Changed name and moved lots of times

GeorgiaMW

Hi Guys,

I took out a loan in 2007 with Alliance & Leicester and I can remember being misled into PPI. The chap on the phone was asking me about it and I said I wasn't interested. Then he ummed and ahhed and said he'd have to talk to his manager to see if he could still progress with the loan. He put me on hold for a long time and then came back saying "because of your circumstances, we'd be happier to approve the loan if you took out PPI" (giving me the distinct and deliberate impression without actually saying so that failure to take the PPI would result in no loan) so I agreed. That counts as mis-selling, right?

I then consolidated all my debts into a loan with Halifax (which I didn't take out PPI for) and then a year or two later, effectively paying off the A&L loan.

My husband recently had a successful PPI reclaim with CPP and so it inspired me to think maybe I could too. Always avoided it in the past because it would be complicated and frustrating (see q's below) I kind of wanted to forget all about my debt issues now they're all gone thanks to careful budgeting, the advice on here and the CAP money management course.

Couple of questions though;

1) Since taking out the A&L loan, I've changed my name by deed poll twice and then by marriage. I can provide evidence of all these but don't want to post the official documents off because I know they will "never receive them" so "cannot progress my claim" *groan*

2) I've moved more than a few times since then too. What proof do I have to provide for this?

3) I don't have any original paperwork and on my credit file the account number appears **** **** **** 1234 (for example). How can I find out what's been starred out?

4) Anyone know where to send A&L PPI reclaim letters? Or had any experiences trying to get refunds from them?

Thanks for any help!! :-)

-taff

Send them a SAR and £10 to see what paperwork there is left [there's a link in the sticky to a template just adapt it, add your old name and address, and your current name and address, include photocopies of any relevant id information]

If you've phoned and they can't tell you what the ac!!!! number was, you'll have to do the above.

DrSqueeze

The first thing I'd suggest is not to try and rush things in one go.

Start by asking them to trace you on their records before you send any documents - otherwise anything you send is likely to end up lost in a 'customer not found' pile somewhere.

Alliance & Leicester was taken over by Santander. Here's a link to their PPI complaints section:

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?c=Page&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1237912542162&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateA2

I'd call them, it's often easier to explain over the phone. Before you do, make a list of your previous names and addresses and the dates when these changed - that will be handy to refer to.

If they can find you, ask them to open up a complaint. This will get you the all important Complaint Reference Number. If you have to send any documents you'll have a number to quote to ensure things are matched to your file - and if you need to chase up it will make life much easier.

If they can't find you while you're on the phone you might need to send a letter giving your full names, date of birth and previous addresses. Don't risk sending any original documents. Sometimes an admin team has more success tracing old accounts than a call centre.

If both of these fail, the next option may be a Subject Access Request (SAR) but as mentioned in the previous post this costs £10. If a phone call and letter both fail, there's no guarantee a SAR will work either but it might be worth a try.