Claiming on old accounts

JoTo wrote: »

How can you try to claim PPI on old accounts that are now closed?
I had a car loan with black horse, a store card with Burtons and a cc with capital one but don’t have any paperwork.
These accounts have been settled for about 10 years.
Amy help would be greatly appreciated!!

With the Blackhorse loan, you will definitely need the account number, so they can search their archives. Burtons store card PPI complaints are handled by Santander if closed more than six years ago. If later then try NewDay.

First thing to do is phone all of them and ask if they can locate your details on their systems. If nothing shows up try a DSAR and check old bank statements for direct debit payments to these lenders.

Years ago I had a Credit Card from Midland Bank [now known as HSBC]. I know that PPI was charged but I have no paperwork except the letter I wrote to Midland cancelling the Credit Card, quoting the Card number. I sent all these details, plus my current and past addresses to HSBC but they have repliaed saying that 'have been unable to trace you on our internal systems'.

Where do I go from here? Or do I give up?

Travelman wrote: »

Years ago I had a Credit Card from Midland Bank [now known as HSBC]. I know that PPI was charged but I have no paperwork except the letter I wrote to Midland cancelling the Credit Card, quoting the Card number. I sent all these details, plus my current and past addresses to HSBC but they have repliaed saying that 'have been unable to trace you on our internal systems'.

Where do I go from here? Or do I give up?

Yes, lots of banks quote that, or something similar "unable to trace you on our internal systems" or "due to the passage of time account details such as yours are unavailable" I've heard them all. Of course, any paperwork relating to your Midland Bank credit card will have been destroyed about six years after the account closed. The only information they probably still hold will be in the form of microfiche statements.

For an older PPI complaint to succeed you need the account number, proof of payment, evidence that a policy existed and genuine reasons why it was mis-sold.

I'm not saying the bank is lying, it might be that staff dealing with this sort of query genuinely don't know that microfiche records which contain copies of customer statements are rarely destroyed. It might get moved around in long term storage and forgotten about but not destroyed.

One reason for this is, the process needed in order to delete information held in microfiche that is no longer required, could result in damaging data about another customer account which is still active.

Having said all this there is very little anyone can do to rectify the situation, and many of us who had PPI in the 1990's and later will be unable to make a valid complaint. Although, I suppose its our fault in the first instance for not retaining the relevant paperwork.

So, I'm sorry to say, you probably won't be able to take it any further with HSBC, unless you find more evidence, or someone with lots of clout forces the banks to proactively search their microfiche, as the FCA did with Clydesdale Bank in 2015.