WARNING - Wasted time on PPI complaint on Car Finance pre 14-01-05

[Mr G]

I stupidly took car finance out that included PPI in 2001. In September 2017 submitted a complaint to the finance company using the links from their website that garnered a response from a completely different company called Cardif Pinnacle who said they had no evidence of me or a PPI policy. As I have copies of both finance agreements that clearly show PPI was included within the monthly payment I persisted and wrote again and was given another address to try. After spending 8 weeks writing to six different companies each signposted by the previous one, trying to get the company named on the finance agreement to respond, I finally got a response from Pendragon advising me in their finest arrogance;

"we will not be conducting a full investigation into this matter" the sale took place prior to the regulation of PPI and their industry - pre 14 Jan 2005."

And just in case I want to refer my case "Furthermore, you will not be able to refer this matter to the FOS in respect of the sale conducted by our business......as it is outside their jurisdiction".

So that's car dealers for you, 'the fine upstanding and well trusted industry that they are" basically giving me two fingers and saying we could have sold you real estate on Uranus and there's nothing you can do about redress. Ironically, the car broke down a month after I purchased it and that was the last I saw of it - never drove it again. After a lengthy fight that resulted in me keeping their courtesy car until they agreed to refund me, we parted company.

It seems the score is now Car Dealer 2 - Me 0. At least I'm not a car dealer.

Please, everyone who thinks they took PPI out on car finance after 14-01-05 get your claims in now and stuff these companies.

Or does someone have a successful PPI complaint on a policy sold pre-14-01-05? Or knows of another route for redress?

Mr G

[Amethyst]

Re: WARNING - Wasted time on PPI complaint on Car Finance pre 14-01-05

I'm sure some people have been successful on pre-2005 claims by claiming directly from the underwriters ( as the underwriters would have been regulated pre 2005)

Might be worth giving the FOS a call - they're vaguely helpful. 0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 4567 - they also might have detail who the underwriters were on your policy - or did you manage to get that info out of any of the six companies you've tried dealing with ?

Also might be worth sending a SAR to Pendragon ( Subject Access Request Letter )

However, are you sure the PPI amount wasn't refunded at the time ?

After a lengthy fight that resulted in me keeping their courtesy car until they agreed to refund me, we parted company.

[Mr G]

Re: WARNING - Wasted time on PPI complaint on Car Finance pre 14-01-05

However, are you sure the PPI amount wasn't refunded at the time ?

Thanks for your response and yes, I'm sure that wasnt refunded.

I will chase up FOS again as you suggest to see if they can identify the underwriter. They had already written responding to my complaint referred to them confirming that this complaint falls outside their jurisdiction before Pendragon did. And neither FOS nor Pendragon have specified the underwriter.

I have already issued a SAR to Porsche Financial Services, as they are the lender on both finance agreements. But I expect I'll be bounced back around the plethora of companies that surround PFS as I was when I tried to submit my complaint over the course of 8 weeks. It's astounding that I had contact from 4 other organisations before PFS themselves actually intervened and penned their first letter to me. And then I get the most recent correspondence from Pendragon - number 6. This nonsense makes the audit trails in the Paradise Papers look like primary school puzzles. What I can't understand is, if the situation was so easily defended as Pendragon so smugly highlight in their letter, why all the subterfuge by PFS signposting me around 5 other organisations? Cardif Pinnacle, Volkswagen Financial Services, Blackhorse, Pendragon, Stratstone.

It's clear from the 2 copies of finance agreements that PPI (they specified it as CREDIT INSURANCE) was included and the insurance amount is specified separate to the finance amount on the agreement. If no one can identify an underwriter, this would appear to imply that the money I thought was being paid for CREDIT INSURANCE was instead just a 'gravy' payment for PFS, which would intimate something more sinister. It wasn't an insignificant amount of money @ £60/month. I will chase this until I'm satisfied I have received a definitive answer that can be backed by evidence and then decide on what action needs to be pursued.

[Amethyst]

Re: WARNING - Wasted time on PPI complaint on Car Finance pre 14-01-05

Does seem to have been cardif pinacle - are they actually named on your policy documents / agreements ? In your comms with them did you send them copies of the agreements showing the PPI ?

What ( other than being annoyed it cost £60 a month for nothing ) are your grounds for the mis-selling claim ?

I have already issued a SAR to Porsche Financial Services, as they are the lender on both finance agreements.

That might help or they might just say they have no information - they might have information on your return of the vehicle, refund and cancellation of the finance agreement though.
How long were you still paying it after the dispute started ?

[Mr G]

Re: WARNING - Wasted time on PPI complaint on Car Finance pre 14-01-05

Does seem to have been cardif pinacle - are they actually named on your policy documents / agreements ? In your comms with them did you send them copies of the agreements showing the PPI ?

What ( other than being annoyed it cost £60 a month for nothing ) are your grounds for the mis-selling claim ?

That might help or they might just say they have no information - they might have information on your return of the vehicle, refund and cancellation of the finance agreement though.
How long were you still paying it after the dispute started ?

(1) Are they named on agreement? No, Cardif Pinnacle are not named on the finance agreement and they have already written to confirm they cannot find any evidence of PPI.

(2) Did you send them copies of agreements? Yes, I did send them copies of the finance agreements to every company I wrote to and both specified 'Creditcare Silver'.

(3) Grounds for mis-selling - I was self-employed, I was not told that the insurance was optional and I was led to believe my application for credit would be rejected if I did not take out the insurance and the policy exclusions were not explained to me either before, or at the time, I took out the insurance. I was therefore unable to make an informed decision as to whether this insurance was appropriate for me. The first sale was 'advised' at dealership (stratstone - owned by Pendragon) and the second was 'non-advised' as it was faxed to me.

(4) how long were you still paying for it? There were two finance agreements. The first was for the faulty vehicle that I had for 6 months from April 2001. We finally came to an agreement that involved, (a) me retaining their courtesy car (so there wasn't a direct refund of payments I had made, but the deal we reached was the next best alternative), (b) me returning the faulty car. The second agreement was to finance the second courtesy car from October 2001until November 2002.
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