Nationwide Credit Card PPI

[gingerdave27]

Hi all,

 

Following on from my own recent success with reclaiming PPI (with of course help from here) I am now currently assisting my mother with her first reclaim, a credit card that she used to hold with Nationwide. this was the first one that she found a good selection of (but not all) statements for.

 

The card was originally applied for in January 2003, so am I correct in saying that this was prior to PPI regulation?

 

Until taking voluntary retirement in 2005 my mother was a teacher, always employed by local government / council with good sickness / redundancy benefits six months full, six months half etc.

At the time the credit card was taken out my mother had just been diagnosed as a insulin dependant diabetic and at no point was this discussed in relation to the PPI applied to her CC.

 

Quick timeline:

 

17/06/2013 - Complaint Letter Sent

19/06/2013 - Letter recieved from Nationwide confiming reciept of complaint letter

03/07/2013 - Telephone call to my mother from Nationwide asking for additional questions and for more info. As instructed by myself she refused to be drawn into converstation over the phone and requested any additional questions to be put in writing.

10/07/2013 - Letter from Nationwide with further questions (Letter attached below in PDF)

 

My mother has answered these addtional questions honestly and to the best of her knowledge. However before she sends the letter I wanted to ask those in the know what sort of bearing a pre existing medical condition would have on a PPI claim? Should it have been taken into account when the card was applied for?

 

My mother has never claimed on the PPI policy that was applied to the card and the card was settled in full some years ago. Her voluntary retirement was not due to health grounds and the only time off during her employment was to attend clincs or hospital appointments for her diabeties, she was never off work ill because of it.

 

Her condition is fully managed by insulin and does not affect her daily life. She has had both cataracts done due to diabetic myopathy but the diabeties has not lead to any other medical conditions.

 

Any advise or comments on their letter gratefully recieved

 

Many thanks Ginge

[dx100uk]

they are fishing for an excuse not to cough

 

are they aware at all of the condition?

 

what did you put in the FOS CQ regarding the reasons for a reclaim/

 

dx

[Hortz]

To answer the questions in the order in which they were raised:

 

1) General insurance product sales (including PPI) did not become regulated until January 2005. Some sellers subscribed to a previous voluntary code of conduct put in place by the General Insurance Standards Council. If the seller was FSA regulated for other purposes (I.e banking services which Nationwide almost certainly would have been) then FOS can consider it regardless.

 

2) The relevance of work benefits depends whether the sale was carried out on an advised or non-advised basis. If the former then these should have been considered before making the recommendation, if the latter, it was up to her to make this consideration.

 

3) As regards the diabetes thing, if this would have affected her ability to claim under the policy (which I can't be sure on without seeing the policy summary) then it should have been disclosed to her. However, as a pre-regulation sale, the current rules around oral disclosure were not in effect and therefore the onus was more on her to read the terms & conditions. The real problem you've got with this one, however, is that bearing in mind that the condition is fully managed and has never resulted in time off work of affected her daily life, it would be difficult to argue any consequential detriment even if there were sales failings.

 

As regards the thing about refusing to discuss the complaint over the telephone you're entering into a minefield with this one which depends on the individual complaint handler. Some won't attach any significance to this, others will automatically mark her out as one who has something to hide. There's no real way to tell as it is dependant on the individual.

 

The fact that she has never claimed on the policy is of no real relevance, statistically most don't with any type of insurance (otherwise the insurers would be out of business pretty quickly).

 

As for the questions all you can do is answer them truthfully as per the post above and see where it gets you.

[gingerdave27]

Morning DX, I did wonder if this was a stalling tactic by Nationwide.

 

The reasons for reclaim on the FOS Questionaire were,

 

Not asked if the policy was suitable for her needs,

Her circumstances were not taken into account when the card was applied for,

Sufficient cover was already in place to cover card payments, sick pay, redundancy pay and savings in excess of card balance and Death in Service benefit,

No consideration with regards to pre-existing medical condition

 

Whilest I appreciate some of the above may be classed as 'weak' reasons I still believe that my mother has a good case for mis-selling

 

Unfortunately she has no recollection of how the card was applied for, over phone / form filled in etc

 

A SAR request to Nationwide resulted in very little information and they were unable to provide a copy of the original CCA.

 

Hortz:

 

Thank you for your comments and advice,

 

Unfortunately as my mother cannot remember the exact circumstances of card application, and Nationwide were unable to provide a signed copy of the original CCA, I am unsure as to whether this was an advised / non-advised sale.

 

My advice to her regarding telephone conversations was given after several recommendations on this forum from a few people. As i have been steering her through this process I wanted to ensure that she wasn't 'tripped up' by phone questions and by having them in writing she would be able to consider the questions properly and give accurate and truthful answers to the best of her knowledge.

 

I will get her to send the reply to Nationwide and await their response.

 

Playing the waiting game again!

 

Ginge

[dx100uk]

I think you reasons are very good.

 

talking on the phone is not a good idea.

 

dx