For the past 6 months with the help of legal and compliance experts and some great wordsmiths here at the FPC Site, we have put together and submittted a Super Complaint as a consumer group, directly to the Office Of Fair Trading, to highlight the issues with the interest rate variations and the contract terms relating to the interest rates, whereby under the current terms it allows for Firstplus to change interest rates for whatever reasons it wants and in most cases when it wants.

Most of you will remember in previous rate increases, you would have received a letter that stated "Due to Increases in the Bank of England Base Rates" to justify increasing your rates, however since the the start of the Credit Crunch Firstplus have distanced itself away from any link to Financial Base Rates and continues to apply usury rates on to its customers.  Firstplus state the reasons as Competiiveness or Underlying Costs, However Firstplus are no longer in the Loan Market place, Firstplus themselves have borrowed from its Parent Company Barclays Bank bringing down its costs by 4.5%, and it has shed the majority of its workforce.

We therefore see nothing competitive or any increase in underlying costs..

We have requested that the OFT take action and we are fighting now for retrospective rates to be applied and subsequent overpayments to be refunded to all customers, we are also asking for the contract terms to be re-written with respect to how it can vary interest rates.

We will continue to lobby the government, media and regulators to take action against Firstplus.. We are confident that we will prevail, however we still need your help.  Contact your MP, Complain to Firstplus and the Regulators.  If you have PPI then ask for all the payments back.. We can help you get back what is yours.  The Financial Ombudsmen is Upholdding 99% of the PPI complaints against Firstplus.. Just Think you could be Thousands Better off and your monthly payments will be reduced.  Even if you have claimed the Cashback after 5 years, its still possible to have your loan reduced and payments refunded.

Finally the issue of settlement figures.  Firstplus continue to use the Rule of 78 when Calculating Settlement Figures, so if you have had your loan for less than 7 years, it is likely that despite everything you have paid to date, you will still owe more than what you originally borrowed.  The Rule Of 78 has been outlawed across the world and was advised to not be used under the OFT Guidlines on Secured Lending.  We found this calculation to be inaccurate and unfair to consumers, this view is echoed with all the financial regulators.

We are therefore requesting that this also be allowed for a claim retrospectively.

The Members and Operators At Firstplus Complaints Will continue to push these issues all the way to the end.  Join us, we can help.

Several Firstplus Customers upon calling Firstplus to query the reasoning behind this latest interest rate increase, are allegedly being told from FIRSTPLUS Staff that Permission to increase rates was given and approved by the Financial Services Authority.  We found this statement to be odd, I contacted the FSA Consumer Helpline and then the FSA central office at Canary Wharf who categorically denied any involvement in any decision relating to interest rate increases, FIRSTPLUS did not seek permission from the FSA, nor would the FSA give such permissions.

If these claims are to be true, one has to ask who is responsible for these lies.

This is just a sample of what we have been hearing and reading in Firstplus correspondence to its Customers.

Another new tactic is to deny that telephone calls exist prior to 2005 and are on a system that can not be located.  As a Pre 2005 customer I and several other members can refute this statement as we had easy access to our call history and copies of the calls were sent in the same format as those calls post 2005.  We advise lodging a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office, myself and other members in the forum will be happy to sign a statement and provide evidence that refutes Firstplus Claims.  We have requested under several complaints to the ICO that action be taken against the Firstplus Data Protection Officer, we would encourage ALL customers to put forward complaints to as many regulators as possible.  Should you not know how, or are not sure what to say then we can create letters and supply you with the contact details of all the regulatory bodies to whom you can complain.

We have again requested that the Office Of Fair Trading review and rule on the Terms & Conditions of the Firstplus loan contracts, several industry compliance experts and legal professionals have come forward in support and they are all in agreement that the terms and conditions breach regulation.  We will continue to press on with this Super Complaint and are rallying more consumer groups to champion our cause.

Contact your MP, Contact the Press, we have contact details of all the major press and media outlets.. Together we will fight this to the end.

The FOS have today named and shamed the worst offenders that customers have complained about, and as we previously reported it has been confirmed that Barclays were at the top of the list out of the Top 5 High Street banks.  It was also noted that 99% of Firstplus complaints made to the Ombudsmen were upheld.

What is clear here, Barclays and Firstplus are not listening to their customers, and clearly not treating customer complaints fairly.

Now with the recent rise in Insterest Rates levied onto Firstplus customers, the deludge of complaints will only increase, if this websites traffic is anything to go by.  Some 208,000 page views a week and hundreds of new registered members have joined in the fight against Barclays Firstplus.  We have power in numbers, we will continue to pressure the regulators and the government to take action against Barclays Firstplus.  We will continue to put pressure on the Media to expose the business practices of Barclays Firstplus.  We will continue to fight to have the unfair contract terms removed and to have the interest rates applied fairly and retrospectively.

 

99% of Complaints Upheld against FIRSTPLUS

 

Many Firstplus customers today received a shock mailing, where their interest rate is to increase by 0.8%.  We at Firstplus Complaints condem this increase and assure its members and Firstplus Customers that this will only further fuel the fight against Barclays Firstplus.  We have spoken with compliance experts this morning, and they are in agreement that this recent announcement is further evidence that FIRSTPLUS are possibly breaching Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Rules.

Read more: Firstplus increase interest rates - despite downturn