Help with my mother's financial problems

National_Debtline

Hi again Andy


It's good to hear you've managed to find out a bit more. I would suggest you ask Moneyplus to send out all the information they have on your mother's case. This should have been passed over to them from Baines & Ernst, and hopefully will give you a fuller picture of the situation. Ideally you will need to know who she owes money to, and how much, in order to get advice on her best options.


Stopping the payments to the Claim People is one option, it could well prompt them to get in touch. Bear in mind though that if your mother signed an agreement for them to recover PPI on her behalf she might be liable for the debt. This generally only applies if they did manage to get a PPI refund. Another option is to find the company details on the Companies House website https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/. That will give you a head office address that you could write to.


Given your mother's circumstances it might be an option to ask these creditors to write off the debt if they have little prospect of recovering the money owed, plus the fact she is a pensioner with heath issues. One of the free debt advice agencies can give you more advice on this and other possible options. Good luck with it all.


Susie
@natdebtline

Andy_B67

Thanks all for your replies. I'm going to ask my mother to stop the payments to The Claim People and await a response.

With regard to my mother's claim for PPI with We Fight Any Claim. Is it likely that my mother has got her figures wrong or could the company really claim expenses of £750 plus when PPI of just over a £1000.00 was found? This seems like downright robbery to me! She certainly paid this amount to them.

sourcrates

Andy_B67 wrote: »

Thanks all for your replies. I'm going to ask my mother to stop the payments to The Claim People and await a response.

With regard to my mother's claim for PPI with We Fight Any Claim. Is it likely that my mother has got her figures wrong or could the company really claim expenses of £750 plus when PPI of just over a £1000.00 was found? This seems like downright robbery to me! She certainly paid this amount to them.

These private claims companies can charge what they like unfortunately, there is very little regulation.

Its typically 30% they charge for this kind of thing.

Andy_B67

Hello again.

I've been gradually finding out a little more information as I go along but I need more advice please.

I phoned We Fight Any Claim a couple of days ago to find out why my mother paid them £766.61 in July 2016. The lady that I spoke told me that my mother had made a claim with them for PPI. She told me that on her behalf they had checked for PPI with two Nat West credit card accounts and two J D Williams accounts. That's the catalogue company that my mother has debts with.

She said that on one Nat West account there was insufficient information and on the other PPI had already been paid previously. With regard the J D Williams accounts for one there was insufficient information. For the other a payment of PPI of £1,812.68 was made. The lady at We Fight Any Claim stated that instead of the payment going straight to my mother it was credited to my mother's J D Williams account. My mother does not remember being asked if she would prefer this option.

My mother had also, apparently, made PPI claims with The Claim People. They had, it seems, paid some money to my mother. My mother had got confused and paid We Fight Any Claim the £766.61 thinking that they had paid the money into her bank account rather than The Claim People. So my mother was unaware that she paid We Fight Any Claim without being sure that they had found any PPI for her. She certainly didn't seem aware of any credit for £1812.87 going onto her J D Williams account.

I phoned J D Williams today to confirm that they had paid my mother for PPI and it had been credited to my mother's account with them. The gentleman I spoke to spent some time checking the information on his computer but could see no record of a PPI payment or credit to my mother's account!

So either he missed something or We Fight Any Claim are lying. So what should be my next plan of action? Obviously I want to get this money back off We Fight Any Claim if they shouldn't have it. Help.

On a plus note the gentleman at J D Williams informed me that there is £2268.00 of PPI that my mother can claim back from an old account of theirs. He has given me an email address to request the payment of PPI and also to request a more detailed check of her account with regard to what We Fight Any Claim told me.

-taff

Claims companies do not receive the payment directly from any company there is a successful PPI complaint with. They need to paid from the proceeds of any redress.

If your mother ma it clear she owed money to any of the companies complained to, you can challenge the claims companies involved by using the legal ombudsman to make a complaint [after you have complained to the claims companies involved on her behalf ], because if she had told them she was in arrears, they would know that any redress would first go to any outstanding debt, leaving her liable to pay them out of her own pocket. And they should have made that explicitly clear.

If she paid a diffirent company to the one which made the complaint and succeeded on her behalf, then she canask for that money back.
However, there may well be a clause that allows them to charge for work done.

Also, usually, cmc's have a clause that prohibitis any other company for PPI complaints because they usually have a clause which says the person who employed them employed them to represent them in any future complaint, so find out who she employed first, and check their T&Cs to see if that clause is in there. If it is, use it to avoid paying the second company.

National_Debtline

Hi again Andy


Taff is right, you need to try and check the terms and conditions of the agreements your mother had with the claims management companies. Usually where PPI is refunded it will be taken directly off the balance of any outstanding debt. That leaves the person who employed the claims management company liable to pay their fees.


If she did sign up to use two different companies it may prove difficult to get a refund of the money from We Fight Any Claim. That's because they have carried out work on her behalf. However you could try making a complaint if you can argue that they did not clearly explain how the process would work, or if it was clear to them at the time your mother did not understand what she was agreeing to.


You could also try asking the Claim People to write of their debt due to your mother's ill health and the confusion over the whole PPI situation.


Susie
@natdebtline

Andy_B67

Hi again.

Thanks for your replies.

Unfortunately my mother does not have any paper work for either We Fight Any Claim or for The Claim People. Therefore I don't know what T&Cs she agreed to.

-taff

It'll just be their usual and you can find them online.

Sorry about the numerous typos, a new keyboard is on my list