IF YOU HAVE HAD A COUNTY COURT CLAIM ISSUED AGAINST YOU RELATING TO A CONSUMER CREDIT AGREEMENT CALL US IMMEDIATELY ON 0845 6188525. WE MAY BE ABLE TO REPRESENT YOU ON A "NO WIN NO FEE" BASIS TO DEFEND THE CLAIM. YOUR LENDER MAY NOT LEGALLY BE ABLE TO ENFORCE THE AGREEMENT IN COURT.
Your credit card agreement must comply with the law, more specifically the Consumer Credit Act 1974. If your agreement does not comply you may have grounds to have the contract declared unenforceable. In which case, you will not have to repay the outstanding balance.
Here’s how it works:
We obtain a copy of your credit card agreement from your provider The agreement is audited Any breaches are assessed to determine the level of non-compliance You are provided with the results and informed whether the solicitors can accept your case All of this is done for a one off solicitor audit fee of £199 Once we have obtained a copy of your agreement, we’ll typically give you an answer within 7 to 10 working days.
The assessment takes into account a number of factors which influence how agreements should be executed under the Consumer Credit Act. For example some contracts have variations within the terms and conditions and are subject to a slightly different set of rules to contracts which do not allow for variations. Other contracts may include an element of insurance and will be subject to different calculation rules. Checks will also be carried out against figures such as charges, the APR and Total Cost of Credit to determine if the correct formulas have been applied. These are just a few of the tests which we carry out.
The result of the audit varies. Some agreements that we assess have been drawn up correctly whilst others only have minor technical breaches which would not warrant legal proceedings. The audit is designed to identify those credit card agreements which contain fundamental breaches and which in the opinion of our solicitors and barristers render them irredeemably unenforceable. The audit is free-of-charge and without obligation and will let you know one way or the other if your credit agreement complies or not.
Please note that we are only looking at credit and store cards taken out BEFORE 6th April 2007.
Previous cases have involved a fairly even spread of high-street banks and building societies, credit-card companies, mainstream and sub-prime lenders.
On a successful case the legal costs plus a success fee will be paid to the solicitor by the lender. If the case is not successful, the legal costs are covered by an insurance policy. The cost to insure the case is met by the solicitors and not you. There are no other fees, so regardless of the result you pay nothing! (The only exception to this is if you ask us to claim back Payment Protection Insurance for you at the same time. In which case there are still no fees for the unenforceable case but we will deduct 25%+VAT of any PPI compensation paid to you).
The solicitors will request that your credit file is cleared of ALL references to the debt as part of the settlement (as in the case of Bank of Scotland –v- Robert Mitchell June 2009). Furthermore under the banking code, banks are not permitted to register a default on your credit file whilst the balance is in dispute. Unfortunately lenders don’t always play by the rules. If you are therefore concerned about your credit rating whilst the case is running, you should continue making payments.
The precedent for these cases was established in the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court) which is the highest court in the land. That decision meant that courts thereafter had to declare loans as unenforceable if they found that a prescribed term had been breached. So whilst the outcome of a case can’t be guaranteed, if a solicitor and barrister agree that a prescribed term has been breached, it is highly likely that the same conclusion will be reached in court. If it is, your credit agreement will have to be declared unenforceable.
In addition to working on the advice of solicitors who specialise in this area of law, each case is vetted and approved by a specialist barrister’s chambers. So you can be confident that the cases which the solicitors run have an extremely high chance of being successful.
If you are concerned about your credit rating whilst the case is running, you should continue making payments. You will however have the option to stop making payments to the lender once:
The solicitor has confirmed that the agreement is unenforceable
You have entered into a no-win no-fee agreement
The debt has been entered into “dispute” with the lender
The solicitor has confirmed that you can stop making payments
Please note that registering defaults on a loan which is in dispute is against the banking code but some lenders may still attempt to do so. For example if you were in the process of remortgaging you may, as a precaution, decide to continue making minimum payments or perhaps reconsider the timing of your case. Whatever you decide you will not be able to recover any payments made during the course of the case.
Once the case has started, your lender will be under instruction to channel all communication through the solicitor. If you continue to receive calls, simply inform the solicitor who will take up the matter with your lender. Your lender is obliged to follow these instructions and if they do not comply the solicitor will take action. That means you should not receive any harassing phone calls or letters once the solicitor is involved.
You agree not to use the card now that you have decided to challenge it You enter into a no-win no-fee arrangement The solicitors take over all correspondence with the lender and initiate proceedings On the successful completion of your case, the outstanding balance is declared unenforceable Don’t worry we will obtain it for you, A £11 fee to the bank is applicable.
We are currently only looking at credit cards with a limit of £25,000 or less, which were taken out before April 2007 and have an outstanding balance of £2,000 or above.
On the basis that the agreement was legal and complied with the regulations... yes you did in good faith. BUT if the agreement isn’t legal and breaches the regulations, then you should not have been asked to enter into it in the first place.
You may have grounds to reclaim Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) premiums (plus interest). We will discuss this with you and establish if you have grounds for compensation. If you do, our solicitors will include this as part of the overall case against your lender. Should you wish to make a claim for PPI in addition to an unenforceable declaration a fee of 25% of the PPI compensation paid will be applied.
We are professional and act with integrity
We offer a free-of-charge, no-obligation assessment.
A £199 solicitor audit fee is applicable once approved
All of our cases are vetted by a leading barristers chambers prior to approval
If your case is accepted, you will not have to pay any legal or insurance costs
We are able to run PPI and unenforceable cases in parallel
Apply for a apply now - start your claims today now or to find out more, contact Credit Crunch UK and speak to one of our experienced claims advisers. It's easy, either call 0845 6188 525 or select Call Back.
CCUK brings together legal and financial claims management expertise. We specialise in claiming compensation in relation to mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies (otherwise known as PPI or loan insurance). We also carry out loan-checks on loan and credit card agreements to verify if they comply with the Consumer Credit Act (CCA).