PPI Can I reclaim from the early 90's

Cat_Girl

I was in a right financial mess in the 90's I remember juggling up to 30 odd credit cards/loans, paperwork coming out my ears etc!! However, I am now all paid up (it took me 17 long years to be debt free). I owed in the region of £40K!! The thing is I have not one piece of paperwork and worse than that I haven't got a clue who they all were. I think I was financially traumatised and have blacked it all out of my mind! The old ones that I do remember were Goldfish, Egg, Morgan Stanley, Smile, Virgin, Amex, Barclaycard, Blackhorse Finance, CPP, lots of loans (again no idea who). I am pretty sure I didn't have any ppi the past 8-10 years but I know I signed up to everything from around 1993-2004. To be honest I'm breaking out in a sweat just thinking about it all. The good thing is I now no longer owe a penny except for my mortgage. So I guess the main questions are:
How do I find out who the companies were and is it worth my while or would I be time barred? I have only moved house once so I have a fairly trackable record.

di3004

Hi there
Well you can give it a go. Myself and many others been successful in making reclaims from accounts taken out in the 90's but it may also depend on what info and reasons are given as such.
Are you still with the same bank now as you were back years ago? (If so call into the local branch and ask if they will kindly look into your accounts for you) they may or they may not, but may still be worth a go.

How long ago did you pay off the finance debt? If in the last 6 years then you may still be lucky to retrieve some info, possibly from requesting a Credit Report for £2 from a credit ref agency, such as Equifax, Experian etc, someone said they received a credit report that went back to old loans some years back, but the main of them are the last 6 years, no harm in checking this way though and an updated credit report at the same time. :-)

chrisx15PC

Hi, I contacted HSBC yesterday about a loan from 1998 (still outstanding and being paid back through a collection agency) to see if I had any PPI on it. They said they didn't keep records going back more than six years and suggested I contacted the ombudsman. Should I write this off and put it down to experience...or should I pursue it with the Ombudsman?

-taff

Yu can't pursue anything with the ombudsman because there are no records left.

For your own peace of mind and if you want to throw away £10, you could send a SAR and £10 to them to se what records they do have left.

-taff

Cat_Girl wrote: »

I was in a right financial mess in the 90's I remember juggling up to 30 odd credit cards/loans, paperwork coming out my ears etc!! However, I am now all paid up (it took me 17 long years to be debt free). I owed in the region of £40K!!
How do I find out who the companies were and is it worth my while or would I be time barred? I have only moved house once so I have a fairly trackable record.

You need to check your credit report to see what companies appear on there.

If they don't, your memory is the only thing left, or you could send a speculative SAR and £10 to each company you think you had credit with.

Bear in mind, that if any amounts were written off, or defaulted on then they can keep any redress towards that amount.

[Deleted User]

Cat_Girl wrote: »

How do I find out who the companies were and is it worth my while or would I be time barred?

Unfortunately, credit reports won't stretch back as far as the 1990's and you'd have to send SAR letters to each lender (at £10 a pop) in order to see if there is any information left. This could prove very expensive, with no guarantees of success.

An additional problem is that you say your finances were "in a mess" back then. If the Banks wrote off interest or other monies as part of debt management plans etc then any redress (should it be awarded) would be likely offset against this;
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/setting-off

RR_summers

My grandparents have a credit card they took out in the early 90's.
Barclaycard it was with. I filled it all in online and they got a letter within two weeks for a refund of just over 7k.

Cat_Girl

Thank you everyone. Nothing was written off, I repaid every single penny I owed (plus mega interest). I think I will start off with the bank and see if they can help.