Hello Martel! One good reason not to sign, is they are not entitled to s69 County Courts Act 1984 Interest in relation to a Regulated Agreement. Here's why, see s3(a) of the following Statutory Instrument: The County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991 [sI 1991/1184] Obviously, you cannot possibly sign anything that might allow them to claim something to which they are not entitled. That would never do! They also have to win first before they get it, but that's yet to be decided. I do hope this helps. Cheers, BRW

Hello SAB! Excellent, many thanks for checking. Get a cheaper lens, and buy more beer to celebrate. I would! Cheers, BRW

Hello Icelander! Welcome to CAG! Sorry to hear this. It sounds like you were seen off, which does happen, I regret. OK, you can make an Appeal Out of Time, it is harder, but not impossible. Knowing Barclays and Mercers as we do here, I suspect they may well have made a mess of the key s87(1) Default Notice. Did they send you one, usually from Mercers? Did you keep it? I'm sure others will jump in too, to try and help you. Whatever happens, best of luck with this. Cheers, BRW

Hello Durkin! I think that's it, in a nutshell. The problem we face is the Lawyers acting for the banks, twist the English language around until what should be clear, becomes ambiguous. Once they make it ambiguous, then it becomes all too easy for biased and pro-bank Judges to leap further off the fence and find, as if by magic, that the ambiguity bends in favour of the banks as opposed to the Consumer that the Law is supposed to protect from the banks. s127(3) wasn't ambiguous. They could not get around it. So, they scrapped it. A dark day for Justice. All too often The Consumer Credit Act 1974 is twisted around until it becomes The Useless Banker Protection Act 2010. We are desperately in need of some balance, and Parliament should get its trotters out of the trough and start doing its job, instead of doing what ever the highest banking pressure group bidder happens to pay them. Cheers, BRW

Hello Folks! I've just had a trawl on Google, and there are some useful Web Sites to explain the issues in more detail: A Campaign Site, good for them: TFX The Campaign Against Trans Fats in Food One aimed at Mothers, but they seem to be aware of the key issues: Netmums - Transfats and Hydrogenated Fats The NHS report 18/01/2010: NHS - Call to Ban Man-Made Fat The Grauniad: The Guardian - Doctors Demand Ban on Man-Made Fat The Guardian - A Ban on Trans Fats is Overdue The Independent: The Independent - Ban Trans Fats and Thousands of Lives will be Saved, UK told The Times: The Times - The Truth about Trans Fat The above was written by Maggie Stanfield (author of Trans Fat: The Time Bomb in Your Food) in The Times as long ago as 2008: The article concludes with a comment from a very forward thinking Danish Cardiologist, who sums things up rather well: Cheers, BRW

Hello Durkin! Welcome to CAG by the way. I'll try to help all that I can, and will spread the word to see if others can be directed here to help and participate. Best of luck with it. Cheers, BRW

Hello 2gr82btrue! I'd put it straight in the bin in that case. This is a deliberately misleading statement, designed to insert Trans Fats into the mix as if they have a place. To me, it reads more like this: That changes the perspective, does it not! Cheers, BRW

Hello Folks! And not before time either... NHS watchdog NICE calls for Trans-Fats Ban in Foods Doctors agree... Medics call for Ban on Trans-Fats in UK Food This rubbish has absolutely no place in our food, and is only there to boost the profits of the Food Industry, irrespective of what it does to your health. TRANS-FATS They are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, turning oily fat into semi-solid fat. The Food Industry uses them to cut costs, because they are very, very cheap. The Food Industry uses them to make life easier for themselves, because they extend Shelf-Life of products significantly, often by a disturbing amount of time. They raise levels of "bad" cholesterol and clog your arteries. Whilst a small reduction in consumption can cut heart disease...better still, why not ban them outright and reap the health rewards this will bring. They have absolutely no nutritional benefit, and no taste worth considering. They are a non-food and they are dangerous. Having read that, compare the above with the rubbish being spouted out by a Food Industry Spokesperson (Julian Hunt of the Food and Drink Federation): No. It isn't. Here's why...because the Spokesperson goes on to say: WTF does Industry reformulation efforts mean? I'll tell you what it means...they are trying to keep as much of this deadly rubbish in as they can, for as long as they can, until someone forces them to drop this killer muck from our food. Until then, they will squirm and wriggle, and thwart all reasonable attempts to make them see the error of their ways. The above is no different than The Debt Industry telling you that Debt is good for you! Read the Small Print I urge everyone to read the small print on labels and, if you see even the slightest hint that Trans-Fats might be present, then do not buy. Find something better and safer. This rubbish is in everything from Margarines (often a small tell-tale quantity buried in the small print), to lower quality Ice Cream, to Biscuits, to Cakes, to Fast Food Burgers and Pizzas, to Wine Gums and all the way to British Chocolate! This rubbish was once never in our food, it was gradually introduced when the Food Industry's bean counters spotted a wonderful way to boost profits, by simultaneously reducing Product Cost and dramatically extending Shelf-Life. In effect, they are getting you to buy something other than what you thought you were buying. The concept is similar to water injection into meat to bulk it up for no good reason, but it's far, far more dangerous. The British Chocolate Myth This was a marketing gimmick to fool you. Selling you a Bar of 100% Trans-Fat was decided to be too obvious, it would look unattractive and would have no taste! So, the Food Industry reluctantly agreed to sacrifice their profits by keeping in some Chocolate to give the plasticated Trans-Fat rubbish enough taste and colour to cover up their strategy. Then their Marketing Departments came up with the idea to re-label this Frankenstein Chocolate as British Chocolate. Their next move was to convince us that the nasty EEC was trying to ban our British Chocolate and replace it with nasty foreign real chocolate. The reality is somewhat different. These people ruined our Chocolate years ago. It's time to get back what you once knew, and demand that they remove the killer rubbish from all your food, not just your Chocolate! The Hidden Killer I really hope this helps people to appreciate what a danger this stuff presents. Inspect everything you buy, and reject anything you even suspect has Trans-Fats present. You really do not need it, it serves no nutritional purpose, it has no taste, it has poor eating quality, and it does absolutely nothing except cause you harm. Many Countries have already imposed an outright ban. But, sadly, we have some catching up to do. Over here, the Food Industry, like the Debt Industry, has a great deal of influence, most of it concentrated on maintaining trouser pocket access to our Self-Serving Politicians. Cheers, BRW

Hello SAB! Thanks, it would be useful for people to know. Cheers, BRW

Hello SAB! Excellent. Did they include the Compound interest too? Cheers, BRW

Hello Wilchil64! No! Never speak to them on the phone, it only encourages them. Nothing they will say is worth hearing, because they cannot be trusted with a Telephone. They seem to think it's a clever and unaccountable lie-enabling device. They call because it's lazy and instant. Their sole aim is to catch the target off-guard so they can get what ever it is they want. It's sadly effective, as reflected by the number of Call Centres and Call Centre Drones they employ to hassle people. The best advice is to keep them all at arms length, and that means communicating with them all via letter. That....S-L-O-W-S....T-H-I-N-G-S....D-O-W-N! It gives you time to think, and that is worth its weight in Gold for the peace of mind that it gives you and your family. You can make the right decisions, and can take days considering them..unlike the Telephone, where these muppets will press you for an instant knee-jerk reaction, one that usually involves your Debit Card. From now on, start playing it as a game, and get to enjoy their increasingly desperate tactics and hollow threats. A nice long audit trail of letters counts for a great deal should anything ever make it as far as Court. Whereas any number of telephone calls will not help you one bit, and anything useful will be denied by the enemy. Cheers, BRW

Hello Wilchil64! Get an Account that allows you on-line Access. Then you can log-in at any time, and see where the bank thinks you are. Likewise, you can pay Bills via BACS, when you are ready to pay. Most BACS Transfers these days only take 2 hours, so it's getting pretty good, at long last. Forget Cheques, because they take forever, and you tend to lose track of the damned things. All banks are not to be trusted, but the lesser of many evils seems to be the Co-Op, or perhaps one of the Building Societies. The key is on-line Access, and a bank that is not part of the same banking group as the one you use now. Once you are on-line, you can transfer over what you need into your old bank Account, until such time as you can either dump it, or reduce the Overdraft to zero as you manage your funds and budgets. Keep the old bank AC if you can, just as a fallback, a reverse Parachute Account if you like (one to have for later). There's no reason not to, provided it doesn't cost you. Do not let anyone have a Direct Debit on the new bank Account, keep that free of parasites. Use BACS or Standing Orders, never Direct Debit. The one exception may have to be the Mortgage, but you could always leave that where it is, and BACS over the funds a day or two ahead of the payment going out. The key is to regain full control over your money and funds, and that won't happen while elements of the Debt Industry are dipping into your bank Account when ever they feel like it. The software suggestions are just to help and, as I say, you may be surprised how little you need to pay if you can find a copy on eBay or perhaps Amazon etc. Cheers, BRW

Hello Wilchil64! One package that is quite good, is Microsoft Money, it's not megabucks, and you may be able to pick up a copy on eBay for less than the retail/shop Price. Indeed, v2004 is fine, you do not even need the latest. I used to use Intuit Quicken, until they discontinued that, so I reluctantly migrated the Home Accounts to MS Money, and found it to be just as good. Most work like a glorified bank Statement. You can start from anytime you wish. Best is probably from the most up to date bank Statement. Enter everything on that, a line at a time, using the same dates and figures. Set-up Categories as you go, which the Software will help you with. Say, ASDA would be a Payee, and you'd enter that as, say, Groceries for Category. Enter the Date and Amount, and that's one in. Say, Shell would be another Payee, and you'd enter that as, say, Car Fuel for Category. Enter the Date and Amount, and that's one in. It may then look like this: Set-up another Account for Cash. You'll soon get the hang of it. Then a quick look at the overview will tell you were you stand: When the bank Statement arrives, you then need to reconcile it, which is dead easy, you just go to bank Account XYZ and click Balance this Account. Up pops a Screen showing all Income and Payments that it knows about: But when you look at the Bank Statement, it may have this: So there's an extra one you missed. You then nip back to the bank Account XYZ Screen, and enter that as: Then you can tick all three off so that you know they are Reconciled and accurate and agree with what both you and the bank knows about, after which your Account Overview then changes to: Thus, if Husband gets Paid on Monday, you can enter that, and set it up as an Automated Entry if it is regular. i.e. But if you looked at your Account overview Today (20/06/2010) this is what you would see: That's because your Husband's Pay won't arrive until Tomorrow, so the most you can take out from the Cash Point Today, would be £25, that being the cleared funds available right now. Tomorrow that would be different once the Pay lands into the Account. Same with Bills, so if you have a Bill of £100 on Tuesday, you'll know that it would not be wise to take out all of Husbands Pay Tomorrow, or else your Account will be short on Tuesday and you'll be heading into Overdraft territory and/or bank charges. It's all very easy to use, and as you get stuck in, you will get a better and better overview. Future Bills can be entered and also Automated and, like the Pay, you can see where you are Today, and where you will be when the Bill lands on the Account. Once you get on top of it, there will not be any nasty surprises when the bank Statements arrive. You will smile when bank Statements arrive, because you will be working ahead of the bank. Likewise, you will know that when the ATM Machine says you have a lot of money, you will know that 80% of it is already spoken for because of Bills you know are coming up that week/month. You'll be ahead of the numbers, instead of constantly stressed and wondering what is going wrong, living in fear of the next bank Statement. I also use a Spreadsheet too, to keep track of Bills and Cash Flow in more detail, so that I always have an up to date and detailed snap shot of where I am now, and where I will be later in the Month. I have a few more things to keep track of with our Business, but the principle is the same. The trick is to work hard keeping it all updated. If you let it slip, then it's no use. But, if you stay on top of it, you'll soon start to see how to manage your Income and Bills and, as you get better and better at that, you will be appalled at how much was disappearing before, for little real benefit. The struggle after hacking that is to get rid of the Debts. Then, one day, you will only have the Mortgage, and you can then add a new Account for Savings, and watch that grow and grow. Then you'll want to make the Savings grow faster, and you will be off and running, and free of the Debt Industry for good. One day, you may even dump the Mortgage too! Cheers, BRW

Hello Wilchil64! The fact that you are making a start to try and sort this, is brilliant, and no matter which way it all goes, you will be ten times better off than if you are rudderless. An outright battle is not necessarily the way to go, there are many other options, ranging from offering some of them a reduced payment, to investigating what you can get rid of that can help to clear some of them away. Check everything else, and make sure you also dump any other non-essentials, such as Magazine Subscriptions, Sky TV (just use the Free channels and rent the odd DVD), Insurances you do not need etc. Anything that is a drain on your Income, get rid of it (keep the husband however, somebody has to speak up for us)! Cheers, BRW

Hello Wilchil64! Firstly, I cannot stress too much that you must not throw away the main asset to feed these creatures. The depths of a recession is not the best time to sell your Home, because you will be throwing away wealth. The value of your Mortgage, relative to the value of your Home, will be at a high point right now. So, if you sell now, then once costs are taken out, and the fact that the price you get will almost certainly be lower than you expect, you'll be left with very little to show for all the payments you have made to fill the Mortgage Company's coffers. The Debt Industry wins, they lent you Number Money that you borrowed into existence, you paid them back bags of Real Money you had to earn first and, if you sell, they get a fat balance in the form of more Real Money from the early and otherwise unscheduled liquidation of your Home. By comparison, fight to keep the Home, and if you manage to do so for a reasonable period, i.e. long enough to see things recover and the value creep up, then not only will the Mortgage Balance be less, but the value of your Home relative to that Balance will be much healthier. If you sell then, you should walk away with a lot more money...because the real value of the Mortgage will have effectively reduced. If nothing else, fighting back might allow you to sell the Home when it suits you, i.e. when you have prepared it for sale, and when you have planned what to do next in more detail. Right now does not sound like the right time for you and the family, and it's almost certainly not the right time given the shape of the economy. Having said that, if you have a place that has a strong market potential, i.e. it's in demand, then selling at the bottom of a Recession does have some advantages, provided you are Captain of your own Destiny! By that, I mean you can put the Capital into good use, and take advantage of other issues. Such as renting, and parking the money safe where the vultures cannot get at it, and/or using the money to make more money. Quite right. The best advice I can give to anyone, is not to borrow. Stay outside of the clutches of the Debt Industry, and life does go on, and things are, amazingly, quite pleasant. Instead of shopping on a Credit Card, and then spending months to pay off the price of that steak you bought last year, you can instead buy your steak with cash and/or a Debit Card, and pay for it, and eat it, all on the same day, with no Interest to pay. With the savings on Interest, you can afford to pay for another steak, in full, a few months down the line. Once you get the hang of it, you'll start to love Cash, and will start to enjoy managing it, so that none of it ends up in the hands of grasping bankers. Unfortunately, this is what happens. If you live by their rules, then the Debt Industry will get you in the end. Shopping on a Credit Card, or buying your Sofa on HP, or your TV on Interest Free Credit (hint, it's not Free, the Credit is built into the Price), then all that happens is your initial enjoyment is followed by Months of slow pain, as they suck you dry for the momentary pleasure. But if you can nail this now, and stop living by their rules, it can and will get better. When you go to buy that TV, ask them how much for Cash, and you will be amazed at the discounts on offer. You'll be even more amazed at being able to watch your own TV, as opposed to one owned by the Finance Company who provided the Interest Free Credit for 3 Years! This is the same as many people, and a comment made by many when they first pitch up here with similar issues. It's no accident. The system is rotten, not the people. It depends on Debt, and depends on people getting into Debt. Daft as this may seem, there is not enough money around to pay for all the Debt. There is only enough to lend the Debt, the Interest on the Debt does not exist. But it has to come from somewhere. So, they need more and more Debt to borrow itself into existence for the whole rotten system to work, otherwise it all comes to a grinding halt. Er...like now! The second the supply of Debt is constrained, the people end up in the poop, because the Interest still has to be paid. But if there is insufficient new Debt borrowing itself into existence, then what happens, what gives? I'll tell you what gives, people lose their Homes, and Businesses go out of Business, as the Debt Industry sinks its claws into Real Assets. This is why the percentage of Real Assets owned by banks and similar Financial Groups has been steadily rising, and that percentage goes up every time there is a Recession. Indeed, it's almost as if the banks want a Recession every now and again! Don't feel bad, you are not being at all unreasonable. The secret is to realise what has been going on, and what forces have pushed you into this situation. They will tell you that you have brought this upon yourself, and that it was your own poor money management that is to blame. Please take a step back and ask yourself if that was really the case at all? What have you really got to show for all the money that you have paid in Mortgage Interest, HP Interest, Credit Card Interest, Interest Free Interest! I suspect you may be starting to get annoyed. Good. You need to be annoyed, before you can start to take charge of events, and start to fight back and put your family back on track. It won't be easy, because the Debt Industry has control over almost every aspect of our lives, from the way you have to use a bank just to get access to your Pay, to the way everything revolves around banks and the groups that force feed you Debt at any, and every, opportunity. Because they are in control, fighting back is hard work. However, you have found CAG, so the turnaround has started, if you let it. Where do you start? Well, getting organised is the first crucial stage you must strive towards, because you will not stand a chance unless you can clear the decks and get the whole sorry mess lined up, and organised into clearly demarcated areas. A good starting point would be to buy some A4 Lever Arch Folders (£11 for 10 on eBay for example, plus Carriage), buy an A4 Hole-Punch, and start gathering the papers (and the Envelopes, keep all Envelopes!). You are on here, so you must have a PC? So, start using that to get the key issues organised. I find a Spreadsheet is damned handy, use it like a big Calendar, and use coloured boxes and text, to line things up so that you can see the numbers, and can see the time line. When were Agreements made, when are payments due, what is the balance etc. If you can afford it, buy a Home Accounting Package, and start working to a budget. Set up a Cash Flow Spreadsheet to see what Bills you have coming up, and when you need money to pay for them, then tick off the ones you have paid as you work through each month. Keep a firm handle on the true Balances of your bank Account and Petty Cash. Then you can start to fight back, and start to draft letters to each of your Creditors to see where you stand with them. I won't go into detail here, because it's all on CAG, or can be covered in detail in this Thread. But it mainly boils down to sending each a CCA Request, and each a SAR to ensure you get all of the key details. But, as I said right at the start, the Mortgage is key, the rest are far, far less important, although they are the ones that will make you worried and will make you lose sleep. So, they are the ones you must take charge of straight away. You can only pay what you can pay, so you must stop trying to pay what you cannot pay. Moving Balances around from Card to Card, is a sure sign that you are maintaining a payment regime that you cannot afford. Something was bound to fall apart, so there's no point trying to flog a dead horse. Of course these people will say they will come for your Home, but it's not as easy as that, and provided you tackle this sensibly and methodically, you have every chance of planning a way out of this dark hole that you think you are in. It won't be fun, and it won't be easy, but I know that once you start, you will feel a whole lot better. The key is to start, after you make that decision, things should start to improve from there. At the very least, you will be Captain of your own Destiny, and not just another victim of this Recession. I do hope this helps. Cheers, BRW

Hello Bookie! They obviously meant 1st April. The year not being important! It's obviously a blurdy big joke at the Consumers' expense, as usual. Cheers, BRW

Hello The Mould! On this issue, I regret, I must disagree with you. No offence intended. Never, ever, turn unsecured Debt into Secured Debt. All this will do is move the Debt from someone who cannot take the Home, over to someone who can, and probably will if they get the slightest chance. I would say make the existing Mortgage the top priority, pay that regardless, and fight absolutely everything else. Surviving this bank induced recession is the key. One way is to crash stop all other payments, and let them have £1 a Month for now, or nothing at all unless they appear to have a binding Agreement. Start building cash, and accept the Card, HP and Loan bankers will make a lot of noise, and will go through the usual steps of Harassment via Phone, Letter and Debt Collection Monkey. Just appreciate what that is for what it is, i.e. those with the least power will make the most noise. Make sure Food, Fuel, Services, Mortgage and Council Tax are covered. What is left should be accumulated and protected. Keep saving, and keep looking for ways to reduce outgoings. If any of the Unsecured Creditors get very hostile, then investigate a Full & Final Offer to get rid of them. That may by then be possible if some Cash has been accumulated by then. Indeed, that may be the overall strategy. Pay them off, one by one, as they get more hostile. The overall aim being to dump all Debt until you are left with just the Mortgage, and then see what you can do to get rid of that too. This won't be easy, and it will mean a bumpy ride for the next 6 years or so, but the aim is to get to year 6-10 with almost no Debt except for a dwindling Mortgage. Once you reach that stage, and look back, you will know it was good advice. Cheers, BRW

Hello Fossilfinder! I regret the images are a little too small to read. If you can perhaps upload some enlargements, I'm sure many would be happy to take a good look at them for you. Cheers, BRW

Hello Nicola85! I would have another go at the EX160, i.e. to obtain Court Fee Exemption. Forget the Form for one moment, and look at the problem objectively. If you are on a low income, then what other evidence do you have that would substantiate that? For example, put together an A4 Folder that might contain the following: 3+ Months of bank statements to show your Cash Flow, and make sure you include every bank account you have, including deposit accounts or savings of any kind. A copy of your last Tax Return. That may show what you declared, and that may help to show what your true income is. Any employment related paperwork, that you can link to the bank statements to show where this appeared. Perhaps prepare a Spreadsheet to summarise the above, to try and present the Court Manager with a clear overview that backs up the Income figures you insert into the EX160. If you don't have a Spreadsheet, then at least draft something by hand that is nice and clear, something that shows some big numbers to summarise the other material. Then go back to the Court and try again, and ask for this material to be reviewed. I think if you are polite and approach this on the basis that the Court staff just need some help to see your true financial position, then I think they may well accept your EX160 and grant you a fee exemption for your Application. If you can organise this on a Computer, then do so carefully, such that you can re-do it all again if needed. I say that because you need to submit a fresh EX160 every time you need to be granted Court Fee Exemption. Sadly, the EX160 is not a blanket exemption for the whole issue, it's just a one-off per fee that you wish to be exempted from. Thus, be prepared to file a rolling set of bank statements etc, so that at any time, you can re-create an updated File with the most up to date "last 3 Months of statements" etc. Think of it like a conveyor belt, and the older statements drop off the end as new ones are added to the front. The Court will only want to see the most recent 3 Months. I hope this helps. Cheers, BRW

Hello Postggj! Thanks, I thought you meant the Orange ones, that clears that up. It's the Orange ones we need to crack, but as far as I can now tell, there is no date in them. The upper Track Code contains a day of the month, location of machine that printed the Barcode, a time stamp, and so on. That gets encrypted and creates the upper Barcode. IOW, it cannot be read by eye and there is no Character Mapping published. The lower Route Code contains the Postcode and delivery point details and that is also encrypted, so that cannot be read by eye either. The secret to cracking them will be to establish the encryption, and then gradually work out which elements of the cracked code say what. i.e. the upper one may start off as: Machine = 154 Time = 07:46 Day of Month = 17 Serial of item = 12566578954 So could end up as: 15407461712566578954 That then gets encrypted into, say: 2154161765151586 That then gets turned into a Postal Barcode, which needs, say, four Bars per character, so needs 64 lines. So, firstly we have to work out the algorithm that turns this: 2154161765151586 Into this: 15407461712566578954 Then we have to work out which bit is what, i.e. 154-0746-17-12566578954 The main bits of interest would be the 154, the time of 07:46 and the 17 for the 17th day of the Month. The Lower Barcode is also of interest, because that proves where the Envelope was sent, so proves it was sent to the same Address as the DN was sent to. Whilst it is not a Date in full, if the DN was dated, say, the 16th and the Barcode confirms the Envelope was Barcoded by Royal Mail on the 17th at 0746 in the morning, and the lower Barcode confirms the Postcode...and the Envelope was 2nd Class or UKMail etc, then on any Balance of Probabilities, any sane Judge will agree the DN was posted in that 2nd Class Envelope, and sent to your Address etc. I hope this makes some sense. Cheers, BRW

Hello Postggj! Sorry, could you explain that? Thanks. Cheers, BRW

Hello Jeezman! OK, my advice is to sit back, do nothing, and wait until the 14th June 2010. Then wait until they demand the full payment. So as not to alert them, I will PM you a Thread to read, that we can disclose here when the time comes. Cheers, BRW

Hello Goodie000! Just a CAG Link that may help: http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/51-guidance-notes/620-applying-for-a-set-aside Cheers, BRW

Hello Alan! Is it worth trying again now, i.e. now that the evasive Jack Straw is out of the picture? Cheers, BRW

Hello Alan! But what an awful letter that was. Two pages of ducking the issue. Reminded me of an episode of "Yes, Minister!" Cheers, BRW