chased by mortgage reclaim agency 25 August 2011 at 9:32AM in Reclaiming Mortgage Fees, Council Tax, etc 6 replies 1K views

daddio253

Hi all,
I have always steered clear of PPI's etc, and have thought nothing more of reclaiming monies, but recently, I have found myself being chased by a company called 'lifestyle', who offer to claim all costs, on bank accs, mortgages etc.

They charge £300 down, and want 30% of any refund given.
Has anyone got any experience of these people, 30% seems rather excessive to me, does anyone know of any reputable companies doing the same for less?

I have stalled them until now, but they tell me I have a good sized claim, and there is a time limit, so are getting pushy.

Thanks in advance, any advice would be good.
regards,
Ian.:o

crazyguy

Dont under any circumstances use a company for this its simple to do it yourself, just write to the company and state that you require a refund of all the ppi paid and they will deal with you direct, thus keeping all money owed and not paying these sharks a penny for such a simple task.

dunstonh

Any company asking for an up front payment should be avoided. Especially if they are trying to encourage you to make a spurious complaint.

There are some scam reasons given by some companies (I don't know what you were told and my response is generic of the things to watch out for). Things like broker fees not being allowed (they are). Fees added to mortgage (no problem with that), increases in credit limits (again, no problem with that), writing off of debt due to flawed agreements (more rubbish), contracting out of SERPs (that had just a 1.5% failure rate according to the FSA and they published a free flowchart to see if you were potentially affected - 98.5% werent).

they tell me I have a good sized claim

And how have they worked that out? They dont have your data and you dont have PPI. So, how are they magicking up some figure?

There is something known as advance fee fraud. it is where you are told a bunch of lies with the incentive of some large pay off at the other end but to get it you have to pay a smaller amount up front first. There are cold callers out there that are operating this model.

ashleypride

daddio253 wrote: »

Hi all,
I have always steered clear of PPI's etc, and have thought nothing more of reclaiming monies, but recently, I have found myself being chased by a company called 'lifestyle', who offer to claim all costs, on bank accs, mortgages etc.

So you don't have PPI, so what 'cost' exactly are you claming for?

Tell you what, send me £200 I'll process it for you and I'll charge 0% of any refund given.

lincroft1710

ashleypride wrote: »

So you don't have PPI, so what 'cost' exactly are you claming for?

Tell you what, send me £200 I'll process it for you and I'll charge 0% of any refund given.

No! Don't fall for this! Just send me £100 and I'll do what ashleypride will charge you £200 to do.

magpiecottage

The only reason they are charging £300 is because they know that there is no possible way of getting any money back for you.

I will charge you £300 if you like and give you 100% of what I get for you, which will be precisely nothing. However in getting you nothing I will also guarantee not to submit a fraudulent complaint on your behalf (because I will not submit any complaint at all!)

This is a much better service and, for this month only (until I decide to offer it again) I will give a 50% discount - yes you read it first on MoneySavingExpert.com you can throw money away for just £150. Send your cheques (leave the payee blank) to Magpiecottage.

daddio253

Thank you all for giving me my sanity back, as i said, I have never fallen for PPI, or extra charges, so to be told I needed to claim seemed wierd.

They were working the mortgage fee angle, and after they have rung 3 or 4 time's you start believing it, at least I still had the common sense to ask on here.

Again, a big thanks for good advice.
Ian.:j