ombudsman says no help about citi cards PPI reclaim - help

[firstship]

666 HI..Opus I think you are aware by putting in writing they cannot fulfil your s78 request are in an account in dispute situation and they are very much aware of the OFT guidelines regarding this situation.

 

I would have thought they would have tried to send a reconstituted copy of the Agreement,so it is just possible they feel they are not in total control.No agreement,account in dispute,you do not have to pay,by crediting the fee to your account which they should not do,will indicate a payment being made,challenge this,and make it very clear this was a fee,and as they are unable to fulfil your request you would like the fee returned to you.

 

Whats happened about the PPI mis-sold claim,are they just ignoring this?

 

I am not an advocate of not paying debts because there is no agreement,however should they take you to court,they should have to produce a copy of the agreement,there is a" but" a number of courts are, if your defense is not well prepared ,are just looking at proof of money drawn from the account and payments being made as sufficient proof that the account exists,this is the subject of a quite intense online site discussion.I will send you the thread title,it is worth a read and will give you perhaps a way forward

 

FS

[rowan666]

hi fs

have replied as you suggested, and added in the letter that i wanted this info due to asking Citi for the repayment of credit card payment protector cover that i should not have had added to my account by Citi, but as yet, i have not had proof i ticked the ppi section on the application form as Citi keep saying i did, and so now Opus is in charge of my account i would like them to look into this situation now. So we will see what ms Lanigan comes back with.

thank you for getting back to me

R.

[firstship]

Rowan Hi,lets wait and see what their next move is,

 

Regarding the PPI,write to OPUS and confirm the date of your SAR letter to Citi,and ask where the statements are they are obliged to supply by way of SAR and also you require a copy of the PPI agreement,and as they OPUS have confirmed they cannot produce a copy of the original CCA agreement s78 you will not pursue this,however should they not be able supply a signed copy of the PPI agreement you will be seeking a full refund with interest.

 

FS

[rowan666]

hello all, update on the Citi / Opus ongoing saga - my reply letter from them states that as there is a court case ongoing about claims, that cases are on hold and are taking a while to deal with... no mention of anything exact though, ive replied with - yes i know thats the case at the moment, in fact ive read the letter all financial bodies received saying they could not use this ongoing court case to drag their feet to settle outstanding cases, and i hope they will not do the same with my case.This was sent to Opus a month ago, do you think i should now just wait, or do i send a follow up letter asking status ?

regards

rowan

[rowan666]

hello again, just recieved a letter from Opus - ' please find enclose a reconstituted copy of your agreement currently in place, by providing this copy, we have satisfied our obligation under Section 78.The regulations define what is required of a ''copy''. Whilst regulation 3 provides ''every copy'' of an executed agreement....shall be a true copy''. Regulation 3 (2) (b) provides that a copy can omit any signature box, signature or date of signature.

In summary, to comply with section 78, the copy does not need to be a copy with the customer's signiture on it. We do not have to produce an actual copy of the document signed.The purpose of section 78 is to allow debtors access to their terms and conditions of their credit agreement and by providing the debtor with a true copy of the terms and conditions of the agreement we have complied with section 78.

We have no obligation pursuant to section 78 of the consumer credit act to provide a signed copy of the agreement.the fact that we have not provided one does not mean that you are relieved of the obligation to make payments pursuant to the agreement.

At the moment we are unable to trace a copy of the signed application agreement,therefor we are unable to provide a copy at this time. however we can confirm our procedure has always been to obtain our customers signature to an agreement containing the prescribed terms before entering into a credit card agreement.As such, we are confident that the agreement remains enforcable.

We do not agree the agreement is unenforceable.As such, we will not write off the outstanding balance on the agreement or pay costs in relation to this matter.Any existing adverse credit history registered with credit reference agencies will remain and further adverse credit notations will be added to the record if your client defaults against the required payments.

 

It goes on to say my balance and the fact the account is in arrears, ( as ive sent a ' account in dispute ' letter to them - not acknowledged )

so ive not paid anything to them for 2 months now ( im / was in a payment plan with them with reduced interest ) and to refer to section 2 & 3 of t & c which confirm when payments fall due to be paid under the agreement and basis for calculating the amount of the payments due.

Im not disputing i owe the balance, i just want then to understand i am owed the ppi and interest back, and if they won't / can't show me the section i signed up for it at the begining, then the accounts in dispute.

All suggestions / infomation for where i go / what i write back to them now will be greatly recieved please .....

666

[rowan666]

hello, sorry to post again so soon, any ideas of where i can go from here please ? i do not want to get myself in a tangle by responding in the wrong way to Opus.

regards

666

[ims21]

Hi rowan

 

Too much of going round in circles here.

 

You have, I believe, got your statement copies going back to 1994. Did you get a transaction history of any kind prior to then? If not then they are breach of the Data Protection Act.

 

You have enough for a mis-selling claim by virtue f the fact that you were self employed. Have a look at the criteria on the fos website and I guarantee there will be some others that fit your case.

 

You really should be getting somewhere with this ppi claim as on a credit card with compnd interest it may well wipe out the debt.

 

Have you done a 14 day lba yet?

 

Have you prepared a schedule of claim?

 

Are you prepared to go to court over this?

 

ims

[rowan666]

hello,

okay yes this has been going on a while,

 

due to the start of it been with Citi Cards,

then account been sold to Opus.

 

Citi Cards issued final letter about ppi reclaim saying no middle of last year,

 

i then went down f.o.s route, only to find months later they tell me they have no jurisdiction due to the start date of credit card was before them.

 

i have never disputed i owe this balance, but i know the amount i should be paid back of ppi would wipe out the debt.

 

i was / am on a reduced interest & reduced payment plan with both Citi & Opus, but due to turnover getting steadily worse & worse ive not been able to keep up to it,

so i again spoke to Opus saying once the ppi claim had been sorted i was happy for them to keep it to clear the balance,

they just ignored this letter,

 

i sent a account in dispute letter, and a cover note saying why i was not making payments due to this ppi claim taking so long to sort out,

and that the reason i want to see the original postal application / form is that i did not tick i wanted ppi, like Capital One credit cards,

( won ppi back from here due to this ) it was ticked at their end.

 

next thing i get from Opus is the letter i wrote up 2 days ago, that im asking help on replying to them to.

 

No ive not done either of the things you ask at the end of your reply,

im not 100% what to do on either of them, and im not sure about court, ive never thought about it.

 

so, what do you think i should move forward on here then ?

 

please could you use layman terms so when i go to read up on your help / advise i can find what im looking for please ! lol...

thanks for getting back to me so soon, i look forward to your next reply

666

[ims21]

Hi 666

 

If I've read post #30 correctly, they have complied with your cca request. You have received a reconstituted version of the agreemenet agreement and the T&Cs

 

Now if it were me I would be telling Opus that this account is in dispute for at least two reasons.

 

The first is that Citi are in breach of the Data Protection Act for not fully complying with your Subject Access Request. As a result you have not been given full information to see whether the amount being claimed is correct and that you are filing a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office in order to force compliance.

 

The second is that Citi have failed to respond adequately to your claim for a ppi refund which, by your calculation, exceeds the alledged amount claimed.

 

As you have said, you don't deny this account so I would make reduced payments to Opus of £1 per month for the time being. In the event that they decide to go to court (Unlikely from what I've seen in this thread) then at least you can show the court that you acknowledge your responsibilities but are being prevented from bringing the matter to a conclusion by the failures and breaches of Citi.

 

Next, you prepare a schedule of claim for your ppi and send it with a 14 day lba to Citi.

 

If they don't pay up, you take them to court but as has been said, you need to be confident that this is for you.

 

The other option still open to you is to re-submit the pp claim to fos on the basis of the recent ruling and get them to re-open the case. However, be aware that fos is very slow.

 

ims

[rowan666]

Hello, a question has just come to me when reading your reply, should i have been bugging Citi cards and not Opus about the ppi ? I assumed as they bought the account from Citi that they are responsible for re-payments, but have i made a gastly mistake here ?? and been wasting my time dealing with opus over the ppi when i should have been writing to Citi ????

666

[ims21]

Hi there

 

Citi is your target for the ppi....don't worry though, you can get this back on track.

 

ims

[rowan666]

oh bugger, ive wasted all this time dealing with opus, i thought because opus replied about the SAR that i sent to citi, THEY were the ones to now deal with. also ive had no real right to with hold the payments from opus have i ? as it's not them who's not dealing with the ppi reclaim. okay whats the first move please ?

666

[rowan666]

oay can you look over this letter to opus please ?

 

thank you for your letter dated 17th june 2011

my account is in dispute for two reasons -

firstly - Citi Cards are in breach of the D.P.A for not fully conplying with my S.A.R, and i have filed a formal complaint with the I.C.O to force compliance.

secondly - Citi have failed to respond adequately to my claim for the PPI refund i am entitled to, an amount that will now exceed the balance due on the account.

I have never denied this account, and whilst this accont is in dispute i will send a reduced payment of £1.00 cheque per month to acknowledge my responsibilites, but im been prevented from bringing this matter to conclusion by the failure and breaches of Citl.

 

 

 

so a couple of questions - do i enclose a cheque for £1.00 with this letter to them ?

do i send it to the person who send the letter with the recon. T & C's ?

ive said ive filed a complaint with ICO, so i need to do that straight away, could you point me in direction of template letters please?

 

Then i need to get a letter together to Citi Cards, again where to start with them again, whats the first thing i need to do ?

 

Thanks for all the help, if you get chance to look over this today, and let me know, i'll get the letter off to Opus straight away.

666

[rowan666]

hello again,

'' Next, you prepare a schedule of claim for your ppi and send it with a 14 day lba to Citi '' - can you tell me where to read up to put this together please ?

sorry for all these posts, just want to make inroads as ive wasted so much time doing the wrong thing.

666

[ims21]

Hi 666

 

First to deal with post #38.

 

I would change the wording to "In my opinion Citi are in breach of the DPA as my SAR has not ben full complied with. The information missing is summarised as follows...

 

Then list what you believe is missing.

 

With regard to the £1 payment, yesy you can send that in the letter just saying you enclose the first payment of £1.

 

As far as the ICO query goes, there isn't a template. Jsst compose a letter saying that you believe there to be a breach of the DPA 1980 by Citi as your Subject Acces Request has not been fully complied with and you believe that at least the following information to be missing.....and then list the items. State that you wish this letter to be registered as a formal complaint and request that the ICO steps in and ensures compliance as your financial circumstances are being compromised as a result of this non-compliance.

 

Nest is your 14 day lba to Citi. However.since you do not have all of the statements/transaction histoy, you cannot complete a full schedule of claim. (At least I don't think you have the full history unless I've missed something). Personally I would wait until I had all the information so that you can put in a correct fisgure that you are claiming back. I know its a drag waiting but that is what I would do.

 

Re post #39, I attach a spreadsheet you can use to calculate your schedule of claim when you have all the information. While you can put in an average amunt for the missing transactions, I personally feel tat getting it right is the best way forward. With the spreadsheet, you only need to enter list date in columns A (Date of Payment), B (Nature of Payment) and C (Amount of Payment). Change the interest rate in the blue section to the same rate that they were charging you on your card. Also fill in the blue section with reagard to you personal details.

 

This will form your SOC (Schedule of Claim)

 

To read up on lba, use the site search tool for lba and you'll get loads to read up on.

 

ims

 

CompoundInt.xls

[rowan666]

hello, thank you for your reply, okay, letter and (decided on postal order not cheque) payment sent to Opus today, letter put together for ICO, do i sent to a particular person / dept / address, or just to the address on their web site ?

I have got my credit card invoice from 1998 when the card started showing the ppi taken each month, and invoices up to when it stopped, now, because i had it so long, the interest charged has gone up over the years,so how do you work this out ?

Also - ive always been under the assumtion you got back the actual premiums you paid, and only 8% interest, is this not the case now ?

sorry for all the questions, but i was thinking i had a handle on this lot, and clearly i did not !!! so i want to make sure i do it correctly now.

thank you so much for the help and getting back to me so quickly

666

[ims21]

Hi 666

 

Letter just goes addressed to the Information Commissioner at the address on their website. That will be fine.

 

When you say Invoices, do you mean statements? I don't believe I've heard of invoices before....correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Anyways, as far as interest goes, just take the average rate you were charged over the period.

 

With a credit card or running credit account you claim the interest they charged you. So you claim compound interest as this is what the card company would have charged you. 8% stat interest is applicable to loans.

 

Hope this helps

 

ims

[rowan666]

Hello, a little update and request for infomation please - ICO got back in touch to say someone will be contacting me soon for info to look into my complaint, Opus received account in dispute letter & £1.00 postal order on 5/7/2011, never acknowledged it, or the issues raised in the letter.

Just got my monthly Opus statement, shows £1.00 payment received - ( so postal order cashed ) but still charging interest ( the 0.1% they agreed when i entered into a payment plan ), so my question is, im sure with everything ive read up on here, that if you are in dispute with a company, whilst it's going on they have to stop all interest ? or have i got it wrong, and they can continue to charge ?

thanks for reading and help

rowan

[rowan666]

afternoon all, ive been reading threads all afternoon and im sure they cannot continue to charge the interrest they are doing whilst account in dispute, so letter to them will be -

on this months statement i see you have acknowledged the £1.00 payment i made to you, and deducted it from the balance outstanding, this means you also received the letter it was attached to, this letter told you my account was in dispute, and whilst an account is in dispute no charges or interest can be added, yet you have added £34.88 interest. Please remove this amount from my balance.

 

anything else to add - do you think ? any advice welcome ....

rowan

[rowan666]

hello there, ive had a letter through from Opus saying that from effect from 31st August 2011 my Opus card credit card agreement will be between me and Progressive credit limited - the rest of the letter goes on about if i have a complaint / my Opus card will cease to work ( even though ive never had one, my account was with Citi cards ! ) / what happens if i have direct debit on the account etc etc

Now my question is - i thought if your account is in dispute the company who is was with could not move it to someone else ? even though this company is clearly Opus but a different deptment ! any help and advise on this if you don't mind please ???

rowan

[rowan666]

good morning, wondered if anyone could give me alittle advise on the above post please ? Opus are now ringing at home several times a day, i've told them each time i only will deal with them by letter, but they are saying i have not made the agreed payment plan, - it's as though they've not taken on board the Account in Dispute letters, though the letters were attached to the £1.00 postal order that they've cashed, so they have got them ! im beginning to wonder where this may go, could someone with more experience on these matters reply to me about this please ? thanks very much.

r

[rowan666]

evening, had a letter today from Opus saying i have 48 HOURS NOTICE to contact them by telephone before they take further action, please could someone look at post 45 & 46 and give me advise, am i just panicking, is this a normal tactic of a company when you put a account in dispute, and any advise on where to go from here please ???

r

[rowan666]

update - ICO's letter came friday last,

their findings are that Citicards did not comply with all the CCA in time,

and Citi have said they will send the items they did not send,

 

BUT the 1 item i really want is the copy of the original application form,

( where they say i agreed to take the PPI cover on the credit card, and i say i did not tick that box,

they just added it at their end once they'd got the application form from me )

 

and ICO say Citi do not hold that info in a system that allows them to find it -

i.e it's filed not on a computer data base i suspect ? -

 

so ICO said they do not have to supply that piece of info.

.. this is bad news as it's crucial to my case

- i rang the ICO person who dealt with the case,

and she said nothing more they could do,

they will not be taking any more action with Citicards, so end of play.

 

I've not heard from Citicards yet, but now this has come to fruition, will Opus ( who my account went to after Citicard moved it to them ) now know,

and start to push for their payments to be re-started up?

 

im still issuing a £1.00 postal order per month as an acknowledgement to my account to them,

and ive had no contact from them either by letter/ statement / or trying to phone me,

which ive found odd, but assumed it was due to the 'account in dispute' letter,

and them knowing ICO involved, but now thats ended im wondering what / where to go now ?

[ims21]

Hi

 

Just a thought...have you made contact with fos since the outcome of the Judicial Review last year to see if they have changed their stance on Citi?

 

Might be worth a phone call.

 

If they haven't it would seem that court is becoming the route open to you although you would have to prove mis-selling.

 

ims

[rowan666]

Hi thanks for reply, i will try ringing FOS tomorrow, ive let you know their answer, yes court looks to be the only way, but am i right in thinking 5k is the most that the small claims court will agree, and at my last working out it was just over 4k in actual 'card payment protection' premiums i paid ( over 10 years ) and then the interest on top of that - be it either interest, it is alot more than the 5k court will sanction. thats why i hoped to get it sorted out of court you see. will let you knoe what Fos have to say though.