Egg, ppi + CCA request

[seh567]

Hi. My son is currently unemployed after being self employed and finding it difficult to pay his debts totalling approx £15k made up of 2 x credit cards, 2 personal loans & bank overdraft. He has spoken to CCCA and has a meeting with counsellor on 17th July. In the meantime on their advice he has cancelled direct debit payments, written letters and sent token £1 letters to all creditors except the bank and is awaiting replies. He had a meeting with the bank explained his situation and they said at this moment in time they were not worried as his overdraft was within the limit and just to keep some monies coming in until he secures a job. However unknown to them he has opened a basic bank account with another bank for his benefits to be paid into and a tax rebate to keep him going to pay his priority debts. In view of this there will be no monies being paid into the overdraft bank account. Should he just pay token monthly payments of £1 into this bank account as he is doing with all the others creditors.

 

Also one of his credit card accounts is with Egg. He thinks he has had the account for about 8 years but cannot find the agreement so he sent a CCA request with a £1 postal order on 27th May but has not heard anything and the recorded delivery track number still shows as not being delivered. Should be just resend it again and claim from Royal Mail who say they cannot trace it for another week, or should we ring them to find out if they have received it or it was just not signed for. The reason we asked for this is because he recently discovered that he was paying £30 a month for PPI so he wants to try and claim it back, don't think he was self employed then but he believes he may have been told that he had to take the PPI to get the credit card. He spoke to them before sending the CCA request and they agreed to cancel the PPI from the 16th June. Now we are wondering if we have done the right thing and would it not have been better to claim under PPI for unemployment. I've read the t,s & c,s on their website and I don't believe he could have done being self employed but perhaps someone could enlighten me. Does anyone know how hard or easy it is to claim missold PPI charges from Egg. I was missold with A & L & Nationwide who both settled my claims fairly quickly with no quibble.

 

Sorry for the long post, could someone tell me if I need to do anything further at this moment in time. Thanks

[cerberusalert]

He should send a SAR request to his creditors with a view to reclaiming any unfair charges they may have added to his a/cs. If he has multiple a/cs with the same creditor one request is enough for all a/cs. http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/576-subject-access-request-debt-a-dca

 

As for his CCA request, they have 12 working days to supply the information. If they fail he can send this; http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/571-failiure-to-provide-a-copy-of-the-agreement-within-the-prescribed-timescale

 

With him sending the CCA request recorded delivery it will be seen to be served although it doesn't show as being signed for. Most places sign for their mail in bulk so it may take some time to show as being delivered.

 

He should reclaim all the PPI as it will have been mis-sold because he was self-employed;

 

It is simple to cancel PPI: although sometimes they do try to talk you out of it, all you have to do is insist. But with loans, the premium for the PPI insurance over the whole term of the loan is calculated at the beginning and often added on to the loan amount so you are even paying interest on the PPI costs.

 

Banks often say that you are not entitled to cancel the PPI after 30 days, but what they do not tell you is that you should be able to cancel the PPI from this point on and get a partial refund.

 

And there are also some circumstances in which you should never have been sold the loan in the first place. In these cases, you might as well ask for a refund of all the money you have so far paid in PPI. But even if the bank refuses this, you should still be able to cancel the PPI from this point onwards.

 

So, the sample letter is as follows:

 

Complaints department

Bank's name & address

 

Re: account 999999999999999999999

 

 

COMPLAINT

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

I took out the above loan for £x,000 on dd/mm/yy. When I took it out, I signed up for Payment Protection Insurance. I phoned up on dd/mm/yy to ask to cancel it and was told that this is impossible. I am writing to complain.

 

Put in any of the following which apply:

 

[When I took out the loan, I was told that I would not have been given the loan if I did not take PPI. I have since been told that this is not true, and that you are not allowed to make PPI a condition of taking out the loan unless you include the costs of PPI in your quoted loan interest rate, which you did not do. I therefore consider that I have been mis-sold this expensive insurance, which I do not need and which I said that I did not want.]

 

[i am self-employed/work as a contractor/unemployed and therefore will not be eligible for any payments from the PPI if I cannot get work or am sick. My situation was known to the person who sold me the loan, however he/she did not point out that the insurance was virtually useless to me so I think that I have been mis-sold the insurance.]

 

[When I took out the loan, I said I did not need the PPI as my employer provides generous illness and redundancy benefits, but I was told I should still take it out. As this is not correct, I consider that I have been mis-sold this expensive insurance, which I do not need and which I said that I did not want.]

 

[i wish to cancel the PPI because since taking out the loan, my employment situation has changed. I am now self-employed/work as a contractor/unemployed and therefore will not be eligible for any payments from the PPI if I cannot get work or am sick.]

 

[i wish to cancel the PPI because I now have sufficient alternative insurance cover from my employer and other sources.]

 

[i wish to cancel the PPI because I am in financial difficulties and cannot afford it. I enclose a Statement of Affairs which shows this.]

 

I have been advised that I should be able to cancel the PPI contract at any time and receive a partial refund of the premium that I have paid. I would like to do this. [And in view of the way I was mis-sold the insurance, I would like to ask for a full refund of the whole premium.]

 

I would appreciate a reply to this letter within fourteen days. If you reject this complaint, I would be grateful if you could explain whether you provide an internal appeals process. If you do not, please supply me with a final response letter, so that I can take up the matter with the Financial Ombudsman Service.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

nb There is no reason why you have to be able to prove that you cant afford the PPI before you cancel it, so in theory you should not need to send an SOA ( statement of earnings). However, it helps because it puts the bank morally in an even worse position if their PPI is causing you hardship.

[seh567]

Thankyou for your response. He has now cancelled the PPI but we cannot put in a missold claim yet because we don't have a copy of the agreement and we are not sure when he signed up and how. We think it is about 8 years ago and at that time he was not self employed so I don't think we can use this reason for misselling.

[seh567]

12 days it up re CCA request to Egg (I need the agreement) to start a PPI claim and I still have not received any documents or response from Egg.

 

I realize I need to send a follow up letter shortly but I don't want to antagonize them because I have only recently sent them a written notice of token payments (CCCS appointment with counsellor on 17th July) and the follow up template letter seems a tad too formal.

 

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how I would word the follow up letter please.