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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to not pay ppi company

28 replies

whatdoidonowffs · 09/05/2019 12:08

So I contacted a ppi claim company to see if I had ppi with Barclaycard they checked and said I had none and there was nothing more they could do
Barclaycard then wrote to me saying they’d made a mistake and if I filled the forms in I could claim which I duly did I also made a few follow up calls
I then had a text from the claim company saying Barclaycard had accepted the claim and were going to give me x amount I then had a phone call saying they wanted 25% of the claim
AIBU not to pay or pay a lesser percentage as I did all the work for the most part ?

OP posts:

Eslteacher06 · 09/05/2019 12:12

Problem is they could take you to court for the money and you could have those bailiffs at your door. I wouldn't ignore it. Speak to CAB?

Thiswayorthatway · 09/05/2019 12:14

Did the claims company tell you up front that they would charge 25% of any successful claim?

tensmum1964 · 09/05/2019 12:15

Just tell them that other than check Barclay card for you and subsequently get it wrong that they they did nothing else therefore are not entitled to a penny. If they get stroppy ask them for a break down of what they actually did.

Theknacktoflying · 09/05/2019 12:15

Surely it would be in the paperwork you received from the ppi company/terms you accepted ...

HBStowe · 09/05/2019 12:16

Did the PPI company have any involvement after they told you there was nothing more they could do? If not, I don’t see how they can claim anything now.

twirlypoo · 09/05/2019 12:17

I used to work for a ppi company as a temp in the payments department, if you signed the paperwork then there’s nothing you can do as you have agreed to it. They will take you to court for anything above £50, and they will sadly win.

kaldefotter · 09/05/2019 12:18

Presumably, you agreed to the company's terms before they initially contacted Barclays? If so, you can't subsequently decide not to adhere to those terms.

Your error was in using a claims company in the first place, rather than doing it yourself. It's unfortunate, but you do owe them the money.

twirlypoo · 09/05/2019 12:18

Actually! I just reread and realised they wrote saying there is nothing more they can do - I’m not sure if they would pursue it in this situation, I’m sorry, ignore my above post!

BogglesGoggles · 09/05/2019 12:21

You will have to fight them in court if you want to keep your 25%. Precedent isn’t on your side but there may he’s cobtractual analogy to make wothestate agents contracts where they have to do the majority of the work involved in getting your house sold to constituent performance (orwas it consideration? I don’t remember but I think it was performance) and get an order for your performance on that basis. You’ll have to get a contract lawyer to argue it though. I would suggest seeking legal advice from a proper law firm (not a high street firm) before making the decision not to pay.

Alsohuman · 09/05/2019 12:21

They’ve said in black and white they could do no more. They’re chancing their arm, I wouldn’t pay them a penny. Hope you kept their letter!

DGRossetti · 09/05/2019 12:26

Isn't this like signing up with an estate agent, selling your house without them, and discovering that they get their commission regardless of how you found the buyer ?

Original poster

whatdoidonowffs · 09/05/2019 12:34

I did know about the 25% when I started the claim and if the claim company had done all the work for it and I hadn’t had to lift a pen or phone receiver then fine they deserve it
But being as I had to fill all the forms in make numerous phone calls and generally do all the work after they told me they could do no more I just feel they haven’t earns 25% of it
Might try offering then 12.5% and see what they say 😂😂

OP posts:

smartcarnotsosmartdriver · 09/05/2019 12:40

I would ask for an itemised bill for the work they carried out, it will be extortionate but possibly less than the 25%.

twirlypoo · 09/05/2019 12:42

Honestly, we used to get people like you calling in all the time saying they had done all the work and that they would offer us a percentage but not the full 25% - If you go in with that attitude they will laugh and take you to court.

Your best bet is saying that they closed their involvement with it when they sent you the letter, and that your agreement ended then. It’s still a small shot, but that the avenue you need to persue.

SchrodingersBrexit · 09/05/2019 12:46

If you don't think they deserve the money why offer 12.5%?

Agree with @twirlypoo, say the agreement ended when they wrote to you confirming they could do no more.

TheInebriati · 09/05/2019 12:51

They ended their contract with you when they said there was nothing they could do, you don't owe them anything.

How did they find out you subsequently made your own successful claim?

TheInvestigator · 09/05/2019 12:58

They said there was nothing more they could do and closed the case. They were no longer working on your behalf. Tell them your contract with them was ended.

The subsequent claim was made by you as an individual.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 09/05/2019 13:34

they checked and said I had none and there was nothing more they could do
Barclaycard then wrote to me saying they’d made a mistake

They closed the case and accepted defeat, so they ended the contract. However, why did BC write to you directly and not to the company whom you'd already nominated as your agent for the claim? Was it the fact that the PPI company had already asked that caused BC to subsequently re-check or would they have contacted you regardless?

Also, I hate to say, but if they do end up getting the 25% that they believe they're entitled to, it will actually cost you 30% of the total, as their fee will attract VAT. Technically, you also have to pay tax on the 8% statutory interest on the compensation that you receive (which usually comprises most of the actual settlement), and this might be taken off by the bank automatically, but I think there's a form you can fill in to declare it/reclaim it as the vast majority of people will be covered by their individual interest-on-savings tax-free allowance.

I really don't know why companies like this are allowed to operate within the law. They shut down the scam companies that used to buy adverts on Google so that they would appear at the top when people searched for 'UK passport application' or 'Driving licence' or similar. They added no value and offered no tangible level of service as they just essentially copied and pasted your info 'on your behalf' on the same proper government website that you could have used yourself and then whacked their extra fee on top of the actual official cost.

These PPI companies are doing nothing that you couldn't do yourself (maybe with a little free online guidance from MSE or the FCA). They try and scare you with tales of 'ooh, just think of all the forms you have to fill in', but these are mostly just simple details such as your name, address, employment history etc that you would have to tell the companies in the first place anyway. It's not like they're conveyancing solicitors guiding you professionally through the complex laws and procedures when you buy a house - it's literally just 'copy, paste, send to every single bank, send a standard claim template in to any positive answers, get the money, keep a massive stack of it and pass the rest on to the rightful claimant'.

The banks did sometimes fight back at first, but now they've mainly sucked it up and are just taking the hit until the end of August. As they have to pay 8% interest, if they realise that you're on the case in claiming, their losses are minimised the sooner they settle. Some banks have actually contacted customers out of the blue to say 'sorry, you may have heard that we ripped you off - here's a cheque for what we owe you including interest'.

It's a shame that people who don't claim before the deadline for whatever reason might miss out on their rightful compensation, but it will be such a breath of fresh air not to have to keep seeing and hearing that annoying shouty man from GB in every ad break. Charlatans, the lot of them.

Alsohuman · 09/05/2019 13:44

Bugger, I didn’t realise you could reclaim the tax on the interest.

DGRossetti · 09/05/2019 13:48

These PPI companies are doing nothing that you couldn't do yourself (maybe with a little free online guidance from MSE or the FCA)

You could say the same about baking a cake. But no one thinks Greggs should be banned ....

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 09/05/2019 14:21

You could say the same about baking a cake. But no one thinks Greggs should be banned ....

Buying/assembling the ingredients, taking the time to prepare the cake, paying for fuel for the oven, waiting for it to cook etc. might take a few hours. To buy one from Greggs might cost you a couple of quid. To be honest, a home-made one would taste much nicer and might contain more wholesome and less processed ingredients, but purely financially speaking, it's likely to actually cost you more than picking one up from Greggs.

These companies will ask you to fill in a form, providing all of the necessary details, type the information into a website (or simply copy and paste if you send them your info online), add a generic 'reason for claim' paragraph, press 'submit claim' and wait for the money to come in and claim they've somehow earned maybe a few thousand pounds of it.

Plus, Greggs charge you the individual price of the actual cake(s) that you've gone in and chosen to buy of your own volition - they don't phone you, keep writing to you or shouting at you on the telly that you must be stupid if you don't buy a cake from them - and then seek to charge you 25% of whatever food budget you have for the week.

I think the percentage-based charge is the most insidious part of all. It's a bit like with estate agents charging you based on the value of your house rather than for the actual work that they've done.

If these companies advertised and said "You could be due thousands of pounds of compensation and it's really not difficult to claim, but if you'd still rather not have any hassle and just let us handle it all for you, we'll do it for £50/£100", I wouldn't have any issue with it.

It's the implication that it's so complex that it requires professional skills/it takes many hours/they're much more likely to succeed than you would be on your own - and that their half-hour of work is worth potentially thousands of pounds - that really gets to me.

Look at Rogue Traders on Watchdog. Some of them do a botched job, invent unnecessary jobs or claim they've done a job that they haven't. However, there are some who are rightly featured who have properly done a job that needed doing with due skill and diligence - but then seek to charge 10-20 times a reasonable price for the work - and they're still fairly exposed and numbered among the other rogues.

Thiswayorthatway · 09/05/2019 14:30

Did you know about the 25% before you asked them to investigate? Was it specifically drawn to your attention or hidden in t&c's? As a consumer v a company it may be considered an unfair contract term.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 09/05/2019 14:37

Bugger, I didn’t realise you could reclaim the tax on the interest.

I don't know how far you can backdate a claim. It does seem ridiculous that it's considered interest on savings, as you had no choice in the matter and, unlike with savings, didn't have free access to the money throughout.

Although the statutory 8% happens to works out generous when compared with interest rates of the past years, rates haven't always been at such a historic low.

Plus, savings is spare money that you choose to put aside and invest. If people were charged PPI on credit cards, either without their knowledge or otherwise believing it to be compulsory or a suitable product for their circumstances, they will have been paying loads more in interest than they would have done had a big chunk of their monthly payments not been diverted towards paying for a dubious policy. The government didn't care about it when people were charged 30-40% interest for much longer than necessary, but now they receive 8% back after a number of years, they potentially want a share of it by default.

A little like stamp duty, I think: if it is a fair tax, then why is it charged on the total amount of the purchase price of the new house with no rebate on the sale price of the old one? There are people out there - a lot of them elderly, some who are in financial difficulties or having to sell a large marital home following a divorce - who need to downsize to a cheaper house, but who are deterred from doing so (or are penalised if they have no choice in the matter) because of having to pay thousands of pounds in tax for moving to a significantly less nice house.

Ispywithmycynicaleye · 09/05/2019 14:37

Definitely check your terms and conditions. I signed up to one who said they would check if I had ppi on my behalf and would let me know if I had. They then required further permission to proceed with any claim giving me the option of doing it myself or going elsewhere.

CupOhTea · 09/05/2019 14:37

Isn't this like signing up with an estate agent, selling your house without them, and discovering that they get their commission regardless of how you found the buyer ?

I don't know, but it also reminded me of when I was at work and we were recruiting. We had an application from someone independently, responding to an ad we'd put up ourselves, but then a recruitment company also put them forward. We were told that we'd still need to pay them their fee if we hired that candidate, even if we didn't use them at all for the recruitment! We didn't hire them in the end, as someone else was better qualified, but it was interesting about the recruitment company.

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