Lifestyle money + lifestyle claims

[EXC]

Re: Lifestyle money + lifestyle claims

Response from FOS:

Dear Mr Woodhouse

Thank you for your email - I apologise for the delay in responding, I have been considering the points you have raised.

I have based my assessment on what I believe to be fair and reasonable in the circumstances - with this in mind, I believe a breach of contract has occurred on one of your claims and this should be refunded to you. I have taken your points into consideration, however, my opinion remains the same and I am unable to fully uphold your complaint. I note that you wish to refer your complaint for an ombudsman to review and I will arrange for this to happen. I will send you correspondence confirming this and the process going forward.

Yours sincerely

Going by the assessment of 10 June they haven't upheld your complaint for the payments on these 3 PPI claims:

1. Santander - Resolved and received offer of settlement in July 2013 (administration fee not refunded).
2. Barclaycard - Resolved and received offer of settlement in October 2012 (administration fee not refunded).
3. Barclaycard - Resolved and received offer of settlement in September 2011 (administration fee not refunded).

Can you tell me what the settlement amounts were for each of these?

Also how many £398 (or there abouts) administration fees did you pay in total?

[EXC]

Re: Lifestyle money + lifestyle claims

On 16 September 2012 MOJ banned Client Connection from taking upfront fees so I've asked them for the details of the ban as it may help your case.

[Rjwoodhouse]

Re: Lifestyle money + lifestyle claims

I made 6 payments of £599.99
I received £1353.75 from the Santander claim and for the barclaycard claims I received £59 and £129

The other 3 claims were for egg,mbna and capital one

[Amethyst]

Re: Lifestyle money + lifestyle claims

So you paid JUST the £599 for each claim, not the £398 AND the £599. Thank goodness!

The backend fee's should have been 25% of those amounts then. As 25% of all of those is under £599 then a refund is due to you of £260.75 on the Santander claim, and most of it on the barclaycard claims, then all of it on the egg, mbna and capital one claim which didn't result in a payout. Just to check on the barclaycard claims was that the total refund or was some refunded to pay off outstanding debt as well ?

I don't really see how the CMC benefitted from fast tracking a claim and taking a higher upfront fee and promising to refund it off the fee of 25% due - not a very sound business plan, particularly in a case like this where the fast track fee ended up higher than the back-end fee.

[EXC]

Re: Lifestyle money + lifestyle claims

I made 6 payments of £599.99
I received £1353.75 from the Santander claim and for the barclaycard claims I received £59 and £129

The other 3 claims were for egg,mbna and capital one

I agree with Amethyst ie that as you paid more in upfront fees than the value of the claims (even before taking into account the backend 25% fee) you've been hard done by.

The only slight fly in the ointment is that if FOS still insist on treating the £599 priority service fees as administration fees then technically there is no refund due as there's been no breech of contract. It's all about how you'd define a 'successful' claim as per the terms in post #33.

Having said that although the complaint with the FOS is based on breech of contract (ie you were told the payments were refundable in any event), the FOS base their decisions on what is fair and reasonable and clearly it's hardly fair & reasonable to pay £599 for a claim that yields substantially less. So lets wait until they inform you when the complaint is being reviewed by the Ombudsman and we'll raise the issue.

I got this back from MOJ which might be helpful in a general context:

Dear EXC,

Sorry for the rushed Friday afternoon response but I wanted to make sure you had the information.

The conditions placed on the business were as follows.

1. Client Connection Limited may not take advance fees or any other fees before the conclusion of their service to the client.

2. Client Connection Limited will supply to the Regulator each month, and also on request, the complaint log for clients and prospective clients. Client Connection Limited will retain the log for a period of six years.

I trust this helps with enquiries, I can’t think of anything else that will assist further, but if I can help you further, I will.

Regards,

Chris Woods l Senior Claims Management Officer | Claims Management Regulation Unit
57-60 High Street l Burton on Trent l Staffordshire l DE14 1JS | 01283 233311 |