Anyone had experience of a company/solicitor doing the work of reclaiming? (merged)

TomCat_2

Claim4Gain is a complete scam. When I called them a few weeks back they informed me on 3 different occations that if I bought their pack for £59.99 it would explain how I could get my bank charges back for the last 6 years in 6 weeks 100% Guaranteed.
I questioneed this as I know bank charges is on hold at the moment. However they told me the information to get my bank charges back in 6 weeks would be in the pack so I just needed to pay £59.99. I paid and after that has been a nightmare. The pack contained NOTHING but the free tamplates you can get on this website and of course I DID NOT get my money back in 6 weeks.
I called them for a refund and they said a manager would call me on 2 occations however no one ever called me back. They then hang up on me when I called the third time and said I was recording the call.
I wasted £59.99 and my friend wasted £49.99 with this company.

There are plenty of good claims management companies out there but this is not one of them. DO NOT USE CLAIM4GAIN they are a scam.

Regards,

Thomas Westenholz

Gibz

Hello there

This is my first post and home hoping to get some answers about my quaetion.

I wanted to reclaim my bank charges as this is the main reason for all my debt but being an extremly sociable male in my 20's it was so much easier to keep heading into town than to sit down and send off all these letters to the bank. :rotfl:

So i had a quick scan online to see if there were any companies that did all that hard graft for you (the lazy Route) and i found one.

The Bankingrightsbureau would for a small sum of £40 and an upgrade to their platinum service would do all the legal work, reclaim all your money and only take upto 10% of your windfall.

http://www.bankingrightsbureau.com/

Unfortunatly its been 6 months with no word from the company and they hardly pick up their phones.The did have an automated measage on their phones in december stating that all claims would not be further looked at untill Jan(no date specified). From the point i set up with this company to present day its been nearly six months and not evan a phone call from them.

I was wondering if anyone had used companies like this one or evan this company befor and had any positive feedback or success from them ?

just getting a little worried that i amy have been con'd and am that little bit further away from getting out of debt

militantconsumer

Sadly, I have seen only negative feedback about these types of companies.

Hopefully you have only lost £40 - which is probably a small price to pay for an important lesson learnt. (the lesson being: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is)

Why pay a fee up front when you can do it yourself for free using Martin's guide?

I suggest you get started doing it yourself. It's really not so hard once you get going.

Good luck.

mrs_skint

Hi all

I have been approached by a Bank Charges Recovery Service called [EMAIL="i-Sm@rt"]i-Sm@rt[/EMAIL] who say they can help us reclaim our PPI's and bank/credit card charges. We have so many of them! So I thought it might be a good idea to use them. However after reading their terms, I realised that if we're successful the payment goes to them and they pay us after deducting their fees. Has anyone heard of these recovery services and are they safe to use?

Any advice welcome.

Thanks

militantconsumer

There are plenty of stories on this site from people who have had negative experiences dealing with these companies.

My advice would be:-

1. Do the easy stuff like reclaiming charges yourself for free using Martin's template letters.

2. Move onto PPI once you have gained some confidence in taking on the banks yourself.

3. Only use these kind of companies as a last resort if things are really complicated. And then only use a proper regulated company and NEVER pay anything up front.

LilacPixie

To be honest reclaiming bank charges is very very easy,obviously the court case has put a stop to pay outs but no reason not to put your claim in now.

Over on the loan board there is a threan about reclaiming PPI and several regular posters are very very experienced in the claiming part and give lots of help for nothing. I would do it yourself.

elaina79

Hi

I have been in contact with one of these companies and have also read on here about others who have paid them the fee for them to contact your bank to get your bank charges back.
Is it just me or are all of these companies just ripping people off. The banks are no more likely to refund the charges if these people contact them, than the account holders themselves.

Is this just another scam :eek:

[Deleted User]

Or possibly Credit Management Plan?

I received a phone call this morning from a company called something like the above (the line was really bad). The man said that as I had recently tried to reclaim credit card charges of £39 (incorrect, I have successfully reclaimed credit card charges from Barclaycard and Lloyds totalling approx. £250), they would like to help me get this money and help me deal with my debts.

I am not overly concerned as I don't owe money to anyone (other than a few hundred pounds on a credit card which will be paid off this week), but I am worried as to how they have my name and number and this (incorrect) information about me (I am ex-directory) - surely the banks don't give my information out to these companies?

Are they just 'fishing'? I told them I had no need for their services, and they hung up. Should I just forget about this call?

ewftes

hi i used a company called BANKSMART to reclaim my bank charges, all was going well i received a letter in february last year saying how much i would receive, since then ive received a couple of emails but nothing to say how my case was progressing, i have emailed BANKSMART twice this month giving them my case number and asking for a update, but nothing, they have no contact telephone number on there headed mail only an address.
could you please help

cheers:beer:

matelot123

Seems to me that if you have had an offer from the bank a year ago and you haven't had the money i would suggest ringing the bank to ask why not.
Secondly i would be writing to the company Banksmart and effectively recinding any permission for them to act on your behalf..dependant of course on any legal documentation you have signed..but it doesn't sound to me like they're providing you with any kind of service at all.I always advise people to stay away from these sorts of companies they're just sharks.If the bank have handed over money to this company then you'll have to pursue the company otherwise, if the bank have already offered a settlement you need to ask why they haven't paid it to you...