118118 Money Reclaim Help

Neo187

Hi all, 
I have an issue with reclaiming money from 118118 (which is all my fault, I understand) But would like some advice please:
I had a loan with 118118 which I extended twice with them (borrow more money and roll into a new loan) Stupid I know. The final time I was swimming in debt fighting a losing battle. shamefully I borrowed further from them to pay off another loan with another company. It ultimately lead to me collapsing financially and struggling to repay, which resulted in a DMP. When I calculated what I had borrowed and already paid over the years, I was horrified. At the time of entering the DMP, I had borrowed a total of £6350 from 118118, with the repayments a staggering total of £13,600. At the time of collapse, I had repaid over £8K, so was left paying a further £5K to pay which was just purely interest. I wrote to 118 when I entered the DMP and told them their fees were beyond extortion and I had to enter a DMP. They replied with the standard 'They completed all necessary checks etc'. Anyway a year and half later I heard that you could actually try to reclaim interest from 118118, so I started the process of writing to them to make a compliant which was rebuked again, so I escalated it to the Financial Ombudsman. However, the Ombudsman have said they will not get involved, as I did not escalate this complaint within 6 months (118 classed my initial complaint to them as final over a year earlier, when I hadn't really asked for any interest to be repaid) 

So now I am stuck with either having to swallow 118118 charging such horrific interest on their loan which I had to pay, which also ruined me financially, or is there an alternative? Would a third party claims company still be able to fight my claim for me, or would they say exactly the same as the FO? Yes I realise getting myself into this situation is my own doing and I should bear responsibility. But I detest the way 118118 made it so easy. To rollover the loans and borrow more, it was literally a click of a button on the invite email. Plus the final time I extended, I was in debt to region of £18,000 with them and other loan companies. The repayments each month became a losing battle, which became me trying to rob Peter to pay Paul as such. 

Thanks 

Neo187

Also to add, I am still repaying the DMP, so would put off any third party claims, right? As any money awarded would go towards the debt first, limiting the amount the third party might be able to take as a %?

[Deleted User]

Neo187 said:

At the time of collapse, I had repaid over £8K, so was left paying a further £5K to pay which was just purely interest. 

The 5k isn't interest. It's the capital, on which interest will be charged. Your 5k figure may or may not include that interest , depending on how you calculated it.

FOS are correct that you needed to escalate o them within 6 months. And please don't use a claims company.  They will charge you a fee when they find out you've already complained and taken it to FOS, and you don't need to be paying more fees right now.

Presumably the debt is within the DMP? What are the terms of it? You need to look at the wider picture of your debt and plan a route out of it.

Jamesyb123

You may have had a good case for an affordability complaint but unfortunately you missed the deadline. There’s no way around that.

sourcrates

All claims management companies do is post your complaint instead of you doing it yourself, that’s it, nothing more, not bad for a 30% mark up.