Barclays First Plus Loans interest rates

amersall

Don't pay it off !!!! See what responses you get first.
Just so you know you will be time barred as it is over 6 years since you last complained re interest rates. Don't panic I was 3 times and others and we won in the end

Andy2907

Hi Amersall , first of all can i just say thank you as I stumbled across this thread and would of have had no idea about how to go about complaining without your posts.
      Anyway , we took a first plus loan out for 100k in Dec 2005. We paid it off last year with still over 60k outstanding! After reading your thread I emailed Elderbridge complaints and received a letter saying that as the loan was taken out using a 3rd party broker there was nothing they could do and the broker had since closed down. So I then took your advice and complained to the ombudsman and am still awaiting a response. However on Saturday I received another letter from Elderbridge with a response from First Plus enclosed. Basically they accept no responsibility but have made a good will gesture payment offer. It is a fair amount of money but they have put a 6 yr time bar on on it so the payment is only calculated over the last 6 years of the loan and not the full 17 Yrs. I am just looking for a bit of advice as the offer is very tempting. Is this as good as it gets or if the Ombudsman find in my favour would it be for the full length of the loan or would that be limited to 6 yrs also? Plus is there a risk of losing the offer from first plus if i pursue the matter, Thanks for any advice you can give in advance. 

amersall

Brilliant 👏 they will only go back 6 years for interest, that's all I got interest wise but also loan cleared. What is the offer and are you happy with that?. If so then accept it they will never admit liability but are making offers "in confidence " if they don't admit liability then why make offers ! 
Harder because it is cleared and through a 3rd party originally 

Andy2907

The offer is low 5 figures and yes I am happy with it as last week it looked like we would get nothing , on the other hand when I look at how much we have paid over 17 years (over 160K) and still had 60K+ outstanding it doesn't seem that much...

hewhotrainseats

hewhotrainseats said:

amersall said:

That's the correct one. Call them and ask if they have your email. If they say no then make the complaint with them on the phone .
If you hear nothing after 8 weeks then make a complaint to FOS 

Thanks, will do this asap.

So after 8 weeks and 2 letters telling me that they still don't have all the information to hand, I need to go to the FOS (as expected).

Anything in particular I need to tell them?

amersall

Just put your original complaint to them that you sent to Elderbridge.
Let them know you have waited 8 weeks. And the reply you got 

ClaireBellJames

Hi Amersall
i sent a letter of complaint to Elderbridge with the following sentence, ‘I believe that I overpaid interest through the lifetime of the loan & do not believe this loan was sold in my best interest’  in their response they’ve focused solely on the mis-sold aspect & said as I signed for the loan I was willing, which in hindsight I maybe shouldn’t have put, but nothing re overpaid interest.  Should I pass this to the ombudsman with a note that Elderbridge have failed to address my complaint about overpaid interest? They are also saying that as I took the loan out in 2006 that the 6 year rule applies & it’s out of time.  Any advice would be much appreciated. 

amersall

Yes send to FOS see what they come back with, ask for it to be escalated to ombudsman.
Others have been fobbed off with the 6 year rule and were upheld, that is not to say all will.

archie1893

amersall said:

You have it in now, you did ask for it to be passed on to whoever is dealing with these loans with barclays at FOS?
If you did then just sit tight, took me over 10 years to get a result, so 4 month's is a drop in the ocean 😊 keep me updated.
If you didn't put that, let me know when you have a case handler 

Hi amersall,

After waiting on FOS for 6 months I have now been allocated a case handler (Kate Range) for my complaint against First Plus re the interest on my 2nd charge mortgage. 

In her email reply she has stated:
" I can see that you wrote to Elderbridge to complain about your rate in February 2023, more than six years after your loan was repaid in April 2015. This means I'll most likely only be able to consider your complaint if First plus consents, or if there were exceptional circumstances which prevented you from complaining in time.

To help me ensure that I'm progressing your case appropriately please  can you let me know if there were any exceptional circumstances which meant that you couldn't complain about your rate sooner?

If you've complained about your rate in the past please can you send me copies of any responses or acknowledgement letters you received from Firstplus about your complaints."

I have phoned previously (before loan was paid off in 2015) to Firstplus to complain about the interest rates and cause 7 etc but unfortunately don't have letters to verify that. 

Could you possibly help in advising how I should reply to the case handler in the first instance?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks. 

amersall

Let her know that you complained by telephone re interest rates, dates, if you can remember  and you no longer have any proof.
Had you known that 8 years after repaying the loan people were being given
 "goodwill gestures " due to the interest rate clause then you would have kept them.