Can anyone help me see the wood for the trees?

My_Way_2

New to forum where there is obviously a huge amount of useful information -so much that I'm in danger of drowning. Would appreciate a view / steer on the following summary:

Took out credit card with Sky (front for Barclaycard as it turned out).

Sky added PPI without my authority - I'm sure of this as I never buy such policies.

Stupidly I let the payments go without reconciling what "Payment Holiday" was -at £30 per month.

Found myself redundant and investigated payment holiday only to disover it was PPI but one that only allowed you to take a payment holiday whilst ill or out of work. No reduction of balance by making minimum payments was provided for.

Desperate times meant I activated this arrangement for a short period whilst requesting confirmation from Sky of the terms of policy and evidence I'd bought it in 1st place.

They replied with a copy of terms (not signed) and suggested I'd agreed the plan during card activation on the phone -albeit they confirmed they had no recording of the call which they normally do have. This was in June 2009 and confused about next steps I let it go. I was also influenced by the fact that difficult circumstances meant I was making token payments to them anyway.

Now the debt has passed on to a debt collection agency and with a little more time now available to me I've started reviewing this case. Question is, am I too late? If not, should I pick up where the last letter left off (Sky accepting they had no proof I'd agreed the plan) and can anyone point me towards appropriate thread / letter templates etc as I'm unclear which part of the law I would use in these circumstances.

Any comments gratefully received.

di3004

My_Way wrote: »

New to forum where there is obviously a huge amount of useful information -so much that I'm in danger of drowning. Would appreciate a view / steer on the following summary:

Took out credit card with Sky (front for Barclaycard as it turned out).

Sky added PPI without my authority - I'm sure of this as I never buy such policies.

Stupidly I let the payments go without reconciling what "Payment Holiday" was -at £30 per month.

Found myself redundant and investigated payment holiday only to disover it was PPI but one that only allowed you to take a payment holiday whilst ill or out of work. No reduction of balance by making minimum payments was provided for.

Desperate times meant I activated this arrangement for a short period whilst requesting confirmation from Sky of the terms of policy and evidence I'd bought it in 1st place.

They replied with a copy of terms (not signed) and suggested I'd agreed the plan during card activation on the phone -albeit they confirmed they had no recording of the call which they normally do have. This was in June 2009 and confused about next steps I let it go. I was also influenced by the fact that difficult circumstances meant I was making token payments to them anyway.

Now the debt has passed on to a debt collection agency and with a little more time now available to me I've started reviewing this case. Question is, am I too late? If not, should I pick up where the last letter left off (Sky accepting they had no proof I'd agreed the plan) and can anyone point me towards appropriate thread / letter templates etc as I'm unclear which part of the law I would use in these circumstances.

Any comments gratefully received.

Hello there & Welcome

Hopefully someone will have some good advice to give you on this one.
But did you actually receive written confirmation of the final decision from the business?
If so they should have confirmed in writing that this is the final decision and confirm or not if you were able to complain to the Financial ombudsman service (FOS).
And its normally 6 months as from the date on the final letter.

You could contact the FOS on this matter - by a general query and see what they have to say.
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html

They will be able to advise, but the confirmation should have been in writing of the final decision, good luck please keep us posted.

My_Way_2

No, their letter wasnt phrased that way at all -I guess because I asked them for information and confirmation of situation. Whilst my letter was a complaint this means that all they did was try to justify their position and confirm the complaint would be held open for 8 weeks.
Regrettably, I didnt follow up

di3004

My_Way wrote: »

No, their letter wasnt phrased that way at all -I guess because I asked them for information and confirmation of situation. Whilst my letter was a complaint this means that all they did was try to justify their position and confirm the complaint would be held open for 8 weeks.
Regrettably, I didnt follow up

Okay then, give the FOS a call and explain this, ask if your able to take this matter up again, due to the fact of not receiving a final decision - explain you were not aware of the procedures at the time and only just knew about this.
If they agree that you should give it another go, you can also request for the FOS to write to them on your behalf.;)