Doing it for a friend

gingergirl21

Hi all

I have a friend who has already provided me with a comprehensive list of about 30 accounts she believes she was potentially mis-sold PPI on.

I have been very successful with my own claims and as she lacks some of the skills it takes to deal with these companies and is suffering from financial related anxiety I want to act on her behalf and get her some PPI back.

Obviously I'm not a PPI claim company and I certainly won't be charging her anything. I just want her to be ok.

What do I need from her in order to be able to act on her behalf so the letters etc come to me?

macman

The simplest way would simply be for her to sign any paperwork after you have processed it, and pass any incoming correspondence to yo to deal with.
Alternatively, she can arrange for you to have a Power of Attorney-so for each claim you would have to supply a certified copy of the PoA.

[Deleted User]

gingergirl21 wrote: »

What do I need from her in order to be able to act on her behalf so the letters etc come to me?

Why would letters need to come to you directly? Can your friend not pass the letters to you? Surely her "financial related anxiety" doesn't prevent her from receiving letters from the Bank?

The mention of Power Of Attorney is a little extreme (and expensive) unless your friend is mentally incapacitated in some way and is unable (rather than unwilling) to act on her own.

In your position, I'd write the letters of complaint on her behalf and simply get your friend to sign them.

gingergirl21

Actually she's pretty much homeless at the moment. The situation at the address she is registered at is tricky and there is no guarantees that her ex will pass things onto her. The letters do really need to come directly to me.

macman

Then she can write/sign them using your address for reply.
How can you be 'pretty much homeless'?
I agree with Moneyineptitude that a PoA is an expensive way of doing it, but it's the only option if she is unwilling to have anything addressed to and sent to her directly.

gingergirl21

Looks like you're lucky enough not to have been in such a situation. She's in temporary accommodation moving from B&Bs to short term lets until she can sort something out that's more permanent.

Anyway - the point here isn't to question why she needs things to come to me, but just accept that is the case here and help answer the question.

I'm going to use the PPI checkers on the websites for most of the accounts as she can't remember whether she had PPI on most of them but I need them to be responding to me rather than the address which will be on the accounts.

How do I do this?

Nasqueron

Be careful using "ppi checkers", most are linked to claims firms who will make up any old guff to try and get you to use them. She just needs to remember which firms she had accounts with and then ring and ask them, then give them authority to deal with you

gingergirl21

I've been doing this for about 3 years. I only use the lenders' PPI checkers. I also have a spreadsheet where I record absolutely every bit of correspondence.

We don't have time to call round them all. Without going into it there's no way she has the capacity to do that at the moment.

I'm just trying to help a friend by doing the PPI check on her behalf through each lender and then when I have a pile of "yes you had PPI" letters going through the complaint forms with her online.

My question is simply this - how do I get the banks to send correspondence to me rather than to her? I imagine I will have to get her to sign something like the companies no one likes do but what?

Nasqueron

As above if you want to do that all officially you will need power of attorney (or speak to each lender and let her give permission)

macman

Correct. There is no way around this without a PoA, as the providers have to follow data protection rules, and rightly so. Why can't she just pass all the correspondence to you, unread, unopened?
You keep asking the same question, but the answer does not change: there is only one way to have your friend uninvolved in the process.
A PoA will of course give you complete control over her finances, not just PPI claims, and she may be unwilling to grant this.

gingergirl21

How do the claims companies get round this? What is it that they get from clients? I doubt it would be a full POA given the costs and implications. As I keep saying she cannot have the correspondence sent directly to her as she has no fixed address.