Claiming PPI from Swift Advances.

swingaloo

I have decided to claim back my mis sold PPI from Swift. Even thoguh the loan was with Swift Group there were 2 companies involved. I remember getting paperwork from Ocean finance and another company. However the loan was paid off when we sold the house and the paperwork shredded so I cant remember who we took the loan from. (although Swift were the people we paid, if that makes sense)

So I sent a SAR to Swift asking for everything they had. Its now 49 days since they signed for it. I rang them 2 weeks ago and they said they were dealing with it but that they had 40 days to respond. Now we are well past the 40 days. Do I hang on a bit longer or write to them. I can go nowhere without the information as I stupidly shredded all the paperwork when we moved home.

marshallka

I would write to them again (A little reminder) and also make a complaint to the ICO about it.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

liberty_lily

Hi Swingaloo!

There are a few people reclaiming PPI sold in conjunction with Swift loans across this and other forums.

It will be the broker you need to go after for the PPI mis-sell. I have had a complaint against my broker (Norton) for mis-sold PPI which was sold with a Swift product upheld by the FOS and am awaiting the settlement figures from the broker at the moment, so success is possible.

Regarding the SAR, mine did come back from Swift within the 40 day time frame, but there were some documents missing which I chased them for and these took a further month to arrive.

Marshallka is quite right to suggest you make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office about this - that might speed them up a bit!

Good Luck with your complaint and keep us posted how you get on!

Liberty_lily x

swingaloo

Thank you for the replies. I understand about claiming from the broker.

What I dont fully understand is this---

Our home was nearly repossed by Swift and we ended up selling quickly and taking the hit that way instead. When we got the settlement figure from Swift it was for 9,500 than we had initally borrowed even though we had made payments for 4 years.
Now Im thinking that part of that figure would have been from the PPI and its possible that we were charged a lump for the entire term, hence me needing the SAR.

If this is the case then wouldnt we be chasing the the broker for a refund of money which we actualy paid to Swift, not the broker.

Could someone clarify this for me please.
Thank you.

marshallka

Hi, as you had made repayments for 4 years and still owed more than you borrowed that is how single premiums work. You loan the money from the company to pay the single premium in a lump sum over to the insurance company. You then have another loan on top of your orginal loan which has interest on it for the full term of the loan (and often the PPI only last for the first 5 years of your loan) so it mounts up terrifically. WHen you come to settle a loan early you would get a rebate of the PPI BUT the rebate is only usually on the actual PPI and not all the interest that you would have been charged on this. ALso depending on when you took the loan out your settlement could have been calculated using rule 78. This also makes the settlement unfair and you can often end up paying back more than you actual first loan.

For complaints about "misselling" of PPI you would approach the broker.

For complaints about settlements (depending on dates for going to FOS) then you would chase the lender.

For complaints about the "rebate" of the insurance you would chase the insurer. IF however you have won a missale and been compensated the full amount for the PPI including all what you paid at settlement then you would not usually be able to make a rebate complaint as you would have been put back into the position as if you never had the PPI at all.

Hope this has not confused you more.

swingaloo

Well, it arrived. Despite the only piece of paper I still had showing a figure for the PPI it seems we chose not to take it out. I have rung the broker as well as Swift and it has been confirmed by both of them that we were quoted but didnt take it.

On the paperwork Swift sent for the SAR (lots of stuff I asked for is not there) there is a list of charges which amount to over 8,000:o

These are in relation to Admin fees, Arrears charges, letters sent, Defalt charges, management charges(£70 per month), solicitors fees, Litigation charges, Interest adjustments, redemption letter charge and redemption admin fee.

Can I claim anyhting back????

liberty_lily

Hi Swingaloo,

Sorry to hear to hear that after all that you don't have any PPI to claim back after all - although it is good that you chose not to take it out, if you see what I mean!

I can totally sympathise as we also narrowly avoided repossession and also sold our house at below market value in order to shake them off...........we only had ours for 18 months but we repaid £11,000 more than we borrowed and I have wondered whether rule of 78 was used to calculate the settlement, but I don't know how to establish this so I'm afraid I cannot advise on that point.

As for the charges - I believe you can claim back everything except the solicitors fees and the litigation charges - but I'm not sure about the interest adjustments.

If you don't mind me asking, when did you take out your loan and pay it off?

I put in a claim to Swift for all the other charges myself last year - mine added up to around £4000 before interest - and have to this date only received back approx £150, which I rejected...........I'm still hanging on in there and trying to get them to increase their offer!

Swift are renowned for being very difficult to extract refunds from and usually defend through court with barristers aplenty - I have only heard of one person who was successful unfortunately

However, you shouldn't let this put you off - depending when you took out your loan the FOS may be able to help you (due to the date of my agreement they were unable to help in my case) so it would be worth giving them a call to check.

I do believe also, that since some of the other lenders have been fined by the FSA for the high charges they levy, that it may be getting slightly easier to reclaim - I'm sure I heard somewhere of people who are current Swift customers having charges removed from their accounts.

Your first step, now you have your SAR, is to make a list of all the charges you incurred and calculate the interest you intend to reclaim. Opinions differ on this - some recommend requesting interest at the contractual rate you were charged and others opt for 8% simple interest. Either way, you will need to utilise an interest calculator to work this out (by entering the date of each charge then applying interest to each and every charge at either the contractual rate or 8'% from the date charged to the date of your claim). These figures then need to be put on a spreadsheet and sent with a reclaim letter to Swift.

Good Luck with this and if you need a hand just shout as there are plenty of knowledgeable people here who will be able to assist you!

Liberty_lily x

di3004

swingaloo wrote: »

Well, it arrived. Despite the only piece of paper I still had showing a figure for the PPI it seems we chose not to take it out. I have rung the broker as well as Swift and it has been confirmed by both of them that we were quoted but didnt take it.

On the paperwork Swift sent for the SAR (lots of stuff I asked for is not there) there is a list of charges which amount to over 8,000:o

These are in relation to Admin fees, Arrears charges, letters sent, Defalt charges, management charges(£70 per month), solicitors fees, Litigation charges, Interest adjustments, redemption letter charge and redemption admin fee.

Can I claim anyhting back????

Hi there

Just to make sure, did you actually have the agreement for this account?
This is the one that should give details if ppi was taken out or not.

And in regards of the charges, you may possibly have a case, as liberty_lily says.
So for the charges side of it, maybe it would be good to post on the thread here perhaps.....
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=102

If any of the info given was word by mouth from the broker/business, maybe they should literally provide this info in writing, just in case these details have not been enclosed within the SAR.

Just a suggestion, but always try to have all communications by writing, just in case.;)

Good luck.

liberty_lily

Hi again Swingaloo:)

As Di says if you have a copy of your agreement in your SAR (which they should have sent) this will show if there was any PPI or not.

Swift's agreements are particularly badly laid out, imo and don't show a separate monthly PPI payment, but they do show if PPI was added to the loan as a single premium policy (which this would have been if you had it).

Once again Di is correct in saying that you shouldn't take either Swift or the broker's word for it on the telephone - thanks Di

Liberty_lily x

di3004

liberty_lily wrote: »

Hi again Swingaloo:)

As Di says if you have a copy of your agreement in your SAR (which they should have sent) this will show if there was any PPI or not.

Swift's agreements are particularly badly laid out, imo and don't show a separate monthly PPI payment, but they do show if PPI was added to the loan as a single premium policy (which this would have been if you had it).

Once again Di is correct in saying that you shouldn't take either Swift or the broker's word for it on the telephone - thanks Di

Liberty_lily x

Hi honey

That's okay .
I've known this to happen before with someone, they were fobbed off on the phone, and later on that person when sorting out documents actually came across the agreement :eek:, can't remember what company it was though, but still I think some will tend to try it on.;)

Di
X

tifosi

Hi,

can someone let me have the SAR address (and if possible email and tel contacts) for Swift Advances please?