Apparently Debbie Kitcher has taken over from David Blocksidge at the OFT. Any evidence of unfair, illegal or immoral behaviour by Swift As per my last post should be addressed to Debbie.Kitcher@oft.gsi.gov.uk It is vital we tell Ms Kitcher our stories right now!

It is really important right now for everyone with any problems with Swift to keep the OFT up to date with how they are behaving. If they are trying to repossess your home, apply charges, not respond to letters, not follow the pre-action protocol, not consider your offers of payment, if they didn't check your ability to repay your loan properly, anything that doesn't follow the rules - email the secured lending team: David Blocksidge heads it up. We must do everything we can to help eachother right now! Sj x

Has everybody on this thread sent their complaints to the OFT? They are currently carrying out a 12 week consultation: OFT DEBT Collection Guidance Consultation and you can tell them about your problems with DCs now. Gordon Ramsay (no not the Chef!) is the Team Leader, Nigel Cates is Project Director and Jane Shepherd is the name to send complaints to. Ray Watson and David Fisher are Senior Responsible Officers. Here's the link: http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/consultations/current/debt-collection/ All the best, SJ

Is he struggling to pay priority debts like utilities, council tax, does he still have mortgage? These must all be paid before credit cards. If he cannot pay those go to CAB or ring national debtline (make sure you get the name right- many debt management companies deliberately have very similar names). These 2 don't charge for their advice and will deal with companies on your behalf. They also help put together a common financial statement which is accepted by all creditors and saves you filling individual bank forms. Good luck, don't let him be bullied into paying more than he cam afford and ask the credit card co to cease charging interest otherwise he will never pay off the debt.

Hi Swansea This sadly is an all too familiar story with Swift. You should be heartened by the facts they are being Investigated by both the FSA & OFT. Make a "formal complaint" to Swift about the level of charges outlining exactly what you have written above. Make sure you write "formal complaint" in the heading - don't phone them, do this in writing. Send the letter special delivery. Copy the complaint to both the oft (David Blocksidge) and the FSA. Also your PPI was probably mis-sold so send another formal complaint to your broker if they are still in business, if not go straight to the FSCS, ring them for forms. This will take time but is worth it in the end because you are probably entitled to get compensation. Read the Other Swift threads, you'll learn a lot. Swift's year end accounts state they have put millions aside for redress to customers. Good luck, SJ

Andrew 1 you are such a wordsmith. Brilliant and concise - thank you. Just in time for my meeting with my MP this morning - I think everyone should send Andrew's posting to their MP and campaign for Swift's repossessions to be halted while they are being investigated. Also campaign for the Consumer Advocate which would have been set up by Consumer Focus (now disbanded becuase of the Quango cull) to be reinstated in some way urgently. This would be a means for a group of consumers to take group legal action. Might I suggest Andrew that you post your info on other consumer sites because there are so many people being taken to court by Swift and the more judges we put this in front of - the better for us all. :whoo:Good Luck everyone.

I guess it would be worth anyone being taken to court by Swift for possession or eviction to show the judge proof of the use of unlicensed trading styles and the costs added to their loans by those potentially unlawful trading styles which have lead to loss and detriment and quite often made the loans unmanageable thereby affecting your ability to pay. All those judges everyday all over the country as far as I can see from Court Lists with several Swift cases on the go would be very interested in these issues. Also make sure you make the Judge aware that Swift are being investigated by the OFT & FSA and that Swift themselves are putting aside many millions for expected fines and consumer redress.

Sounds like some good news pk :wave:Swift:?: :hail:Sparkie Oh was it SPARKLE who didn't like smilies? Shame.

We had a separate ppi policy document from Sterling which was sent with the original agreement. Cost now reimbursed by fscs because of mis-selling by now defunct broker. Swift and Sterling still profited though. Where's their sanction?

Yes I agree with you both. The banks should also immediately stop the judicial review into ppi which is holding up so many claims. The money claims would cost them even if every single customer reclaimed is a fraction of their bonus pot. How stingy is that? Oh but the tine for remorse is over is it Mr Diamond?

Hi all Good luck with that Dougal - good for you!!! Does anyone know / have proof that Swift might hold back "commission" from payment to insurance underwriters out of the supposed "premium" thereby misleading customers about the true cost of PPI? I think we could be being stuffed both ways - secret commission paid to brokers and commission withheld from premium which we are misled into believing is the cost of insurance. I think this is another possible flaw in the agreements which contained PPI because the key facts are misrepresented yet again. Also the insurance company mentioned to me that they don't get any money until the end of the term which seems very odd. sj x

Talking of things electricial, if anyone is in the Chester area on 4 January at 10.30 am they might like to pop along to the Civil Justice Centre for directions in a certain case. I'm told you might see Spark(le)s fly!!! Jaqui: Yes I believe Data Subject Access Request and Subject Access Request are one in the same. Happy Xmas to all. xxx

Read and enjoy my Darlings: http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/distribution/swift-investigated-by-fsa-over-arrears-handling/1023883.article xxx

Hi all, I see Swift Advances PLC have finally submitted their accounts to Companies House. Very interesting. Happy Xmas all, I'm pretty sure we're all in for a better 2011. SJ x

Hi joes Swift will add charges to your account and the debt will grow substantially. They may even try for repossession if you don't have their agreement to reduce payments. I would recommend going to the cab or national debtline and asking them to approach swift on your behalf urgently. Good luck sj

Nice one Frettful38, if only there was a similar organisation in England. Sparkie!! You're back, it's been SO LONG since we heard from you. Hurrah I'll get an SAR off to SGLS or SWIFT GROUP LEGAL SERVICES although surely if they're in-house the original SAR to Swift should cover the whole group . . . . do I really have to fork out another £10? They don't half cash those cheques quickly. Shame they're not so fast at providing the docs.

Hey Landy, I've only just seen this - that's fantastic news!!! :lol:

Nice to see some old friends back on the thread - seems like things are hotting up So local police, CAB and Which Magazine. Thanks Patrick and Dougal, I'm on it!!! I wouldn't dismiss the OFT though, they are listening. Best of luck to all. SJ

That's music to my ears Doc!!! We're at a critical time this week so any bad news for Swift is hopefully good for us. Shoops - have you got a copy of Swift's tariff? There is one on their website now. If you were in arrears you might have had a monthly management charge but there shouldn't be other charges that month especially if you were in contact with them or it was being handled by their legal department. Did they write advising you of the additional charges as they were about to be applied - this is supposed to give you a chance to pay those charges instead of having interest added to them. Swift are not very good at doing that - well they certainly weren't in the past. Ask them for clarification on charges and if you don't get a satisfactory answer go to the FOS. They have prooved very helpful to me at getting charges refunded - not on all other charges but certainly on that one. Good luck!

Hi la fee & welcome to cag, can you explain analysis code 6 a bit more? How did they screw you? Can't say I'm suprised to hear they might not be nice employers! All the best sj

Hi Tonymacaroni I realize it's been a while since your post but I was surfing around the site and I wondered whether you had any knowledge of the pressure put on sales people at Halifax to sell loans. I'm keen to know what triggered Sales to call someone to offer a loan. What tactics they would use to sell a loan and whether you think appropriate checks were made on the ability to repay? What kind of incentives or rewards did sales or branch staff get for selling inappropriate products? I'm sure this still goes on despite the recent financial crisis. They continue to induldge in irresponsible and unfair behaviour. It may now be more with regard to investments than loans. Ridiculous "fee" deduction for selling an inappropriate product from a different area of the group etc. I have so many horror stories from friends and relatives particularly from Halifax but Barclays and others. I don't believe the banks have been punished adequately. I don't trust banks at all. I tell as many people as I can to be very very wary when dealing with them. They are not your friends, they are not there to help or advise but merely to make money from you. Do not rely on their "advice" - it is for their advantage only. Many people are suffering severe financial detriment because of poor sales practices. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. SJ

We got some charges back in 2008 but I think we only asked for and got 8% so I will look back and see what we can do about that. I think we got about £300 total back. We are no longer paying interest because of financial hardship. The debt is over £9k and they've (both Mercers and Calders in the past) offered £4k as a settlement - not that we can afford that! Anyhow thanks for your advice Slick. I'll look at the tutorial. SJ

Thanks Slick, that's what I thought. It is all so secretive - why isn't there anything on their website. What are they so ashamed about. Yeah, I know the answer - their appalling debt collection practices. You're right about the FOS - they just seem to ignore the OFT guidance on debt collection and keep going on about the Lending Code. One of the clauses of the Lending Code is that banks should follow OFT Guidance but the FOS just seem to ignore that. It is SO FRUSTRATING!!! If anyone can find written proof from Barclays / Mercers on the net confirming the link with eachother - that would be great. I'd love something to send back to the FOS. BW, SJ.

Thanks Small Fry, very useful advice. I haven't been around for a while - things have been getting messy. I'll report back hopefully with good news eventually. Good luck all, SJ

I have a big complaint going through FOS re Barclays & Barclaycard and their bad handling of someone in Financial Hardship. One of my issues is harassment by Mercers but the FOS says "this is a new issue about a separate company". Can anyone confirm whether Mercers is part of Barclays or not? All I can find on the web linking them is a Consumer Credit Licence Register for Gothia Limited which has both Barclays and Mercers listed as current trading names. Both Mercers and Gothia Ltd are on the Companies House register. We all know if we ring the Mercers number (which I don't anymore) they answer "Barclays" and if you ring Barclaycard, you are magically put through to Mercers. What gives? Anyone know? Any advice greatly appreciated. :???: CDCS is on the CCL Register under a long list for Barclays Bank plc All the best, SJ