Financial Arbitration Ltd

bigger_tigger

Hi!

Don't know if this is the right part of the forum to post this, however, has anyone heard of a company called Financial Arbitration Ltd based in Stockport?

They phoned last week claiming to be able to reclaim or get a discount of up to 60% on a car finance agreement through my business. Essentially they asked if I had any loans / borrowing and stated that there was a good chance that because of a technicality within the contract agreement, they could secure in the region of a 60% refund.

I'm very suspicious about these things, especially when they said that if they looked at the contract and thought they had a case, it would cost me £495 up front as their fee (reduced to £99 if their claim failed). When I stated that I would not be paying anything up front until I was 100% satisfied that it was genuine and that it wouldn't have an affect on me or my business, the gentleman assured me that was ok, however I could clearly visualise the cartoon birds circling around above his head!

Anyway, all comments gratefully received - I'll post an update after the guy has been (this morning).

Cheers

BT

ILW

bigger_tigger wrote: »

Hi!

Don't know if this is the right part of the forum to post this, however, has anyone heard of a company called Financial Arbitration Ltd based in Stockport?

They phoned last week claiming to be able to reclaim or get a discount of up to 60% on a car finance agreement through my business. Essentially they asked if I had any loans / borrowing and stated that there was a good chance that because of a technicality within the contract agreement, they could secure in the region of a 60% refund.

I'm very suspicious about these things, especially when they said that if they looked at the contract and thought they had a case, it would cost me £495 up front as their fee (reduced to £99 if their claim failed). When I stated that I would not be paying anything up front until I was 100% satisfied that it was genuine and that it wouldn't have an affect on me or my business, the gentleman assured me that was ok, however I could clearly visualise the cartoon birds circling around above his head!

Anyway, all comments gratefully received - I'll post an update after the guy has been (this morning).

Cheers

BT

He will go for a first call close, whatever you do do not agree to anything no matter what incentives are offered ( they will still be available next week). Get everything in writing and say you will not commit for at least 1 week when you will have had someone look over any agreements. If they do not like this, it is a scam.

dunstonh

They phoned last week claiming to be able to reclaim or get a discount of up to 60% on a car finance agreement through my business.

Thats usually a bad start because how can they make such claims without knowing anything about you.

there was a good chance that because of a technicality within the contract agreement, they could secure in the region of a 60% refund.

There is a tiny minority of cases that have been paid out on in these cases. The 6 test cases in December all went in favour of the lenders and set up some ground rules. Whilst it did not rule out the ability to make an individual claim the test cases confirmed that many of the things that the claims companies were pinning their hopes on would not work. It also confirmed that if you were successful, the lender could keep the debt on your credit file as being in arrears and unpaid. Therefore killing your ability to get credit in future.

it would cost me £495 up front as their fee (reduced to £99 if their claim failed).

That is where the money is to them.

RobertoMoir

bigger_tigger wrote: »

I'm very suspicious about these things, especially when they said that if they looked at the contract and thought they had a case, it would cost me £495 up front as their fee (reduced to £99 if their claim failed).

I'm glad you're suspicious. This is a way to charge you £99 for not helping you. Not only is that an inherent rip off, it's also expensive. I'm prepared to charge half that for not helping you. I'm sure you'll agree that my rip off is more honest as well as better value than theirs.

lincroft1710

RobertoMoir is overcharging! I'll only charge £25 for not helping you.

BTW whenever I see or hear the words "fee payable in advance" with regard to "compensation" I always also see or hear (in my mind) the word"scam".

RobertoMoir

lincroft1710 wrote: »

RobertoMoir is overcharging! I'll only charge £25 for not helping you.

BTW whenever I see or hear the words "fee payable in advance" with regard to "compensation" I always also see or hear (in my mind) the word"scam".

I may not be the cheapest but I'm good value!

_Andy_

Sorry to undercut you but I'll do it for £10.

dunstonh

Never knowingly undersold. I will take double what they are charging you for doing nothing as my nothing is of a higher quality.

_Andy_

dunstonh wrote: »

Never knowingly undersold. I will take double what they are charging you for doing nothing as my nothing is of a higher quality.

All well and good Dunston but I can back my service up with the testimonials of no-one at all. Beat that.

bigger_tigger

I'm just waiting for someone to offer to pay me to do nothing for me, then we may have a deal! :rotfl:

Anyway, after some confusion about appointment dates and times, the chap arrived this afternoon and despite the fact that communication clearly wasn't his strong point, he left me with something to think about!

In a nutshell, these guys look at existing credit arrangements and compare them to how they should read, i.e. if there are any 'breaches' in the agreement compared to what it should state in accordance with the Consumer Credit Act (and any other Act, Regulation etc that might apply). This allows them to seek a negotiated settlement of the agreement on the basis of 'hey guys, you used the wrong template / didn't check when you copied someone else's template / don't comply with regulation XYZ of the ABC Act therefore the agreement isn't legal and we don't want to pay you any more money'.....or something along those lines anyway!

I would of course like to insert the words 'apparently' and 'allegedly' frequently within the above paragraph and would urge extreme caution before anyone gets excited about writing off large chunks of credit card debt, loans etc (as they claim to be able to do).

I will certainly be looking into this further and asking more questions before I make any decisions.

I'll post again once I know more!

BT

dunstonh

In a nutshell, these guys look at existing credit arrangements and compare them to how they should read, i.e. if there are any 'breaches' in the agreement compared to what it should state in accordance with the Consumer Credit Act (and any other Act, Regulation etc that might apply).

Yes, that seems the standard patter for claims companies trying to do this.

This allows them to seek a negotiated settlement of the agreement on the basis of 'hey guys, you used the wrong template / didn't check when you copied someone else's template / don't comply with regulation XYZ of the ABC Act therefore the agreement isn't legal and we don't want to pay you any more money'.....or something along those lines anyway!

Also the standard patter but also technically incorrect.

You should ask them these questions:

1 - What is their success rate (if honest it should be close to zero. Probably single digits at best. Dishonest ones give massive success rates).
2 - How are they dealing with the all the recent test cases in court ruling in favour of the lenders?
3 - in areas where claims are likely to be successful, claims companies dont charge up front. So, why are they charging you upfront?
4 - with so many claims companies now going into administration as they have failed to deliver what they promised and people losing their £495, why do they think they will be any different?