Amex Referral Fees - No Longer Charged

[sweetjane]

This is good news for us and hopefully others out there. The referral fee was charged by UCA.

 

'I confirm that the outstanding balance is £****. The previous balances quoted were by External Agencies which included their referral fees of £617.87. This amount has been refunded. We no longer charge referral fees.’

[dp77]

Is that because these fees are in some way illegal? An unfair term perhaps?

 

I don't want to appear cynical but this particular firm is not noted for benevolence toward debtors, if they are no longer charging this fee my feeling is that it is because they fear some piece of legislation.

 

If anyone has an opinion on which piece of legislation I'd be interested to hear it - as I'm currently defending a claim for an amount which does include a whopping great referral fee.

[uptoeyeballs]

Hi dp77,

 

I've havn't seen legislation, but someone pointed me (sorry, forget who) at the OFT guidelines which I've used (outcome not known).

 

(n.) The Claimant inflated the value of their claim it that:

 

 

(i.) the Particulars of Claim show an amount of £[] identified as "File Referral Charge". As well as there being no Agreement to provide for this, it is disproportionate and is also an Unfair practice as per the OFT Guidelines on debt collection Guidance.

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

Charging for debt collection

 

 

2.9 Charges should not be levied unfairly.

 

 

2.10 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

a. claiming collection costs from a debtor in the absence of express contractual or other legal provision

b. misleading debtors into believing they are legally liable to pay collection charges when this is not the case, for example, when there is no contractual provision

c. not giving an indication in credit agreements of the amount of any charges payable on default

d. applying unreasonable charges, for example, charges not based on actual and necessary costs

e. applying charges which are disproportionate to the main debt.

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

 

 

uteb

[dp77]

That's useful, thanks.

 

Are these guidelines available on an OFT website?

 

My alleged agreement does contain a term which says something about being able to recover the costs of a default, I can post the exact wording if necessary.

 

Am still keen to hear if anyone thinks claiming this as an unfair term might fly.

[uptoeyeballs]

Are these guidelines available on an OFT website?

 

Yep. Here:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

[dp77]

Thank you, much appreciated.