This topic was closed on 10 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

Thank you for that.. I have already tried some of the steps below. What about if the debt i'm disputing became a CCJ, would the court wouldn't legally be able to send bailiffs or attachment of earnings.. since I earn no properties in the UK. I'm basically just trying to stop them from harassing my parents by phone, mail or with any kind of doorstep visits they might insist on having. If I get my parents to tell them I am gone away and no longer resident as suggested.. legally will the debt collection companies have to acknowledge this... and what could I do if they don't? Thanks again!

Thanks for taking a look at my problem for me In answer to the question, I didn't' tell them immediatley because i didn't want them to associate this as being a business trip to China (it was not) because of the fact that if that was the case it wouldn't be covered under this policy. Although the claims advisor gave the impression that I would be paid out so I didn't think they would need to have that information. However in either case the insurance took such a long time to contact me, that I didn't recieve the loss adjusters letter at my home address asking me for the interview until I was already in China! I'm confused for 2 reasons.. Firstly, I fail to see the reason why they need a face to face interview.. am I unable to answer questions over a telephone?? Secondly.. Why do they even need an interview anyway.. i've provided all the evidence for the claim and explained my reasoning behind not taking the flight back. What more could they want from me? Could they take me to court to claim back this cash?? If they did... surely the evidence I have copies of would throw out any claim they have? Since I can prove without reasonable doubt that it is a genuine claim.

I hope someone can help me with this.. its a bit complicated issue i admit.. but any help is appreciated. even if you could only answer part of the question...

Since that is very long i'll break it down a little: I went on holiday to China Made a medical and theft claim Got asked to attend a face to face interview, which i couldn't Cancelled my Theft Claim Got told I must pay back all medical expenses paid by insurance unless i attend interview Advised them I cannot attend face to face interview in the close future, offered telephone as alternative

I recently had a problem with my travel insurance.. in my previous post i mentioned that I now work overseas.. I took a previous visit here in the China.. initially just to check the place out and visit some friends.. which was nothing to do with work or business.. simple a personal visit. Anyway.. a problem arised during my first visit in that I had a very bad ear infection in which I was advised by a doctor not to fly due to the excruciating pain this would have caused within my ear... as well as the possibiliy of further damage. Because of this I had not choise but miss my flight completely inside my hotel for around 2 weeks.. which my insurance company were great in dealing with.. Meanwhile.. about 2 or 3 days before I was certified able to fly. I experienced theft of my digital camera, which was taken out of my bag whilst I was travelling on a train. I tried to claim for this.. the insurance company sent a claim form to my house in England.. which upon my return I filled in. Another issue is that the return flight routes and offered by the insurance company was unacceptable.. so I was able to secure a different flight and use my own funds to pay for that. As I mentioned earlier I am now working overseas.. which was already prearranged to start around a month later. I filled in the claim form complete with reciepts and sent this off to the insurance company. I spoke to them on the phone perhaps a week later and they confirmed they had recieved and had begun to process. Another week later I called and they told me that I would recieve a letter regarding payment for the camera etc.. I thought all was well.. so since I was under the impression that I would probably just recieve a cheque in the post. I thought that I could simply get my father to put this into my bank for me whenever it arrived.. since i was out of the country. The insurance did not actually pay out for the item.. they instead sent me a letter from a third party loss adjusters advising me that I am required to have a face to face interview with them to discuss the exact circumstances of what happened.. why I didn't take to return flight, theft of my camera etc. Now the fact that I was stuck in China in my new job and the fact that I was not willing to pay maybe 600 pounds return to the UK, plus time off work just to take an interview that would allow me to claim a 200 pound digital camera.. simply made no sense financially. I decided the best option was to advise my insurance company to then cancel my claim for the camera as it was not financially viable to do. The next thing that happened to me is that I recieved a letter to my home address, which was requesting from me a complete sum of over 2000 pounds, which the insurance had outlayed for medical costs as well as hotel fees and flights, apparently because I had failed to comply with reasonable requests in the insurance companies claims procedure. I am confused.. firstly did I sign a credit agreement with the insurance company that lets them simply demand money from me.. since when I claimed from them I didn't sign anything (except a waiver for some hotel room service charges which I advised them I would pay when back in UK). Also how can they justify demanding money.. and then not even be willing to have a phone interview with me only face to face?? Bearing in mind I refuse to return to UK just for this matter because of the cost of airfare back and forth.. also I don't want to create any problems in my job here. Basically is there any letter that I can send to the insurance to sort this out.. i've pretty much exhausted it all by phone and e-mail advising them of what has happened etc. They still want me to be interviewed by their loss adjuster.. can I point blank refuse to have an interview?? and if I did that would they have a legal right to claim back the 2000 bill. Another thing is the fact that my medical claim has nothing to do with the theft claim that I cancelled.. so I don't see why they should need such an interview from me anyway? When I have already provided ample evidence of all medical costs and reciepts for my bad experience here. What can I do at this stage??

I have debts from many companies in the UK, which I am going about clearing up slowly but surely.. Around 4 months ago I accepted an oversea job position which I am now at.. so at the moment I am living in Asia for the forseeable future. The problem is that all of my debts are registered in the house of my parents (obviously in my name though).. now.. of course the legal thing to do was to inform all parties involved of my address change in writing which I have done.. however the banks and debt collection agencies simple don't seem to be listening to me as they are continuing to send letters to my parents house, which is distressing my parents.. as this is a lot of mail. I have a disputed debt also, which I refuse to pay, but one bank is still insisting on chasing also. Firstly, if I am outside the UK.. would it be unreasonable for the banks & debt collection companies to contact me via mail at the new overseas address?, since legally I am not a resident of my old address or the UK anymore... Secondly, Should they transfer the debts to my new address would they then be able to contact collection agents in this country to chase me for debts owed (for example the disputed debt) etc?? (Is that possible since the debts were acquired under UK law?? I'd assume that would have absolutely no durasdiction over here?) Generally i'm just wondering the legal side also.. but the main thing I want is any phone calls and letters to be not going to my old address, so that my parents have no need to worry about these matters, since I will be taking care of these myself, but at the moment, with my parents being elderley. It is a very difficult task to get them to forward all letters to me or to read the exact details to me over the phone. I would rather deal with it directly myself.. as the companies should be contacting ME.. not THEM, Any advice greatly appreciated!

Right.. finally getting somewhere now.. telephoned the collection company working on behalf of my gym.. and apparently the full balance consists of £75 charge for cancellation and £55 for one months membership! The guy on the phone said... if you pay us £50 by the end of the month i will clear the balance. They seem to have recieved my letter of complaint, as the guy didn't sound too chuffed to be speaking with me! None-the-less.. I will still consult a solicitor about the contract and in regards to the payment.. I will try my best to make it however as i said previously i don't really have enough money to spare £50! I would prefer it if I didn't have to pay it all this month!! Thanks for the advice given though by blueskies and seminole.. really appreciated As soon as I get some cash together, or manage to claim my bank charges back I will defo make a donation!!

hmm.. i believe that it was a carbon copy of the one i have.. Am i correct that by disputing the payment they can take no action until the dispute is solved? If this is so, i might dispute it on the grounds that I think i have been charged an unfair amount and want to see my original credit agreement with them! Also am i correct in assuming since this was originally not a credit agreement and makes no reference to the consumer credit act that they are unlawfully pursuing the future charges?? Simply because it says so in their contract?

REALLY DO NEED HELP NOW!!! Got another letter today.. So basically they are saying make a token/ offer payment more than I can afford or else they will pass it onto solicitors. I need to know whether this contract is void or not due to the information above? And if not then what is the deal with the monthly membership etc and fees added???

Hmm.. have just noticed a few things, that might make a difference or might not. Firstly: just noticed that they have not mentioned my membership number anywhere on the form.. and it hasn't been filled in on the front of the form where it should have. Secondly: According to bottom of my original agreement form, there is the following line Although the full contract value section is completely blank!! Does this actually mean that i have agreed to pay nothing to the gym and technically re-claim everything they've ever taken off me, because surely because there is no value assigned to "the full contract value" that the club can enforce contractually?

I got this information from here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/8EA1B1A8-6A0A-4C69-8675-9E7375F15569/0/oft373.pdf. PDF file on the office of fair trading website. Looking at my membership agreement i have found the following, which may be of interest: OK, It seems to be only a contract between myself and the gym, i see no mention of it being a credit agreement and no mention of any credit companies involved. Heres a quote from the contact, with what i believe to be the relevent terms and conditions: Looking at this, it appears that the DD that the gym takes is an advanced payment for the next month and not what i owe them for the previous month. This makes me wonder why I should pay them what i have not had chance to use as a service? There is also a term in there that indicates that anyone having paid a full years subscription up front, would be entitled to a refund of the months which they haven't used upon cancellation. This means that even if it was a credit agreement, technically the credit company would be entitled to a refund for the months i havent' used, hence technically i should owe them nothing. There is no mention of a cancellation charge in the terms either, which is strange! All it says is that future subscriptions would be due immediatly! Now i wonder if i do have a case here or not. because technically the amount i'm in arrears by in the first place wouldn't have been owed in advanced and since they then cancalled my membership, this means they are charging me 3 months unused membership as well as adding a ficticious charge :S Any advice??

What they've done is to charge me for 3 months membership which i hadn't accrued yet and add a cancellation charge of about £50 as well! Aren't they also supposed to give me some kind of written notice before passing it to a debt collection agency?? Now admittedly this was a 12 month contract but does that still mean that they can do this for the remaining months? i've been looking through THIS document, which i found last night on a different thread on here.. relating to unfair terms in health and fitness club agreements, which states: So does this mean that even the addition of the remainder of payment for the contract period could technically be illegal??

Also the gym decided that even though i informed them that i could not pay for a month and that i couldnt afford anything for a while due to unemployment that they would then add up all the remaining monthly charges of my membership (about 2 months) and present me with a £200 bill? (Which includes this unfair charge and is now in the hands of debt collectors)? They did this in an unreasonable fashion, firstly I was told that the gym account would be put on hold temporarily by a call agent.. I then looked at my bank statement to see that a £6 DD had bounced from Holmes Place (which as you can all probably imagine, i was also kindly charged £35 by my bank) I then recieved the letter from the debt collection company. After trying to argue with them I was simply told.. well you should know about that, its in your terms and conditions. What can be done about this.. the bank charge i will be claiming back seperatly, but is taking £6 reasonable when i told them clearly I cannot afford anything at the moment! In answer to the previous question they have infact threatened that this will effect my credit file etc!

Hi, I have worked out recently that in unfair charges i have paid approximately £1075 to no more than 4 banks within the last 8-12 months.. to say i'm outraged is an understatment. I fully intend to reclaim these charges.. I have also noticed that whilst looking through my records, that my gym has added several unfair charges to my account for cancellation and late payments, this debt has now been passed on to a debt collection agency... I understand the procedure for claiming from the banks and am going to get the ball rolling ASAP. however. in relation to the fact that this is a gym.. does any of the laws used against the banks work against them.. e.g. unfair contract terms and conditions?? Any advice as to what the best course of action is to take against companies who aren't banks but applying over the top charges??