Interesting! Thanks for the reply What will happen next if I simply ignore these?

Hoping for some advice at the moment. Due to my partner being out of work recently I ran up a large credit card bill to te tune of £3000, which was fine for a while as it was in an interest free period. When the interest free period ended I was faced with paying c.£70 per month in interest, which was pretty much the full payment I was making each month. After looking at several options, and even trying to negotiate with the Halifax (who incidentally wanted a £50 payment for 12 months to pay off just £20 of the balance per month) I decided to allow them to pass onto a dca by deliberately defaulting on my payments. I have now received a letter from Albion demanding the amount in full, now! Can they demand the full amount in one go? If not, am I able to offer to pay installments? Are Albion known to reduce the debt if paying a lump sum at such an early stage? Any help or advice on how I should approach this debt will be appreciated

I'd be interested to know if anyone has had a similar issue with A&L..... I recently changed my bank from the Halifax to A&L when they were offering a £100 incentive when you switched to them. Today I have received a letter from them 3 months after opening my account to say they will not be paying me the £100 as I didn't meet all their requirements: Essentially I switched all my live DD's from my old account and any new agreements I have which entail a DD I have set up manually. Are they simply "assuming" these new DD's are old ones which weren't switched??? Any advice on which direction I should take? I really do think this is an absolute cop out!

I'd just like to say that since my second letter back in January I have had no further correspondence from Roxburghe, Hutchison or any other collection agency. I can only assume they have the wrong person!

Yes I informed them I had checked my credit file and it was clear of any reference to Hutchison

I responded saying although the name on the "bill" was the same as mine I have no idea what the bill is for!!! I've checked my credit file and there is no adverse history or record of dealing with 3. I explained that I would help the original company where I could and expected this to be concluded

Well today I received a response to my initial letter, along the lines of they are collecting for HFO Capital, who bought the debt in 2007 from 3G Hutchinson. There is then a balance breakdown on Roxbourgh headed paper: Original Balance - £148.68 Charges - £10.00 Interest - £97.26 Collected - £0.00 Additional Info Tariff - Videotalk 500 Account Open Date - 12.02.04 Account Close Date - 09.02.05 On the final page there is what looks like some internal computer style statement on 3 headed paper with an account number and my name on but no telephone number in the number box. I'm confused. This simply isn't my bill!!!!! Any ideas what I should be writing in my next letter to Roxbourgh? Thanks in advance - and a Happy New Year if I don't get a reply tonight!!! 180

Has anyone had a positive response from this yet? I'm concerned I am going to have to spend a lot of time writing back and forth and receiving the same "tough sh!t" letters from the Halifax. I am at the limit of my overdraft and from next month I'll be recieving £30 a month in fees as I no longer pay into that account, whilst paying £50 a month to repay the "debt". I seem to be fighting a losing battle, and some positive news would be a real boost!

I'm still not quite sure what they are trying to charge me for though, as my account was paid, on time almost every month and cancelled properly! Since then I've had absolutely no correspondence from them, although I did move addresses 3 1/2 years ago! How and why they would be chasing me for anything is absolutely beyond me! I've sent the template letter so I'll hopefully have a response in the next few weeks

^^^Intersesting! Could it be a [problem], perhaps?

Any more info/links?

So, if this is a 3 debt, for a mobile phone contract I terminated 4-5 years ago, how come I am only hearing about it now??? Can they chase me after this long if I have had no previous correspondence?

I hope this is in the right place. I've tried searching but can't find anything that is similar to this. Today I received a debt collection letter from Roxburghe acting on behalf of Hutchison 3g (Orange mobile, I presume) demanding a debt of over £270. I honestly have absolutely no idea why! Is there a standard letter template I should respond with??? The only things I can imagine this referrs to is a recently cancelled Orange mobile contract where I cancelled mid term due to a change in their T&C. They confirmed cancellation, took a final bill and sent me a cheque to credit adifference! There is also a possibility this relates to an old debt which was settled on a 3 mobile over 5 years ago!!! How should I approach this? Regards 180

Has anyone else taken any forther steps as I'm now concerned D Day is rapidly approaching and the Halifax have yet again shunted me into the sideline asnd said that their investigation is closed and the charges will still apply. Are they simply not reading the letters????? What should I do in order to purse the matter in court? Any help would be massively appreciated

One thing that has occurred to me is that if they do start to charge £1 a day, could I challenge each and every one of the charges by sending a letter a day to the Halifax saying they are in breach of our original agreement. Should they fail to acknowledge, could I take the matter to court and demand costs of, say £35 per letter if the case goes my way???

Received my second letter today which is obviously a standard template letter. Is there any way I can get OFT/trading standards involved to act on my behalf as they have basically said they realise I feel; I would be worse off but the majority of their customers wont be, blah blah blah. I'm not the slightest bit bothered about these so called customers. I am interested in MY concerns, which thay have yet again failed to adress.

Although I have yet to receive a 2nd letter I am expecting it any day soon. My concern is that I have contested the change in T&C and moved my account elsewhere but still have £1000 in an overdraft with the halifax which I have made an offer to repay at the current interest rate at a minimum of £50 per month (reasonable imo), and as of the 6th December they will automatically start charging £1 a day. How am I supposed to pay back £50 a month and receive £30 a month in fees??? Also if it is decided that the Halifax are in the wrong, how do I go about calculating what I should have been paying in interest???

I've also sent a further letter explaining my first letter wasn't on of complaint, simply an absolute refusal to accept their change in T&C. I've yet to receive a response but will guess it will be along similar lines. It's just frustrating that you can't speak to anyone with an ounce of sympathy and hal a brain cell at the Halifax. I'll be looking forward to screwing them for more charges back if they start to charge me after my absolute refusal to accept the changes!

Sent my template letters to Halifax and OFT over 2 weeks ago now and still no response from either. I can put a slight delay down to the postal strike but how long should I allow before following up my letters, considering the changes are soon to come into effect. I have in the meantime transferred to a First Direct account and made a £100 gesture payment towards repaying my overdraft, which I will continue to do each month

The Watchdog feature was crap to be fair. They simply stated the facts and said there were lots of angry customers interviewed by Martin .......

Just had an interesting conversation with a member of staff (informally) for HBOS who has said because less than 3% of their customers use an overdraft facility overall their customers will be better off with these new fees in place making everything fair! They also pointed out that beause I agree to their T&C regarding a change in T&C they aer allowed to change anything regardless! How mindless and brainwashed are these people?!!!!!

I have also received this letter, just a few days before receiving £63 in charges for going "slightly" over my arranged overdraft limit of £1200. The letter template, I'm sure will prove invaluable, but one question I have which I'm still unsure of is; If I arrange with the bank to repay my overdraft at my current interest rate and close the account, how (if they will at all) will they refund my bank charges which I have previously claimed for? Answers on a postcard...

Hi, Thanks to some excellent advice on this site my partner has so far challenged a fine issued by Civil Enfircement Ltd. The background to the fine is that their vehicle was being driven by a third party and parked in a KFC car park, overstaying the "allowed" time limit. CEL and their debt collection agencies sent numerous threatening letters, increasing the initial charge from £70 to £250, without acknowledging receipt of carefully structured letters (written using advice outlined on this forum). We decided it would be a good idea to send copies of the letters and a final letter refuting the claims made by recorded delivery to which we have received this response: The letter then goes on to quote a precedent: Civil Enforcement have kindly (!) agreed to offer the reduced rate if payed within the next 7 days. I'm fairly certain that by ignoring these fools they will eventually go away but my partner, being the registered keeper is worried that this will escalate to court proceedings with an increased charge. Any advice will be greatly appreciated 180