Did you find out if they could take you to court in the USA - I know somebody else whose had these threats from them - and have accepted the court route as it would prove MBNA are a grabby lot, they had £175 owing, missed one repayment and now it is about £500 with charges on charges. Every time they've tried to pay MBNA they've 'lost payments', 'couldn't reconcile account no given' or 'never received payments' even though proof has been shown it was paid directly into one of their accounts! They have dual USA and UK nationality so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Nice to see somebody listening to experience... I haven;t got a car but know from other people that Log Book Loans stop at nothing - one fried had them calling him every other day at work when he missed one month's payment by two days - wanted 'immediate payment up front' and threatened to tell his employers about his 'bad payment habits'. Wouldn't have had any real effect on him as his job wasn't reliant on a good credit rating and he had already made up the 'breach of payments'.

When they quote the difference between £30 odd and £12 point out that this is not legal legislation and is only a suggestion by their own code of conduct and is not legally binding. Until a true and fair assessment of costs (20p has been also mentioned....) is shown they can't use the £12 argument....

The proof of ownership doesn't rely on receipts any more - there is no legal basis for this claim - it's bailiff's talk. You can't produce a receipt for items which aren't yours and they know it..... all you can do is get a letter signed by your landlord and possibly counter signed by a solicitor to state that the only belongings in the property you have are your clothes, everything else is the landlords. I found this out when a bailiff tried to come round and 'clear me out' - I am in rented accommodation and had he 'cleared me out' it would be theft - pure and simple. Please bear this in mind should anyone return. Again it's the fear factor coming into play.

The other thing to state in any complaint is her allegation that "she will clear you out". This is strictly against regulations, for instance she cannot levy on clothes, bedding, cooker, table and chairs, basic items for daily living, ie washing machine, there is a complete list somewhere on this site. Again, if she won't supply a true copy of all debts and charges raised on them you can state that she is acting in a fradulent manner and again is abusing her position. If she comes round again take a picture of her vehicle (including the no plate if possible) and then report it to the police as she may not have the proper insurance to carry levied items in her car. She really does need to produce her certificate, warrant of execution and details of the fines and charges levied - write to the bailiffs office requesting all items before you pay anything and see what their reaction is....

An 0207 no means they are in the centre of London, and it is certainly not a Basildon no.... obviously using the Basildon office as purely a post office collection point. I have a feeling that the 0207 no is part of NatWest's head office operations in the centre of London, possibly part of the same building they use as a registered office.

She is totally wrong, without a proper warrant you can have her arrested for handling stolen property - because that is what it will be. You need to check that she is properly certified and contact the Trading Standards people as she is giving a false impression of her authority. I can't remember who else to contact off hand but you should hopefully be contacted by more informed members of this forum.

Yes, definately report them, they are not supposed to send out letters which look like official court documents... this definately is against the OFT regulations. Robinson Way, along with Westcot(t) and Moorcroft are PITA's who will try anything. I've recently had three debts returned by Westcot and am after having all tracing info they placed on my credit reference account removed as all three debts were returned to clients without further action. In two cases the debts had already been cleared! The third one was two weeks away from being statute barred.

Sorry, showing my age about the EEC.... but now that Paypal aren't registered in the UK or Ireland they don't come under the complaints procedures of the Financial Services Ombudsman or the OFfice of Fair Trading - unfair or what! As an international company that must surely be wrong, they should be bound under the rules of whichever country the sale of the goods originated in.... and their common law practices where T&Cs don't apply ... does anyone else agree?

In my own experience Provident DO take you to court and refuse to accept any offer from a debt management company. They will try to do an attachment of earnings (I was paying £40 pm and they wanted £50, so they went to court). Please get some proper advice, as you are on benefits for your sole source of income I would recommend going to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Paypal are now registered in Luxembourg, and they claim they don't come under the UK banking regulations because of that, but they do now come under general EEC law and Luxembourg are quite tough about people using their laws to hide under. Perhaps somebody expert in EEC financial transactions could help out. Luckily I've only had one dodgy deal on Paypal and the buyer backed out when I mentioned the shiel bid done and the grossly inflated shipping price. I'd bought a similar item from a mainstream supplier and got charged 1/3rd less postage than he claimed - with the same courier co! Shut him up completely.

Its blank, but I think he signed it, I have been considering filling it in with some interesting items, such as 20 carat gold plated bath, Dodgem Car and the like and sending it back signed Mickey Mouse... would I get in trouble? or If I wanted to be fraudulent, (im dont) I could fill it in with things like Washing Machine, Gas Cooker, Bed, Clothes, you know the things that he is expressly NOT allowed to take... I mean he shouldnt really sign things like this and leave it should he, be his own look out hehe. You could try adding items from a sexual deviant website along with a vampire costume, etc.... On the 'all electrical items' side how about an electric chair....

And fourthly, I think I have another case for Herbie coming up which she would very much like... Whilst it might be NOT PC to name and shame individuals it seems to be okay to name and shame companies and quote the names of companie employees. Why not have an "only name company and job title of person" policy....

I'd send a complaint to the FOS, if you go via that route you will have slightly more leg to stand on if the case ends up in court, sending an LBA at the wrong stage has been the downfall of a couple of cases recently. I understand that most banks will a) refuse the claim for charges in the first case b) when challenged offer the 'difference between their charges and £12 which is stated as reasonable.... (which ISN'T legislation, is just somebody's suggestion....) c) offer again at about 75% of the amount you claim Its a delaying tactic but once you get your teeth into them they don't like it - the FOS will be able to tell you the timescale. Mine was 8 weeks, negative reply back from GMAC so complaint going out Monday, and in two weeks time CAP1 will be in default of the FOS so going for full amount they claimed I owed - which was thrown out in court - and harrassment claims as they chased after a Notice of Disassociation was sent out!

Signed both petitions

Firstly I think you ought to inform the local police of the situation, take the solicitors letters along and ask to speak to somebody senior, there is a clear case of harrassment here. If you have informed the relevant people that the person they are after DOESN'T live there and they still chase it is illegal. I had a similar situation when I moved about six years ago, the previous occupant left a trail of debt and was eventually caught when she was fare dodging on the underground, gave the address out when she hadn't lived there for nearly a year! The British Transport Police were really helpful and transferred the case to the normal police, who ended up doing nothing, until the woman was caught a third time using the address she hadn't lived at for a year - then they acted. Have you also written a letter to the local post office asking them to return all mail for this person, I did that and it was quite effective, the post office asked me for the date of birth of the person but when I explained the situation to the local manager they were very helpful. All the chasing mail stopped after that. I think you can now do that online via the Post Office's website. If the Bailiffs do turn up you can do them for fraud, as well as harrassment, so make sure you have a copy of your mortgage offer and a copy of your passport and birth certificate near the door. Please PM me if you want to rant off about this - I know how frustrating it is having somebody 'use' your address when they have moved out some time previously.

Do what I am doing and ask Wescot to remove any tracing information they have placed with credit reference agencies, this should help stop them picking up dubious debts if it places their internal recording system into question.... if they don't comply within 14 days send a complaint to the Information Commissioner as they will have laid a 'false trail' against you.

Dont speak to Capital One, they are PITAs. I have had nothing but silence since I sent a compalint to the FSO about them chasing me despite me winning against them in court. They are about to default on them now (one week to go) and then they will be sorry. I have all the paperwork in order, 10 chasing letters since receiving a Notice of Disassociation from them... plus one personal caller who was told where to go.

Just wondering, if they take you to court, presumably it will be in America as they can't take you to court over here if they aren't a registered company over here..... If you complain in the USA it needs to be in the state they claim is their equivalent of their registered address, should be somewhere on their website if it's not buried in with their paperwork.

Don't know if it will be of any help but I've got Welcome's Terms and conditions from round about 2000-2002. If you want a copy please PM me.

It would be a turning point for what is becoming a battle of wills, theirs against yours, my favourite quote from the Westcot letters is "We can see no reason why this bill has remained unpaid and demand immediate payment ..... " even when they have been informed they were incorrectly sent the bill!

I've been harrassed by Westcot and had three alleged debts returned to the clients recently by using the simple tactic of 'I've recently moved and can I have copy of last bill....' Guess what, copies of bills were not provided and the alleged debts returned to their clients. Surely it's not beyond the bounds of legislation to create a binding agreement with DCA's that when they first contact you about a debt they HAVE to send a copy of the relevant bill. This surely would solve a lot of problems early on - okay might be a bit more admin work but should stop a lot of these spurious claims. Perhaps a petition could be started to the relevant government departments.

Its the opening of the bank account which triggered off the new link. When you change address or open a new account the bank pass the information onto various people - without usually telling you - as these people aren't necessarily a credit reference agency they claim they don't need to inform you.

I had the same problems with Capital One continually calling me at work, they even had somebody phoning up pretending they were my 'older sister'. As I am the eldest it was obvious who was calling! They took me to court and I won, but they kept sending letters to me telling me I had broken their agreement, five weeks ago I went to the FSO and they have been strangely silent, not even a 'We are looking at your case' letter. I'm now sending all the letters they sent me to the FSO to support my claim for a full refund of the amount they claim I owed - at NO time have they ever produced any evidence for me by way of a signed agreement - they didn't even bother to turn up in court!

Westcot are in breach of the regulations - I've had three alleged debts picked up by them recently and each alleged debt has been passed back to the originator with no action taken. All I did was ask them for copies of the final bill from their clients which showed the alleged debt - guess what, no bills were ever produced. I am now requesting that any tracing information and any defaults for these three alleged debts be removed from my credit files.... You have my support on this one, if they are acting on behalf of their clients they should have