Freedom Finance/First plus

hard_up_3

Hi

I wonder whether anybody can help me please, I apologise in advance for the lengthy details but not very good at summarising!

I took out a secured loan through Freedom Finance in May 2005 for £25,000 with a ppi policy for £7341, not realising at the time how expensive it would be. I started a misselling claim in October 2009. Originally I did this myself with a letter to First Plus (this is who the loan payments were made to it wasn't until later I realised the ppi was through freedom) First plus responded by saying they didn't accept the policy was missold but offered a £750 payment as a gesture of goodwill. Initially I accepted this as the 5 year period was coming to an end in May 2010 when we could reclaim the premium amount back. In February 2010 whilst I was still waiting for this £750 cheque to arrive I made enquiries into remortgaging and was persuaded to use the services of a claims management company to pursue the ppi misselling further. So when I received the £750 cheque I sent it back and wrote a letter explaining that I no longer accepted their offer. The claims management company only repeated what I had already done, and only realised in May that they were running out of time to approach the financial ombudsman (6 months from the original response) they realised this when I rang them to ask if I should still claim my premium back as I had had the form from First Plus to put in the claim which had to be done within that month. The advisor at the cmc said definitely not to put in the claim as they were pursuing the premium, plus interest and compensation. They also said that as I had gone so far with the claim I could be liable for charges from them if I decided to withdraw the claim. So I chose to keep with the cmc. After long delays due to the judicial review and freedom not responding once the adjudicator had upheld our claim the case was in a queue to be referred to an ombudsman at the FOS when Freedom finance/wilmslow went into administration so the FOS could no longer deal with the claim. The cmc wanted me to authorise them to deal with the Financial Services Compensation scheme (FSCS) but I told them that I wanted to deal with this myself as FSCS could not refund any payments not yet made or offer any compensation and could only claim back 90% so I figured once the cmc took any fee it wouldn't be worth bothering with. The FSCS were pretty quick in dealing with our claim and agreed we had been missold but would only refund £2933 (the amount of interest they say that first plus advised them we had paid even though I had been told we are paying approximately £70 per month and we have now had the loan 7 years!!) The FSCS are saying that First Plus are responsible for paying back the premium as we met all the terms and conditions set out to qualify after the 5 years. First plus initially said that yes I could still claim back the cashback even though I hadn't done it at the correct time but once they realised that a misselling ppi claim was on the go they have now said they won't pay it. They are saying the reason is because we didn't claim within the given period. FSCS have said to go to the claims management company and their overseer Ministry of Justice as they shouldn't have advised us not to put in the claim for the cash back at the time (even though I have seen other forums where members have been told by First Plus to withdraw any ppi claims before cash back claims would be considered. The cmc are saying that the responsibility is with FSCS and they have handled claims similar whereby FSCS has paid out, when I speak to FSCS they totally deny this. First plus just won't entertain anything. I just don't know where to turn now to get what I could have had 2 years ago. Wish I had never bothered with PPI claim and just accepted the £750 along with the premium of £7341 I would have had just over £8000 instead of just under £3000 and 2 years of being passed from pillar to post and needing the money more every day!!

amersall

Send an email to Bob diamond,google ceo email and he is there under banking.

Put what FP have said and what you claimed from the FSCS,tell him you disagree with FP and want the ppi refunded to the loan and the monthly payment reduced by the ppi monthly amount,you were mis sold this ppi and want your account to be put back into the position it would have been without ppi.

Put the reasons you were mis sold this ppi

it was a loan on a loan,in effect front loaded.
Ppi only covered you for 5 years,but was still on the loan to term end with interest.
The cashback was to be returned after the 5 years,but the ppi was still on the loan to term end with interest.

Put why you were told you could get the cashback,then Fp renaged on the deal due to the time scale.enclose copies of anything you have relating to the cashback and the ppi claim.

Send a letter to FP with the above,let them know that if their response is not favourable,you will take this to FOS,as FP agreed to pay the ppi back.

Let them know to deal only with you and no third party,i take it the claims co are not taking this further,and that is their involvment over?.

Report the cmc to these
http://www.justice.gov.uk/global/contacts/claims-management-regulation/index.htm
If the FSCS say the company gave bad advice,this is the way to go,tell them what the cmc did and because of this your claim has come to a full stop,and you lost the chance to claim the cashback.

I know hindsight is a good thing,but you should have claimed the cashback first,then gone mis sell,never mind,do as i suggested and we will take it from there.

hard_up_3

thanks for this I will give these a go.

Do you know of anybody who has done anything similar and been successful? I can understand why First Plus don't want to pay it back as in their eyes the policy was missold by freedom finance not them and if it had been settled before the cash back date then this wouldn't have happened. But then I can also see why FSCS say that they are only a fund of last resort so it is up to FP to foot the cost of paying this back.

Like you say hindsight is a wonderful thing!

thanks again, I'll post with any updates

hard_up_3

Hi

just been on the ceo web site and can't seem to see anything for first plus or Bob Diamond? looked under the finance heading??