Thread: PPI Refund from Hellifax ~ but advice needed

The credit card I have from Halifax had PPI on it which I paid from 2003 - 2007, I cancelled when I realised I was paying for a useless policy.

I SARed them in Jan 07, no information received about any insurance or if I'd ever requested it. I placed the account in dispute and stopped paying. Since then I have been defaulted and the account passed to BOS and various other DCAs for "collection".

In December I finally managed to speak to someone with brains, they admitted my complaint had not been fully resolved and I needed an answer.
I wrote a final letter giving them the chance to produce my policy or refund the money.

In January they wrote and told me they were NOT admitting liability BUT as a gesture of goodwill they would refund my premiums and put me in a position I would have been in had I not been sold the PPI.

Now here's the thing, the balance on the card is around 3k, they have offered the following refund BUT against the balance as they claim I have arrears;
PPI £1000
interest £120
8% interest £220

First of all they have charged simple interest on the PPI while I was charged contractual on the account. The amount paid is around £200 more. How can they award the 8% interest and then pay it back to themselves?

My argument is that in order to put me back in the position I was prior to being sold the PPI, Halifax would need to do the following

1. Refund the PPI to me and not the account
2. Remove all of the adverse information on my credit file lodged by Halifax
3. Remove the default
4. Refund back to the account the charges they made while the account was in disput
5. Return the account to it's former state, i.e. operational with a valid card, credit facilities and myself making regular payment to pay the balance.

i have already rang them, told them the interest amount is wrong, and that I want a cheque for the refund. i have faxed them this morning a copy of my spreadsheet showing the correct amount of interest charged. I have also told them I will take them to court if they refuse to send me a cheque.
They said yesterday that they will ring me today with their answer.

Now I need some ammunition to fire at them regarding the refund and their promise to "return my position"

Anyone got any ideas?

Hello birchave,

welcome to the PPI forum,

The credit card I have from Halifax had PPI on it which I paid from 2003 - 2007, I cancelled when I realised I was paying for a useless policy.

I SARed them in Jan 07, no information received about any insurance or if I'd ever requested it. I placed the account in dispute and stopped paying. Thtat is the correct action no response to SAR then Information Commissioners Office (My approach) or account in dispute as no CCA produced. Since then I have been defaulted and the account passed to BOS and various other DCAs for "collection". Usual response on non payment of minimum payment issue.

In December I finally managed to speak to someone with brains, they admitted my complaint had not been fully resolved and I needed an answer.
I wrote a final letter giving them the chance to produce my policy or refund the money.

In January they wrote and told me they were NOT admitting liability BUT as a gesture of goodwill they would refund my premiums and put me in a position I would have been in had I not been sold the PPI. This offer of goodwill was due to the fact the FSA have been banging heavy fines on banks for mis-selling. Alliance and Leicester was £7million. (way to go)

Now here's the thing, the balance on the card is around 3k, they have offered the following refund BUT against the balance as they claim I have arrears; As the offer is goodwill without admission of liability they are in fact admitting liability otherwise why offer any money back to you. In this instance I would advise you to only accept a personal cheque made out in your name for the amount they are offering to refund on the mis-sold PPI. They will try and write off the repayment against what you owe on your card which in effect reduces their risk.
PPI £1000
interest £120
8% interest £220

First of all they have charged simple interest on the PPI while I was charged contractual on the account. The same happened in my claims you pay contractual and they offer repayment of simple interest.The fos in my case agreed that was probably the best I could expect but IMO not exactly a fair result. The amount paid is around £200 more. How can they award the 8% interest and then pay it back to themselves? Well that's the banking industry for you rip of up to the wire

My argument is that in order to put me back in the position I was prior to being sold the PPI, Halifax would need to do the following

1. Refund the PPI to me and not the account I agree
2. Remove all of the adverse information on my credit file lodged by Halifax again I agree
3. Remove the default Agreed again
4. Refund back to the account the charges they made while the account was in disput They are not allowed to impose any charges while the account is in dispute There are laws on this but I would have to search CAG forums to find the correct info.
5. Return the account to it's former state, i.e. operational with a valid card, credit facilities and myself making regular payment to pay the balance. They will undoubtedly make this difficult for you now you have tried to get honey from their hive.

i have already rang them, told them the interest amount is wrong, and that I want a cheque for the refund. i have faxed them this morning a copy of my spreadsheet showing the correct amount of interest charged. I have also told them I will take them to court if they refuse to send me a cheque.
They said yesterday that they will ring me today with their answer.

If you have a sound case then if you go to the Financial Ombudsmand Service first giving them all of the information and your complaint is not upheld then you still have the Court option that way you have two bites of the cherry.

Now I need some ammunition to fire at them regarding the refund and their promise to "return my position"

Anyone got any ideas?

FOS first then Court if needed...Financial Ombudsman Service

more info in here.....links

aa

Thanks for that AA, I had a call from them on Friday afternoon, they had received my spreadsheet and were waiting for the information they needed to be sent to them from card services.
I have drafted my complaint to the fos and it is waiting for Halifax to come back with their answer, it they won't agree I will send it.

The only thing is I already have a complaint with the FOS for Marbles (HFC Bank), I sent it in Jan 08, it is still awaiting allocation, they are now estimating 14-18 months for complaints to be resolved. It's an awful long time to wait.....
It's already took me nearly 2 years to get this far so if I send my compalint it could be nearly 3 - 3 and a half years before it gets resolved.

Also another quick question, on my spreadsheet, do I keep adding the interest onto the PPI amount right up until today's date? Or do I stop it and use the date that Halifax froze the amount? They haven't added any interest or charges on it since last summer.

thanks

Birch

Hello Birch,

Thanks for that AA, I had a call from them on Friday afternoon, they had received my spreadsheet and were waiting for the information they needed to be sent to them from card services.
I have drafted my complaint to the fos and it is waiting for Halifax to come back with their answer, it they won't agree I will send it.

The only thing is I already have a complaint with the FOS for Marbles (HFC Bank), I sent it in Jan 08, it is still awaiting allocation, they are now estimating 14-18 months for complaints to be resolved. It's an awful long time to wait..... Yes it is a long time to wait my complaint took over a year from initial action on the bank but the FOS came up with a solution within 4-5 months.
It's already took me nearly 2 years to get this far so if I send my compalint it could be nearly 3 - 3 and a half years before it gets resolved.
You have to remember this option via FOS is free and if you do not accept the adjudicators decision you can ask the Ombudsman to make a ruling
Also another quick question, on my spreadsheet, do I keep adding the interest onto the PPI amount right up until today's date? Or do I stop it and use the date that Halifax froze the amount? They haven't added any interest or charges on it since last summer. When it comes to a settlement the FOS if they agree with your complaint will usually ask for the premiums and the interest on them plus 8% statutory interest to be added. The falldown here is that the 8% is usually simple interest and not compound (Yet another money saver for the rip off banks) and the refund elements of any settlement is usually in their favour by using the rule of 78 which as they use it is probably saving them thousands on the mis-selling issue.

I may not be on for a while except for a quick look see.

Just got my daughter out of hospital after apendectomy and am watching her three children and to boot my dad 86 has just been admitted to hospital so if you hear nothing do not worry I will be back on line as soon as I can.

aa



thanks

Birch :grin:

AA, thanks, hope your family will all be on the mend very soon.......

I was expecting a call back yesterday, but no call yet. I will wait until about 4 today and give them a call. If they don't want to play then I'll just threaten them with the fos. I will also remind them that the FOS are up holding 80% of the PPI complaints at the moment.

Thanks again and I hope all is well

Birch
x

Hello birchave,

AA, thanks, hope your family will all be on the mend very soon.......

I was expecting a call back yesterday, but no call yet. I will wait until about 4 today and give them a call. If they don't want to play then I'll just threaten them with the fos. I will also remind them that the FOS are up holding 80% of the PPI complaints at the moment. If possible try and keep everything in writing. It is too easy to deny what has been said over the telephone unless you can record detail.

Thanks again and I hope all is well

Birch
x

Thank you for the wishes for family.

OK, now they didn't ring, what a suprise!
so i rang them, they reckon my spreadsheet is wrong and they only charge simple interest on the account where PPI is concerned, therefore the refund will only consist of simple interest, oh and they reckon that this is following fos advice?????

so I have worked out the PPI at simple interest, my amount still almost doubles theirs....
But I'm sure that on the account contractual interest was used against the PPI each month, I just have to prove it! Now maths is not my strong point, so I'm off the see if I can break down my payments and work out the interest, wish me luck! It may take some time!:grin:

Birch - I had exactly the same issue. They charged simple 8% interest, also irrespective of time - as some of the charges were 4 years old, this meant they were paying me 2% interest!!

They also claimed this was fos guidance - even though the FOS confirmed that this was wholly incorrect.

Still awaiting a time when I have enough time to pursue via FOS....

Originally Posted by MrShed

Birch - I had exactly the same issue. They charged simple 8% interest, also irrespective of time - as some of the charges were 4 years old, this meant they were paying me 2% interest!!

They also claimed this was fos guidance - even though the FOS confirmed that this was wholly incorrect.

Still awaiting a time when I have enough time to pursue via FOS....

well they reckon my sums don't add up but niether do theirs!
my new spreadsheets worked out the simple interest at 8% but according to Halifax the APR on the account was 9.9%, so using 8% is nearly 2% less than mine and its still double the amount they have come up with!

Well it looks like I will have to go the FOS route, it's taken 2 years to get this far

My marbles complaint was lodged last January and after 13 months it still hasn't been allocated! i hear they are snowed under with complaints (no pun intended!!)

i will also have a look at FOS wesite and see if there is any info on there regarding refunds, cheers!

I rang card services to see if I could find out what the APR was at the start of the account, and when it changed and what to. The copy statements they sent me do not have this info on them.

Girl at card services said 17.9% at the moment, but was unable to tell me when it changed......
What she did tell me was that the PPI had already been refunded backagainst the account! I never agreed to that!

I was then passed to customer resources who sadly failed to understand anything I said. She said she will request the missing APR data so i can see how this has worked out the interest.
When I pointed out that I had not agreed to the PPI being paid back into the account I was told it was company policy. I asked where I can find a copy of this "company policy", there is no copy she said????

hit a bit of a brick wall now, I know I can complain to the fos but that will take forever, and won't they now say that I have already been refunded as it's been paid against the account?????

Anyone

I sort of lost heart over this one
They eventually wrote back to me telling me that they were paying the money back against the account because of the arrears. Now the arrears were there because the account was in dispute over the PPI

So I didn't agree or sign anything, last week I received a letter from Halifax informing me they have sold the account to some DCA and they now want the balance??????
Excuse me??????
I have had nothing in writing from Halifax for 5 months, certainly not a letter informing me or the so called refund. I'm well and truely F***ed off with this now!!!!!

So basically they took PPI on the account, charged contractual interest, refused to give me any information on so called insurance. they then default me when I put account into dispute, then pass it around everyone and their granny, then tell me they will return the PPI, ......to themselves

I think I'm going the fos route with this, I well and truely naffed off

Go for the fos but be sure to send copies of all correspondence with the complaint. You can phone them and get a case number and they will even start to fill in the complaint form for you. It normally arrives next day just complete the form attach everything.

If then the DCAs come down heavy just tell them to back off as the account is in dispute and the subject of a complaint with the FOS and therefore they can take no further action until the dispute has been resolved.

Links that may help with your claim for Mis-sold PPI
Financial Ombudsman Service

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...-insurance.pdf

aa

letter received from the DCA "Hillesden Securites Limited"
Informing me that I have failed to maintain acceptable payment installments????? What installments?????
They have checked the land registry and know that I home owner, so they intend now to apply to the courts for a charging order,all for the sum of £1620.09, I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!!!!

I rang them and basically told them to back off, informed them that I don't soley own my house so I don't think they're not entiltled to do this. I also infromed them that I have now opened a complaint with fos. I have yet to do this, will sort out all of Halifax's letters this week and get it off.

I am fuming

Make the Complaint to the fos a priority as I advised in February.

If you do not act they will !!

I'm on the case AA, however the agreement enforcability case is on thin ice I think

The "You have requested - NO CARD PROTECTION"

sort of covers the fact PPI was mis-sold in a nutshell

Go to the fos or Court with this and IMO you will be on a winner, the Credit Agreement clearly shows you have requested no card protection.

The account must be disputed by a claim to the FOS or Court.

That should then hopefully fend off the DCA threats.

aa

Originally Posted by alanalana

The "You have requested - NO CARD PROTECTION"

sort of covers the fact PPI was mis-sold in a nutshell

Go to the fos or Court with this and IMO you will be on a winner, the Credit Agreement clearly shows you have requested no card protection.

The account must be disputed by a claim to the FOS or Court.

That should then hopefully fend off the DCA threats.

aa

AA I said this but they claim the "repayment cover" is the insurance, not sure why it is worded differently........

Originally Posted by birchave0

AA I said this but they claim the "repayment cover" is the insurance, not sure why it is worded differently........

I believe the fos or Court will resolve this issue your choice on which way to go. I also believe the repayment cover is a form of PPI just worded differently. Whatever terms they use it is a form of insurance to ensure the repayments are met if anything nasty happens and they risk losing the regular monthly PPI/repayment cover premiums.

However it is named it is still a mis-sold insurance cover. You should proceed to claim it back.

There have been so many different ploys to cover up the PPI issue it beggars belief.

Brokers and the lack of disclosure on fees
Secondary companies outside of the UK
Using a name other than PPI to disguise the product
Not having information available over six years old ( This is a ploy that is totally out of order and possibly illegal)
Delaying tactics in providing information requested under a valid Subject access request.
Sending out questionnaires when they already hold the information on file.

and yet more we will no doubt find out about as they develop plans to hang onto the money for as long as possible.

aa



aa

My fos complaint is done and going in tonights post

I've included a copy of the DCA letter regarding the charging order, I've also included a copy of the Halifax "final chance to reduce your debt by 40%" letter" from December 2008. Interesting that they can do this well before my complaint was sorted

Well watch this space........