Hi, I wonder if anyone could help me with this.

I recently wrote to the HFC using a template letter I found on The Motley Fool, to request a refund of the payment protection insurance, on the grounds that it was miss-sold during the telephone conversation with the bank.

I received a reply informing me that the only thing I could do would be to settle this loan and take out a new one without the PPI. I wrote back to them informing them that this was not an acceptable solution and that I would like my complaint to be escalated in accordance with their internal complaints procedure, as I was miss-sold the insurance and require a full refund plus interest charged on this insurance. I also informed them that, if they were not prepared to comply with this request, I would be requesting a recording of the original telephone conversation through the Data Protection Act so that I could take this complaint further.

I then received the banks final response, which states:

“Having given careful consideration to all of the information I write to advise that I am unable to uphold your complaint and have summarised below the basis on which I have made this decision.”

(No reason given, just brief details of the loan and previous correspondence regarding the complaint.)

“Your complaint has now been passed to me in order to respond. Having reviewed your complaint I do believe HFC Bank has acted inappropriately with regard to this matter.”

The letter then goes on to say that the loan was inclusive of PPI and therefore cannot just be cancelled and that if I remain dissatisfied I now have the right to refer my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

Hi, I wonder if anyone could help me with this.

I recently wrote to the HFC using a template letter I found on The Motley Fool, to request a refund of the payment protection insurance, on the grounds that it was miss-sold during the telephone conversation with the bank.

I received a reply informing me that the only thing I could do would be to settle this loan and take out a new one without the PPI. I wrote back to them informing them that this was not an acceptable solution and that I would like my complaint to be escalated in accordance with their internal complaints procedure, as I was miss-sold the insurance and require a full refund plus interest charged on this insurance. I also informed them that, if they were not prepared to comply with this request, I would be requesting a recording of the original telephone conversation through the Data Protection Act so that I could take this complaint further.

I then received the banks final response, which states:

 

“Having given careful consideration to all of the information I write to advise that I am unable to uphold your complaint and have summarised below the basis on which I have made this decision.” Who said this?

 

(No reason given, just brief details of the loan and previous correspondence regarding the complaint.)

 

“Your complaint has now been passed to me in order to respond. Having reviewed your complaint I do believe HFC Bank has acted inappropriately with regard to this matter.” Who said this?

The letter then goes on to say that the loan was inclusive of PPI and therefore cannot just be cancelled and that if I remain dissatisfied I now have the right to refer my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

I don't understand - there seems to be some confusion in your post

Thanks BankFodder.

The letter containing these statements was sent by the Compliance Manager. I realise that it reads as though there is some confusion in my post. However this is exactly how the banks letter reads. On one hand they’re admitting at least some blame, and on the other they’re saying that they’re unprepared to uphold my complaint.

The Banks final response:

Dear Mr XxXxxxxx

Reference Account Number XXXXXXXX

Further to your recent complaint, I am sorry to learn that you remain dissatisfied with your previous communication with Mrs Anne Marie Reilly. The details of your complaint have now been escalated to me in accordance with the complaint handling procedure of HFC Bank Ltd.

Having given careful consideration to all of the information I write to advise that I am unable to uphold your complaint and have summarised below the basis on which I have made this decision.

The above account was opened on XX June 2004, further to a telephone application with HFC Direct. The amount borrowed was £6200.00 inclusive of the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) and was scheduled over a period of 60 months.

Your letter dated 6 May advised the PPI on the account had been mis-sold and that you requested to cancel the PPI and the premiums refunded.

Mrs Reilly of our Customer Relations Department wrote to you on 5 May to apologise for any inconvenience and confirmed that taking out PPI is not a condition of the loan being accepted. Mrs Reilly advised the procedure to cancel the Insurance on this type of loan would be to settle this loan and set up a new agreement without Insurance.

On 23 May your letter advised Mrs Reilly that you were unhappy with the resolution of taking out a new loan and requested again that the PPI be removed from your account.

Mrs Reilly responded to you on 5 June advising that she was still investigating your concerns and will respond to you within the next 10 working days. On 7 June you sent a copy of the previous letter advising you had not received a response.

Your complaint has now been passed to me in order to respond. Having reviewed your complaint I do believe HFC Bank has acted inappropriately with regard to this matter.

The loan product you have includes the PPI premium in the amount borrowed as this was purchased up front and therefore we can not just cancel the insurance. The loan will need to be settled and new agreement set up for the balance minus the insurance.

I realise that this may not be the response you were hoping to receive but it does nevertheless bring to an end the steps available to you in accordance with our internal complaint handling procedure.

Should you remain dissatisfied the bank is obliged to advise you of your right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, as this letter constitutes our final response.

Further details about the Ombudsman scheme are set out in the enclosed leaflet and you have six months from the date of this letter within which to refer your complaint to them should you decide to do so.

Yours sincerely

Louise Ahmed-Khan Compliance Manager

enc

Rather than who they recoomend ombudsman just write your last letter 'letter before action' and see if they are willing to go to court!!

Thanks Robert,

I might just do that, as I am quite confident that if this case came to court, that this letter would provide quite strong evidence in my favour. However I do not want to make a threat that I am unable to follow up & at the moment I do not have a clue what to put in the Particulars of Claim for this type of case.

Hello mate, got the PM.

Unfortunatly, it isn't straightforward and it isn't easy. The FSA are looking into PPI just now and looking at what you've described, i.e no way to cancel the insurance without the loan.

Payment protection insurance

This report is meant to be out in September 2006. You actually have a far stronger case than mine as I think it was around 2003 that the FSA started regulating this field.

What I would do is to write to the FSA stating your case and showing HFC's replies. The FSA has the statutory right to intervene on your behalf and actually order HFC to comply and pay you back your money.

I will most probably approach the FSA myself rether than go straight to court as I'm not quite sure what I'm going to argue the point on. I guess we can help each other on this one.

You have a very good position here as they are meant to have sold you the PPI with your best interests at stake as their code of practice states. The fact that you have a letter where they admit they've failed to do this is the smoking gun.

Thanks deepmacperth,

Will certainly write to the FSA & will keep you informed of the outcome. Though I'm still tending towards the small claims route.

Just sent off a Data Protection Act request for a copy of the original recording of the telephone conversation during which I was miss-sold the insurance and the exact cost of the PPI & the rate of interest being charged on this loan as the bank have so far declined to provide me with this information, only providing the total amount borrowed and stating that this is inclusive of Payment Protection Insurance, which I already know.

Cool.

I've just sent my LBA into YCC. I've got the reply that they are looking into the matter and will reply within 14 days, so I'm just setting the timelimit rather than them.