Claim 2 Gain specialises in financial services complaints with a proven track record of achieving over £30 million of compensation for victims of mis-sold products or services. Our team of specialists will handle your claim as quickly and efficiently as possible using the latest technology and industry knowledge.

Can Claim 2 Gain help?

We can assist with your claim because we understand the regulations, know the processes involved and are aware of the appropriate levels of compensation and/or refunds. Because we know how to deal with financial regulators and city institutions, we minimise the problems that may occur with these types of claims. Best of all we work on a no-win no-fee basis, with no up-front charges for any of our no-win, no-fee services. And, if your own claim has been rejected, don’t give up - Claim 2 Gain may still be able to help.

Does Claim 2 Gain really work?

At Claim 2 Gain we win a high percentage of our claims, and if the claim is not successful we analyse the rejection and may refer your claim onto the Financial Ombudsman Service where investigation often results in further successes or, in certain circumstances, assist with taking your claim to the Small Claims Court.

Although you can make a claim individually, using Claim 2 Gain saves you time and may improve your chances of success because:

• Many claims are made outside of the regulations and are therefore not covered and are rejected.
• No-win no-fee! We only get paid if we succeed on your behalf, although there may be a small charge if you cancel our services before a final decision is reached.
• We employ complaints experts who achieve a high success rate
• We understand the mechanisms used to calculate compensation/refunds and will accept nothing less than the correct amount on your behalf and will advise you if we think you can achieve a higher offer. In our experience a number of offers need to be renegotiated because they are too low.
• If your claim is initially rejected we will thoroughly review the decision and the supporting evidence and may refer the claim on to the Financial Ombudsman Service; or in certain circumstances, take your claim onto the Small Claims Court where a high proportion of these referrals are successful.
• We will keep you informed of progress at all times.
• Claim 2 Gain strictly adheres to all of the guidelines set forth by our regulators and operates in an honest and transparent way.

Read more about what to expect of a claims management company here.

It’s simple – we provide a professional and expert service on the following basis:

• You pay nothing up-front
• We analyse your case and if we believe we can win, our professional claims handlers will make a claim on your behalf
• We will assist with your case from start to finish
• Once you receive an offer, we will check the terms to ensure you receive the maximum amount possible in accordance with the regulations, although you can decide to accept a lower amount if you wish
• We request our fee is deducted from the monies offered to you which means you do not have to pay any fees in advance
• We only deal with financial services claims. There is no hidden agenda, no salesmen and no cost to you if your claim is rejected. Quite simply, we take all the risks on your behalf.
• In the unlikely event that your initial claim is unsuccessful, we may take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service and fight for a positive outcome.

We charge 25% plus VAT of any monies offered to you, plus any other expenses incurred during the claims process. Other expenses may include a £10 charge for the request of information under the Data Protection Act and/or a maximum of £120 for court costs if your claim proceeds to the Small Claims Court, although this money will be paid by the third party we are claiming against.

If at any point we need to instruct the services of any other parties, which will result in further charges being payable, we will confirm this in writing with you before proceeding and will request these charges are paid in full before proceeding.

Value Added Tax (VAT) is charged at the prevailing rate, currently 17.5%. If the prevailing rate of VAT changes from 17.5%, Claim 2 Gain Ltd reserves the right to adjust the fee payments set out above.

The fee above applies to each individual claim investigated by Claim 2 Gain.

Example of our fee:

Amount of Compensation offered = £4,534.32
Fee payable to Claim 2 Gain (25% of the compensation offered, plus VAT) = £1,331.96

You receive £3,202.36.

Under the current regulations set down by the Financial Services Authority, any client who is sold a financial product or service who is not happy with the service received can make a complaint. The company involved must then deal with the matter and offer some form of recompense if the complaint is upheld. This redress may not form a financial payment.

Insurance companies and financial advisors had to comply with a set of complicated rules designed to protect investors. In many cases these rules were not followed and some companies have now been left open to claims of mis-selling.

It can be difficult for a member of the general public to know whether these rules have been followed or not, even though you may be unhappy with your product or service. That’s where Claim 2 Gain can help. We are familiar with the regulations and the rules covering the sale of financial products and will quickly be able to assess whether these rules and regulations were met when your product or service was sold.

By filling in one of our simple questionnaires, we can make an assessment of your case and prepare a letter of complaint which will highlight the areas where the advice failed to meet the regulatory requirements.

It is probable that our professional appraisal will identify areas where the advice failed to comply with the rules. Once these deficiencies are identified, we can make a claim on your behalf.

The big financial services companies have large compliance teams who are trained in fighting complaints. Provided you contact us within six months of your claim being rejected, we may still be able to help.

Even if you have stopped using or have cashed in your policy or closed the account you wish to make a claim against we may still be able to help. There are certain time restrictions in which complaints must be made; please take one of our Quick Claim Tests to see if your complaint is in time.

Using Claim 2 Gain to start your claims process couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is fill out one of our questionnaires or call our Advice Hotline on 0845 618 9070.

Once we have received your initial enquiry we will send you the relevant information pack and forms. You should complete and return these to us immediately so that we can contact your advisor and inform them that we will be making a claim on your behalf.

We then undertake an analysis of your case; we might ask for further details or clarification of certain points. Once we are satisfied we have all of the relevant information and paperwork our claims handlers will construct a letter of complaint on your behalf.

We will then keep you informed of the progress of the complaint all the way through and our claims handlers are available from 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and from 9am to 4pm on Fridays to provide any updates or assist with any queries during the complaint process.

Once your claim has been processed we should receive either an offer of compensation or a refund or a letter of rejection.

In a high percentage of cases we receive an offer of compensation or a refund, which we check carefully to ensure it is correct. In many cases we need to re-negotiate these offers as they are too low. Although this takes extra time, it is certainly worthwhile.

When an offer of compensation or refund is received and which is calculated correctly in-line with the regulations, we will write to you with a recommendation to accept the offer.

In certain circumstances the company you are complaining against will make an offer to resolve the complaint which may be lower than the amount we originally requested. We will inform you of these offers as soon as they are received. You may, at this stage, decide to accept the offer and our fee will be based on the amount you have accepted. However if you wish to continue with the complaint to obtain a higher amount we will continue to fight on your behalf. At no stage will we accept any offer without your full written consent and agreement.

Once your acceptance of any offer has been received, your confirmation will be sent to the company dealing with your complaint with a request for payment to be made directly to us. This payment will be made into our dedicated ‘Client Account’ which is completely separate from our Business Account. If payment is made directly to us, we then deduct our fee and forward the balance to you, normally within 3 working days. However, some companies ignore this request and will send the payment direct to you. In these cases our fee HAS NOT been deducted and we ask for payment to be made within the same 3 working days.

If your claim is rejected by the company investigating your claim we will thoroughly analyse the decision, looking closely at any supporting documents they are using as evidence and may refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service. When a case is referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service it will naturally take more time to complete. As long as we have handled your claim all the way through we will carry out this work at no extra cost.

The Financial Services Authority states that complaints should be completed within eight weeks. However, in some cases these deadlines are not met. We will chase the company dealing with your complaint regularly on your behalf to ensure that your claim is dealt with as quickly as possible.

As a result it is extremely difficult to say how long it will take before you know if your claim is successful. Claims that are settled usually take about 4 months to be concluded. However, if your claim is rejected and is referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service for adjudication or proceeds to the Small Claims Court it will take much longer.

IMPORTANT NOTE IN RELATION TO BANK CHARGES CLAIMS

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has recently launched (on the 27th July 2007) a legal challenge against the charges applied to personal accounts by banks and building societies. This matter is proceeding to the High Court and due to the complex legal arguments involved in this case the outcome is not expected to be announced for a minimum of 12 months.

The banks and building societies have been allowed, by the financial services regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to put a hold on all claims of this nature until the court case has been resolved. The Financial Ombudsman Service has also put a hold on all claims being processed and the Small Claims Courts are expected to follow suit.

The banks are still obliged to acknowledge any complaints received and must ‘log’ them as complaints but they do have to be completed until the court case has been resolved. Upon completion of the case the banks will deal with the ‘logged’ complaints in a strictly date received order in accordance with the decision of the court. Although we cannot expect any claims to be concluded against unfair bank charges for a minimum of 12 months we can still process claims of this nature and ensure any delay in retrieving refunded charges is minimised, should this be the outcome of the case, by getting claims logged with banks NOW.

This hold on claims against bank charges only relates to Personal account holders and complaints against Business account holders are not affected in anyway and must be dealt with in the normal manner and in the normal timeframes.

Please note this court case does not affect claims against credit/store card companies in anyway and these must be dealt with in the normal manner and in the normal timeframes.

Yes, you can, but you must ensure the claim is made within the regulator’s guidelines and is covered by the relevant regulations or points of law. If your claim is rejected or you are not happy with the decision made you can take your claim on to the Financial Ombudsman Service who will adjudicate on your behalf.

Any Company offering Claims Management advice must be regulated to conduct claims management activities under the Compensation Act 2006.

Claim 2 Gain is fully regulated and authorised to conduct claims management activities by the Ministry of Justice under authorisation number CMR2850.

Claim 2 Gain Ltd also holds a Data Protection Act licence under license number Z843557X. This can be checked with the Information Commissioners Office.

Claim 2 Gain also adheres to our own professional standards and operates according to best practice. For example, we have a strict policy never to cold call members of the public to sell our services.

No, Claim 2 Gain doesn’t have any special rights within the claims industry, nor do we ever claim to. All claims management companies are governed by the Ministry of Justice and are subject to the same rules and restrictions. This includes the current hold on pursuing claims for unfair bank charges while the court case is in progress. No claims company has an exemption from this, nor should they claim to have one.

Under the Data Protection Act we have a duty to ensure your personal details are kept safe at all times. Any documentation that includes details of bank accounts or credit cards are kept in locked filing cabinets. If information is sent to ourselves from clients this documentation is copied and returned by recorded delivery. At the end of the claim any statements or documentation that detail sensitive information are kept in a locked cabinet before shredding. We employ a third party to shred all sensitive information and these documents are destroyed on our premises and at no stage leave our premises in a manner in which they can be used for anything other than recycling.

We are extremely confident of our handling of client sensitive information and welcome visits or viewings of our security systems and have records confirming the amount of documentation that is shredded on our premises and can be viewed at any time by appointment at our offices.

Claim 2 Gain is dedicated to making sure we offer the best level of service possible to all our clients all of the time. We work hard to ensure our staff are fully trained in dealing with complaints and can offer the advice and assistance required at every stage. However we recognise that sometimes things go wrong and have an internal complaints procedure in place to deal with such occurrences. In the unlikely event that you need to make a complaint about the services provided by Claim 2 Gain Ltd, please write, within 6 months of the date of the act of which you are complaining or within 6 months of the date at which you were aware there was a problem, to:

Matt Lucock
Head of Complaints
Claim 2 Gain Ltd
19/21 Albion Place
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 5EG

Or send your complaint by e-mail to customerservices@claim2gain.com

Once your complaint has been received, in writing by post, fax or e-mail, you will receive an acknowledgement within 5 working days, either by post, fax or e-mail. Our customer services department will then thoroughly investigate your concerns and will issue you with a final decision within 4 weeks. If we are unable to provide you with a final decision within 4 weeks, for whatever reason, we will write to you to confirm why we are unable to complete the complaint within this time. If we are unable to issue you with a final decision within 8 weeks we write to you again confirming why we are unable to complete your complaint and will offer you the right to refer the complaint to the Claims Management regulator if you are dissatisfied with the delay.

Where your complaint is upheld and redress is appropriate we will provide you with fair compensation for any acts or omissions, for which we are responsible, and will provide redress to you at a level that is agreeable to you. Redress may not in all instances include financial redress.

If, upon receipt of our final decision you remain dissatisfied with the decision please write to:

Matthew Whiting
Managing Director
Claim 2 Gain Ltd
19.21 Albion Place
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 5EG

Giving a full explanation of why you remain dissatisfied and clarifying which points you wish to be reviewed again. A final decision will be issued within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint.

This is the final stage of our internal complaints procedure; however, should you remain dissatisfied you have the right to refer your complaint to the Claims Management Regulator, the Ministry of Justice within 6 months of the date of our final decision letter. The regulator can review the handling of the complaint and give further direction on the handling of the complaint; however he cannot determine a complaint or award compensation.

The Claims Management regulator can be contacted at:

Claims Management Regulator
PO Box 7824
Burton Trent
Staffordshire
DE14 9DP

e-mail: info@claimregulation.gov.uk
Tel: 0845 450 6858