Thank you for your (as usual ) quick reply rebel. I did think he was totally out of order but am not keen on having to negotiate with these overly aggressive doorstep gibbons just to get them to stop thumping the door panel so grateful for the link. Will have a read and prepare myself for the next visit.

Hi all, Had a visit from a right idiot last Friday night. DP was heading out to supermarket and as he stepped out of the front door I could hear a voice asking if I lived at the address. According to DP the guy was very aggressive, demanding information from him and when DP wouldn't confirm or deny whether I lived there the guy raged at him threatening Bailiffs. DP to put whatever query he had in writing and was told 'we tried that' - Bailiffs next, 'go with it' (WTH??) When asked where this idiot was from all he would say was Nationwide. Now, I have just opened a Parachute account with the Nationwide BS but everything is in tip top order there. Presume Nationwide then are a Debt Collection Agency? Has anyone heard of them at all? Are they allowed to even discuss anything with anyone who isn't me? I have had no letters or anything from a DCA under the name of Nationwide but am keen to get to the bottom of this so I know where to send the 'don't darken my doorstep letter' at least. Thanks a lot in advance!

"Report them for charging for an agent visit, they are not allowed to do this under OFT Guidelines" I'm glad to hear that - really think they've surpassed themselves with this load of twaddle. £22.33 as well - nice made up amount......

Thanks Rebel 11, that's what I thought. Amazes me as well how three versions of the Halifax are chasing me at the same time, perhaps I'd better send the doorstep letter in triplicate

Hi all, I'm battling my way through the debt maze with various creditors at the moment, have written to all with Income/Expenditure and reduced offers of payment. Halifax (Intelligent Finance) are the most irritating and confusing at the moment. Had a letter from Albion collections ltd last week demanding immediate payment - found out on CAG site they are owned by Halifax so sent CCA request. I've now had a letter from RBS re. the same Halifax CC account - wording reproduced exactly below (my comments in red) Dear......... Our records show that you still haven't brought your account up to date. We have not been able to contact you about this (because I haven't answered any of their 5 phone calls per day and am communicating with all my creditors in writing only) An agent may call at your home so that we can discuss your account. This will result in a fee of £22.33 being taken from your account. To preven this from happening, please phone us on .........within 30 days. If you cannot make full payment now, we will try to agree a payment arrangement with you - (which is exactly what I've been trying to do since June this year......) Yours sincerely Manager, Collections (no name) I'm finding the letter a bit laughable really but thought at the same time should I nip this in the bud now and send them the letter from this site which basically says 'don't even think about turning up at my doorstep'? Many thanks in advance

Hi all, Hope this is the right section to post in, apologies if not. Can anyone help me with regards to the amount of salary my employment contract should state please. Bit of a story but here goes: I took on a week’s temporary work through a friend at the end of which two of the managers offered me a full-time job. Before I took on this role I received a written statement of the details we discussed verbally (salary, working hours etc) I started this job in July 09 and have just been given my employment contract to sign (fell between ‘two stools’ as the guy who does the wages put it) Anyway, on the first written statement I have confirmation that my starting salary is £20,000 which will rise to £22,500 pa on successful completion of my 6 mth probationary period. However, the contract I’ve been asked to sign states that my salary is £20,000 pa with no mention of the increase. When I asked about this I was told that what I had been given was a day one contract and any increases or additional benefits would always be notified to me by way of a separate letter. Also, my friend who works with me was given the same promise – now that her probationary period has expired she has been told that no pay increases are being authorised at the moment so I am very wary of this happening to me as well. If I sign the contract as it is am I effectively agreeing to the lower salary? Should I push to have the increase mentioned? The guy that’s in charge of sorting out the wages, contracts etc was quite dismissive and offhand last time I asked about this so want to be armed with some proper information if I need to raise this again. This is going round and round in my head and driving me mad now (plus I keep getting asked why I haven’t signed the contract yet) so any help you are able to give will be huuuugely appreciated! Many thanks in advance

Many thanks for the very quick reply babybear.

Hi all, Apologies if this has gone into the wrong section. I've just been advised by an employment agency that I've failed their credit check and now cannot take on the vancancy they put me forward for. This job was in a big Financial Services company so this has buggered up any other chances of working in that industry until this is sorted. Have just had a look on my all of my credit reports via my call credit and discovered that a default has been registered on there by Frizzell Bank (now Liverpool Victoria) I have absolutely no idea what this is - the account type is shown as Loan (unspecified type), Account start date is given as 4th October 1999 with an opening balance of £1,157, 36 repayments, £71 a month. Whats more the payment start date is given as 10th September 2008. So, according to them, I took out a loan nearly 10 years ago which they've only just decided to collect payment on?????? Would be very grateful for any advice on how best to deal with this (which letter from the library to send them) Have combed through some of the threads but can't find anything matching my situation. Many many thanks in advance

42 man - thank you so much for helping me out yet again! Hopefully my next post will be to report that SD has been set aside and not to ask any more pesky questions lol. Thanks again!

Hello lovely helpful people, Apologies for asking this question again but have combed my way through the various links and cannot really find the info I think I need for my circumstance. Received a Statutory Bankruptcy letter from Crapquest on 29.10, have sent CCA and received 'account on hold for 28 days' letter from Craquest yesterday. Need to get the set aside forms into my local court by next Tuesday and would really like to get this sorted before the weekend to save me worrying about it. Thing is, I can only base my reasons for the set aside on the fact that I have no knowledge of the alleged credit card debt (Egg, £753) that Crapquest are talking about. Also, the stat demand was sent by post (first class) not delivered in person and the demand is the only letter I received. Also, seeing as I only sent the CCA to them on 31.10 I can't really state on the forms that they've not provided me the details of the debt as they still have plenty of time (not sure if this is correct or not?) Does anyone have any specific wordings I could use? Many many thanks in advance Malagut1:)

Thank you boozy, Duffersmum and fiftypence - your comments are very much appreciated! Still torn at the moment between not wanting to let these Hyenas have the satisfaction of knowing that I've received their stat. demand and getting quite angry and just wanting to sort it out. Think I might go for the set aside just to stop them going on and on and possibly pulling bigger tricks out of their grimy bag in the future. Thanks again!

You're right. Not really a question anyone else can answer for me. Thanks a lot again for your help.

Good point, will do that. One last paranoid thought thread to run past you please - if I do get put through and tell this person I am having demand set aside and claiming costs then again they'll know the demand has reached me. Do you reckon it will be better for possible future court 'battles' if I do acknowledge this thing and try to have it put aside (am thinking about what would happen if it does go further and then plead ignorence at a hearing and claim I've never received anything from this CapQuest outfit? Ok, thanks for all your help - how on earth would I tickle your scales by the way to acknowledge your helpful advice?

Both very good ideas/points. Being of a somewhat cynical nature though I'm thinking that if they can't put me through to the O'Keefe person short of recording the call it would just be my word against theirs (if this whole thing were to escalate into a court appearance?)

Hi 42man and many thanks for the quick reply. CapQuests letter states that the agreement for the alleged Egg CC was signed on 1st Feb. 2001. Can't be sure that it's stature barred though as have a niggling suspicion that this may be one of several cards I had back then (young and stupid in those days!!) so not sure how long payments would have been made on it. Plus, I gather that I would have to provide proof of the last payment made/contact with EGG as just saying it's statute barred is not enough. Is that correct? Thanks again