ConsumerNet

seert

I have been contacted by ConsumerNet, who have informed me that they can helpme claim back money from protection payments that may have been taken out with insurance for a loan etc. even for paying for GAP insurance with a loan for buying a car. They said they could retrieve 40% for each £1000 the loan cost. The only cost to me is 25% of whatever they recover.
Has anyone ever heard pof this company?
Is the information they supplied to me correct?
Please let me know your thoughts

dunstonh

They said they could retrieve 40% for each £1000 the loan cost.

I am not aware of any PPI that would equate to 40% of the loan cost.

The only cost to me is 25% of whatever they recover.

Plus VAT as their services are vatable. So, add 20% to that.

Is the information they supplied to me correct?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having PPI (or GAP). You cannot claim back premiums on PPI just because you have it.

If you think you were mis-sold PPI then you can put in a formal complaint to the financial company saying why you think you were mis-sold. You can do this with any financial product if you were mis-sold. The company will then review your complaint and give you a decision. If you disagree with that decision then you can go to the FOS and ask them to review it.

A claims company follows the exact same process except that instead of you writing a complaints letter giving your reasons, they use a template letter (like the ones you can download for free from this site) giving all the possible reasons going why you were mis-sold (without even asking if you were). For that 30 seconds work of generating a letter and a stamp, they take a massive amount off you if successful. Some even charge up front amounts as well.

You should be wary of using claims companies. They have a lower success rate than personal complaints. Even the FOS say on their website that they prefer to see complaints in your own words. A complaints handler at a financial firm is likely to be less cynical of your complaint. Many claims companies are known to be dodgy and by using one of them you are straight away at a disadvantage as the complaints handler will just assume you are another try-it-on case and will go out of their way to find reasons not to uphold your complaint. Our compliance company reckon around 1/3rd of complaints received from claims companies are about products (such as PPI) that the client hasnt got. In the claims section of this site you have a claims handler at a lender who says their ratio is closer to 50% from claims companies about PPI that people never had. There is someone that works for the FOS posting in that section too that admits they have concerns about claims company generated claims and often when the person is contacted to give more detail about their complaint is is quite common for the person to reply they don't know why they were mis-sold and they only complained as the claims company told them they would get money.

So, basically, have you been genuinely mis-sold? If yes, you should complain and DIY, not use a claims company. If no, then you shouldnt complain as you have nothing to complain about.

seert

Thank you for that very comprehensive answer, it makes things a wee bit clearer for me to see. I do and did have ppi for car protection but unless they have misinformed me and i don't know if that is the case then i will be going no further