PPI Reclaims not covered by the FOS

petermb_2

Lets get to the nitty gritty. I presume that your loan agreement is a regulated consumer credit agreement.

I think the loan will be challengeable.

marshallka

blade1730 wrote: »

Several years ago I applied to Freedom Finance for a loan.
During a phone call they advised me loan could only proceed if I took £2400 ppi which I did not need or want.
After seeing Martins programme I sent a letter to reclaim ppi only to be told by Freedom Finance that they only processed the loan application for Bespoke Finance who are based in Gibraltor.
This was news to me as Bespoke had never been mentioned before but I wrote to them to reclaim and was refused.Wrote again and again was refused.
Contacted FSO who have now advised me that as Bespoke Finance have never been a member of the General Insurance Standards Council my complaint was not one they could consider.
So be sure you know who your loan is actually with and whether they are members of the GISC.

I hope what you are saying is not true as i have just spoken to Firstplus who have forwarded my complaint to Bespoke Finance.

marshallka

arthurp8 wrote: »

Hi all,

I've had a response from Bespoke finance that in short says the following:

"Your complaint has been passed to us by Firstplus - we have completed our investigation as follows:

At the time of conducting business with you, Freedom Finance (acting on behalf of Bespoke finance) was not required to be autorised and regulated by the FSA.

It has always been our policy to provide clear documentation and to ensure our customers are provided with comprehensive information before committing to securing a loan against their property or taking optional PPI.

Our policy for the sale of PPI operated from a purely optional perspective. At the time of application Freedom Finance provided you with a booklet outlining the beneifts and conditions of the optional PPI, it also stated the policy term was 5 years. This booklet was designed by your loan lender and issued by freedom finance prior to the signature of the credit agreement. Employees joining the business are briefed and assessed at induction on their understanding of the payment protection products and would have been keen to answer any questions or concerns.

Our records indicate that you signed the credit agreement to include payment protection to cover your loan. The agreement stated that signing the doc confirmed that you had read and understood the PPplan summary and that the premium for the insurance was added to your loan paid for within your monthly installments.

Based upon this information we are unable to uphold your complaint."

Now what is the best course of action now? Do I simply send template letter 2? Or do I send template letter 2 but also include reference in it to the FSA's notes from Oct 2005:

• There was an over-reliance on product documentation given to the customer at the expense of explaining the policy to the customer orally: most firms selling by telephone did not give sufficient information on exclusions;

I am not prepared to be fobbed off at all with this as the PPI was not explained to me, I was told that I would not be approved unless I took it, and also on my agreement forms the PPI boxes were pre-checked when my documentation came through for me to read and sign prior to loan approval...

Help much appreciated.....

My compaint to Firstplus has now been passed to "Bespoke Finance" who i have never heard of and they are actually based in "Gibraltar". Our broker was apparently "Freedom Finance". Does this mean that the law is not on our side on this.:mad:

petermb_2

dont let them fool you. It will be down to First Plus if the loan is written by them.

marshallka

hi peter, There is so much conflicting advice on here. Some say that you should go to the broker. Some say you should go to the Lender. I want some legal advice here. Broker or lender and also which "broker". Apparently Freedom are an "umbrella" company of Bespoke. Firstplus are getting in touch with Freedom today and ringing me back. Firstplus have said that they will close the records if they have not heard from me in 8 weeks so i need to act fast. I may have to write again to Firstplus to say i don't want this closing on their part. Any advice anyone.

Firstplus say the loan was sold by "freedom/Bespoke"

petermb_2

Hi
Sadly you will always get conflicting advice on a site like this. The knowledge of those giving the advice ranges from the blind leading the blind to professionals at the cutting edge of knowledge. You have to make a decision as to who you put your faith in.

I would always advocate using a professioanl service as long as it is totally free to use and totally ethical......But then I would say that wouldnt I?

The problem is that I have been involved in this stuff for 6 years and am still learning. Consumer Credit Law is complex. An individual simply attempting to gain redress has little or no chance of knowing exactly what they are doing, template letters or no template letters.

Lenders are a craftly barrel of monkeys and they play games. Most of all they are bullies and you have to have the weapons to get them to do the right thing. In truth, the only thing that makes them turn their heads is the ability to litigate against them. Anything else is like water off a duck's back. They rely on lack of knowledge and weakness to bully you into giving in and paying up.

As for Your issue with First Plus, marshallka, the buck stops with the lenders.
Dont let anyone tell you or attempt to fool you into thinking otherwise.

marshallka

Just had a phone call from Firstplus and she has told me that she has spoken to Bespoke Finance and that they say it was in literature to myself that everything was dealt with by Bespoke Finance. She also was adamant that Firstplus had nothing to do with it as it was sold by them. I then asked her about my complaint about the rule of 78 on the settlement figure and she said that would be dealt with by firstplus. They were responsible for that bit. I then asked her why no-one had bothered to read it and she then said she would forward the complaint. If i had not of said anything about that being in my letter then Firstplus would not of looked at it. I think they must have lots of letters at the moment and they read the first line, pass the buck and then write saying nothing can be done. I will fight this all the way now.

petermb_2

Good for you!

marshallka

petermb wrote: »

Good for you!

Do you really mean that. I know fighting myself is not like someone that is legally knowlegable but i have to try first. It was our money that was paid over, hard earned money, and that for now is all i want back. Just what is right and fair but if we come to a total standstill on this then we may have to take up your offer and challenge the whole loan. I have told this to Firstplus too.

petermb_2

That is absolutely good. All I ask is that you do not sign full and final settlement when the lenders do make you an offer. That will leave you the option to go back at a later date.