Sort-of PPI again...

[Cozzer]

You'll remember, no doubt.
Hounded by emails, TV ad's, leaflets....yes, the big PPI claims business of a few years ago.
And then there was the deadline for submission....

A year-or-so ago, I was tempted with a similar thing - this time, it was "undeclared commission earnings" when you purchased your vehicle on credit. Vehicles that were purchased between 2007 and 2021 from memory.

Well, why not have a crack?
Submitted as many documents as I could find from (in my case) 2012, and waited...and waited...and waited...

It's taken 10 months to find out that my Finance Company - namely Close Brothers - won't be alone in having destroyed their end of things from all those years ago. They're not legally obliged to keep anything dating from X years ago, so they don't/haven't. Therefore, end of the line in my case.

Now these claim companies must know that, so why "invite/allow" claims from 2007?
Another reason, perhaps?
Probably not a good one....

 

[Tris]

I gather they (Close) are under investigation for that, and yet were offering savings accounts with higher-than-average interest rates recently. Wonder why they might want piles of someone else's money?


My New Year's resolution to be less cynical has failed already

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

I get that some companies can be devious and underhand (that's what business does - right?)
But that hasn't stopped me starting a series of claims.
I'm pretty sure that I still have access to all documentation - whether in paper or electronic - and this is the thing that ought to be enough to evidence whether interest rate was "higher than the underlying trend" set at the time...
Still worth a shot - and particularly against those types of underhand and devious businesses that have "oh, I'm sorry, we don't keep records" and destroyed them at the first sign of investigation into their business practices. It might result in something. It might not. But it WILL result in one outcome - even if that isn't the appropriate compensation that former customers are owed. The result will be a more robustly enforceable record keeping system which will force businesses to behave in a more open and honest manner. Which I'm 100% behind.

 

[TRITON]

The only ones who win are the companies promoting this. The recipient - You, only gets a tiny percentage.
Plus i believe theres also small print that knocks the concept of 'no win no fee' into a cocked hat and you can be left with a big legal bill

 

[worker]

If you need to make a claim, go direct. I used to work for a large bank handling PPI claims and the amount of nonsense we used to get from Claims Companies was just ridiculous. Some people didn't even realise the company claimed on their behalf.

Felt sorry for some, they got awarded big sums but as the claim was from a company so who knows how much they got in the end.

 

[ajs]

Had a cold call earlier today on that - Hi, is that Mr S - Yes - We've been given your details as you're entitled to some compensation over a car you bought on credit.

It was easy to quickly dismiss that one for the simple reason I have never bought a car, on finance or otherwise. If it was not for that minor detail they did sound convincing although I suspect my BS detector would be triggered later when they asked for details they would have been given in anything legitimate.

 

[Cozzer]

If you need to make a claim, go direct. I used to work for a large bank handling PPI claims and the amount of nonsense we used to get from Claims Companies was just ridiculous. Some people didn't even realise the company claimed on their behalf.

Felt sorry for some, they got awarded big sums but as the claim was from a company so who knows how much they got in the end.

Yes, that's true....but whether you use an agency or go direct, if there are no records kept, there are no records!
When I used to work for a world-famous travel agency - and in the days when we hand-wrote out multi-coupon air tickets - we were legally obliged to keep all counterfoils for (I think it was) 6 years.
After that, it was judged that all travel coupons would have been flown/refunded if not, assessed for segment fare accuracy, and in effect re-compiled somewhere.
Could be wrong - this is a test of memory - I think these finance companies speak of 12 years...?

 

[ajs]

IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) but six years is the standard Limitations Act thing for contractual disputes. It's also where the limit for Grenfell Tower style issues came from, there is no specific limit for construction so you get the same terms as if you were buying some envelopes at the newsagents.

That term is renewable though, the clock restarts when the contract is "acknowledged", that could be making a payment or sending a statement. For credit agreements that's the key thing - if you took out a 30 year mortgage 35 years ago and paid it off according to the original terms then you are still in time to raise a claim about how the mortgage was sold in the first place.