Gladstone Brookes Ppi/debt collection

Clueless1981

Hey all! Feeling very stupid and after advice.

After pressure from a family member I did a ppi claim with Gladstone Brookes and I honestly didn’t expect them to find anything. They have come back to me today and said they believe I had ppi on 3 credit cards. 2 egg and 1 barclaycard.

However these accounts are now with Cabot financial as I had a bit of financial difficulty years ago when I had my first child and my husband lost his job.

So I’m now panicking that if I am owed anything this amount will be paid direct to Cabot on these debts and I will end up owing Gladstone Brookes their fee still which I won’t be able to afford straight away. I was considering calling them to cancel but it says if you cancel you are charged £50 per hour they worked on your account.

Have I completely screwed things up for myself? Would it be better to go through with the claims or cancel?

Sorry but I really am clueless in these matters and wish I had never started.

amersall

Gladstones Brooks should not have taken your claim as if you win redress in your situation, they would still want their fee after the redress was paid to Cabot.
You end up with a bill for Gladstones and nothing to show for it.

From the ministry of Justice website.

"Where consumers are in arrears, with or without the knowledge of the CMC, charging fees for
compensation that is not ‘cash in hand’ can result in the fees charged being greater than the ‘cash in
hand’ compensation awarded. This can put consumers in a difficult financial situation, and without
these circumstances being made clear to consumers at the outset, the service could fail to meet the
consumer’s needs contrary to Client Specific Rule 1(b). In most cases some advice has been given, so
this would also breach the requirement to only pursue a claim where it is in the interests of a client
to do so, which is in contravention of Client Specific Rule 1(f)."


You should contact Gladstones and let them know the situation, quote the above to them.
They should then close your file, if they do not, you should then make a complaint to Ministry of Justice.

To be fair to Gladstones, I use the term " fair " very loosely.
Had you told them this in the first instance, they should not have taken the claim on.

It is highly likely the redress would be used to repay the debt on the cards, it may not, but if you let Gladstones do this claim, you will not know the outcome until the claim is settled.

Clueless1981

Thanks for the response.

I’ve since realised because I haven’t actually signed the forms for them to start proceedings I can cancel without charge as the £50 charge is only after you sign the forms. Phew! I still may go ahead doing it myself though as the money would help reduce what I owe already.

amersall

Glad you remembered that a bit sooner would have been nice:rotfl:

Clueless1981

Yep! It would have stopped me panicking 🙈 told you I’m clueless, hence the name!

amersall

I am most of the time, no, make that all of the time lately