Nature of the Service

We pursue claims on behalf of individuals for Financial Mis-selling in the loans and credit facility sector. We look at mis-selling from 2 angles:-

  1. The lenders were and continue to be under a duty to carry out reasonable and proportionate affordability checks before approving the loans. Often, the checks carried out were either not sufficient or further lending meant that additional checks should have been carried out.
  2. Some car finance lenders may have treated their clients unfairly when paying a commission to brokers for recommending their services.

If you wish to instruct us, we will gather information from you and/or your Lender to establish whether:-

  1. if they are a Lender we pursue Irresponsible Lending claims against, we will check if they did actually carry out the appropriate affordability checks. If they did not, we will then establish whether, had they done so, they would have still agreed to lend to you.
  2. AND

  3. if your loan was a car finance loan, whether the lender paid a commission to a broker and if they did, did they act unfairly in doing so.

If, once our investigations are complete, we determine that the lender shouldn't have lent to you or that they paid a commission that was unfair, then we will seek redress either directly with the lender or if necessary via the Financial Ombudsman.

Where we do not believe your claim has merit, we will advise you of this and the reasons why.

Illustration of fees

We will act on a “no win no fee” basis which means that you only pay our fees in the event you are successful and at least part of the award includes a cash refund.

Where you have an outstanding balance with your lender, they might seek to offset any compensation against your outstanding liabilities. This means that you may not receive the actual cash in your hand. In the event that ALL of your compensation is a reduction in your outstanding balance, we will not charge you a fee.The amount you will pay us will never exceed the total cash compensation you receive but it is calculated based on the amount of Total Compensation you are awarded.

'Total Compensation' means any direct monetary payment or balance reduction made by your opponent in respect of your claim. It includes both the cash and balance reduction elements of a refund. For Example, if you are award £1000 refund but have a £500 balance and as a result receive £500 cash plus a reduction in your balance of £500, we will charge our fee based on £1000.

Band Total Compensation Received Maximum % rate of charge (Inc VAT) Maximum total fee (Inc VAT)
1 £1 - £1,499 36% £504.00
2 £1,500 - £9,999 33.6% £3,000.00
3 £10,000 - £24,999 30% £6,000.00
4 £25,000 - £49,999 24% £9,000.00
5 £50,000 or above 18% £12,000.00

The standardised figures used above are for cost illustrations only and are not to be taken as an estimate of the amount likely to be recovered for you. The fee you will have to pay will be based on your compensation award which will vary based on the amount you borrowed, length of time and overall cost of the lending. This means what you pay might be more or less than the illustrations shown above.

If you fail to cooperate or provide false or misleading information to Clear Legal Marketing Limited, you may be liable to pay any costs incurred.

Introducer Fees

Clear Legal Marketing Limited has entered into a contract with Forces Compare Ltd. The contract allows for Forces Compare Ltd to direct visitors from their website to Clear Legal Marketing Limited’s website where they are able to submit a claim. Under the contract Clear Legal Marketing Limited has agreed to pay Forces Compare Ltd 40% inc VAT (less £40 per successful claim) of any fees it receives from the client following the successful conclusion of a case.

Worked Fee Examples

Full Cash Refund

This provides you with worked examples where you receive 100% of your Total Compensation in cash.

Band Example Cash Refund Received Maximum % rate of charge (Inc VAT) Maximum Fee You Will Pay Amount you will receive after our fee
1 £749.50 36% £269.82 £479.68
2 £4,999.50 33.60% £1,679.83 £3,319.67
3 £12,499.50 30% £3,749.85 £8,749.65
4 £24,999.50 24% £5,999.88 £18,999.62
5 £50,000.00 18% £9,000.00 £41,000.00

Part Cash Refund and Part Balance Reduction

This provides you with worked examples where you receive only part of your Total Compensation in cash and the rest pays off your outstanding balance.

Total Compensation Cash Refund Element Balance Reduction Element Our Fee You Receive
£749.50 £374.75 £374.75 £269.82 £104.93 plus 100% write off your remaining balance
£4,999.50 £2,499.75 £2,499.75 £1,679.83 £819.918 plus 100% write off your remaining balance
£12,499.50 £6,249.75 £6,249.75 £3,749.85 £499.9 plus 100% write off your remaining balance
£24,999.50 £12,499.75 £12,499.75 £5,999.88 £6499.87 plus 100% write off your remaining balance
£50,000.00 £25,000.00 £25,000.00 £9,000.00 £16000 plus 100% write off your remaining balance
£1,499 £149.90 £1,349.10 £149.90 £0 plus 100% write off your remaining balance

Please note: the amount you pay will either be a sum equivalent to the 'Maximum % Rate of Charge' or a sum equivalent to the 'Maximum Total Fee', whichever is the lesser.

For example, a customer who is awarded redress of £1,000 must not be charged more than £300 (plus VAT). This is the lower figure out of: (a) the maximum % rate 36% of £1,000 and (b) the maximum total fee of £504.00.

However, a customer who is awarded redress of £1,450 must not be charged more than £504. This is the lower figure out of: (a) the maximum % rate of 36% of £1,450 awarded (which is £522); and (b) the Max Total Fee of £504.

Commission Payments

Credit Reporting Agency Limited will pay Clear Legal Marketing Limited a fee of £12 for each validated subscription to their 30 day free trial. In addition, they also offer an additional tiered bonus structure based on the number of leads we send to them in a calendar month. Please see a breakdown below.

Tier 1: 30 - 49 leads = 10%
Tier 2: 50 - 99 leads = 20%
Tier 3: 100 - 249 leads = 30%
Tier 4: 250+ leads = 35%

For example, if we were to send them 100 validated trials in a single month, we would receive £1,200 plus the £360 bonus (i.e. £1200x30%).

If you want to know more about this arrangement, please contact us to discuss.

We ask that you send us a copy of your credit report so that it can assist in the formulation of your complaint and so we can highlight any additional claims you might have.

You do not need to use Credit Report Agency Limited's product. There are a number of companies providing credit reports which you could use instead.

Alternative Ways to Claim

You do not need to use our services to make a claim against your lender(s). It's free to claim compensation from financial companies if you have lost money from a mis-sold financial product. You can do this yourself directly with the lender(s) and even if they reject your claim you can still take this to the Financial Ombudsman Service http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/. If you aren't sure how to make the claim, you can get free, impartial advice from consumer organisations.

Overview of key stages of a claim

Stage 1 Initial online assessment of potential claim
Stage 2 Request for information from Lender or Claim Submission
Stage 3 Lender response
Stage 4 Advice on Lender Response
Stage 5 Complaint Upheld - Recommend acceptance
Complaint Rejected - No Further Action
Complaint Rejected - Referral to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
Stage 6 Redress Received
Case Rejected by FOS

Keeping you updated

We will keep you updated at each key stage of the process.

Our primary form of communication will be through digital formats. We limit methods of communication to digital formats so that we can adopt a streamlined process which allows us to limit our fees as explained below.

However, in exceptional circumstances we will do our best to accommodate alternative methods of communication. Please contact us to discuss further.

What you have to do

You will need to provide sufficient detail about your loans or credit facilities, that enables your Lender to locate your account. When we have located your loans and/or credit facilities, we may ask you for further information about the loans/credit facilities and your circumstances at the time they were given to you.

Will I still be able to borrow money?

As you are raising a complaint based on your loan or credit facility being unaffordable, the lenders you are bringing a complaint against might suspend further lending on receipt of your complaint.

Cancellation

If you wish to cancel this contract you can do so within 14 days at no cost. Just let us know.

If you cancel our service after 14 days and after we submit your claim you will be liable to pay our full fee (calculated as shown above) should your claim be successful.

IVA's, Debt Relief Orders, Bankruptcy and more

If you:-

  • have every been subject to an IVA or
  • are awaiting the approval of an IVA proposal or
  • have ever been declared bankrupt or
  • are subject to a bankruptcy petition or
  • have ever been subject to a Debt Relief Order or
  • have even been subject to a similar process
you must inform us immediately. If we proceed with a claim for you then you must provide us with the IVA Supervisor / Trustee in Bankruptcy's written consent to pursue the claim for you prior to instructing us. You also authorise us to pay settlement monies to your IVA Supervisor / Trustee in Bankruptcy after our fees have been deducted.

Payments Made by Your Guarantor

We need to make you aware that if your claim is successful, and your guarantor has made payments towards your loan, some lenders which will contact your Guarantor and offer to return the payments they made. If they accept the offer, they will be released from their obligation to pay and the amount they are refunded could be added back to your loan account meaning you would be responsible for repaying it. All interest and charges are still likely to be waived and as a result it is only the capital amount you will be required to pay back.

Complaints

Should you have a complaint in regards to the service we have provided, we have a complaints procedure which you should follow. The full process can be found on our website or can be provided on request.