First Direct - PPI missold claim

J_i_m

I can't honestly claim to be in any hardship. My outgoings outweigh my income at the moment and are seriously denting my savings. But I'm taking measures to cut out things I don't need.

For example I've just printed off a letter telling First Direct to cancel my PPI (whilst I wait on the ombudsman) I also cancelled the insurance on my mobile phone, another insurance policy (for camera equipment) runs out soon and I have told them not to renew.

I'm also looking at changing my car to one that is cheaper to run, indeed I was kind of hoping a ppi refund would help fund that. Not so fast tiger eh?

di3004

J_i_m wrote: »

I can't honestly claim to be in any hardship. My outgoings outweigh my income at the moment and are seriously denting my savings. But I'm taking measures to cut out things I don't need.

For example I've just printed off a letter telling First Direct to cancel my PPI (whilst I wait on the ombudsman) I also cancelled the insurance on my mobile phone, another insurance policy (for camera equipment) runs out soon and I have told them not to renew.

I'm also looking at changing my car to one that is cheaper to run, indeed I was kind of hoping a ppi refund would help fund that. Not so fast tiger eh?

That is fair enough Jim, thought I should mention it though as not everyone are aware of the fast tracking within the FOS and in case it did apply to you.

Hope you won't have to wait too long for a good result, fingers crossed for you.;)

J_i_m

On reflection... I may have a better chance than I thought.

The strength of the final response letter I received basically referred to the "confirmations" I made at the time.

Obviously I must have confirmed that I work for the NHS, I've provided the Ombudsman with evidence that I was employed by the NHS prior to taking out both loans.

I would have thought that a Bank and it's sales staff ought to know that a NHS employee is covered even if the customer is young, wet between the ears and dam-right naive! Which I was, and to some extent still am!

But they made no effort to inform me that my NHS benefits covered me, because if they had I'd have probably reasoned that if I don't need it... then why spend £x-grand more?!

I think they did they did the bare minimum they had to do... i.e. say it was a choice, and that I had a 30 day cooling off period. Big deal! That's not leaving you fully informed, that's more like saying investigate it yourself! Trying to put you over the barrel of saying well you signed the terms and conditions.

So now I've had a bit more time to reflect on it, I'm slightly more convinced that I was mis-sold. I Just hope that my essay I've given to the ombudsman sums it up adequately.

There might be another reason I could have used but didn't, I don't remember being told that I could have bought the PPI elsewhere. Maybe I can tell the ombudsman at a later date.

So after a bit of a depressing downer.. I'm kind of regaining my bearings and appreciating that this "final response" was likely a standard tactic simply to dissuade me from pressing further, although they did provide me with details about the ombudsman which I guess they have to do anyway.

The dissuasion tactic didn't work anyway, because regardless of how I felt and saw my chances, I'd downloaded, filled out, signed and posted the ombudsman form along with copious copies of loan agreements etc within a hour of receiving my final response letter.

I guess the point of this post, is to advise anyone who has revived a final response refuting your claim is to not get too downhearted. Just go to the ombudsman, it'll take a bit longer, but they'll look at it more objectively, since they haven't got commission £ signs in their eyes trying to wheedle more money out of you.

marshallka

J_i_m wrote: »

On reflection... I may have a better chance than I thought.

The strength of the final response letter I received basically referred to the "confirmations" I made at the time.

Obviously I must have confirmed that I work for the NHS, I've provided the Ombudsman with evidence that I was employed by the NHS prior to taking out both loans.

I would have thought that a Bank and it's sales staff ought to know that a NHS employee is covered even if the customer is young, wet between the ears and dam-right naive! Which I was, and to some extent still am!

But they made no effort to inform me that my NHS benefits covered me, because if they had I'd have probably reasoned that if I don't need it... then why spend £x-grand more?!

I think they did they did the bare minimum they had to do... i.e. say it was a choice, and that I had a 30 day cooling off period. Big deal! That's not leaving you fully informed, that's more like saying investigate it yourself! Trying to put you over the barrel of saying well you signed the terms and conditions.

So now I've had a bit more time to reflect on it, I'm slightly more convinced that I was mis-sold. I Just hope that my essay I've given to the ombudsman sums it up adequately.

There might be another reason I could have used but didn't, I don't remember being told that I could have bought the PPI elsewhere. Maybe I can tell the ombudsman at a later date.

So after a bit of a depressing downer.. I'm kind of regaining my bearings and appreciating that this "final response" was likely a standard tactic simply to dissuade me from pressing further, although they did provide me with details about the ombudsman which I guess they have to do anyway.

The dissuasion tactic didn't work anyway, because regardless of how I felt and saw my chances, I'd downloaded, filled out, signed and posted the ombudsman form along with copious copies of loan agreements etc within a hour of receiving my final response letter.

I guess the point of this post, is to advise anyone who has revived a final response refuting your claim is to not get too downhearted. Just go to the ombudsman, it'll take a bit longer, but they'll look at it more objectively, since they haven't got commission £ signs in their eyes trying to wheedle more money out of you.

Good luck Jim.

robbedofmymoney

J_i_m wrote: »

On reflection... I may have a better chance than I thought.

The strength of the final response letter I received basically referred to the "confirmations" I made at the time.

Obviously I must have confirmed that I work for the NHS, I've provided the Ombudsman with evidence that I was employed by the NHS prior to taking out both loans.

I would have thought that a Bank and it's sales staff ought to know that a NHS employee is covered even if the customer is young, wet between the ears and dam-right naive! Which I was, and to some extent still am!

But they made no effort to inform me that my NHS benefits covered me, because if they had I'd have probably reasoned that if I don't need it... then why spend £x-grand more?!

I think they did they did the bare minimum they had to do... i.e. say it was a choice, and that I had a 30 day cooling off period. Big deal! That's not leaving you fully informed, that's more like saying investigate it yourself! Trying to put you over the barrel of saying well you signed the terms and conditions.

So now I've had a bit more time to reflect on it, I'm slightly more convinced that I was mis-sold. I Just hope that my essay I've given to the ombudsman sums it up adequately.

There might be another reason I could have used but didn't, I don't remember being told that I could have bought the PPI elsewhere. Maybe I can tell the ombudsman at a later date.

So after a bit of a depressing downer.. I'm kind of regaining my bearings and appreciating that this "final response" was likely a standard tactic simply to dissuade me from pressing further, although they did provide me with details about the ombudsman which I guess they have to do anyway.

The dissuasion tactic didn't work anyway, because regardless of how I felt and saw my chances, I'd downloaded, filled out, signed and posted the ombudsman form along with copious copies of loan agreements etc within a hour of receiving my final response letter.

I guess the point of this post, is to advise anyone who has revived a final response refuting your claim is to not get too downhearted. Just go to the ombudsman, it'll take a bit longer, but they'll look at it more objectively, since they haven't got commission £ signs in their eyes trying to wheedle more money out of you.

Jim

your chances of success at the FOS are high, on this link you can view the success rate for consumers that refer their complaints to the FOS after the banks refuse the complaint.

the uphold rate in favour of the consumer for insurance related products (majority being PPI) is very high.

good luck, go for it, you still have nothing to lose.

i don't think its going to be long before soem of these banks are hit with larger fines again for not properly dealing with the complaints in the first place.

http://www.ombudsman-complaints-data.org.uk/

click on the resolved cases tab.

for all those doubting wether or not to go to the FOS, let this be an encouragement to you.

the banks are wrong, you are right

HSBC Bank (owners of First Direct) have 79% of claims go in favour of the consumer once with the FOS

J_i_m

Now there is some more malarkey going on. Had a phone call from First Direct regarding my request to cancel the PPI policy for the remainder of my loan. And it's only gong to reduce the monthly repayments by about half of what I was expecting and was led to expect by my loan paperwork.

Apparently this has something to do with a sliding scale of insurance in that you're paying more to insure a larger overall loan balance at the beginning of the agreement than you are towards the end. This in itself is probably perfectly true from a general value insurance point of view.

However my loan agreement very clearly laid out what the loan repayments were and what the PPI repayments were, and in spite of them insisting that there are details of this sliding scale thing in my paper work I can't seem to find it.

I feel a bit misled again, and ever so slightly peeved. So I asked for a full run down of the figures, which I shall study when they hit the floor mat in front of my letter box and take them up on it again when I've digested it.

Because this is so fiddly and tricky, I can't help but feel swindled out of money again! If there is even a chink of a possibility that I'm correct on this, then there is no way in hell that I'm taking it lying down.

The days of my being a bankers fool are over.

michelle45_2

Hi Jim
It will be interesting to see how you get on. I have only just been made aware that I could ave been missold ppi. I also work for the NHS and the bank was aware of that but never questionned what sick pay etc would cover the loan - they just went on to see how it would cover me if i was off ill or redundant. Plus they never went on to ask if I had any existing medical conditions. So Im going to give it ago.

Nothing to lose eh!!

However, I did ask for advice earlier about going for it and a reply was really not to bother so im interested in how your pans out.

Michelle

J_i_m

Quick update:

FOS are now dealing with my complaint. They've done everything they said they would within the time frame they gave me.

Received a phone call from them asking me a few questions, medical conditions, sick pay etc.

So it's in process now....though I'm none the wiser to what the outcome might be.

di3004

J_i_m wrote: »

Quick update:

FOS are now dealing with my complaint. They've done everything they said they would within the time frame they gave me.

Received a phone call from them asking me a few questions, medical conditions, sick pay etc.

So it's in process now....though I'm none the wiser to what the outcome might be.

Thanks for your update and hope you won't be waiting too long now for a good outcome fingers crossed.;)

spursboy

Hi Jim,

Just came across your thread whilst browsing MSE.

Have you had any movement on your ppi reclaim?

I put in a reclaim on behalf of my fiance. She took out PPI with a loan from First Direct before we got together. The essence of her ppi reclaim was that:

1. She had a pre-existing medical condition which I believe would have precluded her from claiming on the policy.
2. She had recently taken out an income protection policy to cover her bills (something she forgot to tell First Drect) before taking out the loan.
3. She does not recall being advised that alternatives were available.

I sent a letter (signed by her) to First Direct and the reply was a well written two page letter dismissing her claims. I don't want to throw the towel in, but am unsure whether the policy was mis sold by First Direct or not? It would be useful to understand how your claim gets on.

Stu