Reclaim PPI on car loan from garage or finance company?

A question about : Reclaim PPI on car loan from garage or finance company?

Hi,

In a recent sort out to shred old paperwork I came across documents from a car I bought in 2007. The car was bought from a garage and the finance arranged through them with GE Money. GE Money later became part of Santander and when the paperwork changed over it becomes apparent there had been loan insurance which I was unaware of.

The whole purchase of the car was a nightmare, I was outwitted by the salesman into agreeing to their finance which wasn't my intent so effectively mis-sold that in the first place nevermind the loan insurance that went with it. Between being sold the car and collecting he'd disappeared (read into that what you will), there were issues with the car immediately and it spent most of the second month of ownership back with them.

So there is a garage and two finance companies in the mix.

My question is can I try and reclaim this and who do I claim from, the garage or will Santander have taken on responsibility for this from GE Money when they took them over?

I think - but I'm not sure - as the policy was mis-sold by the garage I have to claim from them, but then as they're a garage they won't be regulated by the FSA so I can't claim?

Thanks.

Best answers:

• You complain to the garage who sold it - if it was in 2007 it is after regulation came in so they can't dismiss it. Santander/GE Money have no responsibility as they just financed it, not selling it.
  What are your complaint reasons (e.g. PPI included in the car finance meaning paying interest on it)?
• The garage will indeed have been authorised by the FSA (as was) or acting as an Authorised Representative for somebody who was. If you search for them here, you should be able to find out who to complain to and where.
  So yes you can complain.
  You can also complain about the loan itself if it took place on or after 6 April 2007 under the Consumer Credit Act 2006. (6 April was Good Friday that year, so Easter is the start). However, if the dealer no longer exists, complaints about the sale of the loan would not be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (the PPI would, though).
• Thanks.
  Complaint reasons are I didn't know I had it until a few days ago, even then it is not really apparent until the paperwork changes over to Santander after the first year when it appears as a separate amount. I had two pieces of paperwork originally, one was the carbon copy bill of sale for the car, the other the finance document. I'll have to double check the initial paperwork but it is not clear about the loan insurance - if it is even mentioned at all - so may well have been included in the amount interest was paid on.
  I'll have to re-read all the initial paperwork to see what, if any, mention of the loan insurance is made.
  The loan was taken out in November 2007 and the dealer still exists. There are two results on that website, one comes up as no longer authorised for the time frame my loan was taken out so it sounds as if they were authorised at that time.
• If the PPI was included in the loan you should be able to win it, if not and your complaint is only that you didn't know chances are they will show paperwork indicating you signed to say you accepted the charges. If you had a single charge every month then it was probably included, if you had 2 different charges then it would be separate and you could struggle to win that as you could see it on every bank statement (plus you acknowledge you discovered this after a year (so 2008) - so a complaint 6 years after the event could be timebarred).
  Best bet is to double check statements, confirm there was a PPI policy AND it was a single monthly fee and complain on that basis - if there were 2 separate deductions it could be much harder to reclaim as anyone can say they didn't know about it.