SAR request Allay Claims.

[MinnieMia]

Hi, (sorry for the long intro but I feel I should 'set the scene')

 

I wonder whether anyone could advise re email I received from Allay Claims.

 

I have usually completed any PPI claims myself but there were two accounts that I could not track down and initially asked Allay to look into them, however (and to be honest, I am not sure how but I assume as near to deadline)

 

I agreed to them looking in to an old HBOS account.

They emailed me a couple of times re an update with HBOS but I didn't receive an outcome.

I did receive a letter from them stating they had been successful with Capital One.

 

I had a capital one card many years ago and fell out with them regarding late payment fees and their inability to help me until I returned to work. I subsequently (stupidly maybe) defaulted on the account and it would have now probably been statute barred.

 

I would never have agreed to Allay contacting them purely because I know there would be no point, any money they were successful at acquiring, Cap One would keep against the balance owed to them.

 

I queried this with Allay and they sent me a copy of the letter from Capital One and also a copy of a form 'signed by me' giving them possession to contact Cap One. It is definitely not my signature.

 

I decided to SAR them to see what information and paperwork they had relating to this and have received an email from them today attaching the same two documents as before, a copy of their invoice and the letter I sent to them re the SAR.

 

The email is lengthy, telling me they are a legitimate company, stating they would only contact third parties with my permission, how they would never forge signatures (I had not suggested to them they had) pointing out how I might have contacting them, what web site i might have used and how I had signed an electronic form (I honestly don't remember signing one but maybe I did but anyway, I work for a living signing electronic forms and am quite good at my signature) .

 

They carry on to explain my obligations and that they have a complete audit trail of my signature etc (which they haven't provided but could provide if I asked - I thought I had with the SAR)

 

My question is,

can I insist on paper version of the SAR and surely they must hold more information than this.

They were emailing me about HBOS an Santander accounts so there must be details relating to this not to mention the audit trail they mention for proof of signature.

 

Would it be useful for me to contact Capital One with SAR seeing as I am guessing Statute Barred with be no more.

[dx100uk]

once a debt is statute barred its always SB'd,

however, if the original creditor still owns the debt and it has not been sold

they are quite entitled to offset any reclaim against the balance they still hold..

 

as for allay wanting their supposed fees

it's not the 1st time they've pulled the copied signature dodge.

 

 

[MinnieMia]

Thanks for being so quick with a response. Yes, I assumed they would keep any award made to me which is why I wouldn't have bothered to pursue it. Does their email constitute a proper response to an SAR request or can I ask for more info.

[dx100uk]

ok you need to read around on here a bit regarding allay ...

by you agreeing to them investigating 'PPI'...be it even on one account you also signed authorisation to investigate 'all'

 

however that doesn't mean you owe them their fees northat they can fake paperwork.

 

i bet were you to pop their email up here to one multipage PDF, after reading our upload guide

it will be the same as the rest here already

 

but you need to understand that they DO sometimes do court and by you sadly 'engaging' with them and playing your cards early, giving them time as they have to fake documents, they will be more inclinded to issue a claim.

 

but lets see everything in/out please

 

i've beaten them numerous times myself .

[MinnieMia]

Hi, I have put all the emails and attachments together.

 

there have of course been the regular threatening paper mail standard letters and texts. Probably phone calls but I have blocked their number. I

 

t is the email on the 28/8/19 I probably should have paid more attention to.

I thought they were just phishing for accounts randomly as apart from 2 HBOS accounts and MBNA, haven't had dealing with any of the others like Santander and HBSC.

 

any advice you can give would be appreciated.

 

Think I've done it now

 

Allay 2(1).pdf

[cjcregg]

You need to make a formal complaint to them and if they reject it you can then go to the Claims Management Ombudsman.

 

Although Allay have taken people to court they have recently lost 2 cases on the basis that the form people signed was merely a 'free ppi check' form and not in fact a letter of authority or agreement. They also lost on the grounds that they didn't provide a copy of the agreement in a durable medium or a cancellation form at the point they claim the contract was stuck, contrary to distance selling regulations. So in my view it's it's unlikely they'd risk taking you to court for £75.

 

Also FCA CMCOBS provides that a CMC cannot rely on a digitally generated signature that isn't an image of a hand written signature.

 

[MinnieMia]

Thank you for your advice. Is there a specified format or template or shall I just draught something around your advice (which I am happy to do)? I am very grateful for all the advice so far.

[cjcregg]

Just draft it including all the grounds I've mentioned. If you want to post it up I'm happy to review it.

 

I'm not sure how you first got invloved with them but the SAR response did say it could have been through Bank Refund Checker, which Allay promoted on Facebook etc. If so it would be worth mentioning that the FCA banned them from these promotions and the ban was effective from 16 August 2019 through to 7 February 2020.