Thanks a lot for the advice

The account was taken in 2005 or 2006, and closed in 2010 after my DMP ended. I don't have any records of it at all actually - but could do a SAR presumably? The letter from Barclaycard seems to be wanting very little info from me - but bit suspicious they've gone to this effort of getting in touch.

Hi all, Long time no post on this site for me. Hoping for some advice. I've received a letter this morning from Barclaycard advising they may have mis-sold me PPI insurance on a previous Barclaycard account (now closed). Now I must admit I didn't realise I'd ever had PPI sold to me - or I would have claimed myself earlier... Barclaycards letter suggests I fill in a questionnaire online, call or write to them. Is this a trick? Or are they being forced to write to people who may have been victim to mis-selling? The card I had with them was during a particularly bleak spell in my finances following redundancy where I entered into a debt management plan - does anything about that agreement affect me claiming? Thanks in advance for all pointers! Steve

Hi All, Long time since I last posted - but had some great advice from peeps on here when I was struggling with reduced income and huge (to me) debts in 2007... so thanks again to this fab community! Anyway, 3 years on from starting my DMP (with help through CCCS) and I'm about 4 weeks from having paid off all of my £20k+ debts. In the time I've built up a successful business (hence managing to pay off so much sooner than planned), got married and generally sorted my whole life out. The main aim for this year once debts were cleared was to buy our first house together and thanks to relatives, wedding presents and now having 3 years solid business accounts financially it's feasible... mortgage approval wise it's questionable... Really excitingly I've been watching my experian credit history building up and am now in the 'excellent' category with a 960 score... Sadly today I took a look at Equifax and they're rating me in the 'poor' end of the scale. The data they hold is largely the same as Experian (appreciate they will apply different ratings) - with the exception that on Equifax Barclaycard (had two card accounts with them when starting the DMP) have been marking my account as 'AP' highlighted in red for the last 3 years. Now some of this is justified as initially their payment was slightly under the minimum payment on the account, but for the last 2 and a bit years they've been getting the minimum payment on the balance. Are these arrangement to pay flags damaging? I'm wondering if moaning at Barclaycard and pointing out that I have been meeting the contractual payments would encourage them to remove them? Any tips? Thanks, Steve

Hi Andy, It certainly was - update from today is that John Lewis have agreed to cover the full cost of the repair (around £500) or to provide that same amount towards a replacement if I'd prefer. Can't fault that response really. Thanks, Steve

Hi all, Long time since I last posted but I am once again in need of some wisdom! I have an apple macbook computer purchased from a large department store in Bristol in January 2007. At the time the unit was £1014.00 and came with a 2 year warranty (1 year from the manufacturer, extended to two years by the retailer). During the first year of use the screen/display on the laptop completely failed. It was repaired at a invoiced cost of over £400 under the Apple first year warranty. Shortly thereafter the keyboard failed - again was replaced in warranty. In February 2008 the battery failed completely and refused to charge. It was out of Apple's warranty at this point, and the seller had an exclusion on battery replacements in their extended guarantee so I bought a replacement at cost of somewhere around £70. In July 2008 when I went self-employed it became clear I was relying on the laptop entirely for my income, so I bought a identical model again from the same retailer - and put this first laptop into a drawer to be kept as a backup so that my ability to work was less likely to be compromised. Roll forwards to July this year - my main mac failed, and had to go away for repair. I took my spare out of the drawer and restored a backup and it was business as usual. 2 days into using the fallback machine it died completely. Refused to boot, and hung on a grey screen. Desperate times called for an urgent repair so I went to the Apple store here in Bristol and begged one of their techies to take a look, they did and diagnosed a faulty hard disk. Fair enough - these rarely last much beyond 2/3 years I bought a replacement and was back working. 3 days later - the laptop failed again, and would not even power on. Another trip to the apple store and they initially diagnosed again a faulty hard disc. When I explained it was replaced days earlier they kept it in and did some more testing. Turns out it's the logic / mother board... In total the repair estimate for the new mother board and another replacement hard disc drive comes to over £400. At the advise of Trading Standards following reading some of the SoGA online I have sent a letter to the retailer asking for them to put the situation right in terms of repairing / replacing / refunding the laptop. I do genuinely believe that I have just been unlucky and supplied with a dud laptop... I had an email from the store's service desk manager saying she was investigating and would be in touch tomorrow (3rd August) with a suggested 'route forward'. From people's experience of attempting to enforce the sales of goods act - any guesses what they'll offer? Apple themselves suggested the laptop was not economically viable for repair given it's age... I'm concerned from reading other threads that the retailer might try to offer a partial refund that will be significantly below the replacement cost of a similar spec machine... how far can I / should I push for repair / replacement? Sorry for the extra long post - but I hope it was partly useful info at least... Thanks in advance, Steve

Hi Guys, Can anyone recommend from experience a non-status (my personal credit rating is poor at present) Business Current Account? [for a ltd company] Cheers Steve

Yeah will certainly speak to the coop - did do a google search but a lot of the results were companies trying to sell an 'account opening' service. Was just looking for some guidance from people on here as to which banks are better/worse or easier to get accepted by... Cheers, Steve

I've been having some disagreements with First Direct, and the lovely Robert Kernaghan (their Customer Care manager), following their acceptance of a repayment schedule from CCCS... Basically I held a current account with overdraft, a VISA card, a personal loan and a second current account also with a unauthorised overdraft (caused by them paying a standing order to themselves for the personal loan despite me cancelling it). Upon accepting the CCCS repayment they told me they were going to merge the debts into a single account. Despite originally asking for my permission to do so - which I did not respond to - they went ahead anyway. They then sent me a new CCA wanting 5% above the bank of england base rate as an interest rate. I have, so far, refused to sign this. I have written to them on numerous occasions now asking that they suspend charging interest - they have refused all attempts. Basically, the final response from Robert Kernaghan suggested that as I have made a repayment agreement and not missed payments they have no reason to pass the debt to a debt collection company who would be the only people able to negotiate the interest rates. They 'Do not offer' interest free lending. Any suggestions? Can the interest they've charged so far be legal given I've not signed the CCA agreeing to that rate? Ironically since going onto a debt management plan I've been stunned to find that Capital One (I always regarded as ba**ards for the rates and charges) and Barclaycard are the only people not charging any interest. Any suggestions much appreciated, Steve

Hi folks, I'm in the process of setting up a LTD company to handle my contract/freelance work. Can anyone suggest a business bank account that won't reject me based on my personal credit rating? I'm not looking for O/D, Credit Cards or any borrowing. My personal banking is with Co-Op if that is any bearing on anything... Thanks in advance, Steve

bump, anyone?

hi everyone, I've just received a copy of the CCA for my First Direct personal loan - i've scanned a copy and blacked out my personal info, can anybody suggest anything that might make this one unenforceable? fingers crossed Steve Page 1: Page 2:

Hello, Been a few months since I've been on here - but thanks to advice from this group I've had some great help from CCCS and am now on a debt management plan arranged through them which has really helped me get on track. My creditors have all agreed to the payments CCCS proposed which is great, but I'm finding that most are not doing me any favours in terms of interest or charges. To my surprise (given they're normally given bad press) Capital One are the only ones who've suspended interest/charges. First Direct who own the bulk of my debt are wanting to charge interest at 6% above the base rate. Anyone think it's worth arguing with them? They're also charging £30 a month on 3 accounts for non-payment/unauthorised overdraft fees - but obviously I'll get these back... Any help appreciated, Cheers Steve

Hello folks, thank you so much for everything on this forum it's proving an amazing help just reading it - so much so it's inspired me to try and sort out my financial mess. Basically, I've been trapped by credit (again!). I had problems many years ago in 2000 when my business failed and I ended up declaring bankrupt - 3 years later, discharged and repayment free I was in a great financial situation - no credit, living on what I was earning and managing quite well. Unfortunately then HSBC who had given me a basic bank account gradually increased the options available to me and I was stupidly tempted - so roll on overdraft, credit card etc etc. Few years later and I ran up scary credit card bills when First Direct (who I switched to) gave me a £6400 credit limit at exactly the same time my partner fell ill and was off work requiring me to cover her usual expenses. First Direct then offered to convert it to a loan (not a managed loan fortunately) and I suddenly had a £200 loan payment each month. Not too bad, except circumstances and stupidity led to me refilling the credit card and ending up taking out a second loan with Intelligent Finance to cover that. All was ok for a bit despit £400 monthly payments just on loans - then my car started to fall apart and credit cards came to the rescue... Skipping to now my situation is that I'm in the best part of £21k of debt - and I'm struggling to meet my minimum payments as well as have any money to live, get to work etc. Quality of life has long since gone away. After really ignoring the problem for a few months I finally sat down last week and worked out a budget. If I was to meet just the minimum repayments on my credit cards, plus my loan, rent and council tax I'm left with an amount of money that is not possible to live on. Take into account things like car tax, petrol, contact lenses and gym membership and I'm left with less than £100 each month for food etc. After thinking that bankruptcy could be an idea, and after realising I can't magically earn more money I came accross information on IVA's... Can anyone out there tell me what the actual experience/benefits are? Will it affect my credit rating for life (one day I would like to get a mortgage etc)..? I have so far not missed any payments so no defaults etc - but given I've been written to by Barclaycard this week saying they've reduced my limit to exactly what I already owe (over £1200 reduction) because of the info on my credit statement I suspect that even the banks can see I'm living day to day using visa and mastercard because my current account balance gets eaten by payments... Hope this wasn't too much of a rant, and would really appreciate any advice out there... Ste