Providian Payment Break Plan

[cymruambyth]

Has anyone any information on Providian Payment Break Plans?

According to the t&cs supplied with the CCA:
'It is optional and not insurance'

'you may enrol in the Plan at any time after your account has been opened by requesting it from one of our personal bankers on the phone etc'

I have received a CCJ. This 'payment break plan'was referred to by me in my skeleton, but not my WS or defence and was described as 'not pleaded by the DJ' who stated that 'because it was mentioned in the t&cs I must have agreed to it. I had had the benefit of it (not correct, I didn't satisfy any of criteria) and there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the charges were not correctly made and no evidence that it had been mis-sold.'
I have received no documentation and was charged ever increasing amounts, even after I was put on a reduced payment (£4 pcm) and had had my credit facilities withdrawn, with the total paid out nearly £1,000. I also think it was a cold call.

I think I am clutching at straws but someone has suggested that this may be a cause for a set aside, so I am looking for any information that may help, either way!!

[Amethyst]

Re: Providian Payment Break Plan

How much did you pay for the payment break plan each month ?

In the skels/documents from the claimants was the payment break referred to, evidenced that you had had the benefit of it ? (ie period between making full payments and making reduced payments ?)


What was the benefit of the plan meant to be, and can you evidence (from statements?) that you indeed had no benefit of it ?

Did you opt in to the payment break plan or was it just added without your knowledge ?

What difference do you feel it would make to the outcome of the case had you shown that you had not received the benefit of the payment plan - or were you defending the part of the amount claimed that had been paid for the payment break ?

What was your main defence based upon in the claim (as this only seems to be a side issue) ?

[Amethyst]

Re: Providian Payment Break Plan

you may elect to enrol on the Plan if you are a UK resident who is either employed, self employed, retired or permanently disabled and not in breach of the terms of the account. The Payment Break Plan is an optional feature of your account and can be activated if you were to lose at least 25% of your annual household income due to a natural disaster, involuntary unemployment, illness and other related reasons. You can request to activate the plan and your account could be frozen for a period of up to 30 months if the situation remains unchanged. During this time we have confirmed that you would not need to make payments to your account and no charges would accrue

from DX100UK 'V' Monument stealth PPI - might have some useful info on. Its the same plan just Monument (but think your card started off as monument didn't it) Apparently its signed up for in initial phone call and they never have the recording, but doesnt sound like there would be any eligibility issues.

15. OPTIONAL PAYMENT BREAK PLAN - part of terms & conditions

15.1 The Payment Break Plan (the 'Plan,') is optional and is not insurance.
You may elect to enrol in the Plan if you are a UK resident who is either employed, self-employed, retired or permanently disabled and not in breach of the terms of the account.
15.2 You may enrol in the Plan at any time after your account has been opened by either calling or by writing to Customer Services at the address detailed on your statement.
15.3 The monthly cost of the Plan (unless you are retired or permanently disabled) is 0.89% of your account balance as shown on your statement, up to a maximum balance of £2,300 (the 'Plan Charge').
If you are retired or permanently disabled, the Plan Charge will be 0.59% of your account balance.
15.4 Once you have enrolled, you can then activate the Plan if one or more of the activation events set out below occurs and you telephone us on the number detailed on your statement (Activate' and/or 'Activation' as appropriate). The activation events (the 'Events') are:
(a) you or your partner (Partner means any person who is either your spouse or domestic partner [Common Law wife/husband or same-sex partner]) become unemployed involuntarily (excluding as a result of your own wilful misconduct) and suffer a loss of at least 25% of your net monthly household income (‘income’}
(b) you or .your partner become sick, disabled or have an accident and suffer a loss of at least 25% of Income,-
(c) you or your partner take leave from work to care for members of your family who are either, incapacitated and/or your child(ren) and you suffer a loss of at least 25% of Income;'
(d) you or your partner are employed in the armed forces and are unforseeably posted abroad on emergency duty;
(e)- you or your partner become hospitalised due to a medical condition; . (f) you or your partner are on Jury Service,-
(g) your main residence is significantly damaged by some natural disaster, for example, a fire, flood, high winds, lightening, landslide etc; (h) your partner dies. ' •15.5 If you wish to Activate, you must do so within six months of an Event first occurring.
15.6 If you Activate, you must provide us with reasonable evidence of the Event within two months of Activation (for example, a relevant doctor's certificate, surveyor's report etc). If the Event continues for some time you must provide us with such further evidence of the Event and its ongoing nature as we may from time to time request.
15.7 Activation will be considered by us to continue for as long as the circumstances of the Event continue (for example, as long as your main residence is significantly damaged as a result of flooding or as long as you are hospitalised) up to a maximum of 30 months ('the Activation Period').
15.8 During the Activation Period, your account will be frozen and you will not:
(a) be able to use your account other than to make voluntary payments to it;
(b) have to make any minimum monthly payments other than payments to clear any outstanding arrears;
(c) incur any interest, charges. Plan Charges or fees.
15.9 Activation will end when any of the following occurs:
(a) the Activation Period expires;
(b) you fail to provide reasonable evidence that the Event occurred and/or is continuing.
15.10 At the end of the Activation Period, the full credit limit on your account will be reinstated (where applicable) and your account will resume incurring interest, Plan Charges and any applicable charges and fees that are payable under the terms of your account. You will have to resume making your minimum monthly repayments.
15.11 You can leave the Plan and/or Activation Period at any time by writing to us at Customer Services.
15.12 If you knowingly make any false or misleading statement in relation to your eligibility to enrol or Activate, we may require you to repay in full the interest and/or charges that would have been payable if you had not activated the Plan.
15.13 Any waiver by us of the above terms of the Plan will not constitute a waiver of any of the other terms.
15.14 We may vary the terms of the Plan by giving you at least 30 days' notice before any change takes effect. However, no such variation will affect the terms of any Activation that has already occurred.

[cymruambyth]

Re: Providian Payment Break Plan

Hi, I'll try and answer all the questions......
from the staements I have received, the payments started at £14.75, increased to £17.25 after I had been placed on £4 pam payment plan and finally increased to £24.92. The to tal paid is just under £1,000. In the t&cs it states that 'enrolment costs an additional interest charge'.
The plan was not referred to by the claimants in any documentation.
The plan is activated on unemployment, sickness, disability, posting abroad in armed services, jury service, death or main residence becoming damaged. None of those have affected me.
Main defence was:
reply form and unrelated t&cs (DJ decided that they were part of the same document (torn off when form returned) even though they were a folded leaflet)
DN did not allow 7 days (DJ decided that although 7 days not allowed, on balance of probabilities, I would not have paid, so it didn't matter)
Finally DOA was redacted and had no refernces to me, but the raw data printed out was sufficient to cover this. Incidentally, the incorrect information on the redacted was a genuine typo.

Hope this all makes sense!