NatWest credit card PPI reclaim questions

Disco_Beard

Hi there,

New to this forum so be gentle. I have read the 'reclaiming PPI' bit on the main website but have some questions.

I took out my one and only credit card, a NatWest MasterCard, many years ago (I'd say 10 or 11 years). Since then, I have been paying the protection insurance. I do not remember ever being explicitly asked whether I wanted to sign up, and it was certainly never explained to me what it was for, how it worked or how/when I could claim.

In October 2008 I lost the job I had been doing for nine years. In that time, I had racked up some debts on the card, which I no longer used, but was struggling to pay more than the minimum payment plus the PPI. Worried that I would get into trouble with NatWest should I not keep making payments to my account, I continued to pay the minimum amount plus the PPI - even though I was struggling financially. I have continued doing this to date, though now I'm at my spending limit and finding it hard to get it down (I want to pay it all off, but I'm not in a position financially to do so).

In December 2008 I decided to become self-employed. I still am, and although it's tough at the moment making ends meet I've been able to do that… just.

Frustrated at my position, I called NatWest earlier to see if I could get a solution to start bringing the payments down, repay some of the money, and so on. I decided to ask about PPI as, to be honest, I had no idea what it was for - I knew it was protection against not being able to pay, but I had no idea how to activate it. I was told that I could claim if I had been made redundant. I mentioned that I had been in 2008, but I was now unemployed. The NatWest phone drone informed me that since I was now self-employed, the policy was worthless and that I should cancel it. Fair enough - it's now cancelled. However, I am angry that I have effectively given them thousands of pounds over the years for something that, really, I didn't need - and even when I did I had no idea I could claim on it!

To be fair to the woman at NatWest, she told me to write to their PPI complaints team (at somewhere called Regulatory Risk?) and that I may have a case to claim some or all of the money back.

Unfortunately, I do not have accurate records of the total amount paid, or even when I took the card out. It was at least 10 years ago. I have a record of a lot of the monthly statements, but not all.

Firstly, do I have a case? Is it likely I will succeed? And, more importantly, is the lack of accurate records a problem?

I worked out that in the last two years alone I have paid them £726.80 in PPI. Over the last decade it would comfortably be more than my existing credit card balance!

Any advice appreciated - I'm confused and more than a little bit annoyed (partly with myself - I was an idiot when it came to money when I was younger!)

di3004

Hi and welcome

I would give it a go on the reclaiming with the reasons you have and it does not really matter that you do not have all the information, although it does also help.
But if the account is still active you could request a Subject Access Request (SAR), where they have 40 calendar days to comply and send all the info they hold on the account.
You have to enclose the payment of £10 cheque or postal order for this request and there is a letter template here;
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1475553

Even though an SAR mainly only supplies info going back the last 6 years, some have been lucky to receive all details going back from when they first taken out the policy.

Then in regards of the reclaiming, you complete the FOS questionnaire, as shown on link below, further down the page as stage one of reclaiming.....
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance
This is in replacement of the first questionnaire and issued by the financial ombudsman service (FOS) for this purpose of making a reclaim, and send to whoever set up and sold you the policy.

Remember to keep a copy, they have 8 weeks in full to respond.

If you want to write a cover letter to explain what you have below with the questionnaire, that is okay to do to.

Good luck and ask for help when required.;)

Disco_Beard

That's great advice, thanks. I've already written a cover letter - looks like I best send a subject access request ASAP.

Funnily enough I've been helping my housemate with a long running dispute he has with Barclays Partner Finance over the infamous Advent/Access to Trade shenanigans. I wrote an SAR for him for that. Barclays, somewhat unhelpfully, didn't fully comply with his request, sending him a two sided A4 sheet with very little information on.

Hopefully I'll have more luck!

di3004

Disco_Beard wrote: »

That's great advice, thanks. I've already written a cover letter - looks like I best send a subject access request ASAP.

Funnily enough I've been helping my housemate with a long running dispute he has with Barclays Partner Finance over the infamous Advent/Access to Trade shenanigans. I wrote an SAR for him for that. Barclays, somewhat unhelpfully, didn't fully comply with his request, sending him a two sided A4 sheet with very little information on.

Hopefully I'll have more luck!

Your very welcome and good luck with yours then.

That was annoying with what happened with your housemate, I would have made a complaint to the Information commissioners office (ICO).
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx
This is what you can do if they don't comply.

Fingers crossed for you.;)