Northern Rock PPI

Hi all,

I hope someone might be able to help.

With all the publicity surrounding the end of PPI claims, I thought I'd better just check my own records - I'd been meaning to do it for a while but never quite got round to it til now.

I made a claim against Santander for an A&L loan - claim upheld no problem.

I have then made a claim against NRAM for a Northern Rock mortgage - claim not upheld.

A bit of background:

I took out a 108% mortgage (them were the days!) with Northern Rock in 2004 via an adviser (the adviser no longer being in business).

At the time I was working in Local Government in a permanent job with the then generous sick pay and redundancy allowances etc - and I stayed there for another 10 years, I had no dependants and my health insurance would have covered the full cost of the mortgage; so looking back there wasn't really going to be a circumstance that I would actually have needed the PPI.

I had told the adviser that I worked in Local Government, but was told that the mortgage came with PPI and I had to have it.

Being a bit of a wet behind the ears 26 year old getting my first mortgage, I'd put a bit of trust in the adviser (yep I know now that that was my biggest mistake) and accepted what they were telling me to be true. So I took the mortgage with the PPI.

A year later, I contacted Northern Rock and cancelled the PPI as I'd realised by then that I didn't really need it. I wrote it off as being one of those things and got on with it.

3 years later, and being a bit more savvy having found this website, I ported over to ING on my own. A couple of years later not thinking I'd ever need them again I shredded all of my Northern Rock paperwork with the exception of my statements which I kept.

Fast forward to last month, where I finally made a claim via the NRAM website for mis-selling. I wasn't asked to provide any evidence nor attach documents to the claim just basic details keyed into a webpage.

Despite the fact that I only gave them my mortgage number (taken from the statement) they also referred to another number, presumably for the unsecured loan element of the 108%, so they had obviously found me on their system.

They told me that they contacted the Insurer, Cardif Pinnacle, who after a 'thorough search' were unable to find a policy in my name. They invited me to provide evidence with evidence being given as 'a reference number or proof of payment of premiums' and if I could they would look again at my complaint.

I duly sent back copies of my statement for 2004 and 2005 which showed 'Insurance Premium' being shown as a £34.09 underneath charges against my secured loan.

Despite providing this, I have today received a letter from NRAM telling me that 'the documentation provided does not prove that you have a policy, therefore it is advised that you contact Cardif Pinnacle directly in order to provide the necessary documentation'.

Again they have said that should I be able to provide further information 'such as a reference number or proof of payment of premiums' then they would look into it.

Given that I only have the statements left, I can't really provide them with anymore information other than what I have provided through NRAM.

The letters they have sent have the same paragraph in almost to the letter - in fact the only difference is the second letter refers to it as PPI and not MPPI; which makes me wonder if they're just trying to fob me off.

My question now, is what do I do now?

NRAM don't want to know, Cardif Pinnacle (through NRAM) don't have any record of me, the adviser is no longer in business and the only record I have of paying PPI is a scanned pdf of the statement from 2004.

Is this something that I can or should be referring to the Ombudsman, or do I just accept that there's no point chasing and just be grateful I only paid a year PPI?

Any responses gratefully received.

Cheers