Alliance & Leicester Loan Agreement

[San Martino]

Hello,

I recently recieved my A & L cca request, its looks enforceable to me, Boo!
However, I have a question regarding the ' cooling off period ' of 14 days
that is not mentioned in the agreement or T&C's. I cant see it!

Is there any possibility that it could be unenforceable because of this ommission?

What are your thoughts,

Thank You

ps agreement to follow

[Steward]

You can use Google to search the web using these links below:-

[San Martino]

Heres what A & L sent me.

[clemma]

I got your PM but I am not 100% sure with this. I think the cooling off period depends on the way the loan was obtained (i.e you went to the branch, cold calling etc). Someone else should be along to help you soon though.

[citizenB]

I am wondering if the sentence

"This offer is available for 28 days from the date of the Alliance & Leicester signature "

could be construed as such ?

I will pop your link on to a couple of other threads that are more frequently visited by "those that know about these things" and they might be able to advise you more fully.

[42man]

I agree with what has been said above......was this an online loan ? or in branch ? I would have thought that it would include cancellation rights but it wouldn't IMO be enough to make it unenforceable......was the default notice compliant ?

[banker_rhymes_with]

Hello SM!

Thanks for the PM.

I regret that Loans are not something I'm that up to speed on.

The above comments from the others are all valid and are good points to explore.

I can see they Signed the Agreement before you, so this Thread may be of some interest:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...ml#post1514689

Key issues seem to be:

(1) Did they discuss the Loan with you before signing, i.e. within one of their Branches, or did they send out a Rep etc.

(2) Have they issued a Default Notice yet?

Cheers,
BRW

[San Martino]

Thank you all for your comments, it is much appreciated.

I initiated this application over the phone, at no point did i visit a branch
and i signed the agreement at home then posted it back to A & L.

I have sent a Subject access request recently in order to see whether or not a 'cooling off period' was offered to me after i signed their agreement.

"This offer is available for 28 days from the date of the Alliance & Leicester signature " could be construed as such ?

CitizenB - This is a good point you make, however I believe that as consumers we should see a clear and defined cancellation option.

Banker Rhymes, clemma - I only dicussed the loan over the phone and I was issued a default notice in March 2008, also I have been paying a agreed reduced monthly amount with A & L.

42man - I will check the SAR to see if the default notice was compliant.

In general I realize the agreement looks enforceable, however there does seem to be a question as to whether it is a cancellable agreement as defined in CCA 1974, and if so, should it not be made clear as to our right to cancel within the agreement and or the terms and conditions.

I may be clutching at straws here, so your advice is taken on board.

All the best to you all.

San Martino

[San Martino]

Hi
I am still waiting for my SAR.
Was wondering if any one had any further thoughts on this.
Thanks

[emandcole]

Hi, just picked this one up. We had an A&L loan with the same paperwork as above. Also questioned themn about the no right to cancel box and after 6 weeks of 'investigating our concerns' came back with a load of gumpf about Distance Marketing Regulations stating they did not need to provide cancellation rights.

Nonsense I thought. This loan was dealt with via post and at no time were any face to face discussions had, no branch visits etc. Went back to them over a year ago now stating we weren't happy with their response and ended up with two seperate letters from an A&L representative stating that she 'would not be entering into any further communication about this matter as it is inappropriate'.

Quite how discussing a legitimate query with a customer is 'inappropriate' I have no idea. We stopped paying making it clear we'd recommence once happy and we've heard nothing from them for around 13 months now. Interestingly I don't think they've even bothered to send a statement of account through either.

We also questionned the APR calculations asking them to provide a working out of how they had calculated the various rates. I'd been reading up on the great APR scam and was interested to read that many finance organisations and banks had used this in the past to generate extra sums. A&L had a great deal of difficulty providing these, asked why we wanted them etc before finally sending a letter with a series of equations and formulae on that made little sense to me.

When we'd asked for a detailed setting out of the calculations relating to our specific finance agreement it was entirely unhelpful to simply get sent a sample calculation with figures on that were wildly different to our own. No help at all and this I took to be a partially deliberate attempt to shut us up. Is it really too much to ask a finance organisation to supply the details applicable to our account? I thought not.

Anyway, that's our story, A&L couldn't have been less helpful and the tone of some of their letters was pretty aggressive. All I wanted was the details for the loan, hardly unreasonable. So, nothing heard from them for ages, no idea what they'll eventually do. Will update if anything happens.