PPI Reclaiming discussion Part II

sarahc5388

Laini wrote: »

28 May 2008
Dear Mr & Mrs xxxxx


Your complaint about Firstplus Financial Group Plc trading as Firstplus


I am writing to set out my assessment of your complaint. In reaching my assessment I have considered all the evidence produced by you and Firstplus.

Complaint
This is a complaint about the sale of a payment protection insurance (PPI) policy.

Circumstances
In December 2006, you arranged finance with Firstplus and at the same time, you took out a single premium PPI policy, which covered your monthly loan payments if you became unemployed or incapacitated. You borrowed an additional amount to pay for the policy. Some of the figures in respect of the borrowing were set out in a loan agreement, a copy of which was provided to you.

You have complained about the way the policy was sold and Firstplus rejected the complaint on the basis that it had fulfilled its obligations when selling the policy.

Findings
Before I specifically address the merits of your complaint, I believe it would be helpful if I explained the role of The Financial Ombudsman Service when assessing complaints. The Financial Ombudsman Service is impartial and is independent of both the industry and the complainants.

I have carefully reviewed all the evidence and arguments presented by both you and Firstplus.

When Firstplus sold the PPI policy, it had a responsibility to ensure that you were able to make an informed choice as to whether or not to purchase it. The fact that the policy required payment by a single lump-sum premium for a fixed term policy with a restrictive cancellation condition and additional borrowing placed the firm under a duty to ensure that you had the opportunity to understand the significant features of the policy and its cost, so that you could make an informed choice between this and alternative products or to decide to not purchase the policy at all.

I have listened to the recorded sales calls and considered your submissions. Your evidence suggests that you did not fully understand the policy and how it was funded at the point of sale and, whilst I accept that reference to the cost of the policy was made on the loan agreement, this was not clearly set out, which meant that you were unlikely to fully appreciate how the policy was funded.

The policy was a five year plan funded by a premium loan added to the twenty five year borrowing. If the complainants had kept the policy in place, you would have paid interest against the PPI loan for the twenty five year term although you would only have enjoyed cover for twenty percent of that time. If you wanted further cover, you would have had to take out and pay for a further policy whilst still paying for the original PPI. These implications do not appear to have been put to you during the sales call made on 3 November 2006 which I have listened to.

In addition, Firstplus did not appear to have drawn your attention specifically to the restrictive cancellation condition in the policy.

Therefore, I am persuaded that the policy was not adequately explained to you at point of sale – in other words, you were not sufficiently aware of the cost or the implications of having a single premium policy to make an informed choice at that time.

Conclusions
Accordingly I conclude that Firstplus should pay redress to you with the intention of putting you as closely as is practicable in the position you would have been in had the PPI policy not been sold.

I therefore recommend that Firstplus should:

(a)calculate the amount you paid in total in respect of your overall loan, including fees, penalties, as well as interest and repayments and reflecting any premium refund allowed on cancellation of the PPI policy;

(b)calculate the amount you would have paid in total had the original loan been taken without the additional borrowing to fund the PPI, but assuming it was settled on the same date (including fees, penalties, as well as interest and repayments);

(c)pay you the difference between (a) and (b) plus interest at 8% per annum simple from the date your loan was redeemed to the date Firstplus pay this compensation.

Firstplus has agreed to my recommendation.

I trust you will, therefore, be prepared to accept my assessment of your complaint. However, if you have any new points that you consider we should take into account and which you believe would make a difference to the outcome, please let me have them by 11 June 2008. If you are unable to reply fully by then, please let me know now.

Otherwise, please sign, date and return to me the attached settlement form so that it reaches me by 11 June 2008, to confirm your acceptance of my assessment in full and final settlement of your complaint. I will then ask Firstplus to settle the matter with you direct.

Yours sincerely

just thought i would say please please dont give up!!!
I will post the amount received when we receive the cheque

Laini xxx_party__party__party__party_:money::money::mone y::money::money:

WELL DONE!!!! I am really chuffed for you - would do a cartwheel but my back has decided not to work on me and am finding it difficult to even walk!! Lets hops there are lots more stories like this - keep up the good work everyone:beer::T:beer::T:beer::T:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

sarahc5388

sarahc5388 wrote: »

Have just gone through my statements with a fine tooth - they paid me an insurance refund of £750.72 on the 22 Dec, how does this effect thing. All answers appreciated and keep up the good work:D

For Tiggrae and MColak - how does this effect things - I really want to be prepared for when (if) they get back to me. Very many thanks!

tiggrae

marluc wrote: »

Hi Tiggrae.
Sorry to sound a little thick, but when you have some time, could you explain what you mean about Bespoke / Freedom not being licenced in Gibraltar?
Thanks

It's Bespoke I'm talking about, they are a Company Registered in Gibraltar with a main office address in Gibralter, everytime a complaint is made against Freedom they say 'wasn't us - it was sold by Bespoke' but Bespoke are not licenced to sell financial products in Gibralter, so either they are operating illegally or they are a shell company, set up with the one simple purpose of deflecting complaints for mis selling against Freedom !!

tiggrae

marshallka wrote: »

tiggrae, thats what i am doing too. I asked if the FOS could help with the ppi misselling and they said no. I then asked if they help with the unfair rebate issue and they have said to send a complaint in and they can check the rule of 78 was applied correctly. I have then sent in my complaint and some of the paperwork i received with the SAR and asked that they look into the ppi thing as well as it looks like firstplus put this together after we applied for the loan. If it was Firstplus then maybe they can help us, i don't know yet but i thought the FOS dealt with more issues than misselling of ppi. Surely they should help with this too.

It's to do with Jurisdiction, basically if the firm you bought your ppi from wasn't under their jurisdiction at the time of sale then they can't look at your complaint - however, First Plus are a part of Barclays - so if your complaint is about an unfair rebate (ie an unfair contract term in the agreement with FirstPlus) because barclays have always been covered by the FOS they can look at your complaint !!

tiggrae

sarahc5388 wrote: »

For Tiggrae and MColak - how does this effect things - I really want to be prepared for when (if) they get back to me. Very many thanks!

hi sarah, sorry but I'm not sure I understand the question ?

marshallka

tiggrae wrote: »

It's Bespoke I'm talking about, they are a Company Registered in Gibraltar with a main office address in Gibralter, everytime a complaint is made against Freedom they say 'wasn't us - it was sold by Bespoke' but Bespoke are not licenced to sell financial products in Gibralter, so either they are operating illegally or they are a shell company, set up with the one simple purpose of deflecting complaints for mis selling against Freedom !!

I was told by Freedom Finance that they were working for Bespoke and that they were an "umbrella" company of Freedom (or the other way round) and that all my original documents said this on. I have requested a SAR from Freedom for this purpose and should receive this soon. If it turns out they are lying then what? How can we be helped in LAW?? Surely there is some organisation that deals with things like this in that we were sold a loan from a company not even legal to sell loans and ppi. Where do we that are affected go for help.

Bespoke have sent their final response as well to me (Firstplus sent my complaint to them) but i have requested my SAR from Freedom ifyou know what i mean as i refuse to have dealings with a company i have NEVER heard of or had dealings with in the past.

Also Firstplus should not have allowed this in the first place. What can i get Firstplus with in legal terms.


Also tiggrae, I was told by the FOS if the rule of 78 was applied correctly then there is nothing they can do. I have my complaint yet to be answered and its about an unfair rebate. Who can i go to after the FOS if they say it was ok for them to do this. They have told me it was quite ok to apply this back then. I thought they would take on things like unfair contracts and unfair rebates and misleading information. I have stated in my complaint that even if my terms stated the rule of 78 would be applied (I don;t think they did) then you would of had to be in the field of finance to know how this rule worked and that it was misleading. Do you think they can look into things like this.

kats9lives

has anyone had any luck in claiming Credit Card PPI?

didn't even realise i had it on 2 of my cards until i started the process of claiming back credit card charges.

tiggrae

marshallka wrote: »

I was told by Freedom Finance that they were working for Bespoke and that they were an "umbrella" company of Freedom (or the other way round) and that all my original documents said this on. I have requested a SAR from Freedom for this purpose and should receive this soon. If it turns out they are lying then what? How can we be helped in LAW?? Surely there is some organisation that deals with things like this in that we were sold a loan from a company not even legal to sell loans and ppi. Where do we that are affected go for help.

Bespoke have sent their final response as well to me (Firstplus sent my complaint to them) but i have requested my SAR from Freedom ifyou know what i mean as i refuse to have dealings with a company i have NEVER heard of or had dealings with in the past.

Also Firstplus should not have allowed this in the first place. What can i get Firstplus with in legal terms.


Also tiggrae, I was told by the FOS if the rule of 78 was applied correctly then there is nothing they can do. I have my complaint yet to be answered and its about an unfair rebate. Who can i go to after the FOS if they say it was ok for them to do this. They have told me it was quite ok to apply this back then. I thought they would take on things like unfair contracts and unfair rebates and misleading information. I have stated in my complaint that even if my terms stated the rule of 78 would be applied (I don;t think they did) then you would of had to be in the field of finance to know how this rule worked and that it was misleading. Do you think they can look into things like this.

I believe under the Consumer Credit Act the seller of a product has to identify themselves, I think this whole bespoke thing is a smoke screen. If you can't go to the FOS then the next recourse is the County Courts - and I would definately identify Freedom as the defendant - as under UK court jurisdication you can sue a company in Gibraltar, but the UK bailiffs have no inforcement authority, so you could win your case but if they don't pay up you've no means of getting your money !!! They've been quite clever S**Ts !!!

tiggrae

tiggrae wrote: »

I believe under the Consumer Credit Act the seller of a product has to identify themselves, I think this whole bespoke thing is a smoke screen. If you can't go to the FOS then the next recourse is the County Courts - and I would definately identify Freedom as the defendant - as under UK court jurisdication you can sue a company in Gibraltar, but the UK bailiffs have no inforcement authority, so you could win your case but if they don't pay up you've no means of getting your money !!! They've been quite clever S**Ts !!!

What people need to do who have been affected by this is contact the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and make a complaint against Bespoke for operating without a licence, lets see if we can't smoke them out, the more people who complain then we could get bespoke shut down and Freedom won't have anyone to hide behind !!!

Or write to BBC Watchdog and expose this scam

tiggrae

kats9lives wrote: »

has anyone had any luck in claiming Credit Card PPI?

didn't even realise i had it on 2 of my cards until i started the process of claiming back credit card charges.

yes, doesn't matter whether is PPI on a credit card or a loan, the concept of mis selling is exactly the same !!!