To cut a long story short, in 2004 i settled a £2,000 marbles credit card at £600 after they offered a 70% reduction.
Fast forward to 2006/2007 and people are reclaiming penalty charges so i did the same this year. The £2,000 balance included £1,100 charges.
HFC first offered all the charges back but no interest. I declined and passed it to the FOS.
Then they said they took all the charges into account at the time of settlement in 2004 so i am due nothing. I disagreed with this as at the time of settlement there was no mention of any charges and i paid to settle the whole balance including them (otherwise my payment of 30% would have been less).
HFC 'settled' two defaults at £1,400 which is 70% written off. One default they carried on maintaining.
Now the FOS decision.
They say HFC did take into account the charges at the time of settlement when they wrote off £1,400 (even though the two settled defaults show they did not and my payment of £600 was 30% of the £2,000). The account was shown as £0 in 2004.
They say HFC also took into account £150 interest on charges. Bah!
But the FOS have awarded me £300 as compensation for the default HFC maintained by mistake. Will i get this money? No ... read on.
As HFC wrote off £1,400 and they took £1,100 charges plus £150 interest into account (thats £1,250) out of the £1,400, then they will now receive £150 out of the £300 awarded to me to make up the difference (£1,400 - £1,250).
So i will get about £150 in compensation.
This is an incredible decision. First of all, HFC have agreed that i paid £600 out of £2,000 (which included £1,100 of penalty charges) so they could not have taken the charges into account. Secondly, i do not owe them anything now so how can the FOS give them any money from my award to make up their 'loss' that they wrote off?
Advice please as i have taken this ahead with the FOS and same outcome.
Fast forward to 2006/2007 and people are reclaiming penalty charges so i did the same this year. The £2,000 balance included £1,100 charges.
HFC first offered all the charges back but no interest. I declined and passed it to the FOS.
Then they said they took all the charges into account at the time of settlement in 2004 so i am due nothing. I disagreed with this as at the time of settlement there was no mention of any charges and i paid to settle the whole balance including them (otherwise my payment of 30% would have been less).
HFC 'settled' two defaults at £1,400 which is 70% written off. One default they carried on maintaining.
Now the FOS decision.
They say HFC did take into account the charges at the time of settlement when they wrote off £1,400 (even though the two settled defaults show they did not and my payment of £600 was 30% of the £2,000). The account was shown as £0 in 2004.
They say HFC also took into account £150 interest on charges. Bah!
But the FOS have awarded me £300 as compensation for the default HFC maintained by mistake. Will i get this money? No ... read on.
As HFC wrote off £1,400 and they took £1,100 charges plus £150 interest into account (thats £1,250) out of the £1,400, then they will now receive £150 out of the £300 awarded to me to make up the difference (£1,400 - £1,250).
So i will get about £150 in compensation.
This is an incredible decision. First of all, HFC have agreed that i paid £600 out of £2,000 (which included £1,100 of penalty charges) so they could not have taken the charges into account. Secondly, i do not owe them anything now so how can the FOS give them any money from my award to make up their 'loss' that they wrote off?
Advice please as i have taken this ahead with the FOS and same outcome.
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