PPI Reclaiming Discussion Part 5

Peter_Glaisher

Can anybody help I am new to this - On a barclays life business cover plan i have paid over 10 years £32 a month plus £600 arrangement fees. This was taken out when I arranged an overdraft facility with Barclays. At the time of arranging the facility I was guided to meet a separate Barclays employee - I was advised that taking out the policy would facilitate getting the overdraft. I have since had various attempts to reclaim this money from Barclays and have been categorically said this was not a missold policy and that it was a condition of the facility.

dunstonh

Peter_Glaisher wrote: »

Can anybody help I am new to this - On a barclays life business cover plan i have paid over 10 years £32 a month plus £600 arrangement fees. This was taken out when I arranged an overdraft facility with Barclays. At the time of arranging the facility I was guided to meet a separate Barclays employee - I was advised that taking out the policy would facilitate getting the overdraft. I have since had various attempts to reclaim this money from Barclays and have been categorically said this was not a missold policy and that it was a condition of the facility.

There are a couple of issues here.

1 - It is not PPI. it is life assurance
2 - You are commercial banking customer. Conditions of borrowing are very common and allowed. For quite common sense reasons.

Lenders are allowed to insist on life assurance (or any insurance) as a condition of borrowing. The only thing that they cannot do is insist on their own product being used (that change in the early 2000s - prior to that they could). Where a business has a key employee or you are the key business worker (if self employed), then everything relies on you being able to carry on working. If you die, the business fails and the money borrowed is at risk. So, the bank insists on the life assurance as a form of security to cover the lending. They know they are getting back their money if you die.

So, you cannot have been mis-sold as it was a condition of borrowing.

Jjtops

Hi I put a claim in with barclaycard I was paying PPI for 15 years. I have had a full time job the whole time with excellent sickness benefits etc. I was unaware I'd opted in. They rejected my claim saying I applied online so they didn't provide any advice. This doesn't seem right to me. It can not have been clear as I wouldn't have taken it. Any suggestions for how I should respond?

dunstonh

Jjtops wrote: »

Hi I put a claim in with barclaycard I was paying PPI for 15 years. I have had a full time job the whole time with excellent sickness benefits etc. I was unaware I'd opted in. They rejected my claim saying I applied online so they didn't provide any advice. This doesn't seem right to me. It can not have been clear as I wouldn't have taken it. Any suggestions for how I should respond?

There is no requirement for online sales to check suitability. When you buy DIY without anyone else involved you get a lower level of consumer protection. i.e. you cannot blame someone else for giving wrong advice.

The only time you find online cases getting upheld is where the option was pre-selected or tick to not want it. However, at this stage in the PPI complaints progress, it is known which companies did that and which did not and the dates they did it. So, that is not likely to be an issue here.

The problem you have with your case is lack of credibility. You bought online over 15 years ago. It was not sold to you. You chose to have it. Then you have 15 years of monthly statements. Why did you not raise it sooner? If someone who incorrectly selected an option saw it being paid on their statement they would normally raise it as an issue very quickly. So, even if you selected it and say complained after 3 months, you would likely get a refund as you are credible for saying you selected it by mistake. However, when doing that after nearly 150 statements, that credibility has gone.

You have the right to refer your complaint to the FOS. They will consider your compaint and the Barclays response. They will look at any supporting evidence you have and they will look at the supporting evidence Barclays have. Barclays will have screenshots from that era.

Here is a typical response from the FOS to an online application with Barclays from that era where there appears to be no other complaint reasons:
http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=43668

Here is another that has greater complaint reasons and more detail.
http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=43668

Looking at the numbers for Barclays, there are more rejections by an ombudsman than upholds where an online application took place. There does appear to be a lot of inconsistency in the FOS decsions with some ombudsman accepting the Barclays info and some not.

Jjtops

Thank you very much. Really helpful :-)

j5emm

Hi all, me again, I'm still waiting on a reply from Dorothy Perkins/axa.. just realised that their 8 weeks was up on the 24th January. What do I need to do? Any ideas greatly received.

amersall

Give them a couple more weeks, the 8 week rule is not set in stone.
Have you checked to see if they received your complaint?.

Nasqueron

j5emm wrote: »

Hi all, me again, I'm still waiting on a reply from Dorothy Perkins/axa.. just realised that their 8 weeks was up on the 24th January. What do I need to do? Any ideas greatly received.

8 weeks is just the time before you can refer to the FOS which may result in the firm stopping work on the complaint. Just ring and ask for an update in case they sent a letter and it was lost in the post

j5emm

Yes they sent a letter to say they had received my complaint, I will give them a couple of weeks and if still nothing I will give them a call. Thanks

-taff

When did they sell this to you? What date?