Bathgatebuyer v Egg

[bathgatebuyer]

Hiall - I've decided to tackle the charges which have accrued on my Egg card over the past 5 (I think) or so years.

 

In terms of sending off my SAR, can anyone confirm the address to use?

 

Also, what is the general feeling in terms of dealing with Egg? Are they reasonable or not to deal with? I think there's probably about £300-£400 charges on this account which largely accrued when i was unemployed.

 

Grateful for any thoughts or advice.

[bathgatebuyer]

Ok everyone, that's my SAR request sent off with £10 postal order. Have also sent them a secure message which tells them directly to expect the SAR request.

 

Hopefully this will be relatively straighforward as it involves card and not bank charges. Going by what has been said on this and other forums, any refund tends to be reasonably quick - anything to help reduce the balance of this asap.

 

At the moment, the balance of the account is over £1800 which I've reduced from £2,200 about 5 months ago so progress is definitely being made in the right direction! I'm now making regular payments to this account of £110 per month the day after my pay day, so things are whittling away nicely - but every little bit will help.

 

I've also asked if they would consider lowering the 21.5% APR given that they have closed the account at their choice, but they have refused.

[PGH7447]

Did you ask for your credit agreement and t+C's on the sar?

[bathgatebuyer]

No - I just used the standard SAR letter, but will be pulling them up for not sending me everything under the SAR request.

 

I've received all my statements tonight and have worked out that with the 8% interest, Egg owe me a little under £350. It's quite a healthy sum given that it's about a quarter of the remaining balance of the card so anything I can do to get this back will make quite a difference to my financial situation.

 

Can only ask!

[bathgatebuyer]

I sent a secure message to Egg and asked them about the CCA being missing from the details they've sent me and they've came back with:

 

You can view the Credit Card Agreement on the Egg website, by following the instructions below:

 

*Type 'www.egg.com' into your web address bar.

*On the right, select 'Egg Card-find out more'.

*On the right select 'Small print'.

*Then select 'Egg Card Credit Agreement'.

 

This then takes you to the small print for their present offers but doesn't seemto relate to my account.

 

You took out the Egg Card repayment protec

[bathgatebuyer]

Those lovelies at Egg have since written back and offered me £16 to go away. That will be shining bright. They get one more letter to give me it back or I'm off to court.

[militantconsumer]

They have a cycle of 3 standard letters before you get it all back. No need to go to Court.

[militantconsumer]

Hey, hey, hey, grab your PPI refunds here....!

 

Egg Card fined for PPI mis-selling!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7775496.stm

[bathgatebuyer]

Great isn't it???! I've had the holding response to my 1st letter from them over my request to have my PPI premiums back. Hopefully this is going to sway their minds somewhat!

[militantconsumer]

Any news on your Egg claim, bathgatebuyer?

[bathgatebuyer]

They have given me another response in which they say that they want evidence as to my pre-existing medical condition before they can consider this further. I got a report from my GP confirming that for the duration of the PPI cover, I had a pre-existing excluded condition which would not be covered by any claim under those factors. I've sent my GP's letter and copy of the invoice for the £17.50 it cost me to Egg!

 

I'll be a bit miffed if they refuse to refund me after I've proven that the cover was insufficient or inadequate!

[militantconsumer]

Will be interested to hear what their response is, as I've heard some strange stories about Egg's chief medical officer and his/her unconventional medical views!

 

Remind me, did you buy the PPI online or buy phone, and when was this?

 

Have you seen this thread, for another possible strategy on older Egg Card agreements:?

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/egg/177463-response-our-egg-cca.html

[bathgatebuyer]

Cheers for the link. The 'CCA' posted is exactly what I've been sent, so I'll definitely be taking them to task on this if I'm unsuccessful in getting my PPI premiums refunded. (As it stands, the balance of the card is almost equal to the PPI premiums charged over the period, so I'm not too bothered about the CCA issue if I get a full refund of my PPI as this would effectively clear the balanace anyway).

 

It's a great plan B!

[bathgatebuyer]

Just received the 'tough, you're not getting your money back......' letter from Egg!!!!

 

"I have spoken to the St Andrews Claims Department who have confirmed you would not have been able to claim for the condition detailed in your letter. However, you could have potentially made a successful claim under a different section of the policy.

 

As the policy was taken online with no sales person involved, I am sorry to inform you that my decision remains the same and I cannot uphold your complaint".

 

And no mention of refunding the £17.50 in fees it cost me to get my GP to give me that letter that THEY asked for!

 

Advice please?!!!!!

[militantconsumer]

Hi BGB,

 

If you bought the PPI online then they seem to be taking the line that it was on a non-advised basis (information only) and therefore could not have been mis-sold.

 

However, I do have my doubts about this line of argument as you can see from my own thread:-

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/egg/178357-militant-consumer-challenges-egg.html

 

Obviously you have nothing to lose by putting your complaint to the FOS. I would have thought that this automatically becomes a dispute so they should not be adding any more interest until it's been sorted out.

 

There is also the potentially unenforceable agreement issue mentioned above.

 

Perhaps with the two together you will find that they are unwilling to take you to court for non payment and they will give up chasing the debt.

 

That is what we are hoping.

[bathgatebuyer]

The problem I have is that if any aspect of my credit rating becomes less than satisfactory, then I lose my job, so non-payment is not an option for me. I've been paying them £110 a month towards clearing this debt, and I'm now at the last £1200. My PPI claim was for £1100 so the debt is pretty much the PPI premiums!

 

The original sale was in June 01, so I think the FOS option is out. Can anyone confirm if this is the case, otherwise I think I'm going to take them to court over this.

[bathgatebuyer]

When looking through my own notes on this,Egg have sent me a screen print of their payment protection page and nowhere on it does it show the PPI box as ticked, just the two options of Yes or No. ON the actual Aplication Review form they have sent - which is part of their own internal records - there is a box for Payment Protection which includes the words 'Accident, sickness and unemployment'.

 

They have said, "Had you not opted into CRP during your application, this box would contain the word 'none'." Yet, they haven't provided proof of this? Just a statement that this is fact.

[Mistermind]

£350 charges refund - this should be no problem. Egg have given up the struggle against charges reclaim, see the 103rd VE Day thread win where Egg refunded charges without even waiting for an itemised reclaim from the cardholder. You only need to convince Egg you know they know you will win. No need for court or legal paperwork. One template letter will suffice.

 

PPI reclaim - this is a civil case not a criminal case. Should you file court papers on 31JAN2009, the earliest PPI payments that can be reclaimed will date back to 31JAN2003 (6 years Statute of Limitations), nothing before that. If the agreement showing PPI enrolment predated 31JAN2001, not completely sure if the court will allow this to be presented as evidence. So if you are going to reclaim 6-years-old items, with every passing month you will lose one.

 

In the case of dynamic EmpireStrikesBack the tick or its absence in the PPI enrolment box was make-or-break in the judge reaching his verdict. In the cyber world the mouseclick is mightier than the pen. If your screen print shows no tick, as Empire's showed no tick, then this no-tick evidence is far far stronger than Egg's inhouse paperwork, where the absence of "NONE" as written by their staff on THEIR review document unseen by you at any stage, is being inferred by Egg management as indicative of your intention.

 

In Empire's case the judge did however ask, if Empire did not want PPI why did he take 3 years to realise he did not? Empire gave a good answer, one prepared in advance.

 

As to whether you could have "potentially claimed against PPI by some other route" such alternatives will need to be explained by Egg to the judge. If a court hearing is pending, Egg will have to tell you their defence in advance. Unlike unlawful charges, Egg will fight PPI refund to the last inch so as to discourage other claimants. If you can articulate an overwhelmingly convincing case Egg may not fight you in court, but they will say they will be there then on the day pull out and settle, just to see if you have the stamina to stay the course. They may also ask for repeated adjournments to make it harder for you.

 

Suggest you politely PM Empire (if he is still frequenting CAG Forum) giving all particulars of your claim re strengths and weaknesses. If you do proceed, then telling Egg you have been helped by the court victor Empire may encourage Egg to think twice.

 

But if your case is not overwhelming and not certain to win in court as JULI99 painfully did not, you may like to aim for a score draw, settling for part refund as full and final settlement. If the FOS deem your case good enough to take on, that will immediately cost Egg £400 win lose or draw. Egg will know all about that, and these days being more hard-up than hard-boiled, may concede a compromise settlement saving both money and expensive time -- not least for yourself.

 

Good luck.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Mistermind

[bathgatebuyer]

Thanks for that. To be honest, a part settlement would more than satisfy me. Obviously the long-term pre-existing condition I had would prevent a claim for that type of illness (and given the length of time I was suffering from it, I'm sure it would be more than likely that this would be the cause of any need to claim under the illness policy), but I would have been covered from a redundancy perspective.

 

The fact that the policy only provided some cover is probably enough for me to concede on that point but via their own admission that the policy would not cover me from an illness persepctive is particularly galling when they then turn around and say, "So tough".

 

So much for the Treating the Customers Fairly initiative!

[jessie15]

Hi Bathgatebuyer, just wondered what the outcome of your claim against Egg for misselling of PPi was?

[bathgatebuyer]

Hi - I managed to get money back on the PPI front eventually. No success on the increase of interest prior to removing the credit facility away from me. Just got my head down and paid off the balance of the card. Was a great relief not to have to deal with Egg again!