Claiming back PPI on store card

pipsi_2

Hi, Posted this on the debt free wannabe board before finding this board so copied and pasted from my other thread that hasn't had any replies yet.

I have a store card that was owned by GE Money but has since been taken over by Santander, as a result the store that the card is with have decided to stop the store card scheme, so essentially once i have paid off the balance the account will be closed. Skip to last paragraph if you're not interested in the background.

I have been pretty good at paying this card off, over the years i have used it i have made payments equal to or more often than not in excess of the minimum payment, and have never owed more than half of my credit limit.

I stopped using it for transactions about a year ago and decided to just pay it off. At the beginning of this year i moved house and there were late payments recorded on my credit file after a huge issue with Santander, i moved house and informed them of my new address, they didn't enter the correct details on the system which meant i didn't get any bills for a couple of months, every time i tried to call up to sort it out they wouldn't talk to me about my account because the incorrect address meant i couldn't get past the security quesitons. They eventually got the right address by 'tracing' me. The refunded the 'trace' fee when they realised their mistake but have still recorded on my credit file as if i just didn't pay for a few months. All in all the arrears was only in the region of £60 so not a huge amount to shout about but nevertheless it shows on my credit report.

When i opened the card i apparently took out PPI, i have never used it and still get charged £1 or £2 for every £100 of balance. Is it worth me claiming back PPI as a way to reduce the balance? I haven't worked out how much i paid over the years but i would pretty much wipe off the balance at a guess. I know recently claiming back bank charges has become increasing difficult but what about PPI, is it still fairly easy to claim this back? Will it make any difference that i took the original agreement out with GE Money and it is now owned by Santander? Can i also ask about the chances of Santander changing the way they have reported the missed payments earlier this year in my claim? At the end of the day they got my address wrong on the system and didn't send me bills which is why they went unpaid despite me trying to call them to sort it out.

Cheer in advance :beer:

di3004

pipsi wrote: »

Hi, Posted this on the debt free wannabe board before finding this board so copied and pasted from my other thread that hasn't had any replies yet.

I have a store card that was owned by GE Money but has since been taken over by Santander, as a result the store that the card is with have decided to stop the store card scheme, so essentially once i have paid off the balance the account will be closed. Skip to last paragraph if you're not interested in the background.

I have been pretty good at paying this card off, over the years i have used it i have made payments equal to or more often than not in excess of the minimum payment, and have never owed more than half of my credit limit.

I stopped using it for transactions about a year ago and decided to just pay it off. At the beginning of this year i moved house and there were late payments recorded on my credit file after a huge issue with Santander, i moved house and informed them of my new address, they didn't enter the correct details on the system which meant i didn't get any bills for a couple of months, every time i tried to call up to sort it out they wouldn't talk to me about my account because the incorrect address meant i couldn't get past the security quesitons. They eventually got the right address by 'tracing' me. The refunded the 'trace' fee when they realised their mistake but have still recorded on my credit file as if i just didn't pay for a few months. All in all the arrears was only in the region of £60 so not a huge amount to shout about but nevertheless it shows on my credit report.

When i opened the card i apparently took out PPI, i have never used it and still get charged £1 or £2 for every £100 of balance. Is it worth me claiming back PPI as a way to reduce the balance? I haven't worked out how much i paid over the years but i would pretty much wipe off the balance at a guess. I know recently claiming back bank charges has become increasing difficult but what about PPI, is it still fairly easy to claim this back? Will it make any difference that i took the original agreement out with GE Money and it is now owned by Santander? Can i also ask about the chances of Santander changing the way they have reported the missed payments earlier this year in my claim? At the end of the day they got my address wrong on the system and didn't send me bills which is why they went unpaid despite me trying to call them to sort it out.

Cheer in advance :beer:

Hi there

If you were mis sold the ppi for any reason then I would give it a go on the reclaiming.;)

And may I ask if you requested a Subject Access Request (SAR) for this account?
They have 40 calendar days to comply and send all they hold on the account, but you have to enclose £10 cheque or postal order payment for this request.
There is a SAR template letter for this here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1475553

Maybe some useful info will be enclosed to help with your reclaim.

Also check the checklist below to see if any of them apply to you;
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance#checklist

And to make a reclaim, you actually pursue the ones who set up your policy, so even if Santander have taken over, still write to GE who will forward to the complaints dept of Santander.

You do this by either writing a letter in your own words, or you can use the FOS questionnaire (this is in replacement of the first template letter on this site), keep a copy in case you need to refer to it later on.
They have 8 weeks in full to respond, sometimes they ask for more time, that is fine, if they do then they do normally give a timescale of when you should expect to hear from them.

You will come across the FOS questionnaire on the link below, as stage one further down the page (these were recently issued by the financial ombudsman service) for us to use to complain to the business responsible.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance


Good luck with this.;)

pipsi_2

I haven't requested an SAR because i have pretty much all of the paperwork from the day i opened the card until the present except for one or two statements which have been lost in the post (the ones that went astray earlier this year were reissued to me when i complained). Is it still worth requesting a SAR if i think i've got everything i need as far as paperwork goes?

I've read through the page about reclaiming PPI and it's quite an interesting read. I believe i was mis-sold the insurance because it wasn't made clear to me that it was optional and as far as i can remember it was put across to me that it was all part and parcel of taking the card.

At the time the store offered a Price Protection scheme, this was the reason i took out the card initially, the scheme worked thus; i would buy an item of clothing, then when that item went into the sale i would request a form and get a sales assistant to fill in the last sale price of that item towards the end of the sale, i would then send this off to the company who would refund the difference between what i paid for the item and it's final sale price. It could have been that i was told that the PPI was part of this, but either way i was led to believe that it was just a part of opening the account and i couldn't open the account without taking it out. Almost in the same way that not agreeing to terms and conditions would result in not being able to open an account.

The card was issued to me on 09/07/04 (i still have the letter the card was attached to when it was sent to me) does the fact that it dates back to July 2004 make any difference to my claim?

Thanks for suggesting i write to GE in the first instance, i was a bit confused as to who i should write to, even though Santander now own the debt they were not involved in the opening of my account or the PPI etc so presumably can't be held accountable (although perhaps they also bought this responsibility when they took over GE Money). Thanks also for the links to the letters etc.

Also, i know i'm getting ahead of myself slightly, but if i do claim and win, if what is owed to me is more than my balance, will they write me a cheque for the difference or would they just clear the balance and the rest would be written off?

di3004

pipsi wrote: »

I haven't requested an SAR because i have pretty much all of the paperwork from the day i opened the card until the present except for one or two statements which have been lost in the post (the ones that went astray earlier this year were reissued to me when i complained). Is it still worth requesting a SAR if i think i've got everything i need as far as paperwork goes?
If you have the paperwork, then there is really no need to request for a SAR really, its just useful if you did not have much or anything at all, to help support you complaint of reclaiming.

I've read through the page about reclaiming PPI and it's quite an interesting read. I believe i was mis-sold the insurance because it wasn't made clear to me that it was optional and as far as i can remember it was put across to me that it was all part and parcel of taking the card.
You should therefore give it a go for these reasons, this is one common mis selling reason, I used to think it was all part of the loan or credit card, basically because I was never told any diffferent, and the policy was not explained to me either.

At the time the store offered a Price Protection scheme, this was the reason i took out the card initially, the scheme worked thus; i would buy an item of clothing, then when that item went into the sale i would request a form and get a sales assistant to fill in the last sale price of that item towards the end of the sale, i would then send this off to the company who would refund the difference between what i paid for the item and it's final sale price. It could have been that i was told that the PPI was part of this, but either way i was led to believe that it was just a part of opening the account and i couldn't open the account without taking it out. Almost in the same way that not agreeing to terms and conditions would result in not being able to open an account.
My son was also sold one of these and did not even reach 18 at the time, he was awarded his ppi refund from Santander, even though the complaint was sent to GE Money, they forwarded this on to them to deal with.

The card was issued to me on 09/07/04 (i still have the letter the card was attached to when it was sent to me) does the fact that it dates back to July 2004 make any difference to my claim?
That should make no difference at all, some have even been successful in reclaiming back from the 90's, still having hold of the paperwork helps.

Thanks for suggesting i write to GE in the first instance, i was a bit confused as to who i should write to, even though Santander now own the debt they were not involved in the opening of my account or the PPI etc so presumably can't be held accountable (although perhaps they also bought this responsibility when they took over GE Money). Thanks also for the links to the letters etc.
Your very welcome, I know this can be confusing, especially when they change over hands, but GE will or should send your complaint to the complaints dept within Santander, like they did my son's.;)

Also, i know i'm getting ahead of myself slightly, but if i do claim and win, if what is owed to me is more than my balance, will they write me a cheque for the difference or would they just clear the balance and the rest would be written off?

This can vary, say for example you had arrears, they would normally refund the amount towards the amount of arrears on the account, and anything remaining - plus the interest should be refunded directly to you.
If there are no arrears, you have a right to request they refund the ful amount plus any interest to you.

Good luck with this.:)

pipsi_2

Thank again for clearing some points up, i successfully claimed a couple of thousand in bank charges a few years ago and i'm sure once i get into the swing of this claim the procedures (although i'm sure things are slightly different) will come back to me.

I'm fairly organised with paperwork, i'm just going through all of my statements now, from the very first one dated 24/07/04 until the one i received at the end of last month. Back on the first statement it's listed as Account Cover Premium on the bill now simply Account Cover so it doesn't even make it obvious that it is PPI until the small print is read on the back of the statement.

I'm making a spreadsheet with a list of all of the PPI i've been charged for, i'll post back when i've worked out how much it comes to.

How do i calculate interest and at what rate? Is it the standard 8% (this is what i used when i reclaimed bank charges a few years ago i used 8% because it was a % accepted by the court system) or do i use the current APR that they charge me for the account? It's currently 18.9% but it has fluctuated slightly over the years (eg i've just found a letter from 2006 informing me of a rate change to 17.4%).

di3004

pipsi wrote: »

Thank again for clearing some points up, i successfully claimed a couple of thousand in bank charges a few years ago and i'm sure once i get into the swing of this claim the procedures (although i'm sure things are slightly different) will come back to me.

I'm fairly organised with paperwork, i'm just going through all of my statements now, from the very first one dated 24/07/04 until the one i received at the end of last month. Back on the first statement it's listed as Account Cover Premium on the bill now simply Account Cover so it doesn't even make it obvious that it is PPI until the small print is read on the back of the statement.

I'm making a spreadsheet with a list of all of the PPI i've been charged for, i'll post back when i've worked out how much it comes to.

How do i calculate interest and at what rate? Is it the standard 8% (this is what i used when i reclaimed bank charges a few years ago i used 8% because it was a % accepted by the court system) or do i use the current APR that they charge me for the account? It's currently 18.9% but it has fluctuated slightly over the years (eg i've just found a letter from 2006 informing me of a rate change to 17.4%).

Your very welcome.

I am actually dealing with the charges side of mine now, so its the other way round for me lol.
The charges have been awarded too, only just though.

Well done to you too on the charges side of it.:beer:, and yes please do post up once you know what its worked up to, I can always ask Robbedofmymoney to check these for you if you want, he is very good.

Now in regards of the interest, there is a link below on how the FOS calculates ppi refunds, this I think varies from loan to credit card ppi, but normally the 8% interest is usually awarded as Contractual/Simple interest, and they can also award 8% interest of what a court would award on top for being deprived of your money.
I would check Maxdp's thread on how the FOS calculates ppi refunds to give you more of an idea here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1596473

pipsi_2

Well i've just added everything up from the statements i've got to hand, it totals £255.07, although for some reason i don't seem to have any of the 2009 statements in my file, i must have put them somewhere else for some reason, i'll have a search around and if i can't find them i'll consider a SAR. Also one or two statements from years ago are missing but i'm not bothered about them so much.

From the statements i have the total of £255.07 is about £100 more than i owe on the card. I haven't added interest yet either so looks like i'll be due some money back as well as the debt being paid off. I remember when i reclaimed bank charges the website/forum i was using had a link to a spreadsheet its users could use, i entered all of the charges into this and it worked out the interest on all of individual charges, is there something like that around that i can use?

di3004 - When your son reclaimed how long did it take for him to get the money? Did they put up a fight or did Santander just credit his account not long after they were forwarded the letter from GE Money?

Good luck with your bank charges too!!

di3004

pipsi wrote: »

Well i've just added everything up from the statements i've got to hand, it totals £255.07, although for some reason i don't seem to have any of the 2009 statements in my file, i must have put them somewhere else for some reason, i'll have a search around and if i can't find them i'll consider a SAR. Also one or two statements from years ago are missing but i'm not bothered about them so much.

From the statements i have the total of £255.07 is about £100 more than i owe on the card. I haven't added interest yet either so looks like i'll be due some money back as well as the debt being paid off. I remember when i reclaimed bank charges the website/forum i was using had a link to a spreadsheet its users could use, i entered all of the charges into this and it worked out the interest on all of individual charges, is there something like that around that i can use?

di3004 - When your son reclaimed how long did it take for him to get the money? Did they put up a fight or did Santander just credit his account not long after they were forwarded the letter from GE Money?

Good luck with your bank charges too!!

Hiya, its up to you if you want to request for a SAR or not, do you think they will be good enough to send these missing ones to you free I wonder.

I cannot remember the spreadsheet but I am sure someone will know and post this up for you, Robbedofmymoney checked mine out for me, so maybe he will be along soon to take a look at them for you when your ready.

It I remember correctly my son's only taken about 4 weeks and that was to paying out as well.;)

pipsi_2

di3004 wrote: »

Hiya, its up to you if you want to request for a SAR or not, do you think they will be good enough to send these missing ones to you free I wonder.

I cannot remember the spreadsheet but I am sure someone will know and post this up for you, Robbedofmymoney checked mine out for me, so maybe he will be along soon to take a look at them for you when your ready.

It I remember correctly my son's only taken about 4 weeks and that was to paying out as well.;)

Cool, 4 weeks is good! From the other thread you linked me to i was starting to think it would take over a year, i expect to have this card paid off in six months, it's second on the list of things i'm paying back otherwise it would be paid off sooner. I've already paid this months payment but next month i might just make the minimum in the hope i'm successful.

I'm now worried that they have made the PPI and the Price Protection (refund of difference between full price and sale price) as one thing called Account Cover on my statements. If this is the case i'm worried i might not be able to reclaim the charges as i used the Price Protection Scheme a couple of times when i first got the card. It was the reason i opened the account in the first place as i was buying a ball gown and the idea of getting a £150 refund when it ended up in the sale was a good incentive.

di3004

pipsi wrote: »

Cool, 4 weeks is good! From the other thread you linked me to i was starting to think it would take over a year, i expect to have this card paid off in six months, it's second on the list of things i'm paying back otherwise it would be paid off sooner. I've already paid this months payment but next month i might just make the minimum in the hope i'm successful.

I'm now worried that they have made the PPI and the Price Protection (refund of difference between full price and sale price) as one thing called Account Cover on my statements. If this is the case i'm worried i might not be able to reclaim the charges as i used the Price Protection Scheme a couple of times when i first got the card. It was the reason i opened the account in the first place as i was buying a ball gown and the idea of getting a £150 refund when it ended up in the sale was a good incentive.

I'm sure it will be okay, and I hope its all sorted at early stages for you as well, the fact that my son was not then even 18 and a full time student he would not have been protected by it at all.

Anything you have paid in ppi etc, and interest should all be awarded to you.
Fingers crossed.:)

di3004

I forgot to say, my son was sold this store card in Burton's and at the time he was shopping for a prom suit...........how I wish I was with him at the time........:mad:.