1ST Central Car Insurance Default Notice and Threat County Courts help

[BankFodder]

The subject access request is urgent.

They have 30 days to comply and you can be certain that they will use it up to the limit.

When you make the request you should accompany it with some proof of ID and address.

Play or not entitled to impose any formalities but they are entitled to verify identity

I am going to make the point that we asked you to do this 12 days ago on the 16th

Make the subject access request on the telephone.

You are entitled to do this and you should insist.

It will have to be your son on the telephone who will do this.

As long as he can answer the security questions to establish his identity than they are not allowed to refuse.

In all likelihood they will not realise that he is entitled to make a verbal request.

That may play into your hands because if they refuse to provide the subject access request on a verbal demand and that will add to the basis of a legal action.

You should record the calls. You should record all calls. Have you read our customer services guide

[babs71]

He has had more than 1 car insurance policy with them, should he be stipulating the details required are for the one we are going to complain about or just getting all information they have on him over the years? 

We can arrange to call them on Wednesday afternoon which is the first time he will be free from work and studies to make the call, we can put the call on speaker and record it, are we expected to let them know we are recording it or can we do it without their knowledge?

[BankFodder]

Get everything and if you read our customer services guide and you will have the answers to most of your questions

[babs71]

Wow thanks for the link I have just read it and thought I have done some of this while dealing with 1st Central over the past 3 years I can see where I have fallen short, I have always noted time date person department, and conversation but relying on their recording so I can see why doing my own would be prudent.

Does this have to be some kind of app or can I use my mobile to record while on speaker and record the call being made on the landline?

My sincere apologies for the 12 days since you said I was to do the subject Access request, had no idea that much time had passed with all the other information I was exchanging, we will do this as a phone request on Wednesday with 1st Central, on another note would my son be able to go through the identity check with them and then authorize for me to talk to them on his behalf to make the subject Access request?

[BankFodder]

Best not to complicate things and to get him to do the subject access request.

Is there a reason why here is unable to do it?

Don't forget that at some point he may have to argue his case in court.

If for some reason or other he is not able to do this and we need to know now

Do you have an Android telephone or an iPhone?

 

[babs71]

No, no reason he is more than capable, as my husband keeps telling me I do too much for our sons, I will just read over the subject access request letter with him, he does have dyslexia so takes things in better if read to him that way he will know exactly what it is he is asking for in the call.

My phone is Samsung s10 plus, android.

I do have an Olympus Dictaphone DM-770

[BankFodder]

As you have an Android telephone then you should be able to find on the play store a telephone recording app.

Practice with it so that you know your way around. They aren't very good nowadays but you should just about be able to hear the voice of the person on the other side and we may be able to enhance it for you.

Use the dictaphone as a backup as well

[BankFodder]

I suggest that you send please statutory request as quickly as possible. It is probably the only thing holding us up from beginning a legal action.

Are you in England or Wales?

[babs71]

We are in Scotland.

"I suggest that you send please statutory request "  If this is the 'subject access request' you are referring can I confirm is it customer services at 1st Central that he is calling to make the request?

 

1st central customer service call lines are open Monday to Friday 8-8 so if this is correct then he should be able to make this call on Monday evening around 6 once my son gets back from Edinburgh College to Glenrothes

If it is complaints he needs to talk to then he is limited to making a call Monday to Friday between 9-5 which would mean he would not be able to call them till Wednesday when he is off work and college

 

[BankFodder]

Record the call.

If they refuse to accept the subject access request then ask to speak to a manager.

If they refuse then say that you are making a complaint and get a reference number

 

Are the insurers in England or in Scotland

[babs71]

I found this about them they are registered in England and Wales

AOIS_v1.9.pdf

[dx100uk]

doesnt matter where they or you are an sar is an sar.

stop confusing yourself with things that have zero meaning.

dx

[babs71]

Hi DX100uk thanks for joining us, I was just answering the question as to whether the insurers are in England or Scotland

[BankFodder]

However it may make a difference you decide legal action against them.

 

[babs71]

oh dear I am getting myself all muddles with this legal action, is this after we have exhausted 1st Central complaint route and then tried FOS (finance ombudsman)

[BankFodder]

No. I'm going to propose that we go straight into a legal action. It's about time that you stopped being led around by the nose by these people and you took control.

This would mean that we sent a letter of claim giving 14 days and then you start an action.

Unfortunately we will have to wait rather longer because the subject access request has not been sent.

However, once the subject access request has been made and they disclosure has been made or else if they refuse the subject access request verbally then we will begin an action.

Of course this is on the basis that you are happy to do this.

Of course also it will be down to your son who is I have said, it's going to have to start taking an active part in this.

[BankFodder]

???

[dx100uk]

8 hours ago, babs71 said:

We are in Scotland

you can still issue an MCOL claim

dx

 

[babs71]

Morning BankFodder, 

Apologies for not coming back to you last evening, my nights are long, and my mornings are early. My apologies but I have fallen asleep most evenings by 7. 

My son finished his work shift this morning at 10 and headed straight to college in Edinburg he will be home around 6 this evening when he can make the call to 1st Central to make his subject access request. I will record the conversation and update you on the outcome once the call has been made.

I will have to have a conversation with him this evening about your suggestion of taking the legal action route, could you please give me a brief outline of what it would entail so that I can relay this information to him so he can make an informative choice? 

[BankFodder]

The alternative is to make a complaint to the financial ombudsman service which require that you begin a complaint to the insurer. They could respond within eight weeks and give you a "final response" which would then allow you to go to the ombudsman.
If the insurer finds in your favour then they should correct all the records and no doubt they will offer you some token compensation payment as a gesture of goodwill.
However, we find that once companies put a mark on a credit file, they would rather cut the legs off their own children or do something nasty to their grannies then remove the credit file marker. I have no idea why this should be.
If you then go on to the ombudsman, that could take anything up to a year. It is likely that the ombudsman will in general terms, finding your favour and order the insurer to take certain action. This should include cleaning up the credit file – but of course it is uncertain. Unfortunately, although the law is pretty clear, the ombudsman doesn't seem to be interested in enforcing the law but prefers to reach a solution which they consider is "fair to both sides". They may also order some compensation which would probably be greater than that offered by the insurer – but probably less than it's worth.

If you decided to go to court then we would suggest that you sued on the breach of the data protection act. The breach would be about inaccurate data processing. You are entitled to claim for distress both your son and to your family and given the seriousness of what has happened I would suggest that you should be suing for something like about £2000.
We would suggest an additional head of claim for breach of the ICOBS regulations in that you have not been treated fairly or communicated with fairly by the insurer.
There will be a nominal compensation for this – we would suggest £500. If you obtained a judgement for this then that would be sent to the FCA who would not be happy about it.
We would expect that once the insurer had received the claim papers and started to look at it seriously, they would then start asking questions about how this had been allowed to happen and I would expect that they would leap into action to try and forestall your action by sorting things out and making you an offer you can then negotiate upwards.
However no guarantees about this.

On the basis of what you have told us, if you began legal action then your chances of winning are well over 95% – assuming it went on to trial. The chances of them wanting to stop it all and sort things out and negotiate are probably better than 80%.

Your risk exposure will be the cost of your claim fee – which I think is about hundred pounds for that kind of value. Plus a trial fee which is probably about £75 for that kind of value.
If you lost then you would have to bear that loss but you wouldn't be responsible for any expenses incurred by the insurer.

If it went to trial then I'm afraid it will probably take about a year as well – the same length of time as the ombudsman.

 

[babs71]

College has ended early he is on his way home now, and should be making the call to 1st Central by 3:30-4:00, we will update you on the outcome of it

[babs71]

Call complete to 1st Central Customer Service, recorder call, they have emailed whoever it is that needs to process the request and my son was told to call back in a week if nothing has been received via email. They said there was no reference number to accompany this request. The recording identifies my son on it so I haven't uploaded the MP3 file here, I can email it to you if you wish to hear it. They asked why he wanted it he fluffed at this point and then said it was for an ongoing dispute, I hope that is okay, didn't expect them to ask why he wanted it and were not prepared with an answer.

[BankFodder]

Thank you. Need to provide us with a copy. And they asked what he wanted it you should simply have said that it was his statutory right and they were not entitled to a reason.
I'm very surprised that they accepted the request verbally – but of course they were obliged to – but I haven't come across any people in these kinds of companies – banks, insurers et cetera who understand that the verbal subject access request can be made.

They say telephone back in a week. I suggest that you telephone on Wednesday to see whether they have a record of the request and what they're doing.

In the meantime, consider what I said about the options. I would say that a legal action will be more profitable and is more likely to achieve the result that you want.
To be clear, if you decided to go down the ombudsman route then if they eventually came to a decision she didn't agree with or a compensation order which you didn't agree with then you could still go to court if you decline their offer.
However, as I have already said, it will probably take about a year to get through the ombudsman process. It could then take anything up to a year to get through the County Court process if they went to trial.
On the other hand, if they took fright and tried to settle early on, then it might only be a month or two after issuing the claim. However, on top of the ombudsman process this could be as much as 15 months or more.

And just for transparency, we would be more interested if you took a legal action. It wouldn't be against your interests to do so but it wouldn't be against your interests to go the ombudsman route to begin with although it will take considerably longer with a very uncertain outcome

[babs71]

Hi would you like me to email the recording over to your email?

What my son wants to achieve from this is the removal of this DN from his credit file, that is his main reason. I have had a chat with him and explained the 2 options and it appears that the one way we can make sure it is removed is to go the legal route you have suggested.

He has asked if he will need to get a lawyer/solicitor involved or if you can all help with whatever he has to do to go down the legal route. He just wants his name cleared of the no-fault record on his credit file, it isn't fair that they have done what they have. The compensation would also be nice and he can donate to you all for your help

[BankFodder]

We don't need the recording. You have told us about it.

Both routes could result in the removal of the default notice from his credit file. However on the basis of what you say, the legal action would be far quicker and far more effective.
As I have already said, I would expect that once they receive claim papers that have a look they will start asking themselves how on earth this happened.
I'm not sure what else I can say.

No he won't need a solicitor. He will do this himself and I think I've already explained the likely cost of the action and his risk exposure.

He starts getting a solicitor involved then this was simply costing a lot of money for exchanges of letters which may succeed without soggy legal action that it will be time consuming and you won't get your money back.
Also, your son will learn a little bit more about how these kinds of things work. I'm afraid that it probably won't be the last time in his life that he finds that he is in conflict with some organisation or other and so this would be a good way to cut his teeth.

This is not the kind of thing which is taught in British universities – even in law schools.

Does he actually look at this thread and read what is going on – or are you simply filling him in all the time?