In my experience of this bunch and their legal sidekicks, they: - use the slowest possible postal methods, (possibly) backdate their letters so that they pressurise you into reacting to a 'deadline', constantly lie about what they can do, not know what the true balance is, send you letters offering discounts if you'll only let them access your bank account to obtain payment claim you have missed payments claim you have agreed to higher payments than arranged pester you by phone keep repeating all of the above OMWO

I had the feeling that once the CCJ was issued it voided the CCA, but I'm not sure if that is only applicable to the named defendant.

Now with fleecer, hence not too much detail!

Could anyone clarify my thinking on this please? I have an old CCJ for a joint loan. I'm the only person on the CCJ as the claim was only raised against me. As I understand it, a CCJ trumps a CCA, so the original agreement is now void. Can the creditor come back at any time in the future with a new claim against the other party on the original CCA? I don't want to put up too much information regarding the debt as I don't want to give the creditor any ideas!

I wouldn't take them at their word that they won't do anything if you are in a DMP - they still got a CCJ on me in the same situation. They can say what they want over the phone - get it in writing for your peace of mind. Never trust this lot and watch out for a large (unwarranted) collection fee if they do raise a court claim. OMWO

The thing with the 5:2 diet is there are no pills or other gimmicks to buy (except less food a couple of days a week) and exercise isn't an essential (although obviously it helps too). I've lost 26 pounds in six months and by increasing my intake from 600 to around 800 calories on the fasting days I've maintained the new weight without losing more for the last six months - I can't afford to keep buying new clothes as I've already come down from 36 to 34 and now 32" waist. I have never dieted before and found the 5:2 easy to do as there was no major lifestyle change and no real sacrifices as you can still have the stuff you like on non-fasting days. My BMI is down from almost 25 to 21. My wife has lost 28 pounds over the same 12 months and her BMI has dropped from over 30 to just over 25. For exercise I do 100-120 press-ups daily plus run up and down 120 steps three to five times a week, so nothing outrageous. OMWO.

Thanks DX. They don't show up on the Consumer Credit Register. I can't imagine that the lender would provide the information, the broker is long gone out of business and the loan is not in arrears or with a DCA. Even if they were registered, isn't this a misuse of my personal information? OMWO

I'd be very surprised if he gets 7p per minute income. I have a customer in the phone number business and the rates paid out to the end user of 10ppm 0871 numbers are about half that, so he's probably getting around 3-4p per minute for his time. OMWO

I've been cold-called by a claims company (even though I'm on TPS - but that is going to the ICO as a complaint, it's at least the second time by the same company). I let the caller tell his story and wasted his time so that I could gather more information about the company making the call. He sent me a whole load of forms with the company details and his initials on in the post too. What worried me is the amount of detail he had - the loan company, the broker, the amount and date of the loan, the amount of PPI, the reason for the loan, plus of course, my contact details. The only thing he didn't have was the fact that I'd reclaimed the PPI years ago all by myself! Where do they get this level of detail from, and what rights do I have over this information anyway? Has there been a DPA breach by the loan company, the broker or the CRAs? OMWO

As far as diets go, it can't be simpler. On fasting days (two days a week, I use Monday and Thursday) you reduce your calorie intake to around 25% of the recommended amount (so down to 500 calories for a female, 600 for a male). The rest of the week just eat normally. Keep a check on your weight to see the difference. Don't give up on it, but once you reach your target weight you can increase the calorie intake a bit on fasting days or only fast on one day a week to maintain the weight without losing more. The great thing about it is that you don't have to buy in special foods, or miss out on bacon/cake/whatever because you can eat them on the normal days. I found that even on normal days I didn't eat quite as much because you start to feel fuller sooner. All you need are some body scales and some kitchen scales. Look at the calories on the packs/tins/bottles and work out how much you can have on fasting days. I have a smaller bowl of cereal with skimmed milk, a bit of smoothie and a sugar free drink for breakfast, no lunch and something like soup and Nimble bread or poached eggs on toast, salads, steamed fish with peas or something light like that for tea. In-between I have tea/coffee with no sugar and skimmed milk, no-added sugar squashes, hot Bovril, diet canned drinks, etc. Go for it - it does work and doesn't really cost anything to do! OMWO - all 11st of me!

My wife and I have been doing this since October last year and we're both down around 2 stone each. We find it works really well as you lose the weight gradually and (mostly) consistently, rather than these crash diets where it all piles back on after a few weeks. My waist size is down by 4 inches and my body fat has dropped from 26% to 16% in this time and my BMI is now 22. Once you get over the first week or so it's really easy as you only have to watch your intake on two days a week. For me it was around 250 calories for breakfast, no lunch and 250-350 calories for tea. In between I drink tea (with skimmed milk, no sugar), no-added sugar squashes, Bovril or coffee. I've now got down to my target weight of 11 stone and have a bigger breakfast on fasting days but keep the rest the same to maintain the weight but also keep the low calorie benefits. I probably have about 800 calories on fasting days now. OMWO

Thanks UB. I had to inform the bank to freeze the account after the death, and obviously let them know we were next of kin. Awaiting the Probate Office to do their thing at the moment. I was wondering if they would credit check/internally check us to see if we were flagged up for anything.

Due to a recent death in the family, my wife and I will inherit the contents of the deceased's bank accounts once all the paperwork is sorted. The accounts are with a bank that I owe money to a subsidiary of (amongst several other debts), but we bank elsewhere for obvious reasons. Coincidentally(?) we've been contacted by the DCA associated with the bank asking us to call them, which we won't, and have asked them to write, which they haven't. Can the bank withhold the sum due to them from the payment they make to us, bearing in mind that there would be enough to cover the full balance owed? I need to apportion the funds to the other debts, not let them take all of their debt in its entirety. There's probably penalty charges on their debt as well which will need to be deducted from any balance they say I owe. The deceased's account was in their sole name so only when the transfer of funds is made to one of our accounts (mine or my wife's) will the funds be technically ours. OMWO

I'd like to see something else added to that petition - that a debt purchaser cannot inherit any CCJ or charging order obtained by the OC. OMWO

I had a CCJ on a 6K CC debt which they wanted to put a CO on. I offered around 60% to settle which was turned down almost without consideration (I don't believe the solicitors even passed the offer to their client) and within a month the debt with CO attached was sold on - almost certainly for less than 60%, probably less than 10%. On top of that, the new owner wants 8% interest on the CO. And we thought payday loans were a racket! OMWO

If the bank can afford to sell the debt on at 4%, why not allow the debtor to pay off 10% and write off the rest in the same way? Of course, with the banks having 'interest' in the debt buying companies they aren't losing out as much as they like you and the taxman to think, are they? OMWO

I've got another older CCA CCJ that has been paid as per the order since it was applied (in fact I'm paying a higher amount due to pressure from the creditor) five or six years ago. Will they be able to get a charging order after October or do the changes only affect new CCJs after the implementation date?

That's exactly the bit I used to argue against the interest (as you advised me at the time) and he basically ignored my argument.

The judge told me when I argued this that 8% was a better deal than the contractual rate!

But they still securing the amount of the unsecured loan that is outstanding, so the effect is more or less the same. Add to this the addition of statutory interest (that doesn't apply to a CCA judgement debt where there's no charging order) and it makes it about as unfair as it can be for a debtor with property as against one without.

There's a number of ways that allowing charging orders on unsecured loans seem to break natural justice: - 1. Unsecured loans and cards are sold and priced as unsecured with higher interest rates to cover the risk of default 2. Creditors seem to be able to add interest at 8% on the charging order even though it is a judgement on a CCA debt 3. A debtor without property cannot be charged this extra interest because they can't get a charging order 4. Many of these judgements debts are in favour of secondary market creditors, not the original lender - why should they be able to secure a debt that they only paid 4-10% for and add interest? Will these changes be retrospective - i.e. a judgement already in place with instalments up to date - will the creditor be able to request a charging order once this comes into force? OMWO

Try listening to Carole King this year...

Sorry, Slick - I missed that. As far as I'm aware there's no PPI, but I'll do an SAR to get the statements and other documentation to see if anything has been added and to confirm the closing balance too. OMWO

Thanks guys - sounds like what I was expecting is about right then! It's my first dealings with them so far... Just have to wait for their first contact before I do anything at all. OMWO

I've recently learned that my old card debt has been sold on to Cabot in a BC headed letter in an envelope marked with a Leicester address (not Northampton where BC are based) - what should I expect to happen next? I've been in a payment arrangement for some time and was recently offered around a 50% discount by BC before they then notified me it was sold. I assume this means there's no valid agreement, but it looks like Cabot don't care about that from some of the threads on here. A CCA to Cabot and a SAR to BC looks to be the order of the day to find out what they do have and exactly how the balance is made up. Any other hints about what to expect, as I've never dealt with Cabot before? OMWO