British Gas Loan & PPI

[neilloffhagen]

Hi,

 

My wife is in dispute/disagreement with British Gas over a loan taken out approx one year ago. At the time she was worried about redudancy, that is now not likely to occur and anyway we want to pay off the loan, having cashed in an endowment. Applied on-line for the loan, but due to the redundance worry she phoned up to take out PPI on the loan. The next day a courier arrived withthe documents to be signed and hand over the cheque. It was obviuosly in a hurry, so my wife signed and he left. Must admit to not reading all the small print, but in large letters it had £248.00 monthly payment for loan, £38.00 for PPI, total £286.00.

 

Phoned up to cancel the PPI and get a redemption figure. We were told approx £5,500 would clear the loan. Said we get back to them. A week later the redemption figure had risen to £6,500!! We queried this and were told the first perospon we spoke to was in error!! Talked to managers etc on the phonre, but they would not budge. So we sent in a letter for DPA request of the phone call and all other correspondance and detials they had regarding my wife. Letter arrived yesterday replied to our letter of the 27th April, so they didn't exactly hurry to reply.

It goes on about 30 day cancellation rights and that if it's over 30 days it's at their discretion to cancel or not. They have now cancelled the PPI, which is the good bit, but the bad bit is the cost of doing so. The monthly payments have reduced by only £2.00 That is becaue accoprding to them you pay for the PPI upfront, before you start to pay off the loan. Rip off!

 

So we have put together the folowing letter and wonder what anyone here thinks about it:

 

Dear Miss ......

I refer to your letter dated the 16th May 2006. Unfortuntatly it would appear to me that you have totally ignored the salient points of my letter. Alow me to reinterate.

1. I orginally signed an agreement for my LOAN which menat that i was paying an interest rate of 7.9% which amounted to a monthly amount of £248.00 (without payment protection)

2. I am now expected to pay £36.00 per month more that the above for that loan and, having cancelled my PPI am not receiving any additional service or further loan amount in recompense.

3. I did not expect a full refund of the premiums that I had paid for my insurance as I had enjoyed the priveledge of that insurnace for a number of months. I simply expectd not to continue paying once the insurnac was cancelled. At no point ws it made clear to me that I would pay for my payment protection before making contrbutions to my loan.

 

In view of the above and the fact that you conveniently have no record of the telephone conversations in whcih I feel I have been serioulsy mislead I have no choice but to resort to taking you to the small claims court to retrieve what i feel is rightfuly mine. In addition to the above I belive that the DPA does entitle me to receive anything you hold on record for me and in returning my request unserved you are breaking the DPA. It also means that from the date of my intial inquiry you would have still had access to the phone conversation in queston as it was within your expiry date.

 

In summary, I am asking for you to refund me £325 which is what I see as the overpayment in subscriptions for the PPI. I am also expecting my monthly payments to return to thier orginal amount of £248.00 for the duration of the original term. I am allowing you 14 days to settle my claim oput of court before I issue court proceedings.

 

I am sure when you have understood that I am not simply avoiding my orginal commitment and that I do understand my obligation that you will see your way clear to meeting my request.

 

Any suggestions? Was wondering if we should offer a figure to close the loan with or ask them for a final redemption figure as well?

 

Thanks for all the help on these forums.

 

Neil.

[tomthumb]

Im in a similar situation as yours with regarding the insurance, i never received any paperwork to look over in regarding the insurance or my rights to cancel. i therefore am taking xxx loans to court over this. im going to try and prove it was missold.

i think i will win on the above grounds(no info. ever sent out).

 

There is other payment issues that im also persuing through the small claims, clearly been overcharging me, therefore im going to argue that its a breach of there own contract(shortning term of agreed term of loan).

 

Have a damn good look at your annual/monthly statements and whatever they have added and check its correct! thats how i found out that xxx loans had been overcharging.

 

by the way, how does your early redemption penalty work? is it rule 78? or is it just a months interest on oustanding balance etc. or didnt you know until you asked for the early settlement(like i found out)

 

good luck and dont be frightened to take them to small claims court.

 

 

good luck

[neilloffhagen]

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