Creation Financial Services - Want to know more ?!

[magictorch1976]

Dear All

I have had several people help me on CAG's forums and I thought it time to give a little something back ;-)

 

I am an ex-employee of Creation Financial Services, well, technically, I am an ex-employee of the 3rd party company that Creation outsource ALL of their operational processes to - legal, call centre, customer service, correspondence, card production, statement production, history and transaction retrieval, projects, fraud. The lot !

 

I would be happy to share any information with you that you so require or answer any questions you may have. I worked for them for a good few years.

 

In my personal opinion, they had to be the worst employer I have ever worked for but that aside, (as it is technically irrelevant,) I am surprised that this company can continue to trade. The entire organsiation is a shambles and the FSA would have a FIELD day should it choose to audit it's compliance.

 

I hope I can help. Let me know.

 

Best regards

[andypal]

Hello! I had an account with them which is now closed. Wondering how I can get details of my Account etc. Their rates and late payment charges were ridiculous. Any help would be very grateful.

 

Andy

[sleepe268]

my wife had astore ard with theme which she found hard to pay of

by the time i found out about it they were demanding 800 pound

the actual bill was 150 its been pased on to lowell financial ltd

im wondering wether to ask for statments so as to claim late

payments back an advice plz

[sallysas]

£800!!!!! That is certainly worth asking for statements. Even with 8% interest when/if you file at court will make a real dent in what your wife owes.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/ will give you all the letters you need. They sent me my statements within a month so not the timewasters some companies are.

 

It is worth starting your own thread so any help you ask for is in one place making it easier for you and those posting. Go get 'em and all the best, Sally

[sallysas]

Andypall. By law they have to keep your records for 6 years (although they probably go back further) so send them the sar letter (see link above) but if you have moved put previous addresses where they have known you in that letter. Just because the account is now closed is not a valid reason for them not to pay out.

[sleepe268]

i have aproblem in that i do not have the ref number

i only have the ref number for lowell they took it over from creation

[sallysas]

But Creation will have your details on file. It is no use asking Lowell for your old records - you need to claim your charges back from Creation.

 

If you, hypothetically, wanted to make an extra payment to creation I bet they would have no problem locating your account. By advice still stands as above.

[babygirl10873]

my problem with creation was regarding protection payments they just added them to my account not long after it started. i found statments from 2003 and it was on there do not every remember signing up or recieving any documents about it. I have had to write to cancel it only noticed it now because im paying more in insurance then in intrest and anyone you knows them they are chargeing 30.9% at min. have now writen asking for monies back by stating i was not only misold it but didnt agree to it hoping to get a refund also sent them a SAR to see what they have been charging is there anyway i can get anything back other than late charges.

[magictorch1980]

RE : babygirl10873

 

Hello babygirl10873. The PPI insurance you are mentioning has been cracked down on by the FSA and the new regulations state that ALL credit applications must have a SEPERATE signature for acceptance of insurance.

 

Unfortunately for you (and many others!) before this amendment was made it was acceptable for a single ticked box to indicate the consumers acceptance of insurance.... obviously to increase sales figures store assistants were possibly able to tick this box (on your behalf!) without telling you how it will effect you or even after you have signed!.

 

If you have already sent off your S.A.R then hopefully you have recieved a reply by now. Check to see if they have included a copy of your application with your request (as they are required to do.) If they have not sent this to you then your next steps should be;

 

1 - call their call centre and ask to speak to their insurance department (try to avoid lunch time as their insurance dept is not very large) or write to their customer care department.

 

2 - request that either they send a copy of the original agreement to prove your acceptance of insurance or if they are unable to do so refund the same as obviously they have no proof.

 

3 - If they ARE able to provide the agreement still look closely and check if there is anything you feel is unusual (is the tick accepting insurance made in a different pen?, did you fill out all other sections of the form and the ticked insurance box is noticibly different?, etc...)

 

Always try to push that little bit further if you can when disputing and if all else fails put it into writing again to their customer care department

[39+]

Hi Magictorch

 

Would like to say it's nice to see someone from 'The Dark Side' helping for a change

 

Was wondering if you could give me an idea of who Creation are? ie. which store/credit cards do they own, or do they collect on behalf of others? The reason I ask is I received a demand from Mackenzie Hall this morning re Creation, and the ref no they're using is 16 digits so appears to be a card number of some sort, and I have to say number seems vaguely familiar! But I haven't had any sort of card for probably over 10 years other than the card I currently use and pay off in full every month.

 

Don't really want to CCA them unless I have to. If I had an idea of who/what this is for may just be able to send statute barred letter straight away.

 

Thanks for any help you can give

[sallysas]

I have a Brantano card (shoes) which is one of theirs.

[magictorch1980]

Heya, the thread you are refering to was started by someone with a similar alias, I simply jumped on the bandwagon as we both seem to be ex-employees.

 

To answer your question;

 

creation manage store cards for selfridges, brantano, mkone, faith, ann summers. as well as others which I now cannot recall.

 

Credit cards managed by them include adams, jjb sports, football club mastercards (such as everton, wba, etc...) as well as credit cards for several mail order catalogues which I forget the name of now. they also have their own brand "duet" mastercards which come in several varieties.

 

Note that the JJB card is a mastercard and no longer a storecard. Creation still manage the old storecards however new jjb accounts are mastercards.

 

The 16-digit account number quoted by mackenzie hall can help you work out whether it is a storecard or mastercard (6319 - store, 53xx - master) and if you speak to someone with experience at creation (ask to speak to a supervisor) they should (usually) be able to tell you from the first few numbers the "brand" of card. please don't give them a hard time if they can't though if it's a really old brand it could be hard to remember!

 

From working with creation my reccomendation with this account would be to either;

 

1. speak to mackenzie hall and request details/statements for the account as anyone you speak to on the phone at creation will only be able to advise you to do the same.

 

2. write to creations customer care dept and request the same - I cannot guarantee that this will be helpful though as I do not know if they are able to do anything.

 

hope this helps!

[39+]

That's great magic, thanks for all the helpful advice

[helpmepls]

Hi

 

Pls could i get some advice.

 

Creation have contacted me today re: a debt they claim is owed. I bought some leather sofa's from Land of Leather in April 06 and was due to make a payment in full prior to 16th April 07 so that I would not be liable to any interest charges.

I made a cheque payment prior to the 16/4/07 but for some reason it dod not reach creation, i therefore sent another cheque for the full amount that was sent but arrived a few days after the payment date on the agreement. I was told over the phone that this was ok and it would not cause any problems.

I have today recieved a call from creation saying that i have arrears on my account of £2900. I said that i had made full payment and that I was not made at anypoint of any arrears. The person on the phone said they had sent me a letter but i had not received this and that's why they have contacted me today, a year after they recieved and banked the payment!

 

Could someone please provide me some advice? I was told over the phone that I would recieve a letter within the next 7 days demanding payment in full or the debt will be reffered to bailiffs.

[steven4064]

I think you need to write straight away and tell them this story exactly as you have told us. If you get no joy, send them a SAR - that should show the payment going in. Don't talk to them on the phone. These companies raraly keep promises made on the phone because they either don't record it or the people in collections don't refer to the computer file before taking action. Get everything in writing.

[helpmepls]

Thanks Steven, I'll keep you updated on my progress

[grimmers54]

It appears that they have now been rebranded as Laser UK, and their structure appears to be a joint venture between BNP-Paribas and Galeries Lafayette Group. One of their store cards is the DUET network.

 

I have to say that I'm a satisfied DUET cardholder! But having had various storecards in the past, I can imagine how things can turn nasty.

[cougar25]

magictorch,..

im sorry to jump on the bandwagon, but i was wondering if you could provide any information on the buy now pay later contract that creation finance (formerly open and direct) operate.

 

i was stung by the fact that i wasnt told there wouldnt be a reminder to pay, therefore i payed a rediculous amount of money after the deadline had passed??

 

Am thinking about passing this to the FOS to look over. its an old issue now but one that still beggars belief!

 

all info greatly appreciated.

 

cougar

[Guest Alison82]

Hi I used to have a selfrdges store card for staff, but it doen't apper on my credit file so I wasn't going to bother with them

[sallysas]

Just to let you know Creation have moved and are now part of this company:

 

LaSer

Chadwick House

Blenheim Court

Solihull

B91 2AA

[chelle_hutch]

Hi Magic,

 

I have an issue with PPI on an account i hold with Creation, I wont bore you with the details but one point which concerns me is that Creation were not regulated by the FSA when the policy was administered in 2004.

 

Do you know who they were regulated by prior to the FSA or in fact how i may find out. I think it was the FLA but i want to be 100%.

 

Thanks

MC

[steven4064]

I guess they probably weren't regulated but that shouldn't make any difference - if they mis-sold it, they mis-sold it.

[rmcsummer]

Hello

 

I have been receiving bills from this company but i am never able to get anyone to answer the phones. i am unable to pay via internet because the website they provided does not exist. I cant pay by posting a cheque because they will never recieve it before Christmas and i will be charged £20. On phoning the computerized voice asked for my card details and now they are going to charge me another late fee. What should i do?

 

Rachel

 

Dear All

I have had several people help me on CAG's forums and I thought it time to give a little something back ;-)

 

I am an ex-employee of Creation Financial Services, well, technically, I am an ex-employee of the 3rd party company that Creation outsource ALL of their operational processes to - legal, call centre, customer service, correspondence, card production, statement production, history and transaction retrieval, projects, fraud. The lot !

 

I would be happy to share any information with you that you so require or answer any questions you may have. I worked for them for a good few years.

 

In my personal opinion, they had to be the worst employer I have ever worked for but that aside, (as it is technically irrelevant,) I am surprised that this company can continue to trade. The entire organsiation is a shambles and the FSA would have a FIELD day should it choose to audit it's compliance.

 

I hope I can help. Let me know.

 

Best regards

[steven4064]

You should claim back all the late fees for a start - they are unlawful.

[rmcsummer]

Thanks. I know i now sound useless but how would i go about doing that?

 

rachel

 

 

 

You should claim back all the late fees for a start - they are unlawful.