Amex PPI Question

slackda

Hi Quick Question.

Had an Amex card which due to job loss and overspending i defaulted on and was offered a settlement figure around 75% of the total debt to clear the debt.

Which fortunately i was able to borrow some money from my parents to settle the debt. (back in Jun 2009)

Realized that i had PPI insurance (which i couldn't claim on as i hadn't been in my job long enough) so i went through the process and Amex have agreed to repay the insurance, however they are now stating that they are offsetting this against an outstanding balance...however as far as i'm concered the Debt was settled?

Advise please?

misschicken

Ask them to provide details of the outstanding balance. Usually if there is an outstanding balance but there's no payment arrears then the money wouldn't be used against the outstanding balance. If you are in arrears then they are perfectly entitled to use the money against the outstanding balance. Something sounds like it's gone a bit sideways here if you're positive the debt has been cleared (and you'd think they'd have been chasing you for the money if it hadn't been!) so you really do need to contact them and get the details.

slackda

I agree If that i still owed them money i would expect the bill to be offset, but my credit file is clear/shows that the debt was settled in 09.

any not had any correspondence from them since the settlement.

amersall

They gave you a settlement figure of 75% of the debt, I think they can take the other 25% back from any redress, this is the outstanding balance, had you reclaimed the PPI at the point of settlement, this would have been taken off the defaulted account
.
Might be worth calling FOS for clarification, if this settlement was in full and final you may be able to argue that point.

slackda

thanks, as far as i was aware this was full and Final- Hence it not appearing on my credit file and pretty sure that i have the original final statement of account confirming this.

misschicken

Find out from Amex what they're referring to first, then take it from there. As Amersall said the FOS can offer further clarification too if they are putting the money against the 25%. I'd want to know from Amex the outstanding balance amount (if any), what it relates to, the PPI settlement amount and how they've reached that figure. If you're missing any paperwork you then think might be important you can alway send an SAR to Amex to get copies of your records - hopefully they'd still have them for the time when you settled the loan.

-taff

The settlement figure included a reduction. Now you want to disagree with this figure and have more money back, so you are in effect disagreeing with their 25% reduction. They can use it to offset against your original unpaid debt.