Section 75 claim help

Desperate_and_worried

Earlier this year I foolishly paid a claims management company (Lifestyle Claims) £2500 on a no win no fee basis on my credit card. The company did not provide me with a service and after involving their regulator the Ministry of Justice I was informed in October 2012 the company went into liquidation. I immediately contacted Barclaycard and requested a claim under section 75 and provided the terms and conditions of the contract and the letter from the Liquidator which states the company did not provide me with the service I had paid for. However Barclaycard have written and said they will not consider a refund without documentation proving a breach of contract had occured. A contract was never provided by the company however in the terms and conditions it clearly states that a written agreement would not be issued and it was a verbal agreement. Should I give up now?

safestored4

Your question does not relate to reclaiming credit card charges which is what this thread is all about. Repost it on the credit card thread and you will get a prompt response.

magpiecottage

Strictly, safestored4 is correct. However, you can instead complain to Barclays at:

Head Office Customer Relations
Barclays Bank PLC
1 Churchill Place
London
E14 5HP.

Get proof of posting (free from the Post Office). They have 8 weeks to respond so give them until 8 March to allow for the post either way.

If you do not get a satisfactory response the go to the Financial Ombudsman Service

Did Lifestyle Claims tell you that? (Sorry Martin - I have just proved there IS such a thing as a stupid question!)

~Brock~

What was the service you requested?

Was it to reclaim PPI? Or was it to try and get debts written off due to unenforceablity?

If it was the latter, and Barclaycard were one of those debts, then you can probably kiss the money goodbye now.

ILW

~Brock~ wrote: »

What was the service you requested?

Was it to reclaim PPI? Or was it to try and get debts written off due to unenforceablity?

If it was the latter, and Barclaycard were one of those debts, then you can probably kiss the money goodbye now.

£2500 would have been debt write off.
I so hope Barclaycard stick to their guns and tell OP to shove off.

Alpine_Star

ILW wrote: »

£2500 would have been debt write off.
I so hope Barclaycard stick to their guns and tell OP to shove off.

Lifestyle Claims only did PPI reclaims - not debt write-offs.

The OP should go to the FOS to complain about Barclaycard not honouring the sec 75 claim.

Wywth

Desperate_and_worried wrote: »

Earlier this year I foolishly paid a claims management company (Lifestyle Claims) £2500 on a no win no fee basis on my credit card. The company did not provide me with a service and after involving their regulator the Ministry of Justice I was informed in October 2012 the company went into liquidation. I immediately contacted Barclaycard and requested a claim under section 75 and provided the terms and conditions of the contract and the letter from the Liquidator which states the company did not provide me with the service I had paid for. However Barclaycard have written and said they will not consider a refund without documentation proving a breach of contract had occured. A contract was never provided by the company however in the terms and conditions it clearly states that a written agreement would not be issued and it was a verbal agreement. Should I give up now?

No win, no fee

No service, so presumably no win

So what fees did you incur???

Alpine_Star

Wywth wrote: »

No win, no fee

No service, so presumably no win

The MOJ banned Lifestyle Claims from taking up-front fees in September.

Wywth

I thought the idea of no win, no fee was that there was no up front fee.

If the company does win something on behalf of their client, then the agreed fees are typically then deducted from the winnings before being passed to the client.

Or am I missing something here?
You pay an up front fee (even solicitors don't usually charge up front, but may charge for services supplied before agreeing to continue even if the case hasn't gone to court by that time) and then in the event of the company not winning anything, you hope they are still around and reliable enough to honour the original promise so return the fee???
I think such a system should have been ringing alarm bells from the outset if that were the case.
Was there a timeframe stipulated in the original contract by which time the company had to refund any fees paid or was this an open ended contract allowing the company to say they were still trying for ever?

Save for any specific order by the MOJ to the contrary, no win, no fee cases may include some upfront costs for disbursements (e.g. reports, copy statements, etc) and also possibly an insurance premium to pay the other sides legal costs in the event a claim is not won by the claimant
Hence my question, what actual fees were incurred by the OP?

Alpine_Star

Wywth wrote: »

I thought the idea of no win, no fee was that there was no up front fee...........Or am I missing something here?.......Save for any specific order by the MOJ to the contrary, no win, no fee cases may include some upfront costs for disbursements (e.g. reports, copy statements, etc) and also possibly an insurance premium to pay the other sides legal costs in the event a claim is not won by the claimant

You've answered you're own question here.

Lifestyle Claims went under the banner of no-win-no-fee but would typically charge (or help themselves to) a ''refundable'' 'administrative' fee and further 'legal fees'.

Wywth

Alpine_Star wrote: »

You've answered you're own question here.

Lifestyle Claims went under the banner of no-win-no-fee but would typically charge (or help themselves to) a ''refundable'' 'administrative' fee and further 'legal fees'.

What does the administration fees cover, exactly?

What are the legal fees for exactly? Presumably if they didn't do anything for the OP, then there was no legal representation.