My mum and I went to upgrade our existing mobile phone contracts in the o2 store last Monday and were told we had 100 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mb of data included in our contract. Today I realised that I am being charged for internet usage so I rang o2 customer services and told them who said that according to their records I do not get any free data, but advised me to go into the shop and tell them. I spoke to the assistant that upgraded my phone, and after phoning me back he told me that he made a mistake and that infact we don't get any free data only minutes and texts, and that I'd have to increase my tariff if I wanted free data. I have my copy of the printed contract which I signed onto which he had written '100 mins, unlimited texts and 500mb data' surely I have some rights don't I? I'm reluctant to take the phone back because I've told people my new number and transferred contacts etc. I asked if he could just add the data thing on as a gesture of good will and he said no, but surely they must be able to do something? What can I do, where do I stand legally?

Thanks for replying! I phoned Natwest again last night and explained that it really is all I can afford and they said they couldnt accept an offer as low as that. They said to wait until I was contacted by Debt Recovery and offer them whatever I could afford. Thanks! I got my Default Notice yesterday too Oh well such is life.

I couldnt afford to pay the fees on my £3000 overdraft so opened another bank account with Nationwide and started using that. I wrote to Natwest to say that I couldnt afford to keep my account running and would they freeze any charges and let me repay it bit by bit. Natwest sent me a letter saying that interest and charges would continue to be accrued and that I should fill in a statement of my in-comings and outgoings and an offer of repayment which I did by return of post. I offered to pay back £10 a week which I thought was fair when I am left with only £24.50 free cash each week. I will be a full time student in September working one day a week with 3 children to support. The letter I recieved today said that my offer was unnacceptable and that default notices were being issued and that their debt recovery would be in touch in due course. What do I do next? I cannot afford to pay them any more, and interest and charges are still being racked up! I just don't know what my next move is. I know £3000 is alot of money to owe but I thought £10 a week is better than nothing?

Thanks I'll put pen to paper then!

Sorry to be a pain, but should I wait until they contact me?

Thanks for that Should I hold off on writing to them yet until they contact me? Surely it would be better to arrange a repayment plan when I have sorted out my outgoings as a student?

Thanks for your reply. I did phone the bank and try to get them to freeze interest charegs etc but they were very unhelpful asking me to actually pay more than the amount I was ringing to say I couldn't afford to pay! If I write to them are they likely to say ok no more charges you can pay off x amount a month until its paid off? I'm VERY VERY scared that bailliffs will turn up at my door! I've not actually heard anything from Natwest yet re my account, should I wait until I do before writing to them? My income is going to drastically reduce in August as I will be going to college, should I wait until then to arrange anything?? I really appreciate everyones help here. Thanks x

Thanks for replying Miss Muppet Forgive me if I sound thick but is it a good thing or a bad thing if overdrafts are covered by the CCA? Also what will sending a subject access request do? Thats not meant to sound impertinent, i'm just ignorant of the terminology on here! Will that stop any more interest being added and allow me to pay it back bit by bit? So, my next step is to send the SAR to Natwest then? Sorry, bet you regret repying to this one hey?!

Firstly I must apologise if this is in the wrong section on this site. Right, I had a £3000 overdraft with Natwest and it was right up to the limit. In May I phoned Natwest and spoke to them to see if there was any way that they could freeze my overdraft, remove it from my account so I could keep using the account on a day to day basis, and then I'd pay it back in small bits every week because I'm struggling to make ends meet and going to uni in September and waned to have an arrangemnt in place. I don't know if I didn't make myself understood well enough or what, but the man I spoke to basically wanted me to make large payments to drastically cut my overdraft and therefore lower the monthly fee, but I cannot afford to do this and he did not say I would be able to have the overdraft removed like I wanted it. I understand its in their interests to get as much back in one go but I've been a customer for years and got no joy from them. As a consequence I've had to transfer all my direct debits and salary payments, tax credits etc into another basic Nationwide account because I cannot afford the fees for the overdraft. Obviously they are going to come after me for the repayment of the overdraft and I want to pay it but the fees will now be mounting up as there is no money going in to that Natwest account. Can I get it frozen by sending them a letter or something? Debt puts the frighteners on me I don't think I could cope with bailliffs visiting or phoning at all hours. I just want to get something in place. Can anyone advise me? Thanks in advance, Lisa.

I have emailed the website again to ask if they have had any joy contacting the caravan owner. Do you know if I have any rights to just go ahead and request a refund of my deposit and cancel my so called booking? I'm really unhappy with this and its really dampened my enthusiasm to use this caravan after all this.

Not heard anything yet...

Heres the reply I got from the website. Looks promising, i'll let you know what comes of it.

Thanks Sam, I'll try that first and then report back

Hi All, Sorry been offline for a little bit hence the delay in replying. Sailor Sam, there was no Booking Information to read, I contacted the owner of the caravan through the website Kingfisher Caravan Park, Ingoldmells : Skegness ( that link is the actual one we supposedly booked) and she asked what dates we required etc and said we needed to pay a deposit of £100 which we did by cheque sent to her home address. She cashed the cheque on August 20th and when I texted and asked for confirmation she texted back and asked what address to send it to so obviously I gave her my home address. When I enquired to the whereabouts of the confirmation she said she doesnt send confirmation by post just email so she took my email address.No email confirmation arrived either so mid september I texted her again (she doesnt answer the phone if I ring, even from other peoples numbers) and asked why and she texted back saying her internet was down. I have tried to phone her numerous times this week via phone and text and am getting no reply. I texted to ask her to send me a handwritten confirmation of the Booking and of her receipt of my cheque but nothing. Sorry to go on but I have tried to contact citizens advice but cannot get through to them at all. I dont know my rights here. I really want to ask for my deposit back but (if she answers the phone) she will just say that the deposit is non refundable Im sure, even though surely no contract has been made becasue she has never sent confirmation?? Please help this is not alot of money really but its a big part of the kids holiday and we cant afford to lose it. Thanks in advance. Lisa

I found a caravan to rent on a rental site and contacted the owner to book our holiday for next August. We sent a £100 deposit cheque which the owner cashed on 20th August. I contacted her on cashing the cheque and asked for a confirmation. She asked for my address and said she would send it to me. Nothing arrived so at the beginning of September I got in touch to ask when she would send confirmation of our booking and she said she doesn't send confirmation, she emails it so she asked my email address and said she would do it. Last week I contacted her to ask why she hadnt emailed confirmation and she apologised and said her internet was down at the moment and she would send it soon. The site she advertised on seems legitimate with pictures of the caravan and owners pay to register their vans on it but I'm getting a bit worried as we have no proof other than the fact we sent a cheque. Am I right to be worried? Does anyone know the legal view on deposits for holidays? I'm tempted to ask for my deposit back as she doesn't seem too forthcoming with anything. Help! Thanks in advance.

I filled in an online form for a loan of £1000 and they phoned me back asking for a £49 admin fee, stating I had been accepted for the loan. I double questioned this and she stated that her name was Sara and she was positive I had been accepted. They took the admin fee from my bank even though I havent signed anything, but no loan has appeared in my account despite promises that it would be in within 24 hours, or the admin fee would be refunded. I cant find any phone number for them and the one I have is never answered. I thought id write to them as it seems the best way but I have no address...they have never sent me any paperwork so what is my next move? Please help!!!

I saw that site its laughable! The mail address doesnt even work. I got a call from 3 today about the Formal Complaint I sent them last week. They said that there was an amount outstanding of £17.47 from an initial amount outstanding of £42, I said I understood this, and that my query was because HFO has had £63.00 from me in respect of my 3 debt of £42.00!!! He said he would look into it and get a reply from HFO within 48 hours (lmao, yeah ok then)and then call me back on Wednesday night between 6 and 8pm. I told him I wanted to have written confirmation of all e had talked about and he said that could be arranged. So, the next thing will be with the reply from HFO if and when it comes. I did send the letter to 3 marked 'FORMAL COMPLAINT' and did demand a copy of their complaints procedure, how long should I wait for that? I'll update my post once he has rang back on Wednesday (I took his full name). Thanks for all your help please keep it coming. xx Should I send one of those thingys off to see HFOs contact and payment records on me? The name slips my mind at the minute!

Thanks, I tried emailing them too but the email was returned by the postmaster becaus the email address wasnt valid! The Buggers! Thanks

Does anyone know the address of HFO services?

Thankyou for replying Seeing as I have had the letter from 3 asking for payment for the supposedly outstanding £17, should I reply to that (in writing of course)? Thanks for your help!

Hi everyone, I had two mobile phone contacts with 3 in 2004 or 2005 and cancelled my contracts wih 28 days notice ending on 28th Dec, they then said that I hadnt given them notice and ended my contract on Jan 28th so I refused to pay the last months line rental on each in principle. Anyway long story short, the debts were passed to HFO services and for most of last year they have hassled me with letters and phone calls until I relented and ended up paying off the debts witha payment plan, one payment of £15.47, one of £15 and one of £28. Through various calls with HFO ( I could barely understand their reps) they kept giving me different amounts that I had left to pay and would send me no written confirmations of payment plans as I requested. The original debts were for £21 and £20 so Ive already paid over the odds but I just wanted them to go away. I thought it was all sorted as the final rep said my account ws clear so I asked for a letter stating this. None came but the calls stopped for a few weeks so I thought everything was ok. WRONG!! In February they rang and were abusive again and said I still owed them 15.47, I told them I had spoken to someone who said my account was clear, but they just kept saying my account was outstanding. I argued til I was blue in the face but eventually he said if I paid £3.48 he would write it off as cleared. I told him I would not pay until he sent me an email stating this, which he then did, so I paid the £3.48. I thought that was it but yesterday I got a letter from 3 saying 'thanks for your payment of £3.48 you still need to pay the outstanding £17' ??? The email from HFO states the same account number as the letter from 3 so why are they asking me for money again?? I dont know what to do next, I emailed the man at HFO who sent me the email, no reply and tried to email enquiries@hfoservices.com as stated in the contact us bit of HFOs website, but it was returned as undeliverable. I've already paid a total of £59.00 for the original total debt of £41.95, what can I do? Please help.

Hi everyone, I would have started a new thread but I couldnt figure out how to do it? (Must be having a moment!) I had two mobile phone contacts with 3 in 2004 or 2005 and cancelled my contracts wih 28 days notice ending on 28th Dec, they then said that I hadnt given them notice and ended my contract on Jan 28th so I refused to pay the last months line rental on each in principle. Anyway long story short, the debts were passed to HFO services and for most of last year they have hassled me with letters and phone calls until I relented and ended up paying off the debts witha payment plan, one payment of £15.47, one of £15 and one of £28. Through various calls with HFO ( I could barely understand their reps) they kept giving me different amounts that I had left to pay and would send me no written confirmations of payment plans as I requested. The original debts were for £21 and £20 so Ive already paid over the odds but I just wanted them to go away. I thought it was all sorted as the final rep said my account ws clear so I asked for a letter stating this. None came but the calls stopped for a few weeks so I thought everything was ok. WRONG!! In February they rang and were abusive again and said I still owed them 15.47, I told them I had spoken to someone who said my account was clear, but they just kept saying my account was outstanding. I argued til I was blue in the face but eventually he said if I paid £3.48 he would write it off as cleared. I told him I would not pay until he sent me an email stating this, which he then did, so I paid the £3.48. I thought that was it but yesterday I got a letter from 3 saying 'thanks for your payment of £3.48 you still need to pay the outstanding £17' ??? The email from HFO states the same account number as the letter from 3 so why are they asking me for money again?? I dont know what to do next, I emailed the man at HFO who sent me the email, no reply and tried to email enquiries@hfoservices.com as stated in the contact us bit of HFOs website, but it was returned as undeliverable. I've already paid a total of £59.00 for the original total debt of £41.95, what can I do? Please help.