CHARLES Lee could be one of the millions of people who can reclaim thousands after being mis-sold loan insurance - but he won't be using the services of totaljustice.co.uk to help him find out.
Mr Lee has been pestered with at least 10 calls from the Birmingham-based company in the last few days.
Totaljustice is part of a growing industry which aims to help people wrongly sold payment protection insurance - PPI - which is supposed to cover their credit cards, mortgages or loans if they are unable to make repayments.
But Charles, aged 71, of Ellerton Road, Firth Park, Sheffield, contacted Action Desk to warn readers of the firm's tactics.
He said: "My partner Pamela got a call and was told she was due £4,000. The man claimed the firm was selected by the government to sort out the problem.
"He said there would be a £69.99 fee and asked for her bank details over the phone.
"I had a bad feeling about it, and worse, he's rung every day since then, it must be 10 times. I thought it was a bit dodgy and threatened to call the police. But with the promise of thousands for nothing I can see how other people might be persuaded to sign up."
Totaljustice.co.uk was unavailable for comment. The firm is authorised by the Ministry of Justice to provide regulated claims management services.
ACTIONTHE vast majority of consumers are believed to have been mis-sold PPI and could be due a refund.
These policies can add anything up to 50 per cent to the total amount repayable on a loan and yet be invalid.
PPI has been described as an even bigger scam than bank charges, which last year saw hundreds of thousands of people reclaiming millions.
If you have a loan it is well worth checking whether you have PPI, the fee is sometimes secretly included in repayments.
If you fall into one of these categories then you were mis-sold PPI:
- Are/were you self-employed, unemployed, redundant or retired?
- Have you had medical issues in the past?
- Has your provider already been fined for mis-selling?
- Were you sold 'single premium' loan policy?
- Were you given the full details of the insurance?
- Did your lender forget to advise you that you could take an alternative PPI cover elsewhere?
- Did you know you had taken out PPI or were you told PPI was compulsory?
If you believe you qualify, write to the company that sold you the policy asking for a refund and explaining why.
If they refuse write again threatening to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. If all else fails write to the FOS direct, it is the independent service for settling disputes with financial companies.
READ MOREMain news indexYour lettersFeaturesSouth Yorkshire's environmental newsKids ZoneMore business newsMore Rotherham newsMore Doncaster newsMore Barnsley newsLatest sport.The full article contains 498 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
