Egg Loan

[nikkiandmidgets]

Just noticed that my Egg Loan of 13353 has Loan payment protection of £1908.63. I have had the loan since Oct/Nov 2004 and went on maternity leave mid November 2004 and am still on it till November this year. I would guess this does not protect me but I did not tell them when i took the loan out that I was pregnant cos I thought I wouldnt get the loan. The loan also paid off a previous loan with themselves and gave me some cash.

 

I had money problems end of last year due to my husband freexing the joint acct and putting his wages into his own acct. At the time I advised them of my problems, stating i wasnt working due to maternity leave, and that my husband and I were splitting up (been on\off ever since) and to help they extended my loan to maimum period.

 

What I am wondering is if I can cancel the Loan Payment protection - I only took it cos I thought it was a condition of the loan and obviously its not much use to me. What are the chances that I paid all the Protection on the first loand and then paid again on this one or would they have reimbursed me some of the inital payment? Would I be able to claim any of my payment protection back, or have it knocked off the loan total?

 

Any advice\recommended strategies\letters would be appreciated. I have online access so can email them any queries\request and they are usually not bad at getting back to me. Will also be putting a SAR in for my two old credit cards - I was behind with payments to them but paid them off in January and they then closed the accts due to my change in circumstances. I have paid all payments this year, could they forclose on the loan if I try to cancel insurance or claim my charges on my old cards? I dont think I received any docs about the change in length of loan and if they make me go back to old terms I wouldnt be able to afford the increase in payments. I also am unable to pay the loan off just now as I am on Family Credit and still debating whether I can manage to return to work in November.

 

Sorry if this has been asked before, I did do a quick search but couldnt find anything and since then have been busy with the youngest midget!

 

Thanks,

 

Nikki

 

PS Am happy to read any threads etc that may be relevant if you know of any please send me the links!

[countrybake]

you don't have to have the PPI you can have to cancel it in writing though and if you were misold your PPI as you stated you believed you had to take it out i have seen template letters somewhere on this site that address misold PPI and claim it all back

[countrybake]

found the template letters for you

 

Complaints department

Personal Loans Service Centre

Lloyds TSB

PO Box 43

Peterlee

County Durham

SR8 2YQ

Re: account xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

COMPLAINT & Request for return of PPI Insurance & Interest.

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

I took out the above loan for £1500 on 12/012005. When I took it out, I signed up for Payment Protection Insurance. I telephoned today to cancel the PPI insurance and was told that this was not possible.

 

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 really want.

 

Since this loan was taken out to refinance a high TSB overdraft that had risen mainly due to unlawful penalty bank charges (a separate complaint currently ongoing) I feel that in a time of being financially vulnerable I was pressured into taking the loan protection.

 

Having done some research I have found the same cover is available for £3.95 per £100 of cover compared to Lloyds Cover of over £22 per £100 of cover.

 

The cost of the Policy was £415.42 plus £199.05 Interest making £614.47

The same cover from another insurer would cost a total of £118.50 thus saving £495.97

 

I request a refund of the policy fee plus any interest paid on the fee.

 

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, and if need be make a claim via the small claims court to recover the PPI insurance fee + Interest + costs.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Ian Reid

Customer Care Department

Lloyds TSB Insurance

Tredegar Park

Newport

South Wales

NP10 8SB

 

Re: account xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your Ref

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to reject the offer of a refund of £142.73 which was made to me at 09.15 am this morning by Denise in your Customer Care Department.

 

The policy involved was mis sold to me by a member of your staff at a time I was in financial difficulties and I was pressurised to take the policy otherwise the loan would not be approved.

 

My request is for the refund of the whole policy cost plus £415.42 plus interest of £199.05 making a total of £614.47, The offer of £142.73 is far from acceptable but I would accept this figure as part settlement and will continue with court action to recover the remainder. Over the period of the loan the policy will have cost me £614.47. I would continue to pay the loan at the agreed monthly figure until the end of its term.

Your offer is £471.73 below the actual cost and I can only see this as being an unlawful penalty charge. The policy was sold in a deceitful manner by a member of your staff and this matter has also been discussed with the FSA and a complaint form has been filled out for the Financial Ombudsman Service.

 

I would also like to bring to your attention the FSA principles for the “Treating customers fairly – towards fair outcomes for consumers.

 

Principle 7 “A Firm must pay due regard to the information needs of its clients, and communicate information to them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading”.

 

Principle 9 “A firm must take reasonable care to ensure the suitability of its advice and discretionary decisions for any customer who is entitled to rely upon its judgement”.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

 

What I require

 

A refund in the form of a cheque for the sum of £614.47

 

I require repayment in full of this money and. If you do not comply fully within 7 days then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest plus my costs and without further notice.

 

 

I will also Submit the completed complaint form regarding this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service on 12th September 2006.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

hope this helps and good luck

[nikkiandmidgets]

Sent them a letter via the web page complaining about PPI and asking for a refund on the payments. I have been on maternity leave since a month or two after taking loan out so insurance was no use to me. Also, I was under the impression that the loan was conditional upon me taking their PPI which I would not have taken otherwise as I knew then i was pregnant and owuld be off work in a month or two.

 

Will see what they say - have given them 14 days to respond. Didnt phone Egg re cancelling as hate phoning but if necessary I can reference the secure mail I sent as my cancellation and refund request. Will be curious to see how they respond, and how long that will take.

 

Nikki

[nikkiandmidgets]

received this secure message from Egg today:

 

Dear Nikki

 

Thanks for your message

 

I'm sorry to hear that your not happy with the Payment Protection.

 

I've tried to contact you today with regards to the Payment Protection on your Egg Loan but you were unavailable.

 

Please call our Lending Specialists on 0845 6000 291, they'll then talk this through with you and adjust the Egg Loan account as necessary. We wouldn't be able to refund the full premium as this was discussed at the time of the application and was signed on the credit agreement.

 

I've arranged for the original signed agreement to be sent to you first class.

 

Alternatively, you can send us another message including a convenient time and contact number and we'll be happy to call you.

 

I've also logged this as a complaint for you with out Customer Relations Team.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards

 

Victoria Richardson

Loans Servicing Specialist

 

and here is the garbled msg I sent prior to this:

 

Date22 Sep 2006 Time03:39 SubjectPayment Protection Insurance ComplaintDear Sir or Madam,I took out the above loan with yourselves at end of 2004. When I took it out, I must have signed up for Payment Protection Insurance although i believe I must have been mis-sold this as my employers scheme is generous for redundancy and illness so this was something that was not required. Also I can get PPI for ?3.95 per ?100 so I would not have taken out insurance with yourselves even if I hadnt been pregnant. Furthermore, as I have been on maternity leave since the beginning of 2005, I am not even covered for any payouts on this insurance. Finally i was also given the impression that the loan was conditional on me taking the PPI.Due to my marriage breakdown at end of last year I spoke to an advisor about my financial problems as my husband froze our joint acct and stopped giving me money, Despite advising the person that I was on maternity leave they never suggested I cancel the policy because it was of no use to me, and would have meant more of my payments would go straight to paying off the loan.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.

 

 

Any thought seeing as Egg are such a hard nut to crack?!

[countrybake]

hi nikki you have now got there attention and they know you mean business see what they have to say and then send them the second letter but do change it slightly regarding your circumstances

best of luck

[nikkiandmidgets]

Hate phoning companies as shy and get flustered but will get round to it. Husband is due home tonight and he has told me he will go out of his way to avoid the discussion I have been waiting to have for nearly 2 months so Ihe says I just have to sit him down and fire 20 questions at him so will deal with that crap first and then get back to the Egg one. May phone today before he gets home but not sure, will depend my frame of mind! Will update once I have though.

[countrybake]

send a letter then this is probably a better way

[nikkiandmidgets]

Husband just away for very short europe trips so not much chance to do stuff! Couple of updates on this. 1) I got a letter from Egg saying they will cancel my ppi on loan if I require and explaining that me being on maternity means I am still employed so still covered. There is more stuff but will need to look for the paperwork and type it out when AI dont have a midget on my knee who would rip it up for me! They also offered me £25 (Cant remember wording) and have asked me to sign some forms accepting this decision. Will type correct info when I get opportunity.

 

I also checked my credit file today and noticed my Egg Loan is sitting as a status 8 since May 2005. I remember I defaulted then - my maternity pay had reduced then stopped and we were struggling to cope with change in finances along with just having bought a brand new house. They served me with a default notice but I contacted them, and either agreed payment in full of arrears or increased payments to bring it up to date. It was either then or in December that I got payemnts reduced and term increased. Anyway apart from a couple of payments in December and January (My husband froze the joint acct and no longer gives me money), I sorted payments out in February and havent missed any since so I dont see why the default is left as I am paying. It almost makes me want to stop paying and leave them till they pass it to a DCA! Anyway I am now not in the least worried if they do go for the whole loan back when I go for my charges cos they have already defaulted me. I have emailed them asking why they have defaulted me so will see what they say but that really hacked me off as I have had to juggle money each month to make sure I pay this so that my credit history wouldnt be screwed up!

[nikkiandmidgets]

Any advice from people - Egg say they have passed my query onto Borrowing Management Dept who will contact me in next 72 hours to discuss futher.

[nikkiandmidgets]

Ok, Husband in bed and kids are asleep (for moment!) so managed to dig out the docs I received from egg re. my PPI - Here are the relevant bits from the letter they sent:

 

What I understand your complaint is about

You are disputing the Payment Protection insurance premium on your loan account and believe this should have been cancelled last year.

 

You believe this to have been mis-sold and also that someone should have offered to cancel this due to you being on maternity leave in early 2005.

 

What my findings are after investigating it

Following your application for the loan you were asked to check and sign the credit agreement. this detailed the loan and the payment Protection insurance premium and you signed the declaration confirming your acceptance of the details. i understand that my colleagues have sent you a copy of this.

 

I can see that you have had conversations with our Borrowing management Team and also have a secure message trail. At no stage have you asked for the Payment Protection Insurance to be cancelled or queried this.

 

Whilst I understand your reasons for advising you would not accept this insurance, as you are still classed as being employed whilst on maternity leave you would still be covered.

 

What my proposed resolution is

I would like to offer to cancel the Payment Protection insurance with effect of 1 september 2006 and also offer a goodwill payment of £25.00 to cover your calls.

 

What you need to do next

If my offer is acceptable to you, please return the attached acceptance form to me within the next 14 days to confirm your acceptance. If you have any queries or anything you wish to discuss, please contact me as soon as possible.

 

and the form they want me to sign if I accept:

 

I xxxx xxxxxx accept your offer of £25.00 in addition to cancelling the Payment Protection Insurance on my loan with effect 1 september 2006, as full and final settlement of my complaint.

 

They have also given me the option to choose to have the payments either credited to my loan to reduce the balance, or forwarded to a bank acct of my choice.

 

Now I am wondering if the secure message I sent will prvent me still going for full rebate. My reasons are these - 1) Most importantly I was never advised that I could take the loan without payment protection. In fact, until I came across this site I always thought you HAD to take payment protection along with a loan. If given the option I would never take it as I would anticipate I would never be out of work long enough to claim, unless for medical reasons (my employer would pay out), or starting a family (in which case my husband woud cover the loan). Also, I would rather shop around for a better deal if I felt I had to take insurance because I know you can get cheaper than lthat which loan companies offer. 2) I have been on maternity leave since November 2004 (Took extended for both pregnancies, and they ran consecutively due to having babies close together). I did not intend returning to work as my husband hates Europe and our plan is\was to leave this country, and also we felt we could afford for me not to work until the kids were of school age, with him working away so much we felt it better they got some family contact! I had a quick look at the loan agreement and yes it does clearly mention Payment protection but I cant see that there is an option not to take it but to still be able to take the loan out. Also, this is a top up loan - I havent got a copy of my original agreement so am unsure if they took the previous payment protection amount from it into consideration, or if any of it was rebated?! Will have to look into that too.

 

Anyway looking for advice - do you think I still have a case to pursue for full refund on my PPI or should I just accept what they have offered? Any advice on the default they have placed on my acct? Any help on how to word a letter if I do pursue - as you can tell by my posts and previous secure msgs, I m not very good at letter writing, they always end up long winded!

 

Cheers for any advice\info!

[nikkiandmidgets]

Will be sending a SAR off for this and my previous loan with them, hopefully later today. Have got some info on my current loan but want the old loan info, and also to make sure I get or have had all info (Inc manual intervention stuff) on my current one. Will do a CCA later.

[nikkiandmidgets]

Sent the SAR off 20 October and got certificate of posting for it...

[countrybake]

hi nikki you are as busy as me at the moment by the looks of your signiture, good luck with it all come January it will all start comming in and it is all worthwile

 

If you need any advice along the road please do not hesitate to pm me i will only be to pleased to help if i can

[nikkiandmidgets]

Got a letter from Egg today re my complaint about PPI. They have also reattached their resolution proposal and a copy of the agreement. They say I have till 20th November and then they will close the file. I have details of transaction on the current loan but dont know what reduction I received if any when they paid off the original loan, and no notes on manual intervention so I really need the response to my SAR before I can progress this. My main issue is until I found this forum I was always under the impression that PPI was mandatory if you had a less than clean credit rating. The agreement I signed akready included it and never mentioned that I coud cancel the insurance and still get the loan. I had not intended on returning to work after my maternity leave ended so would never use this PPI. Suppose I will have to wait till closer to the date then if I still havent received my SAR info on the 2 loans then I will have to draft an email or letter to them. Will get help on that hopefully!

[countrybake]

i have taken egg to court for charges plus ppi for a year plus default removal, these are a hard egg to crack but i intend to smash the egg, and it will feel good.

[nikkiandmidgets]

Probably been asked before but how do I go about getting copies of telecons made between me and Egg - in particular the ones when I originally took out the loans. Am curious to see if they gave me the option of not taking PPI but still getting the loans. I cant see I would have taken it if I had been given the option not to. I knew I was trying to get pregnant (I miscarriage before my 2 daughters were born) and had no intention of returning to work. Plus I also knew I was due to be paid off but that I would be re-employed by the new company.

[nikkiandmidgets]

Just got my P.O. and SAR request sent back. Apparently Egg cannot accept cheques etc unless they are specifically made out to them so I have to resend it with the payee name filled in on the Postal Order. Wonder if I can insist they stick to original 40 days? Think I will print letter and include my CCA request too.

[countrybake]

no it is from when they receive payment.

sorry, but yes do send the CCA no harm in trying i did to all of mine 6 in total 4 sent it 2 have failed to do so.