Barclays Partner Finance Charges, how do i reclaim?

ticmike

I had a loan from Hammonds furniture with Barclays Partner Finance and they told me the loan will end on 17th April 2012, so once the final payment came out i cancelled the direct debit.
But today i receive a call saying i still owe £101 and i said why and they said late or failed DD charges from years back!!!

The lady said the charges totaled £167.50, is there any way i can reclaim this or does anyone know of a template letter i could use?

Many thanks for any help

Little_Mo_70

ticmike wrote: »

I had a loan from Hammonds furniture with Barclays Partner Finance and they told me the loan will end on 17th April 2012, so once the final payment came out i cancelled the direct debit.
But today i receive a call saying i still owe £101 and i said why and they said late or failed DD charges from years back!!!

The lady said the charges totaled £167.50, is there any way i can reclaim this or does anyone know of a template letter i could use?

Many thanks for any help

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

Template for SAR data protection request on here. (scroll down quite a way)
Just tailor it to suit. There is normally a standard £10 charge.

joncow75

BPF can be a tough nut to crack, but get your SAR in, work out exactly what has been charged, write to them and ask for it back. They will probably offer half the amount back. Once you have their final response, get letter off to FOS who should hopefully get the other half of your charges quite easily. This is from experience as I went through a lenghtly few month argument with BPF myself

Just ensure you are firm and patient and you should get everything back

Credit-crunchie

Firstly, BPF charge £20 for every bounced direct debit. They will attempt to represent the direct debit to your bank 5 working days after the bounce date. If the direct debit bounces again, BPF will charge £20 again. if the payment is left outstanding for 14 days or more from the original due date, BPF will then charge you a default penalty (for late payment and defaulting your loan agreement) of £22.50. They can continue to charge you the £22.50 for every consecutive 14 days (rolling) until you resolve the default and the loan repayments are back on track.

Now understanding the charging policy is key. Remember, you signed a contract with specific terms clearing stating all of the above. So, when people say you can claim ALL your charges back, you must take into mind that each complaint or dispute is unique and each will get a different outcome dependent on merit.

Secondly, BPF will arm themselves with defence and evidence such as letters being sent each time a direct debit bounced, each time a charge is applied - this means a letter every 14 days for the rolling default charges. Their collections team will also telephone daily on all telephone numbers youhave provided them after the second direct debit attempt fails (after the second attempt fails your direct debit is automatically cancelled to prevent them from incurring you rolling bounced direct debit charges from your bank). An interesting note here is that BPF will actully send out up to 4 copies of a charge letter on each occaision - they say its an error with their outsourced printing contractor, but it's actually to ensure they can say they have made every attempt to contact you and make you aware of the situation. If you have moved address and not updated your account details, this fault will lay with you so be careful using this as an arguing point, as they use this as evidence that the charges are a result of your own account cunduct (e.g. not keeping contact details up to date etc)

Now with all this in mind, do not get too excited when people tell you it is possible to get all the charges 'back' - you're not getting anything 'back' unless you've paid the full loan, as the charges have been applied to your balance, your monthly payments will not have been increased to cover the original loan repayments and the charges added. And if the the loan was repayed or being repayed then there would be no charges in the first place.

Saying that, Rolling charges can be argued on the basis that they are unfair, even if you have blatently not paid payments for months, the view can be taken excessive charges relating to the same charge trigger are unfair. for example, two bounced direct debit charges and one default charge all relating to the same missed monthly payment = £62.50 (£20 + £20 + £22.50) - this is excessive and with a push they will remove two of the three charges, usually the direct debit charges but not the default charge.

Also key thing to note here is even if a default charge does get removed, your credit file will permanently have the payment mrked for that payment month as defaulted. Even catching up with any arrears and getting back on top will not change this, as whatever they back down on charge wise, they still didnt get the agreed payment within 14 days of the due date, so you've defaulted. And all credit providers must report a true and accurate reflection of your account cunduct and is a legal requriement, so do not consider getting into lengthy arguments about how your credit file has been impacted - not even the FOS can help you with that one.

Lastly, as the FOS have been mentioned - they wont get involved until you have given BPF up to 40 working days to resolve your complaint (you must raise an officially complaint with BPF first). Only after 40 working days will the FOS step in and make a decision themselves if you're still not happy with the resolution BPF offer, if any. So with this in mind, it would be pointless sending in a SAR request as you'll be waiting 28 days for a response, which means another month goes on meaning you need to continue with another monthly payment. Also, all the SAR is going to get you is a copy of all the notes recorded on your account and related recorded telephone conversations. You can ask for a full interim statement for free and this is the info you need - a full account history from start showing the opening balance and what this is made up of, all your monthly payments, bounced payments and charges and the dates they incurred. This is the info you need to get the info to then argue the charges.

I would suggest that you obtain the statement history first, review it, list all the charges for relating to each missed payment, total up the value, then raise a complaint dispute directly with BPF stating you feel the charges are excessive and therefore unfair. They will ask you how YOU would like the complaint to be resolved - you've got every right to ask all 'rolling charges' be removed (e.g. up to the three charges for the same missed payment, for example). It is unlikely that all charges will be removed, unless BPF have given you some greif in the past or you have had some bad service from them you can arm yourself as ammo to knock them down more. If not, you will more than likely, at the most, get most charges removed with just one charge for each missed payment left.

Now if you are not happy with BPF's final outcome and offer of resolution you can go to the FOS once your complaint has gone over 40 working days. But you do need to keep in mind that the FOS can agree with BPF and say they are not willing to enforce anything further than what BPF has offered to close the situation. You must remember that the FOS are there to ensure you are treated fairly and legally and will only step in and over rule BPF's final decision if they feel you havent been. But, if BPF do offer to remove most of the charges, they still have a legal right to charge you something for each missed payment as you defaulted your agreement, and not even the FOS can argue your legal contractual terms and conditions.

Hope this will help you resolve your issue alot quicker than it will eaiting for a SAR just to look at some mainly useful notes and recordings