www.iva.co.uk

I don't want EIC to look into my affairs as I am sure I have not had unfair charges. I had no ppi on my cards and I felt all my bank charges were fair as I never went over my overdraft limit. I have looked back through all my paperwork.

I spoke to Grant Thornton who were very unhelpful and suggested that my IVA might fail and I was quite frightened by this as I have never missed a payment and am nearly at the end of my 4th year, it's a struggle but until this letter I was very proud of my progress. After a long telephone call GT told me I would be contacted by someone else from GT who could explain it all more throughly.

The next thing was that EIC contacted me asking me to sign for them to start the ppi/ bank charge process and they have emailed me a form to sign. I am not happy about this as I specifically said to GT that I didn't want to be contacted by this company. what do I do as EIC keep send me reminder emails urging me to sign. Please some advice would me very welcome.

Contact GT again and tell them you want to sign a disclaimer stating that you do not want to claim now or at anytime in the future. They will note this and send you the necessary paperwork.

You can always start a claim yourself, all you have to do is send out some standard template letters and see what happens. This will stop EIC getting involved and also keep GT happy as you are working towards recouping and assets for the benefit of the IVA (PPI and bank reclaims are classed as assets) and then no one can threaten you with a failure of your IVA..

I just send all my card companies a letter re charges and got £70 back straight away off one, this repayment was for charges that were only £12 a time + interest so I did not think they were unfair but still got it back.

If you want I can post on here the letter I sent.

Hi Nick,
Thanks would be great if you could post the letter on this site, sounds like a good idea to chase the banks myself, even though I think there is nothing to claim, at least then I look as if I'm trying to recoup what assets I can for the IVA and as you say I may discover some thing that they feel should be repaid to me.

This probably sounds like a silly question, but if I find there are any charges to be repaid how do I go about sending this to the GT, do I ask the bank/card people to write a cheque directly to them?

i can understand claiming yourself outside of an IVa but why bother when in an IVA? its a lot of hasstle for something your not going to see yourself!

who manages all the legal arguments when companies try and 'offset'?!?

Arty

I know how you feel, I suppose we have to be seen to be making sure all assets are paid into the IVA. From what I've read ppi claims are considered an asset by my IP. Seem to me though that you are just reclaiming from the people you owe money to anyway. So it just goes around in a big circle. Only people like EIC and possibly GT are actually making any money from these claims.

The problem is they are all jumping on a band wagon and forcing people to chase the PPI and charges, if you do nothing the IP will no doubt get a bit p*****d with you for not getting in funds which could go to creditors.

Ultimately we all owe the money and have all spent what we owe in one way or another, I know that money received and paid back is just going from the banks back to the banks and seems pointless but if you are seen to be trying to satisfy the original debt this can only be a good thing.. My view is that if I pay back £10k and I get into trouble later down the line then I will have paid a chunk off the debt and this could help me out if I ever want to make a F&F offer..

Also why give a third party 30% of YOUR money, why not maximise the highest amount you can and stick it in the IVA pot..

The letter I sent for the bank and credit card charges is below, just put your own creditor and account number where required. I had an immediate offer off one card for £70 (not a lot I know but at least its something) 2 others have asked for £10 so they can forward the information asked for.

I have another template one for PPI claims I will post that in a a few minutes..

---------------------------------------------------------------

Complaints Handling Team
CitiFinancial Europe plc
PO Box 49944
London
SE5 7YG

7th August 2012

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Account number: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

I wish to receive information of all default charges placed on my CITI Credit Card, which have arisen from exceeding my credit limit, not paying on time or not honouring a payment. I would like the information relating to the past six years.

I believe that you are obliged to do this under the Data Protection Act 1998. I would appreciate it if you could provide this information within forty days.


Yours Faithfully

I sent this letter to claim back the PPI stuff, so far had £9k back and its all gone into my IVA pot, if had used a third party would only have put £6k in... You may need to modify it a bit but the basic letter was ok for me..

-------------------------------------------------------------


Customer Service Team
Whichever Bank
Address
Address
Post Code

Date

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Account number: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

I am writing in relation to the above payment protection (PPI) policy which I believe was mis-sold to me.

I believe you have not treated me fairly for the following reasons;

• I was not asked about any pre-existing medical conditions I suffered from or warned that pre-existing medical conditions could affect my insurance.

• I was not informed that stress and back problems were excluded from the insurance. I informed staff about a previous slipped disc but was not warned that this would affect the insurance.

• I was not asked whether I already had any existing insurance or employer benefits that would cover my repayments.

Unless you can prove that the policy was fair and reasonable and that I was treated fairly when I was sold the insurance, I demand a full refund of all premiums, and subsequent interest on these payments, that I have paid in relation to this policy. I also expect 8% interest to be added to each payment I have made as this is the statutory amount a court would pay.

I look forward to your full and prompt response to this letter. If this matter is not settled within eight weeks of this letter I shall be contacting the Financial Ombudsman to investigate my complaint.

Yours faithfully,

Thank you so much for this, I'm going to do what you suggest, however pointless the whole thing seems, at least if I find anything owing to me from that period it will all go into the IVA and not a third party.

Best wishes

Just a note on the letter for the bank charges.

This letter is intended to get the bank to send you a summary of all charges for the 6 years, you can then write another with an exact figure you are claiming for... However I have found that when they look into the charges they just make a full and final offer equivalent to the charges shown of the summary...

Ultimately they do not have to pay you any charges back as they are not handled in the same way as PPI claims so you may not get anything at all, whereas with PPI they have to pay you the money back.....

I phoned Grant Thornton yesterday and explained to their helpline person what I was doing he made no comment and just said he would get someone to call me, no one has as yet,

I also emailed EIC and asked them not to contact me again as I was going to reclaim the bank charges/ppi myself. Their response was just to send me another reminder to sign their form. I don't much like their tactics, when I first spoke to them they impressed on me that it was urgent that I sign within 24hrs, seem a bit bully boy to me.

I'm just going to send the letters out to the bank and credit card companies and see what happens.

Many thanks Nick for all your help, will let you know how I get on.

Hi

I sent off my letters for ppi and bank charge claims and have started to get replies, Barclaycard have written back asking for a £10 admin charge before they send me the information, are they allowed to do this? Does anyone know? I don't want to have to fork out £10 for each card I have written to, it soon mounts up.

Yes they are allowed to charge an admin fee of £10...

Also what these claims companies don't tell you the FSA have told the professionals that the use of claims companies is risky for insolvent people. And if they are sucessful the creditor may come after you directly for a reclaims of the claims fee...ohhh banks revenge

I have seen a post where the poster was refused a payout by HSBC becuase he was insolvent. If they are made to pay do you think HSBC will just take it lying down!