JPS Financial - Aggressive Fee Claim

[Rugby Rich]

I just wondered in anyone can assist with some advice. Some time ago my wife used JPS Financial to claim some money back from a credit card provider for PPI, the claim was settled, money received, JPS took their fee and that seemed to be the end of that. Unfortunately we don't have any of the paperwork relating to this claim (yes, I know that's not great, but we are where we are). Then recently JPS have started emailing and texting my wife asking her to sign a Letter of Authority and return it to authorise them to claim from another company and also telling her that she owes them money for work done on her behalf. As we don't have any of the original paperwork we're not totally sure what the original agreement said, but I was pretty sure that the agreement was that they would take a percentage of any money successfully claimed back. Is that the case or not? I'm thinking that if they need a letter of authority to be signed now that kind of gives away that they don't already have authority to do any further work and are just trying it on? Can anyone help with this as it is quite intimidating to be bombarded with messages saying that she owes them money.

[Amethyst]

First thing is to ask JPS for a copy of the original agreement signed that gives them authority to follow up with a claim against another lender. It may be that you gave them more than the one credit card company name, authorised them to look into all of your finances and claim against anyone they found. If they won't give it to you you can ask and the data protection act for copies of all the data they hold about you.

Presumably they are asking for money for breach of contract for failing to return the letter for authority?

[Rugby Rich]

Thanks for the quick response. Here's a copy of the email they sent (with personal details removed but the "Unknown" is their "Account Number" entry)

Account: HBOS
Account Number: UNKNOWN
We write in respect of the above matter and further to the Letter of Authority (LOA) we have sent to you to sign and return to us.
As you will be aware, we have been trying to contact you by telephone so that we may discuss the LOA which we need signing and returning.
We note that we are yet to receive the LOA from you and want to ensure that your case is not being held up in any way. Therefore, please ensure that you sign and return this to us without delay as we are unlikely to be able to progress your case any further without this document. Once received, we will be able to handle everything from there.
However, if you have already sent this back to us, then please ignore this correspondence and we will be in touch with you should we require anything further.
Please note: Our signed contract with you allows us to charge a fee for work done should we not receive certain documentation (like a signed LOA) from you. We, of course, do not wish to do this, and is wholly avoidable should we receive the signed LOA, in order that we can progress your case.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards
JPS Financial Ltd

I'm thinking that the sentence after the words "Please Note" is the key one here. However, could it be argued that we should send the LOA back, let them investigate further and then they won't have a leg to stand on because they'll either find some PPI and take their fee or not find some PPI and not be eligible to take a fee (their Ts&Cs state that they are essentially "no win, no fee")?? Or is it better to ask for a copy of the original contract?

[Amethyst]

Personally I'd ask for a copy of the contract that gives them authority to investigate whether you had PPI or may be due a refund of missold PPI on the HBOS account first.

If you did give them authority then yes, fine to sign to LOA and return it - they will either find PPI or not.

However be aware that these LOAs need signing every six months or so and if there are many other lenders you give them authority for you'll be receiving LOAs constantly to sign, and if you get fed up with it and cancel, they will be able to charge breach of contract ( up to £400 ) for each case cancelled.

So I'd check if you have given them authorisation to look at this account or any others, or if you only signed up with them to look at one single account.

If you have the LOA there that they are asking you to sign, a copy of that might be useful to check over ( ensure it isn't signing you up for them to set up claims on anything else that may be found on your credit file etc )

[Rugby Rich]

Great, thanks for the advice, much appreciated

[Rugby Rich]

Just one last query - if the deadline for PPI claims is coming up (28th August 2019) presumably this means that beyond that date any further LOAs would stop coming through anyway?

[chrislawton]

Hi all - as someone who has just left JPS Financial Ltd, let me give you a taste of what a shambles the company was.

When I first started there, I was receiving phone calls from distressed customers who had not been contacted for a long time - EIGHTEEN MONTHS in a lot of cases! JPS were sending out texts demanding that customers either return letters of authority or they would have an 'admin fee' for a three figure sum! I was appalled! JPS had made no effort to contact customers and left it so long and suddenly when they knew that the deadline was coming up, they wanted to rake in as much money as they could so tried frightening people by that cruel and twisted method!

If that was not enough, only in the last couple of weeks, letters of authority had been received back from customers but no signed contract but JPS response was 'submit the complaints to the banks anyway as it does not matter'. IT DOES MATTER - GREATLY! You can't do anything without a signed contract first.

Staff training was almost non existent. In my first job (for a bank) there was at least 4 weeks of pure training and you did not speak to actual customers until you were fully confident. Not so at JPS - a couple of days doing 'questionnaires' and then thrown on the phones!

JPS are now focusing on packaged bank accounts. My advice to anyone is simple - write a letter to your bank if you believe you have a claim! You do not need to use a claims management company!

Staff wise, there was no written contract of employment, no reference or credit checks carried out or anything like that. You could be anyone.

Needless to say, I have wrote a letter to the Financial Conduct Authority.