I changed jobs a couple of months ago and as a consequence could'nt afford to pay some bills, one of which was my Swinton car insurance. I only missed one month and they cancelled it. They then sent me a letter saying I have to pay £246 which is the amount left from my monthly payments on it. Unfortunatly as I did'nt have any money to pay this I had to leave it a week or two. Then out of the blue I recieved the following letter... Dated 29th Sept '11 Further to our recent communication regarding the above we write to acknowledge reciept of your payment. We can confirm that the debt has been settled and that no further action will be taken in this matter. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned. Now like I say I could'nt afford to pay this off so was completly confused, I checked my bank and nothing had come out. I even called up my parent in case they had caught wind of the debt and paid it for me. But nope, they had'nt. Then on the 10th Oct '11 I got a phone call from my angry mum who said that Swinton had taken £246 from her acccount on the 4th Oct '11 The only way that we can think of that they had stored her card details from when she paid the deposit for me (I have been paying all the monthly payments from my account and address). She called them up and after half and hour managed to get an assurance from the manager of the Portsmouth branch that he would see that the monies are returned to her account. As of this morning she still has'nt recieved the money, she has called Swinton again today and they say the money has left their account. Yesterday I receieved a Final Notice letter from Swinton dated 18th Oct '11, stating that the £246 is still outstanding and if its not paid a debt collector will be collecting the debt. Please can anyone advise what to do?

I changed jobs a couple of months ago and as a consequence could'nt afford to pay some bills, one of which was my Swinton car insurance. I only missed one month and they cancelled it. They then sent me a letter saying I have to pay £246 which is the amount left from my monthly payments on it. Unfortunatly as I did'nt have any money to pay this I had to leave it a week or two. Then out of the blue I recieved the following letter... Dated 29th Sept '11 Further to our recent communication regarding the above we write to acknowledge reciept of your payment. We can confirm that the debt has been settled and that no further action will be taken in this matter. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned. Now like I say I could'nt afford to pay this off so was completly confused, I checked my bank and nothing had come out. I even called up my parent in case they had caught wind of the debt and paid it for me. But nope, they had'nt. Then on the 10th Oct '11 I got a phone call from my angry mum who said that Swinton had taken £246 from her acccount on the 4th Oct '11 The only way that we can think of that they had stored her card details from when she paid the deposit for me (I have been paying all the monthly payments from my account and address). She called them up and after half and hour managed to get an assurance from the manager of the Portsmouth branch that he would see that the monies are returned to her account. As of this morning she still has'nt recieved the money, she has called Swinton again today and they say the money has left their account. Yesterday I receieved a Final Notice letter from Swinton dated 18th Oct '11, stating that the £246 is still outstanding and if its not paid a debt collector will be collecting the debt. Please can anyone advise what to do?

I am really confused. All the other CCA requests/signed credit agreements have been for the DCA?

I am looking for advise in regards to a CCA that I recently sent to Regal Credit (acting on behalf of Adrian Flux). I have recieved back a signed credit agreement, within the prescriped time BUT its a signed credit agreement for Adrian Flux? Does this mean that they have fulfilled what I asked for or is there something else I need to do to resolve this?

Thanx for the reply people Is much appreciated. Hopefully can finally put this one to rest

Just a thought.... does it matter that the envelope that they have sent the most recent letter in has no stamps, its a TNT one that has a S in the corner and says postage paid? Do letters from DCA's not have to be first class or something?

Wow, thank you for the quick reply! I will send that out today. Just one question though, does this go to Meritforce or 1st Credit?

I have been having lots of comings and goings with meritforce/1st credit so thought I would share whats been going on and look for some advise as to what to do. I have a old old debt that was with 1st Credit, that when over to meritforce back in 2006. In Decemeber last year I sent a CCA to Meritforce, they had until 24th Feb this year to comply. I never heard anything back from them. The about 2 months ago I started getting calls from 1st Credit. Like non stop harrasment calls. I sent them a telephone harrasment letter. The calls have stopped over the last week. Then this morning I have received a letter from Meritforce which is a Reduced Settlement Letter. The amount principle sum they have on there is less than 10% of what was on the last letter i received from them in Dec 06?! Basically I still can't afford to make the Reduced Settlement payment right now or by the 15th Sept like it says on the letter. My questions are.... Are they in breach of the CCA that I sent back in the beggining of the year? If so is it 1st Credit in breach or Meritforce? What should I do now? :-?

I sent the letters to them today..... although they do seem to have quietened down a bit recently

Thank you you guys for all the great suggestions. I am gonna go and put a new notepad down by the phone for the times and dates to be written down on. And next time they call am defiantly gonna tell them that I am recording the call, can't wait to see what their reaction is gonna be!

Thanx for the quick replies! I have already sent them a harassment by telephone letter (sent at same time as CCA). But I didn't send it to the Trading Standards and that though :-| I have just found anther letter on here from someone else's thread that I will send them in the next few days. This is it.... - HARASSMENT WARNING - WARNING; PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT ACT 1997; WARNING; COMMUNICATIONS ACT 2003. s127. Telephone Number:00000000000 Re: Harassment by telephone Dear Sir/Madam. I am writing in relation to telephone calls that I have received from your organisation, which I deem to be personally harassing. I have verbally requested that these calls stop, but I am still receiving call. I now require the telephone number listed above to be completely removed from your systems. I am in the view that your continued telephone calls put you in breach of the Protection of Harassment Act 1997. This is a private telephone line, operated on a contract with the intention of receiving and making personal phone calls, I have not authorised any other member of my family to receive calls from your organisation using this PRIVATE TELEPHONE LINE. By using this telephone number without my permission you are interfering with my ability to use my own private property for the duration of any call. It is my right to require that this telephone line, which is licenced solely to myself, is kept clear for my own personal calls. It is consequently my view that you are committing the sort of interference with contract insofar as for the duration of each call you make to me without my permission, you are interfering with my contractual right to receive and make personal calls on my private telephone line. Continued interference with my contractual rights in this manner may result in legal action. If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to the Office of Communications, Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you may be liable for a substantial fine. Be advised that all telephone calls from your company will be recorded. Yours faithfully, Just seems to be alot more forcful than the one that I sent to them

I am currently being harassed by the debt collection agency 1st Credit. I have advised them both verbally and through letter that I will only communicate with them through letters. I have also sent them a CCA, which I have proof saved on my computer that they have received. This was sent to them on the 7th Aug and they signed for it on 8th Aug. They have been very rude to my parents on the phone, and it has got to the point now where they are calling every other day. every time they call I say that I will only communicate with them through letters, they say they have sent me letters (I have no letters from them), then I hang up the phone. I just don't know what action to take next with this one. Today when I spoke to someone called Michelle(?) I said the usual.... ' I will only communicate with you through letters', she said 'we are only a telephone based company'...... Help please! :-|

Hello, sorry for the slow reply... Here is an update on the situation. All of the bills are in Miss M's name including the council tax. Also Miss D thinks they have a seperate tenancy agreement. Since I made the original post Miss D has been in contact with Miss M's mother and she advised everything has been pais now up to date. Miss D sighed a breath of relief. Then 3 days later the gas and electric company attempted to enter the flat whilst she was at work to place a pay as you go meter into the place. The weren't successful in gaining entry to the flat but the did break the lock on the downstairs main front door. They have placed a pay as you go meter downstairs in the main lobby. As it turns out, the gas and electric bill haven't been paid nor have they even been paid ever since Miss M started living in the flat! Miss D was given a number for legal advise by the local citizens advise bureau and the guy she spoke to advised her in her situation its best to make a run for it! Now what kind of advice is that?!

Please can someone help and give me some advice on this situation? The basic overview is.... My friend Miss M was living in flat with her boyfriend, they moved in August 2007. In January they parted ways and he moved out. As Miss M had a spare room and would need help paying bills etc my other friend Miss D moved in to share the flat with Miss M. Miss D moved into the flat in February and as far as I am aware they have a joint agreement. There was some confusion when she first moved in as to what bills needed how much money paid towards them, the final desision was that Miss M would ask her ex boyfriend to pay for the gas and electric for the time up until he left then Miss D would take over the share as from when she moved in. Miss M still continued through to April to ask Miss D for the extra money for the electric bill but Miss D stood her ground as she had already paid for her share. Back in November 2007 Miss M came into some money and so paid the whole years council tax (led to believe this was for Nov to Nov). Now here come the good bit....... Miss M house sat her mothers house for one week back at the end of April, 2 weeks later she was going on holiday for 2 weeks with her father. Miss M never went back to the flat at all during those 3 weeks running up to the holiday. Miss D trying to contact Miss M all this time as she wanted to know if everything was ok, but no replys came to the texts and calls. Miss M has been back from holiday for 3 weeks and up until Monday this week has had no contact with anyone. Miss D has been in constant contact with their landlord as it emmerged that Miss M owes 4 months rent arrears. Monday this week she left a voicemail on Miss D's mobile phone stating that her mother will be paying for her rent arrears, the council tax has been paid from April until present and she going to be going back to the flat on Tues to start moving her things out. Miss D rang the landlord who advised that he has receieved a letter from the council stating that Miss M is no longer living at the address. This morning Miss D has been doing some tidying up at the flat and has come across a letter from the council demanding the council tax to be paid , also a letter underneath from a debt collection agency in regards to the unpaid electric bill. Both of these letters were underneath a newpaper. Miss D has never seen these before and they are both dated within the last week. Miss M has been back to the flat and collected a few of her clothes and one chair. By the way it looks she also had those letters waiting downstairs when she arrived on Tues and opened them then left them underneath a newpaper for Miss D to find. Miss M has'nt since been back to the flat or contacted Miss D or the landlord. As you can imagine Miss D is very upset by all of this and is very scared that she is going to get any number of debt collection agencies knocking on her door and be evicted from the flat. Please can you give me some help and advise to pass on to her? Thank you in advance

Hiya, Just wanted to say good luck with sorting this out with the 1st Credit numpty's. I've been getting phone calls from them for over 2 weeks now. I have refused to speak to them on the phone but they keep on being really rude to my mum when she answers the phone and I'm not in. So much so that yesterday she told them to stop talking to her like a child! LoL! Go mum! They have even called up and the first thing they have said to her is 'can I take the reference number?!' She said, 'who are you?', they replied 1st Credit then started shouting at her about how they MUST speak to me urgently! IDIOTS! Am just typing up the harrasment by phone letter to send and am also going to be sending the CCA letter to them to because as yet I don't even know what debt they are chasing! GOOD LUCK!!!