Barclaycard PPI – Do I claim under policy for sickness benefit, or claim refund of premiums for misselling?

[dizzy e]

Hi, no doubt if this post is in the wrong place someone will tell me, and hopefully point me in the right direction (or move post for me).

 

As yet I'm not wanting to reclaim mis-sold PPI but actually make a claim on the policy itself in regard to its sickness benefit clause. I didn't even know I had PPI (hence the possible refund claim route), but it appears when I took out Barclaycard Visa in 1989 at age of 20 somehow I ended up with PPI. I didn't know then what it was, don't know now how it came to be included (ie can't remember if it was forced on me or I was strongly advised to take it or that I had to specifically say no). Don't have any of the original credit card application paperwork and certainly nothing that said it was an insurance document which I would have kept as I’m normally very thorough on things like that. Having said that I only have credit card statements in question going back to 2003 (think some were lost in a house move at about that time) and sure enough each month from 2003 til now PPP (as they call it) appears to have been deducted. I have had other credit cards with Barclaycard and other providers and unsecured loans and even secured loans with various banks since and never asked for PPI so can only assume that at the naive age of 20 I was somehow duped.

 

Anyway, when I phoned Barclaycard this week saying I'm taking CCCS debt advice and will write with income/expenditure to offer a token payment as all I can afford (citing recent diagnosis of life-long medical condition as the reason I can only work 1 hour a day, am medically entitled to ESA but don't have enough NICs and hubby works more than 24 hours pw so don't actually receive any benefit money), I was told that I have PPI and why hadn't I claimed on that? Incidentally no-one had ever given me that information before even when I have had periods of struggling to meet payments in the past. Given 0800 number that diverts to Dublin and told to phone them. Lovely Irish lady said that I should have claimed under sickness clause at the time I ended up losing my previous job through illness and was there a period of up to 12 months during which I was in receipt of sick notes from dr, and/or in receipt of ESA letter that said I was in either support or work-related group that meant regular sick notes weren't necessary. I said yes. She then told me to claim and pointed me to Barclays website for insurance claim form. Told her that as I didn't know I had PPI until I'd been told minutes earlier obviously I don't have any paperwork like policy number, start date etc. She said that she'd send in post. Told me that for a maximum 12 months the policy would pay out 10% of outstanding balance. I should backdate my claim to the relevant 12 month period starting from when illness first struck and that as it was a backdated claim I would get all 12 months payments in one go. My card balance back then was much higher than it is now (I did manage to sort out our finances a while ago and paid a significant proportion of outstanding amount off, but Barclaycard immediately lowered my credit limit to just £100 more than amount left outstanding so that left me with just £100 credit available and cos I'd paid them every last penny I had it started the ball rolling with the situation we are now in (ie up to our earholes in debt again). If my claim is upheld I will get at least enough to pay off current balance outright with hopefully a bit left over towards other debts, including a Barclaycard Mastercard (which doesn’t have PPP/PPI).

 

What I really want to know is am I better making a claim for sickness benefit under the policy, or should I make PPI refund claim for 22 years of PPI that I never knew I was paying for? Which has best chance of success, and will either impact my credit score which surprising isn't that bad considering the mess we are in now.

 

Thanks.

[ims21]

Hi there

 

Welcome to CAG

 

In my opinion, if you have had debts on this card for aound the 22 year mark, a ppi refnud claim plus the interest on that for 22 years at their rate is going to far outweigh any 12 month payout under the policy itself.

 

Success rate is very high for mis-sold ppi claims.

 

Others may disagree but if it were me I would 100% be going for a mis-sold claim.

 

Hope this helps

 

ims

[dizzy e]

Thanks ims.

 

I also meant to include the question: which do you think would be quickest to actually get money in my pocket (or at least wipe out the debt on that particular card)? To say we are in a bit of a pickle now is a vast understatement! The claim on insurance itself sounded so easy over the phone I keep thinking there must be a hitch.

 

And if I claim on the policy itself then presumably if I'm successful I won't be able to claim as missold for the whole 22 years premiums? But if I claim as missold and that is refused does that then put me in stronger position for a successful claim on sickness benefit part of policy?

 

Cheers. Dizzy e

[ims21]

Hi there

 

Well I would guess that the quickest way to get money in the pocket woudl be to claim under the terms of the policy. Having said that, it is not unusual for companies to baulk at payouts...sometimes they wriggle believe it or not.

 

In general you can still claim mis-selling even after you have made a claim under the policy and have the payout deducted from your total claim.

 

Think about the figures though....22 years of premiums plus interest at their rate is surely going to vastly exceed any payout you get under the terms of the policy. The policy will probably only pay out for 12 months and cover the payments on the card, not clear the debt

 

Yes, you'll have to wait a while for the ppi reclaim to go through but in the end you'll be far better off in my opinion.

 

ims

[dizzy e]

As a follow-up to my initial post, I have now submitted a claim under the sickness benefit clause of insurance policy, its been acknowledged by Barclaycard and they are contacting my GP for some further information "to gain a better picture of [my] condition and [my] expected rate of recovery". Hopefully the fact that they are bothering to contact the GP is good news??!!

 

As to reclaiming for missold PPI, I think I will start this once I hear one way or other re the sickness benefit claim. I don't want to start a missold refund claim too soon and have it jeopardise any payout under the policy itself. So whilst I'm waiting I've started drafting the FOS complaint form the Barclaycard site directs me to by a link. Does anyone have any suggested good wording? You'll see from my (long!) explanation above that I don't find it easy to concisely answer without worrying I'm missing out important info. Do I need to provide lots of detail, or is the fact that I am making a claim about a policy that I didn't know I had for 21 years sufficient?!

[ims21]

Hi

 

General rule is to keep it simple. You can always add detail in an accompanying letter.

 

ims

[dizzy e]

SUCCESS, yippee!

They've paid out on my sickness benefit claim and money arrived on my Barclaycard today. 10% of the balance outstanding on the day before I was signed off sick x 12 months as it was a backdated claim. Long story short, £12,402.24 received

 

This leads me to yet another question I'd appreciate anyone's advice on.

 

As at today's date the balance outstanding was £2,903.38. So after receiving £12,402.24 I now have a POSITIVE balance (ie they owe me) on my card of £9,498.86. But getting it back isn't at all straightforward Barclaycard says because it is such a large amount it needs to be processed by Head Office, whatever Head Office does that the guy I was speaking to at Customer Services doesn't I haven't the foggiest. That process will take 7-10 days, they then send money to my bank account by BACS, which will take another 3-4 working days to clear. All in all I can't get my money back for nearly 2 weeks, does that sound correct?

Also, because my card was suspended because I was over my credit limit and because I had told them I was getting advice from CCCS etc, I can't use my card at the moment either. So I have literally no money in my current account as over my overdraft limit until some money goes in on Monday (but that will only leave me about £35 available to use) but I can't use my Barclaycard with all that lovely credit sitting on it until I write to them basically saying all that they can already tell from my account, ie was in severe arrears, was receiving debt advice but CCCS weren't actually acting on my behalf, the card now has a positive balance so please can my card be reinstated. How is that fair and legal, does anyone know?

[dizzy e]

And a PS to post above. I forgot to say that I offered to do balance transfers from another credit card with Barclaycard in my name, a credit card with a different company in my name, and a credit card my husband has elsewhere, so that most of this positive balance on my account would be 'eaten up' as well as obviously fully paying off those particular cards, but that is apparently not allowed - anyone have any comments? And in respect of the much smaller positive balance that would have been left if I had been allowed to do the above, I was going to suggest that I use my credit card for all shopping, bills etc for next month or so rather than current account (so that monies coming into current account over next month would stay there and not be used, having the effect of 'eating away' at the overdraft and bringing it nearer to a zero balance), but again that isn't allowed. But its MY MONEY, not theirs!

[dizzy e]

Still having major hassles with Barclaycard about getting my money (the positive balance on the credit card) back. Can anyone help, and also perhaps point me in the right direction of a new thread within which to post this.

 

Thank you.

[ims21]

Hi

 

As there is a significant positive balance which, as you say is your money, I would write a 7 day letter before action demanding that they make this money available to you into whichever account you select.

 

Also get hold of a copy of their complaints procedure and lodge a formal complaint.

 

They are play silly wotsits IMHO

 

Regards

 

ims