make a claim. We were told we couldn't because it was a pre-existing medical condition. We asked if we were able to cancel the policy as it was pretty useless, they informed us that our payments would be reduced by around £20 per month even though the PPI is over £80 per month! We left it as it was.

I then discovered this site and wrote my first letter to Black Horse, it has been just over 8 weeks and no reply from them, apart from one strange phone call asking us if all is ok with the loan (we have some arrears due to the last operation but have been paying the full repayments for a number of months now) and should we need any more reductions we only have to ask!! I mentioned the fact that I sent them a letter regarding the ppi, and was informed I would hear within 8 weeks.

I am preparing to send my 2nd letter, but was wondering if I should first telephone them, post can be a bit dodgy in this area, just to see if they did post anything to me.

The other problem I have, is that the loan was taken out just before the fos became the regulators in Jan '05, according to what I have read on here, people are suing the underwriters. How do I find out who the underwriters are, there is nothing on my paperwork. Could this be why they haven't replied, if indeed they haven't?

I don't really know what to do next, can anyone advise me please.

Thank you

Michelle

Hi Michelle, first of all the very best of luck.;)

I would give them a ring and ask them if they have received your letter and ask if they are dealing with it, if they say no then yes send another but maybe post this so you can check it reached them within the post office.

To find out about the underwriters/insurers, write to the lenders for the copy of the policy details, sometimes you don't always get these when you receive the loan, and you ask for these policies separately, they should send these on request to you and the details should be shown on them, and if the above fails pursue the underwriter/insurer the same way as you have done these.
The FOS should be able to investigate complaints against these as they should have been governed.;)

Good luck, please keep us posted.

tigerlily59

Thank you for the reply, I shall follow your advise and let you know how it goes.

Michelle

di3004

tigerlily59 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply, I shall follow your advise and let you know how it goes.

Michelle

Good luck Michelle, we look forward to hearing from you, and your very welcome.;)

tigerlily59

I rang Black horse up, and she told me that they have a massive back log of PPI claims, and could I give it another week. She said I will definitely hear from them. So I'll give them another week, if I hear nothing then I'll send stage 2 of the letters.

tigerlily59

An update - I finally received a reply from Black Horse today, after a lot of messing about with them losing my original letter etc.

The letter I received stated (in a nutshell) that they will not accept that the policy was mis-sold, that as the loan was secured over property, an advance copy of the agreement document was sent out, and that they were not allowed to contact us for 10 days giving us the opportunity to take advise.

They said they have included a copy of the original agreement letter, but there was nothing in the envelope - but they say it states that the PPI cold be cancelled within 30 days of the agreement.

They then go on to say that unlike comments in the media, their product does provide a rebate, unless the customer has made a claim, and in the interests of bringing this matter to a conclusion are prepared to offer a more favourable rebate than that which is normally offered.

They have offered £3039.09, which if cancelled today provides a pro rata rebate. Now, the actual payments that I have made for the PPI is around £5,200 plus the 8% interest.

This is a condensed version of the letter of which I have mentioned the main points, if I am not happy they suggest going to the FLA.

Any opinions on this to help me make a decision would be much appreciated.

Thank you
Michelle

tigerlily59

Also, just to add, it also stated that future repayments would be adjusted as appropriate. Does anyone know if this means that the whole £80+ for the PPI will be reduced from the monthly repayments, or just the £25 that they told us it would be reduced by when we previously enquired about simply cancelling the insurance.

I know I could telephone and ask, but there are that many people that answer their phones, I am concerned about being given incorrect information, so wondered if anyone else has had the same experience.

Thanks in advance

Michelle

di3004

tigerlily59 wrote: »

An update - I finally received a reply from Black Horse today, after a lot of messing about with them losing my original letter etc.

The letter I received stated (in a nutshell) that they will not accept that the policy was mis-sold, that as the loan was secured over property, an advance copy of the agreement document was sent out, and that they were not allowed to contact us for 10 days giving us the opportunity to take advise.

They said they have included a copy of the original agreement letter, but there was nothing in the envelope - but they say it states that the PPI cold be cancelled within 30 days of the agreement.

They then go on to say that unlike comments in the media, their product does provide a rebate, unless the customer has made a claim, and in the interests of bringing this matter to a conclusion are prepared to offer a more favourable rebate than that which is normally offered.

They have offered £3039.09, which if cancelled today provides a pro rata rebate. Now, the actual payments that I have made for the PPI is around £5,200 plus the 8% interest.

This is a condensed version of the letter of which I have mentioned the main points, if I am not happy they suggest going to the FLA.

Any opinions on this to help me make a decision would be much appreciated.

Thank you
Michelle

Hi Michelle thanks for your update.

So basically they were not covered by the FSA then where the Financial ombudsman service (FOS) would not be able to investigate, the FLA in a lot of people's opinions on this site are not that good and do not tend to do a lot, so an awkward one really.

So this was taken out before Jan 2005 - they would not have been covered by the FSA so the FOS do not adjudicate companies who were not at that time.

It may be the case of accepting
FLA who are not that helpful but its entirely up to you.
Or take the chance with writing to the insurer instead, but maybe you should get some other opinions on this first.

Myself personally (my own personal opinion) in this situation would take the money, especially if I did not have anywhere else to go with this, but of course the choice is absolutely all yours.

Am going to say Congratulations though so Congratulations anyway :beer: and whatever you decide, good luck, and hopefully others will post up with some opinions and advice for you, all the best. XX

tigerlily59

Thanks Di, yes, I am leaning towards accepting rather than the alternative, because the loan was taken Dec '04. I think my main concern is the reduction of the PPI from my monthly payments. Money is tight at the moment, and to have a full reduction of the cost of the PPI (which is just over £80 per month) would go a long way.

sammy1968

Hi tigerlily59

My husband and myself are also with blackhorse and we are going to court later this month.
But i just wanted to let you know what happened when we cancelled are PPI with them....

We were paying £175 amonth and we were the same as your self in that money became tight so we contacted are local office to ask to cancel the PPI and were told no you can`t it`s pass the 30 days so we then phoned the lloydstsb insurance and they were yea sure you can cancel any time so we did ,we believe that would reduce are payments by £175 amonth but it did not they said they had to rework the loan and are repayments only reduced by £85.
My husband also had a pre-existing medical condition if you would like to know the whole story sent me a private message on here and i will give you the full story

Sammy

tigerlily59

Just had another read of the letter - a little slower this time, and tried to understand what they actually mean. The difficult to understand bit as follows:

"In the interest of bringing this matter to a conclusion, we are willing to cancel the policy and to apply a more favourable rebate than that which is normally offered. As a guide if the policy were to be cancelled today the rebate that we would be prepared to offer is £3039.09 which has been calculated on a pro rata basis and with effect from the date on which we recieved the initial complaint.....
....If the policy is no longer required please sign and return the slip below and we will then cancel the policy and credit the agreement with the rebate amount. The future monthly repayments will be adjusted as appropriately and we will issue a refund if the account is in credit"
This letter is our final response, the claim may be reffered to the Finance and Leasing Association."

So what I understand from re-reading this is that there is actually no refund, just a pro-rata cancellation of future PPI which will be deducted off the total amount of the loan. This won't even reduce the amount payable each month by the full amount that I pay for the PPI.

I have spent all evening searching for similar posts and have found quite a few, but this is an excerpt from a post by Bakerboy35 in June last year:

"Should you wish to cancel your policy within the next 14 days we would expect you to recieve a rebate of approximatly £5,197.23 using the proportionate basis we are prepared to offer. if you do cancel your policy, your repayments will be £168.56 for the remainder of the agreement term.

Now whilst i appreciate their offer, i telephoned them to clarify how much the cheque would be,before i signed the acceptance letter, they said that i would not be recieving a cheque, but this would come off the total cost of the loan outstanding.
i have looked at my paperwork, and i pay £92 per month for the ppi, so they are basically saying that i will not get any money back, however the cost of paying back will reduce by only £79 !!

i would like to have all monies paid into the ppi plus interest back as this would really help at the moment but they are refusing that.

Having now sat down and worked out what it means to me, they are simply cancelling the ppi policy and not refunding any of the ppi paid so far!! that £5197.23 is what is left of the ppi policy to pay, not including the interest as well!
its a con as far as i can see, with a fancy worded reply, where we think we are getting a good deal, but we are not." (End of Baker Boys post)

So it seems that this is just a very cleverly worded letter to make me think I am getting a refund, when in fact I am not.

As I took this out before Jan '05 - is it still worth going to the ombudsman - please help and advise. I really don't know what to do.

Thanks