So the end result is this. Despite the fact that the PPI on my loan was clearly mis-sold by all the information I can gather, the end result is that this has been rejected by the FOS. The reason given is that they did not force me to take the PPI. I'm frankly stunned, but it seems they have managed to get away with this on a technicality. The loan and PPI is not under the FSA regulations and in fact is under MCCB Mortgage Code Compliance Board or something like that. Seems that they are allowed to have lied to their customers about what the PPi was and can only be told to repay if they forced the customer to take the PPI. My whole arguement is that I took the PPI because I did not realise that it did not cover my circumstance, was not appropriate for the loan being only 5 years cover not 10, was an investment package that they could refuse to pay out on and was effectively invalid as I was self-employed as well as full-time employed at the time of the loan being taken out. Basically I've been scammed and do not have any way to take them to court myself even though I should. My life is effectively ruined at the moment and I am struggling to feed my family now. It's just criminal that because I don't have money I can do nothing and the FOS who should be fighting to protect me have written me off because I don't fall under their criteria. I've taken all the financial advice from the so called professionals throughout my life and the end result is this... lied to and cheated into poverty. I will never trust any financial institution again and have nothing but hate left for the whole industry which is basically set up to rape people of all their money at every opportunity with no good purpose. Banking is utterly corrupt in this country and this is just one example of it. I even tried to look at the PPI companies but they want 30 to 40% of the money you gain so I would go from having a £60K debt that I can't afford to having a £20K+ debt that I cannot afford... It is a joke. But it's ok... I probably deserve it for not being magically capable of knowing everything about the money industry while being lied to by that very industry. Seriously if anyone has any clue how to get this looked into then I urge you to do something. There must be hundreds if not thousands of people who are in the same or similar boat. Beware the FOS, they offer no consumer protection, they are run by the very people in banking that they claim to help us fight against... I give up.

I see no replies so thought I'd bump my message once more. Quite disheartened now. It seems that all it took to avoid being liable is signing up to the MCCB instead of the FSA... brilliant.

Thanks dx, I had seen this but I had not thought it was like my case. For one thing the loan agreement did show the PPI detailed separately from the main loan amount. My issues have always been: 1. loans.co.uk implied that my loan would not be as successful if I didn't take out the PPI this was said over the phone (they magically can't find the phone call, which the FOS said, helped their case) and also by the person who came to my house to witness our signatures. 2. they added the whole PPI fee to the front of the loan - this in itself has been a right to complain that I have seen previously 3. they did not explain that the PPI attracted interest making it cost almost half the value of the loan 4. I was not told that the PPI could be bought elsewhere 5. the PPI only covered 5 years of a 10 year loan (I have extended the term of the loan since) 6. I could never claim on the policy because I was self-employed (as well as being full-time employed) at the time of the loan being taken out 7. I was misled about how the policy worked because it was meant to repay the fee to me as a bonus at the end of the 5 years, but it was not explained that I had to have perfect payment history for this to work (I was late paying once and took a payment holiday but was fully up to date with payments) The problem is that the FOS would only consider the first point, they refused to look at the whole issue and said they did not cover it. They would have covered all the points if the PPI fell under FSA rules but it was MCCB so the FOS basically didn't help. However, it took the FOS FOUR YEARS to properly explain this to me. Does that help? Thanks for looking though.

I take it from the silence that you haven't found anything...

Carol Vorderman was on the First Plus adverts... That is who my loan is with loans.co.uk were the broker.

Thanks for that good advice rennuz. I've pretty much got a handle on my own part of it. I have all the documentation I need, I think. I will book a starting appointment with a few people and will keep looking for similar stories to mine though you do just basically say what I knew already it is nice to be reminded to stay focussed. It is very depressing to hear about people with success stories that are in the same boat though. What I don't understand is why this needs this amount of effort from me now considering the government have said this is awful and should be stopped and repaired. The forming of the FOS was a smokescreen to pretend that they had fixed something. The scope of that organisation is far too slim and the method they operate is inappropriate and unacceptably short of bodies to quickly asses and ADVISE. In fact they offer no advice at all. Nothing, they expect you to work it all out for yourself, present it in the correct way and then as you say make nonsensical decisions based on what seems to be a flimsy grasp of the rules or the law. I hope someone else reads this and either has a shared experience or can offer further help because a case like mine with a different outcome would be a great place to start. I am still reading through this site in depth now but it is huge... we'll see how we get on. Feel quite deflated now...

Hi rennuz, I can confirm that the FOS said that point was completely irrelevant and that the Mortgage Compliance Code Board applied which does not specifically have a point about the suitability of the product as I understand it. They would only consider the issue of whether I was 'forced' to have the PPI. Quite plainly I was not, I was incorrectly advised to take it and that is kind of the point. The FOS seems to want this case gone and have succeeded in putting it in terms that make it simply my word against that of loans.co.uk and not even wonder why loans.co.uk can't mysteriously find any details of phone calls. Also the person who sat with me at home to finalise things is never going to be found... it is simply painful. In fact it is now 4 years since I first raised this to the FOS. They have dodged and avoided handling this when they could have explained things far better, much earlier. I would love to have someone on my side and will visit a local solicitor for a free chat about matters to see if they would even be interested in taking it on and my chance of success. I just really don't understand that given that the PPI was completely inappropriate for me and that I could never have claimed and that the refund promise was negated through further misleading, why it is not considered to be a mis-sell. I just don't understand. Worse is that loans.co.uk acting as the agent have effectively muddied everything so going after them for a loan taken with someone else now seems insane. I'm just so peed off with it all.

First, thanks for finding my old thread... I never even thought of re-raising it. The reasons given were that they could only consider one part of my claim. That I had been forced to take the PPI. Well I hadn't, of course I hadn't, I had been misled into believing it was the only option available to me to enable suitable cover and was needed in excess of the other cover I already had. Obviously offering me a policy that I could never have claimed on was rather important. Also, not covering the entire term of the loan was an issue I raised beforehand but was told this was totally normal. Some of this was face to face with the person who came to witness our signatures. Basically the final note said that our word against theirs was no defence and the forms show that we chose to have PPI. We only did based on what was said to us and the choice was even brushed under, the initial form we signed had arrived with the option for PPI already ticked and our attention was not drawn to it further. About a month afterwards I rang them and asked whether the PPI was appropriate. They said yes, don't worry. I then rang after about 13 months and said that I wanted a refund of the portion of the PPI covering after that time (expecting to get about 4 fifths) and was told I would only get a couple of hundred pounds. So that's when I waited... foolishly it seems.

Initially I wrote to both and they both wrote back to tell me no. I then wrote to the FOS to begin a claim against First Plus. They told me I could not as First Plus did not sell the loan. So I then reapplied and complained about the selling of the loan by loans.co.uk. That is what was rejected by the FOS.

Hi all, Firstly I've just started reading this site in earnest after a significant setback in my attempted claim of PPI. I took out a loan in 2003 with First Plus using loans.co.uk for £54,000 that was for 10 years. I agreed to have PPI as it was indicated (not in writing) that if I didn't take it then I would be less likely to have loan approval. I did notice that at the time the documentation stated otherwise and said their decision was not based on taking it out but I was persuaded by loans.co.uk to take it out. It was a single premium of well over £13,000 and covered me for the first 5 years of my loan. It then would repay me the full amount of the premium back at the end of that 5-year period. During the 5-year period, after about 13 months, I asked them to cancel the PPI as I finally found out all the details about it but they refused to refund it and any interest. They instead offered me a couple of hundred pounds back instead. I decided to wait for the pay out instead even though I had found out that I would never be able to claim on the policy as I was full-time employed AND self employed. I also had critical illness cover and additional income protection cover when I took out the loan but when I told them all these things, loans.co.uk just told me that it was still advisable to have the First Plus PPI. Roll forward to 2008 and time to receive a payment. I put the relevant claim form in only to be told that I was not eligible as I had a late payment during the previous period. I then immediately went to the FOS to ask for help in claiming that the PPI was mis-sold and that I had been denied a premium repayment that was promised. So late last year, 4 years after my initial claim, I have been told by the FOS that my claim was unsuccessful. I am dumb-struck but it seems that they just don't cover such things. In fact my loan was not regulated under the FSA code by under the MCCB. I was only told this in the final letter and during the 4-years till then believed that my claim was under the FSA code and I wrote all my letters with that in mind and used phrases from this website and others relating to such matters. Obviously I formally rejected their findings. So I wrote to my MP, Alok Sharma, to ask for assistance and he kindly wrote the chief ombudsman who wrote back to say that she would never overturn another ombudsman's decision. My question is, where do I go from here? My loan is at a stupidly high interest rate even from the outset, so after 3 years in 2006, I asked them to extend the term to 20 years as the payments were getting too high. I'm certain that I clearly been misled and I am stunned the FOS won't help. In fact the FOS is really not able to provide any help or guidance but just looks at whatever you present and makes what seem to be decisions based on only part of the details that are provided to them. Their final decision missed several key points and seemed to rely only on my initial letter which was added to later. Simply put I could never have claimed on the PPI that was sold to me. I was lied to that I would have had a better chance of being given the loan if I took it out and I have missed out on a financial windfall promised at the start because of a rule that I was not made aware of. Admittedly I was told that my account had to be up to date but I assumed that meant, no arrears not that I couldn't even be late on a payment or ask for a payment holiday. Can anyone begin to guide me back to something approaching sense? I already have the results of a SAR from First Plus but not from loans.co.uk. In fact loans.co.uk could not find any records of my phone calls when contacted by the ombudsman and they seemed to forget that they even sent someone to visit me to witness signatures who also encouraged me to not remove the PPI option from the paperwork. Sorry if I've not read everything on this site yet, it is huge so if I find answers as I read I will post back, but I expect that I will still need guidance. Thank you so much for even being here to talk to. Rob.

Ok. Thanks for that I'll get the SAR off right now and see what happens. Soon as I have some data I'll get back to this forum and let you know what I find. How long do they have to respond to the request? Also, should I apply for an SAR to First Plus, loans.co.uk, the insurer (if I can find out who they are) or all of them? Cheers, DK.

I give up... really? So the FSA can't enforce on these guys? The FSA said contact the FOS, the FOS said, we never covered this. It's utterly depressing and leaves me truly shocked. I can't afford a lawyer; I'm broke because I'm being ripped off. Can no one point me at any resource that actually is able to take these guys on? I've been thoroughly screwed and lied to and left to pay back an impossible debt because of those lies.

@rebel11 - thanks for the quick update. Just to clarify I previously used a template letter similar to those I can find linked to in the footer of your post that i'll add to this thread soon (with details redacted). Looking at the list at link number 2 in your footer, I think that points 2, 3, 4, 7 (well in so much as the best rate would follow...), 8, 9, 10, 13 all apply. Point 9, on being pressued, was shown by them pre-ticking a box on a form and not drawing my attention to it for me to make a proper judgement on ghte need for PPI. Hope this extra info is useful. Rob.

Hi everyone, So in October 2003 I obtain a loan from First Plus. I used loans.co.uk as a broker and applied - they suggested First Plus as my best option and I obtained a loan for £42,000 over 10 years to consolidate a massive pile of smaller short term loans that were crippling me. (Yeah I know I should have done different things now but here we are, bear with the story if you can). At the time they mentioned PPI to me. I told them I havd critical illness cover and income protection cover but they said at the time that I would probabyl get the best chance of a good rate if I opted for the PPI. I said ok. I received the papers and signed up, though at the time I never even noticed that when the papers came through, they had a pre-ticked box telling me that I had selected PPI. I mention this as it was not drawn to my attention and un-ticking a printed box is quite hard to do anyway... That is besides the point, at the time I did't notice and just got on with it. It added over £14,700 to my loan and was cover for 5 years at the end of which I would receive a lump sum of the whole amount back less a small admin fee. The only way I would not get the money was if I was in arrears or so I thought. About 40 or 45 days later I called First Plus and asked them about cancellation of the PPI as it seemed like a lot of money and I really wanted to keep my payments as low as possible. I was told I would only get about £300 and the amount would remain part of my debt. So I declined to end it and thought, "look forward to getting the cheque back". Swing forward to October 2008. My 5 years is up. I can claim for the refund. So I do and get rejected. Even to this day I still do not have a full reason given to me why I was rejected though I suspect it is because I was late paying a couple of times, even though I was fully up to date at the point at which I claimed So now as you can imagine, i'm quite upset and complain to First Plus and get told to go to loans.co.uk, I go to loans.co.uk and now get told that I agreed to all this and I should go away. I write to the FOS and send everything off, they send it back because I haven't had a 'final' answer from loans.co.uk or First Plus. I then chase for a final answer and resubmit to the FOS who say they never received my papers so I send it all again. During this time they state they have no jurisdiction over the case because of when it was sold to me and that they will try to establish if the insurer is worth pursuing. This is the first point at which I find that I had an agreement with a thrid party insurer. I only ever signed an agreement with loans.co.uk and First Plus. Finally the FOS start to look at it and time goes by... bascially, they have just (last month) contacted me to say that they cannot uphold any complaint against anyone. I have asked for a review of matters with the FOS and for the case to go to an Ombudsman (quite why it hadn't already is beyond me). The bottom line is that I was sold insurance I plainly didn't need, that was front loaded to the loan, that was for only part of the term of the loan and that after re-reading the terms of the PPI, it would not have paid out anyway for any circumstance that could have befallen me. It was basically, no insurance at all and did not provide a cover appropriate to my needs. Secondary to this is that I was lied to upfront about why I needed the PPI (to get the best lender's rate). Finally, I had no idea I had made an arrangement with another party (the insurers) and if I had known I would have approached them myself for mroe information about rejection etc. Basically loans.co.uk and First Plus have played a blinder in deceiving me about everything and the FOS say there is nothing at all that can be done. Since I was rejected, I had a couple of more months where it was difficult to pay so I asked if they could extend the term and they have do but the whole debt has been re-factored and now it looks like if I pay the full amount, I will end up paying back something over £260,000 to have borrowed £42,000. I've calculated that even at the higest interest rate, if you take off the amount of overpayment made by paying each month for PPI, I've already repaid the loan. The rate just keeps going up and up and it's now at 15.9% (actually i'm sure it just went up again). What else can I do? Who else can help? In the time between the first sending of information to the FOS and now I have lost my copy of the loan agreement - it's probably me that's in the wrong there. But First Plus were unable to provide the FOS with any paperwork showing I had signed up to a loan. I'm about to send First Plus a subject access request to get all records from them. Hopefully this will help me sort out what atual agreement I have with them. I've followed what was apaprently good advice to manage my finances better but i've been left high and dry. Does anyone have any advice? I shall now be spending the rest of the weekend reading this forum to find out anything else I might need to know. Thanks for reading this far. If you have further advice then let me know. I woudl love to hear from others who have delat with First Plus and can give me any inside track. Rob.