Help for my friend with Black Horse

[bodgerella]

HiI've been helping a friend of mine with issues of debt for a couple of years which all started when her parents dies and she had to handle her finances for the first time in her life. At the time she didn't really understand implications of interest rates etc but was just desperate not to lose her house. She's done really well clearing all of her cards etc. She has one debt outstanding which is a nasty one which she's been handling on her own but is a bit stuck and I feel i'd like some advice to help her as i'm not sure where to start with this one.She took out a personal loan with Black Horse in March 2007-this was at the height of her problems and it was a case of trying to solve debt with further debt.The loan was for £5000 at 10.9% apr over 5 years so £6544 repayable. I've also noticed that she had PPI attached to this amounting to a further 866.40. I asked her what it was for and she didn't know!She started defaulting on this loan in mid 2008 and since then she has been in various repayment agreements with Black Horse which at one point went down to £% per month but she is now in a better financial position but is now able to pay them a few pounds more than the original payment of £123. The problem is that she is panicking because the debt has not reduced-on closer inspection black horse have continued to charge her collection activitiy fees and until this year extensive interest so that 4 and a half years on she still owes them just under £5000-has she any redress here or has she just got to accept that the price she paid for having repayment arrangements. Also can she do anything abouut the PPI? It adds £14.50 per month onto her repayments and I guess she's been charged interest on this too. As the PPI was only for 60 months surely she will no longer be covered by it after this year? She genuinely didn't know what it was for and thought she had to have it to get the loan.Any advice is welcome please

[Amy100]

If the ppi was mis-sold, then she can reclaim this. She needs to write to ask them to stop applying (and preferably refund) the charges, as the account will never get settled otherwise. Have a look at Section 9 of the Lending Code which relates to financial difficulties. I bet they haven't fulfilled their obligations under that, so there could well be some good quotations you could put into the letter.