Premium Credit Ltd - Surrey

[Sophie-Jane]

Please advise on this please, below is part of the Letter received after sending for DTA details

And also my Points in RED
_________________________ ______________________

I would draw your attention to the first sentence of the second paragraph of section 1 Key Financial Information. This says "The monthly payment is payable on the same day of each month (when there is an outstanding balance on the account) commencing one month after the first insurance inception date," As you were aware of your policy inception date being 20th July 2005 you should have been aware that the first instalment would be collected on 20th August 2005 and on the same day in each following month. Under section 3 Key Information it makes it clear that:
"We will charge £12.50 for each payment that you make otherwise than by direct debit in breach of clause 6 of the terms and conditions; and £20 for any dishonoured Direct Debit."

1st Point - Agreement did not arrive until around 22nd August, Signed 22nd August, So unaware when payments would be collected and the charges that would result due to failed Direct debit
2nd Point - Did not know that these Charges were unlawful - Or are they Lawful?

You question in your letter the whether the charge made by Premium Credit Limited on the dishonouring of a Direct Debit is a penalty. Premium Credit believes that the default charge it makes is a reasonable estimate of the additional administrative costs which occur as a result of a customers breach of their contract and therefore is in line with the recent Office of Fair Trading guidance.



The letter continues, but the main thing is the following which is supposed to be an extract of the "Office of Fair Trading guidence"

"Exceptional credit policies
5.10 A bank may set its credit policies in such a way that it may reasonably expect that, in comparison with its competitors, only a relatively small proportion of its customers will fail to make a minimum payment. The example that we have in mind is a bank that offers credit cards only to customers that satisfy a relatively high scoring requirement and has a policy of requiring those customers to pay minimum monthly repayments by direct debits. A bank in such exceptional circumstances is likely to find fewer incidents of default over which to spread recovery of its fixed costs. The denominator it uses to calculate default fees may therefore be lower. It would however still be necessary, in assessing the level of a fair charge, to review whether only recoverable costs were being taken into account in the numerator."

Signed
Raymond Fear
_________________________ _________________________ __

Aptly Signed by FEAR ???

Is the reclaiming of the charges, it only amounts to £40 & £10 Data Protection Act charge, is this worth the fight??
I hate these companies taking hard earned money

Are these just plain scare tactics to try and scare me away, well with his name being FEAR, I wonder

[craigwalton]

I would fill out a moneyclaim form, print it out, and advise them "unless I receive the money requested in 14 days I have no alternative than to take this to court".

I can see what you are saying with it only being £40, but this way they know you mean it, and will probably pay.

they are wrong with the OFT. They have advised £20 is not acceptable.

[Sophie-Jane]

Thanks again Craig

I will start the process on Monday, well send the letter on Monday I mean

Thanks again

Originally Posted by craigwalton

I would fill out a moneyclaim form, print it out, and advise them "unless I receive the money requested in 14 days I have no alternative than to take this to court".

I can see what you are saying with it only being £40, but this way they know you mean it, and will probably pay.

they are wrong with the OFT. They have advised £20 is not acceptable.

[andrew1]

Whilst I am encouraged by the bravado of the response, I would suggest that one of the Moderators take a look over this original posting. It's your £40, but it looks as though this company have been very careful in their wording and it really needs a legal eye over it before you go firing off willy nilly. No disrespect meant to the above response but as we have learned from all the other input from such a diverse range of experience coming to this site that you can actually construct a very vallied and sound response to these characters based on fact, experience and law. Can you be a little clearer as to the foundation of your answer. We may be able to learn from you too.

[Sophie-Jane]

I wonder if this person has also shot himself in the foot too

In Red Bold type

Originally Posted by Sophie-Jane

You question in your letter the whether the charge made by Premium Credit Limited on the dishonouring of a Direct Debit is a penalty. Premium Credit believes that the default charge it makes is a reasonable estimate of the additional administrative costs which occur as a result of a customers breach of their contract and therefore is in line with the recent Office of Fair Trading guidance.

Is this similar to the message from Alan in the following Thread?

Clydesdale Finance post number 4 by Alan

[craigwalton]

Originally Posted by andrew1

Can you be a little clearer as to the foundation of your answer. We may be able to learn from you too.

Yes, sorry. I was thinking along the lines of it being £40. It will not be in the company's interest to defend this in court, in view of the financial implications for them. For £40 I would imagine that they will defend the 1st complaint letter (as they have), but allow the refund on the 2nd complaint letter. I did not mean for you to start the moneyclaim yet, but to print out an application form for you to show the company that you are prepared to take this all the way. By showing the moneyclaim form it does show that you are knowledgeable about the process, and I suspect you would receive the refund from this.

Hope this helps

[Sophie-Jane]

Originally Posted by craigwalton

print out an application form for you to show the company that you are prepared to take this all the way. By showing the moneyclaim form it does show that you are knowledgeable about the process, and I suspect you would receive the refund from this.

Hope this helps

I know of the Moneyclaim website, never used it as yet,

Is there a application on site that I could use, or do I need to complete online and print off before actually proceeding, Please I never used Moneyclaim and do not wish to start proceedings until I have covered all steps.

At present, I have sent the 1st letter, see where that gets me, and if I am not satisfied, I will continue with the 2nd letter and attach the Moneyclaim form

Any help is Always apreciated

[alanfromderby]

Originally Posted by Sophie-Jane

At present, I have sent the 1st letter, see where that gets me, and if I am not satisfied, I will continue with the 2nd letter and attach the Moneyclaim form

They are trying to scare you. A bit confused though, did they send that response as a result of your Data Protection Act Request, or was it as a result of the Prelim?

[Sophie-Jane]

Originally Posted by alanfromderby

They are trying to scare you. A bit confused though, did they send that response as a result of your Data Protection Act Request, or was it as a result of the Prelim?

The responce in message 1, was with the Data Protection Act request

Suppose they were trying to scare me, But with the advise I have had from this site, I know that is so, and will proceed to get all monies that is owed

And after the first win, will be a nice donation to keep up the good work

Thanks

[surreyscouse]

for what it is worth, premium credit are owned by MBNA now so you can expect them to be awkward although I do agree that you will probably get the £40 back as it will not be worth their while going to court

[deemacperth]

I'm surprised they are quoting 5.10 at you. They now have to prove why they believe this excessive figure of theirs covers the increased administrative costs.

You've got it in the bag.

[Sophie-Jane]

Thank you everyone

I know its only a small sum, but this company has been such a Ar$% to talk with

Don't ruffle my feathers - unless you want a retalitory reaction

What bothered me is that the only way they would allow payment was via Direct Debit, which if on time was free to use, If you needed to use another type of payment, they would charge you £12:50 for each and every payment on top of your normal payment

Will keep you all informed of proceedings

1st letter sent 7th May 2006

[Sophie-Jane]

Hi everyone

Anyone who is following this thread, you may be interested in the following, which is the letter sent to me after only the Prelim Letter (letter 1)



Dear Mrs xxxxx

Thank you for your letter of 6th May 2006.

I refer you to my letter of 4th May 2006 wherein I explained that the charges made by Premium Credit are in accordance with the recent guidence issued by the Office of Fair Trading. These charges are not penalties and are therefore not unlawful. However, as a gesture of goodwill it has been decided to refund the charges totalling £40 and a cheque is enclosed. The fee paid under the Data Protection Act is not refundable.

Yours Sincerely

Raymond Fear
Compliance Manager



I would be interested in your views on this, I know it was only £40, and I feel that I have at last recovered my losses with an Company which are, well not fit to hold an Licence to deal with customers money due to the fees levied if you pay by alternative means as in a previous thread I've posted about Premium Credit.

As far as I am concerned, it seems that I have them on tender hooks

But I just also noticed that either the cheque is unsigned, or they use Alpha numeric ditits to sign cheques these days

[Sophie-Jane]

Just checking

Are these new fangled cheques signed by computers now with a Rectanglular block with several colours inside ??

Thanks everyone for your help

Donation is on its way soon

[alanfromderby]

I believe they can be now. I know that it was possible in the past to "sign" cheques with a rubber stamp, providing it was approved by the bank.

[craigwalton]

Well done!!!