Portal Claims - overcharging!

PortalTim

PortalTim wrote: »

Sarah, I'm quite relaxed about you to taking us to court, but I can promise you that our T&C's have been tested in court several times and are highly robust.

Let me explain our thinking re fees written off your loan. If we make a claim and get an award of £2k with you getting £1k up front and the loan being reduced by £1k, over the period of the loan you will enjoy the benefit of the money reduced off your loan. So over the period of your loan you will recieve a benefit of £2k as a result of the complaint made by us. Rather than takeing us to court, losing and costing yourself a load time and money, why not call our collections team and arrange to pay part of the fee up front and the rest over a period of few months? Our aim as a company is to be upfront, fair and flexible.

Sarah, of course the main problem here is that the FSA are allowing the banks to write the PPI off the loan rather than making a full cash refund. There's nothing I can do about this (I've tried), but here's why I think it's totally unfair.

When you take out a loan the banks are duty bound to quote a cost of taking out the loan in the form of the APR. When you took out your loan, the APR they quoted didn't include the cost of the PPI. Ie when they sold you the loan they made away with making out the loan and the PPI were distinct.

However, if you make a claim against the banks for mis sold PPI, if there's any out standing PPI, the banks are allowed to take this off the cost of the loan ie they can link the cost of the PPI and the loan. I've always argued that they can't have this both ways, but they seem to be getting an awful lot of leeway!

sarahcolin1998

That's all well and good, but it doesn't make your fees any easier to pay! That amount of money would have helped me out greatly, but it now belongs to Portal!

maxdp

PortalTim wrote: »

Our aim as a company is to be upfront, fair and flexible.

...................:rotfl:

sarahcolin1998

maxdp wrote: »

...................:rotfl:

Thank you Max, my sentiments exactly!

sarahcolin1998

This matter is still really bugging me, so as I work for a very large law firm, I'm going to try & ask one of the lawyers to look over the T&C's, see what they think! If I get any further updates, I will post again!

sarahcolin1998

sarahcolin1998 wrote: »

This matter is still really bugging me, so as I work for a very large law firm, I'm going to try & ask one of the lawyers to look over the T&C's, see what they think! If I get any further updates, I will post again!

I have now also e-mailed Watchdog!!

maxdp

sarahcolin1998 wrote: »

I have now also e-mailed Watchdog!!

Good for you Sarah.

I wonder although OP said T&Cs have been tested before perhaps they are not clear enough and may be written in a way to confuse or mislead.

Let us know how you get on.

sarahcolin1998

I have now received my free legal advice and as I signed the agreement, that the T&C's were attached to the back of, there isn't much I can do! :mad:

At least I tried and Portal have had to wait for their payment!

Thanks for the support and advice I received, I really did appreciate it.

Just for info, I used www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk who offer free legal advice on most matters, I just made a quick phone call 0845 345 4 345.

I just hope that less & less people use these companys!

marshallka

Does the unfair terms in consumer contracts only apply to those that have an OFT Licence (consumer credit licence)?

http://www.oft.gov.uk/about-the-oft/legal-powers/legal/unfair-terms/guidance

marshallka

PortalTim wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. The best thing for people to do IS to make a claim themselves, but the reality is that there are many people who either simply want some one else to do it for them or don't know they can claim until they see one of our adverts or will not make a claim unless their situation is explained and a solution suggested to them.

As for our fees, I have made every effort to make our fee structure as clear as possible. On top of spelling out what our fees are on our website and in our T&C's, I've also put in place a team who's job it is to call every one of our customers to verbally explain to them our fee structure (this was put in place about 8 weeks ago). I'm open to suggestions as to what else I can do, with in reason?

Tim
Portal Claims

So if this was only put into place 8 weeks ago since you posted this post then surely anyone that came to your firm prior to that would be subject to your original terms and conditions at the time of their claim. Were your original term and conditions the same then? Did it mention that any amount that is still owing on the PPI (not yet paid) would also be taken into account when making the redress less your fees or words to that effect? Can you please clarify your terms and conditions before this amendment perhaps?

I would think that if someone already signed a contract with you then they would have a copy of what terms and conditions they would be subjected to at the time of their contract with yourself? You cannot really change a contract as and when you like and expect consumers to follow your "new" terms. Am I missing something here perhaps??? Would it not be very unfair to change your terms (if you have actually done that and not saying you have but want clarification perhaps of what they said prior to the change as you put it!!!) and surely a court would see it that way also.