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

mackers8923

Mister80s wrote: »

Hi all,

Has anyone heard of/had dealings with a company called UPI UK LTD? They claim to be regulated by the Ministry of Justice, but I can't seem to Google them?

I know it is easier to allow these companies to act on your behalf but you would in my view be better doing it yourself. Why pay someone when for a few letters and a bit of calculator work you can do it all yourself.

arunadasi

Twinkly wrote: »

Not if the single person is capable of reading and understanding the process

Seriously, why have a dog and bark yourself ?

That's what I did! Two years ago I had never heard of MSE but I had heard of reclaiming charges... but not being very confident in financial matters I did not think I could do it myself. So I handed over my two accounts to a company charging 20% and they took charge. However, my timing was bad because within a few weeks the stay was put on the reclaim process. So my current account wasput on hold, and my business accounts reclaim continued.

After a while NatWest made me an offer which was quite a bit below the actual amount but in my naivety and desperation I accepted. The cheque was sent ot me directly and I paid the company 20% out of that.

IT HURT. BADLY. And the moment I did that I realised that I could have done it all myself, since all of NatWest's correspondence was sent straight to me and I kept passing the info on to the company.

The current ac!!!! is still on hold, but now I havenow filed a financial hardhip claim, using Martin's templates. My question is, if I win, am I still obliged to pay the company? I have not told them I have filed using hardship. Can I withdraw the claim they are still holding, without penalty?

arunadasi

Edinburghlass wrote: »

You need to check your contract with the company to see if you can cancel and if they will still charge you. Have a read of the letters that justlaugh2 has sent the company he used and also the letter he sent the bank to cancel any agreement the bank had to reply to this company.

The company's website states this:

5. Cancellation 5.1 You have 14 days from the date we receive your application to cancel your claim. This should be done in writing to our registered office. There will be no fee for cancellation within this period. 5.2 Should you cancel your agreement after 14 days but before any offer has been received following our pursuit of your claim, we reserve the right to charge a maximum fee of £200 to cover our processing costs. 5.3 Should you cancel your instruction once a settlement has been agreed, our full fee as outlined in 4.1 will be applicable.

The full fee is 20%.
Should I get a refund through financial hardship should I tell them, cancel the agreement, and pay them, or wait for the final settlement and THEN pay?

arunadasi

Stokey125 wrote: »

May I suggest you go to www.claimsregulation.co.uk and check that they are authorised to handle this work. Then check thier terms and conditions very very carefully. Only once you are totally satisfied that they are being totally upfront and it is not a complete waste of money to pay someone to do something you can easily do for free should you consider using them at all

I did a search here and my company did not come up as authorised. (In case it is allowed, the company is Bank Refund, in Hove)
What is my position now? Can I cancel without paying the fee?

cockroach

I Have Had Dealings With Claim Companies ,very Good, I Am Now Taking The Hardship Way And Also Social Sercurty Act Rules Mmoney Can Not Be Taken Out From Benefits And Also If You Have £500 More In Charges Over A Year .they Also Can Not Take Charges Of You

elvirakate

esmerellda wrote: »

Business Name:UPI (UK) LimitedAddress:213 New RoadSkewen Town/City:NeathCounty: West GlamPostcode:SA10 6EWTrading Names:No Trading NamesSector:Financial products/services,
Authorisation Number:CRM7863

These people UPI cold-called my ma, who is 82 and quite easily confused, last week and somehow convinced her that they were something to do with her bank, HSBC. They seem to have had her account number and asked for digits from her telephone security number. Although she has no charges to reclaim and told them she thought so, they still bamboozled her into giving her debit card details for the pack, which arrived on Friday. This is strong-arm stuff and I thought at first it was a scam. It was not clear from my mother's notes who exactly they were, so I reported it to HSBC's Consumer Data Fraud, who were very helpful as far as they could be, and cancelled her card. The payment of £49.99 hadn't gone through but was in an authorisation phase - oddly it appeared to be in a PayPal account, not a UPI account.

My question now is what should I do next? We are apparently within the period of being able to cancel the arrangement, so I can do that, but I am very concerned that UPI were able to do this and had so much information. My ma is on the Telephone Preference Service too, so should not have been called at all. Does anyone have experience of getting the money back? And who can I complain to about the strong-arm tactics? I'd be very grateful for some advice here.

Kate

emlou2009

i went through a company called claims financial for mine but a few weeks later the reclaiming all got put on hold, they have emailed me regularly telling me they are still on the case etc but theres no reply email address and they are hard to get through to on the phone cos every option you press has a automated voicemail type thing with a speech reeling off it! i finally got through to them saying i wanted to ensure they were going to do a up to date claim as the amount of bank charges had more than doubled and i wanted to claim under financial hardship, they promised a form would be sent out the next day which it wasnt and avoided the question of claiming for up to date charges completely. so i went through my statements using internet banking and have sent off the claim myself. if/when i do get any refund the bank will probably use it to pay off outstanding debts with them rather than refund it to me anyway but claims financial should have just been more helpful if they wanted my custom! i only went through them cos i thought i wouldnt have time to do it myself, which at the time i really probably wouldnt, but they have obviously turned out to be a waste of time and i'm no further forward for using them!

esmerellda

emlou2009 wrote: »

i went through a company called claims financial for mine but a few weeks later the reclaiming all got put on hold, they have emailed me regularly telling me they are still on the case etc but theres no reply email address and they are hard to get through to on the phone cos every option you press has a automated voicemail type thing with a speech reeling off it! i finally got through to them saying i wanted to ensure they were going to do a up to date claim as the amount of bank charges had more than doubled and i wanted to claim under financial hardship, they promised a form would be sent out the next day which it wasnt and avoided the question of claiming for up to date charges completely. so i went through my statements using internet banking and have sent off the claim myself. if/when i do get any refund the bank will probably use it to pay off outstanding debts with them rather than refund it to me anyway but claims financial should have just been more helpful if they wanted my custom! i only went through them cos i thought i wouldnt have time to do it myself, which at the time i really probably wouldnt, but they have obviously turned out to be a waste of time and i'm no further forward for using them!

emlou - you may find they chase you for their % or their £149 minimum cancellation fee. Check your contract with them.

esmerellda

elvirakate wrote: »

These people UPI cold-called my ma, who is 82 and quite easily confused, last week and somehow convinced her that they were something to do with her bank, HSBC. They seem to have had her account number and asked for digits from her telephone security number. Although she has no charges to reclaim and told them she thought so, they still bamboozled her into giving her debit card details for the pack, which arrived on Friday. This is strong-arm stuff and I thought at first it was a scam. It was not clear from my mother's notes who exactly they were, so I reported it to HSBC's Consumer Data Fraud, who were very helpful as far as they could be, and cancelled her card. The payment of £49.99 hadn't gone through but was in an authorisation phase - oddly it appeared to be in a PayPal account, not a UPI account.

My question now is what should I do next? We are apparently within the period of being able to cancel the arrangement, so I can do that, but I am very concerned that UPI were able to do this and had so much information. My ma is on the Telephone Preference Service too, so should not have been called at all. Does anyone have experience of getting the money back? And who can I complain to about the strong-arm tactics? I'd be very grateful for some advice here.

Kate

Contact the Ministry of Justice with as much information as possible.

they can't act on individual cases but they will be grateful for the information and their catalgue of breaches of the Conduct of Authorised Persons code of conduct for CMCs is growing against this and other companies.

Contact Rob Cheeseman at [EMAIL="info@claimsregulation.gov.uk"]info@claimsregulation.gov.uk[/EMAIL]


Give them the claim reg number which is Business Name:UPI (UK) LimitedAddress:213 New RoadSkewen Town/City:NeathCounty: West GlamPostcode:SA10 6EWTrading Names:No Trading NamesSector:Financial products/services,
Authorisation Number:CRM7863

elvirakate

Thanks, Esmerellda - I've sent back the pack recorded delivery but it hasn't arrived there yet. When it does, I'll give them a week to respond and then write to Rob Cheeseman. I'll write anyway, to complain about the aggressive selling and possible fraud, but it would be useful to know if they are going to refund the £49.99. Kate