sorry was does that mean Margaret ? deleted ?

Hi all this is a complicated story so I will try and be as brief as poss. I am disabled , my husband is my fulltime carer and is receiving carers allowance for me, we have 3 dependant children, We have a joint ESA claim, we receive income related ESA and I am in support group, I also get DLA high rate mobility, middle rate care, we also get child tax credit and as we are struggling to pay our mortgage we get some help with our interest, our home has been specially adapted so selling our house would have to be a last resort. However we are barely managing and are gradually sinking more and more into debt , we still have to find most of our mortgage and a secured loan so we contemplating our options and this is where I could do with the advice. My husband used to be self employed in the building industry before I became ill and and now our eldest daughter is 16 and can help out a bit more at home (she is at college but only 4 days a week) he would like to try and do a few hours of work to help our finances ! It would have to be self employed as he still needs to be my carer and if I am really bad he wont be able to do anything. We are trying to find out what benefits we will lose and what will continue as if we lose everything for the sake of him him earning the odd £50 etc it isnt worth it ! We estimate that he will be available for approx 16 hours a week but obviously might not be offered any work so not guaranteed , he is allowed to earn up to £100 a week whilst on carers allowance and I doubt that he would earn more than that but what happens to our current benefits if he earns £100 per week ( we know his CA will stop) but will we lose anything else ?? We are going to make an appointment to see Job centre but on past experience dont have alot of faith in them and dont want to get forced into making any decisions if we would end up worse off . thanks in advance x

I too am having an awful job with FP and am very interested in outcome of this, I have a complaint which has been with FOS for 2 years as they are so busy, my problem is that I had a loan with FP, in aug 2003 a couple of months later got a call from who we believed to be FP asking if we wanted a further advacne so we took a new loan ouit with added PPI we were told we had to have, it turned out 3 years later when I first started trying to reclaim PPi we spoke to a broker Central Trust who FP had given our details to and who pretended to be FP to get our business, Central trust were not regulated, First Plus say even though they gave them our details we bought it through Central Trust as so we are going round in circles and getting nowwhere so any advice greatly appreciated x

the ppi was only a 5 year single premium policy, couldnt get cashback as we had arrears and couldnt claim as was 2nd applicant and only covered for life !! PPI is now stuck on loan being paid to firstplus who will not accept any responsibility for it as they gave our info to central trust who called us and offered a further advance ( we had taken out a loan with them a few months earlier) this 2nd loan payed off 1st one. Central Trust not regulated at the time so wont consider claim so going round in circles getting nowwhere !!

The original loan was for £30k plus PPI of £7347, we are having a terrible job getting back PPI, First plus claim we dealt with broker Central Trust, we had no idea we were dealing with a broker until 3 years later when we first tried PPi mis sale and believe they mislead us into taking the loan under the pretence of being FP because we had taken a loan for 20k from FP 4 months earlier and received a call from who we believed to be Firstplus themselves offering us a further advance, so how the hell did Central Trust get all our details, all very fishy and underhand !! However that means FP will not look at complaint, Central Trust were not regulated at the time and wont even look at it, the FOS are very doubtful they can help as no jurisdiction so we have been ripped off good and proper and nothing we can do about it, I am going to have one last go at the under writers of policy but not hopeful, I do feel though that there should be someone to complain to about the way they tricked me into taking out the loan, surely now it would be classed as fraud ?? Still no reply from first plus about legal action, they are considering my complaint and leaving me to suffer even longer !!

morning all, I havent taken advice from CAB yet on this to be honest our local CAB are not very helpful , our first mortgage is through Barclays who now own first plus and we have no problems with our 1st mortgage, how can 2 subsidaries of same company act so differently! We are also receiving support with interest on our 1st mortgage from DWP , I read somewhere that they cannot start court proceedings if you are receiving SMI but as it it only on 1st mortgage ( they wouldnt help with secured loan as it was for debt consolidation ) . The horrendous thing is they gave me permission to pay it late and are now punishing it for us, you never know where you are with them sometimes they are very nice and other times the most difficult and nasty company I have ever encountered ! I am pretty sure they havent followed correct procedures over the years as we have never had any notice of sum of arrears from them or even had any letters or phone calls asking about arrears and only knew how much they were when we got a default notice in June, we can maintain the contractual monthly payment plus what we have agreed for arrears , the problem is because this month we asked for a few days grace, surely they should have told me on phone it would break arrnagement rather than tell me it was fine to pay by end of week !! I am trying everything I can to think of ways of raising some money to pay them more but we dont have anything of value, we do have equity in the house but as I said above we have had alot of work done on house to adapt it for my disabilities so really need to stay here if we can , I cant sleep with worry and my health is suffering, if only we could this PPI back it would cover the arrears etc but I just dont think we are going to get it, first plus are happily paying out people who took it out with them direct, which makes me so upset because we didnt even know we werent dealing with them direct and were deceived by central trust but with first plus knowledge because they must have passed them our info for them to call us and offer us another advance ( we took out original loan for 20k via loans.co.uk 4 months earlier, even though they were not regulated either they paid out for the mis sold PPI without any trouble, sadly it wasnt much) I really think court proceedings will finish me off, I have had to fight tooth and nail to get the help I need to live here and the thought of losing it is more than I can bear. I will make some calls to national debt line etc tomorrow and see what help I can get but any advice you can offer is very gratefully received, there is a chance that I am worrying over nothing and that because I have complained FP would have listened to the tape of conversation and decide they were being fair and reinstate the agreement but I need to prepare myself for the worst case scenario. Many thanks everyone xxx

I have just managed to get back onto the website it is up and running again however I posted on there a week or so ago and not had any response x

Hi all, I could do with some advice on our secured loan with First Plus which is for £30 K (plus PPI of £8K ) taken out end of 2003. Firstly we are having no luck reclaiming the PPI, we have been trrying since 2007, FP claim we bought loan and PPI through broker Central Trust even though we were an existing FP customer at the time and got a call from who we thought to be FP offering a further advance on loan, we were deceived into thinking we were speaking to FP when we were not !! FP will accept no responsibility for PPI as sold through Central Trust ( even though they must have given them our info as they called us!) Central Trust were not regulated at the time so wont do anything, we still have an official complaint with fos which is now being fast tracked due to hardship but FOS have already told me it is very unlikely they can help as they have no jurisdiction !! Shortly after taking out the loan I became ill which then got worse and I am now disabled and my husband is my fulltime carer, we have 3 kids and our house has been specially adapted for my disabilities hence why we really need to stay here. We also have a main mortgage with Barclays which is up to date. Over the last few years we have awful problems meeting the monthly payments and the account was passed to and fro different debt collectors who just kept on telling us to make reduced payments etc and in the meantime we heard nothing from FP, no statements or letters about arrears or how we would pay them back etc. 2 years ago we started getting some help with mortgage interest from DWP so we have since been paying our full monthly payments plus some off arrears and again heard nothing from FP to say this wasnt acceptable . In June this year completely out of the blue we got a default notice from them demanding we pay them back the arrears of £8000 etc, I called them and for once spoke to a very nice lady who set up a proper arrangement to pay our monthly contractual amount plus £130 per month off the arrears, this would clear the amount in approx 2 years, they would not consider spreading it over alonger period !! we are now paying more for this loan than we are our main mortgage for over £100k !! We have been paying it as arranged but we had a hiccup last month as we have absolutely no savings or credit cards etc and needed to buy kids school uniform for them to be allowed back to school I called FP spoke to a lady who said thats fine as long as you pay by end of week you wont break arrangement (they claim she said to pay by the 5/7 which was a thursday but I am sure we agreed end of week and I paid on 7/7) the account is now up to date until end of this month. To our shock we then got a default notice dated the 9/9, thinking it was a mistake I called them straight away, really horrible woman said it was correct we had broken agreement and there was nothing she could do and that our account had been sent to Eversheds, their solicitors who would be seeking a suspended possession order, she refused to put me through to manager or even the complaints dept I have raised an official complaint on the grounds that it is very unfair of them to do this to us when we had notified them, they agreed and we paid when arrnaged, so far I havent heard back from them. I am beside myself with worry and my health is being really affected by it, not only does it seem that due to the fact we were lied to by FP and contacted by an unregulated broker we are stuck with the useless PPI and all the interest charged upon it, but now they seem hellbent on repossessing our home! We have infact paid them over £1800 off arrears since June as we also gave them a lump sum of £1500 we borrowed from a family member, arrears are apparently £6400, there is no way we can raise that kind of money but can happily continue the current arrangement, what do you think the chances are of a judge granting them a suspended possession order when we are not saying we cant or wont pay, I wouldnt care if we just didnt bother too ask them if it was ok but we did !!! Any help very gratefully received, thanks so much everyone

Not sure if posting this in right forum so fingers crossed, I have a query regarding data protection and wondered if anyone could help. It relates to 2 loans we took out in 2003 with first plus, one in august via a broker and a refinance in december 2003 which we thought was direct with first plus as we were called by who we thought was them offering a further advance, they had all our loan info and it wasnt until 3 years later we discovered we had infact dealt with an unregulated broker who had hoodwinked us into believing they were first plus, presumably they had been passed all of our loan info and I wondered if they could have breached the data protection or other consumer acts by doing so ?? I didnt as far as I know tick the box saying that my details couldnt be passed to other companies, HOWEVER there is a difference between selling on our name address details etc for marketing purposes than disclosing all our confidential loan info for financial gain. I would be very grateful if any of you could help with this matter thanks

not getting any charges as far as we have been told but knowing how devious first plus are I cant guarantee it !!

That could me be writing the above hun and I feel your pain, we too are in exactly the same boat and I am devastated, I became very ill within a couple of years of taking out this loan and my hubbie is now my carer we have 3 kids and rely on disability benefits to live on, w ehave arrears of 6k with FP and we are paying it back to them every month but if it is even one day late they keep issuing default notices and we have to fight to stop legal action, it is wrecking my health even more !! I spoke to FOS last night and like you it appears there is very little they can do as central trust who posed to being FP when they called and offered us a further advance were not regulated either and I dont know where to turn, I have seen of forums that some people have managed to get them to pay up and Im hoping someone on here may be able to offer some advice on what to do next. But we DID get our PPI back from loans.co.uk for the loan taken out in aug 2003 without too many problems so I know it can be done, I initially got a knock back from them but when wrote again at end of 2011 they refunded it to me with needing the FOS involved sadly it wasnt alot as loan didnt run for long so I dont think you should give up xxxx

Had long chat with FOS last night very unlikely they can help as it seems central trust are to blame and they were not regulated, he is awaiting further guidelines for loans pre 2005 as they obviously have alot of complaints from that time but not looking hopeful. Can any of you lovely lot give me any advice on what else if any I can do, I would be so grateful Im devastated as we are pretty close to legal action from FP and with the PPI refunded it would ease the pressure so much thanks all

Thanks for that I will update when I finally get hold of FOS, I personally feel that FP should be held accountable as they clearly gave our loan info to central trust without our permission who contacted us on the pretext of being FP and offering us a further advance , this is blatant deception but I dont know if I can prove it !! any further advice or anyone who has won against central trust before regulated would be very grateful xx

Hi there did you ever take this any further ?? I am having ongoing problems reclaiming my PPI with first plus, but I wanted to let you know that I did get a refund of PPI from loans.co.uk on a loan taken out in aug 2003 with first plus, I got this without having to go to FOS and it was paid to me at end of 2011 after they refused my case originally so there must be home for you, sadly for us we refinanced with FP a few months after this original loan and borrowed another 10K so our refund was not much, we now have the problem of trying to get back PPI on the refinanced loan which is alot of money , to make it worse we thought we were refinancing direct to first plus and it has turned out that we were called and offered a further advance by a broker Central Trust who hoodwinked us into thinking it was FP, we didnt realise we used a broker until several years later when we filed a mis sale complaint with FP, it is still going on now and not looking hopeful as central trust were not regulated at time but FOS are still looking at it but dont hold up much hope as so far they have been pretty useless and is taking years. But I wanted to let you know of our success with loans.co.uk so let me know if you want further info

Right have found refund details from loans.co.uk - loan was taken out £20K august 2003 and was paid off in full in dec 03 when we refinanced PPI was £4922.49 , they refunded us £952.12 on 15/12/11 and the letter was worded as follows " this is equivalent to a full refund of the PPI premium (£4922.49) plus the interest paid on the premium to date £171.20 minus the rebate received when the policy was cancelled £4512.28, we have also included interest of 8% on the payments made towards the PPI £370.71 " Still not heard from FOS keep trying to call and email but dont get back to me !! thanks so much everyone for your help