Firstplus charged £13,000 to redeem loan early - ***WON*** £16.5K refunded !!

[Habscat]

I'm aware that banks are no longer allowed to use the "rule of 78" to redeem loans early, however having taken out a secured loan of £40,000 in 2004 (ie before the change was applied) I was forced to repay in 2008 after they refused to transfer the loan to another property. It ended up that we would have had to repay anyway as we emigrated later that year BUT we repaid £53,000. on the initial £40,000. We had cancelled the PPI - another total facrce - but they still calculated the repayment based on inclusion of it.

 

Needless to say, this ruined my life financially - I could afford a mortgage - but have no downpayment and can's save for one, entirely because the down payment we would have used went to repay a greedy, ruthless and unscrupulous bank "fees"......

 

Is there ANY hope of reclaiming any or all of this? Firstplus said "on your bike" after we complained. I'm revisting this one more time - in the vain hope something may happen.

Edited October 3, 2011 by slick132
changed $'s to £'s

[slick132]

Hi Habscat and welcome to CAG.

 

I note you refer to the loan in Dollars ($) and not Pound Sterling (£).

 

Are you in the UK, the USA or elsewhere please ?

 

[Habscat]

Apologies - can't get used to my new keyboard - it should read GBP. We were charged 13,000 pounds sterling.

All numbers are in £.....

Edited October 3, 2011 by Habscat

[Kate1973]

Hi Habsact,

 

Welcome, i sucessfully claimed mis sold PPI from first plus 3 years ago after they told me to do one. I took it to FOS who found in my favour, But that was before they were swamped with PPI complaints. I also complained about the old 'rule of 78' and they agreed the extra £1000 difference. Stick to your guns and persue it....

[slick132]

Hi Habscat,

 

I've amended your 1st post and the thread title, to show £'s and not $'s.

 

Thread moved into Mortgage Companies forum where I hope you'll get the advice you want.

 

[James31]

Habscat,

 

I was in a very similar position to you.

 

* Borrowed 50k in May 2004.

* Made £17.5k worth of payments over 3 years.

* Remortgaged to clear the FirstPlus loan.

* Asked for a settlement fig (Mar 2007), which came through at £52k.

* Complained and got nowhere, paid them off and said goodbye.

 

Almost 3 years later (Dec 2009), still with a bee in my bonnet, I wrote to FirstPlus. I complained about their use of Rule of 78 on my redemption figure and suggested what I thought the settlement figure should have been (47/48k ish). They replied and said that their use of Rule of 78 was fair and to go away.

 

It took just 1 more letter (an LBA) and they refunded me just over 5k (which was promptly swallowed by my overdraft, but that's a different story!)

 

My letters probably aren't great but they did the job!

 

PM me if you like.

 

* Just to add, I never had PPI.

Edited October 25, 2011 by James31
PPI

[dx100uk]

get reclaiming that ppi!

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/ppi.html

 

dx

[Habscat]

Finally received an offer from First Plus (refused the 500GBP they initially offered) - they will be sending me a payment of 16,500. If anyone needs to see a copy of any letters sent etc, please just shout!

Many thanks to all for your comments and advice.

[James31]

That's brilliant!

 

Did I make a serious error? (See above). I'd worked it out that they owed me just over 5k... I never had PPI at all. What percentage of your payout was in relation to anything to do with PPI - and you say you repaid £53k against the original borrowing of £40k - did that include your monthly repayments, or was the 53k the final payment lump?

 

James

[dx100uk]

hey great result

 

dx

[Habscat]

That's brilliant!

 

Did I make a serious error? (See above). I'd worked it out that they owed me just over 5k... I never had PPI at all. What percentage of your payout was in relation to anything to do with PPI - and you say you repaid £53k against the original borrowing of £40k - did that include your monthly repayments, or was the 53k the final payment lump?

 

James

 

Hi

 

The £53k was the final lump sum payment: the loan had been paid as normal throughout the term so this was over and above the monthly repayment. About 85% of the refund was a refund of the PPI plus the interest charged "unfairly", based on the rule of 78, of the PPI. The remaining 15% was the actual difference between the loan repayment calculation based on the rule of 78 compared to the new method of calculation.

 

Hope that helps.

[slick132]

Hi Habs and great to hear of your success !!

 

If you feel CAG helped you with this, a donation will ensure we can carry on helping folk.

 

Excellent result and thread title changed to reflect your win !!

 

[kulster]

Hi

 

The £53k was the final lump sum payment: the loan had been paid as normal throughout the term so this was over and above the monthly repayment. About 85% of the refund was a refund of the PPI plus the interest charged "unfairly", based on the rule of 78, of the PPI. The remaining 15% was the actual difference between the loan repayment calculation based on the rule of 78 compared to the new method of calculation.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Hi,

 

 

I know this is quite some time since you got your rebate, but I'm now in a similar situation, we took out £75k 8 years ago, and the settlement figure is now £77k, having paid in the best part of £77000 in monthly payments!

 

So, I was wondering if I could ask for a copy of the letter you wrote to First Plus, obviously with any personal details taken out?

 

I would be eternally grateful, as I feel really cheated by them right now.

 

Many Thanks

 

K

[dx100uk]

first plus have coughed today again

 

can i suggest you start your own thread please

 

dx