In brief:
- as the contract was made over the phone it probably is captured by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, which gives your wife 7 working days to cancel the contract i.e. your wife should contact Aims Review to cancel the contract.
- in addition Aims Review may give a cooling off period (unlikely but read any communications it has sent you), allowing your wife to cancel the contract.
- if the above fails your wife can claim from the credit card company (not necessary to first or also claim from the supplier - Aims) under 1) 'charge back' regulations (complicated to explain but in your communication with the credit card company just ask whether or not a 'charge back' is possible; or 2) s.75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (as explained previously). s.75 allows for compensation (part, all or more of actual credit card expenditure) if a supplier - Aims - misrepresents (google away, but basically lies or exaggerates) the facts or terms of the contract and your wife relied upon that misrepresentation (i.e. she was induced to enter into the contract). So, from what you've said it's possible that Aim misled your wife by saying that she already had a valid PPI claim waiting so if she signed up by paying £150 she'd get that PPI refunded/compensation - which is extremely likely to be untrue. The remedy would be based upon what your wife would have done had she been told the truth (rather than to make the misrepresentation true) e.g. most likely she would not have entered into the contract and paid the £150, therefore the credit card company needs to refund the £150 (irrespective of whether or not it gets the money back from Aims Review).
- If the credit card company delays the refund and interest is incurred on the £150 then that interest is also refundable.
- If the credit card company unduly delays the refund you should formally complain and await either the refund or what is known as a 'final response' letter (max 8 weeks from initial complaint) explaining why your complaint has been rejected. It is at that stage you can refer your complaint to FOS (just call them). Likely your complaint will take a few months at FOS to be considered (they're extremely busy!) but they'll consider compensation based on: loss (£150 + int + cost of calls/letters etc) and 'distress and inconvenience £25-£100 compensation for the hassle of the credit card company not acting correctly and promptly.
- Your wife has a duty to mitigate her loss i.e. reduce impact, so, for example, no withholding usual monthly payment to the credit card company.
- May be worthwhile a read of the FOS site at
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/. Just search for section 75 and/or misrepresentation and PPI if you have ever bought PPI.
Hope that helps but let me know if there's anything unclear.
Edited, to add:
suggested summary action, in case it's unclear:
1) contact Aims Review to cancel contract and obtain £150 refund;
2) write/email to credit card company (keep copies) asking that your wife be refunded £150 as she relied upon a misrepresentation before making the payment and under s.75 CCA 1974 (as above) the credit card company is equally liable.
3) if above fails, formally complain to credit card company.
4) if that fails or no final response within max 8 weeks refer complaint to FOS.
