And another thing.....(in case it has any relevance) On the PCN it states that the contravention is "Parked in a car park without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket or vouch or parking clock" - she had her disabled badge clearly showing together with her "time clock".

Hi All, My Wife has been issued (on 23rd November) by Bolton Council with a PCN for parking in a standard car parking space as a disabled driver. She did not read the signs correctly and did not realise that she had to pay if she was parked in a "none disabled" space. Admittedly, there are a number of signs that have been put up around the car park, but in the car park "terms and conditions" sign, there is no mention of the condition requiring disabled drivers to pay if in a "standard" space. The disabled car parking spaces were full at the time she left the car. I emailed the council on the 23rd November requesting a copy of all documents / photos / video footage (from body worn cameras) etc and have not received anything except an automatic acknowledgement, and a "Read Receipt" and I chased them up on 12th January as we have still not heard anything from them. Where do we stand on this?? Is there anything we could appeal on in this situation? Pictures of the car park, signs and a photocopy of the ticket is available on request. Many Thanks, Ste

They wrote to you so you have IN WRITING from them that they will not charge you...... If they insist that they are going to charge you, then in my opinon I (personally) would give them 2 options: 1 - Free Handsets or 2 - See you in court where you can show a print out of the email to the judge and he will instruct them that there is to be no charge........ Make sure you take legal advice before you do anything though, as this is just what I would do! To everyone else: If this is not legally correct feel free to correct me!

I agree with this, however this would need to be checked. It may not be the fault of the bank but you are raising a concern with them. I recently had an unauthorised transaction out of my RBS account and they used the same line with me - my argument with the bank was that the transaction was not valid and therefore not authorised. In your case, you have authorised a transaction, but in my view the transaction is invalid as the value is incorrect. You authorised a payment to them and they took a much larger amount than was authorised - if this was done over the phone then it could have been a fault on the person who you were speaking to. I would definatley get onto the bank again - they will probably give you the same line; do not back down; IT IS NOT YOUR JOB to prove the transaction is not valid; it is the banks job to prove that it is valid if you are disputing it. At the same time it may be worth asking for the contact details of the banking ombudsman and asking what the banks complaint procedure is. I always find a strongly worded letter can (in most cases) work wonders. Good luck once again. Ste

Was this taken by direct debit? If so then this will be covered by the banks direct debit guarantee - contact your bank immediatley and explain the situation and they should refund it straight away. It may help to have a copy of your bill from Orange to hand and actually go into your local bank branch for instant results. If it was taken by debit card then you may be able to report them for theft if you have not authorised this payment. If it was taken by credit card then your credit card should offer some protections - I forget exactly what the protections are, but contact them and explain. Make sure you take the name and extension number of each person you speak to so you have traceability. Good luck! Ste

I have spoken to my local council, and if you pay them directly then this DOES NOT include any Bailiffs charges etc; I am unsure if this differs between different councils...... Mine is Bolton Council. Cheers.

Hi All, I have a problem with Jacobs Baliffs. They came to my home after I left for work one morning, and banged on the door until my wife opened it. She had just been about to get into the shower so was in her dressing gown when she opened the door. The agent pushed his way past her, wrote down 3 items on a Notice of Siezure of goods and inventory, and told her to sign at the bottom of the paperwork. Point 1. This debt was passed to the bailiffs prior to the final bill from a previous property being sent to us from the local council. Point 2. The agent was never asked into our property; he pushed his way in past my disabled wife. Point 3. The items listed on the notice of siezure are on HP, and we do have the paperwork to prove it. Some of the details noted are incorrect - ie they have listed a TV as a 25 inch TV and it is a 32 inch TV. Point 4. The bailiffs agreed a payment plan with my wife of a payment of £50.00 on 19th November 2010, then a next payment of £100 on my pay date - the final day of December 2010. Due to an error on the part of my employer not paying my wages correctly, I was unable to make the agreed payment on 31st December. I have telephoned the bailiffs office and was told that the payment due date had been inputted as 10th December, which was NOT what we had agreed to. We are also paying £170 per month to catch up on another bill for council tax - but paying direct to the council. We asked the council to write to us when we moved to arrange payment of the bill outstanding, which they agreed to, but then sent it directly to the bailiffs because by the time they had calculated the bill it had passed the billing date! The council have agreed it should not have been sent to the bailiffs, but they "cannot do anything about it". Can I pay direct to the council and get these idiots off my back? I really do not want to pay these muppets anything but am quite willing to pay direct to the council. Can I refuse to allow them access to my property if I have a receipt from the council stating that payment has been made? Can I complain to the council & the bailiffs for their conduct so far? Many Thanks in advance for your help!

Copied from Creditexpert website..... "An account is in default when you have not been able to keep to the terms of a credit agreement. We keep a record of these accounts for six years from the date the lender decided you had broken the terms of the agreement. The lender will have told you that the account was to be classed as being in default. The details about that account will show how much money you owed on the date when the agreement was broken (the defaulted date) and how much money you now owe. It will reflect any payments you have made to the organisation since the agreement was broken. When the account is paid in full, the information will be updated to read ‘Balance Satisfied’. If the terms gone away, debt assigned, deceased, recourse, voluntary termination, arrangement to pay, debt management programme, credit protection insurance claim or account query appear on one of your accounts, refer to our Glossary for a full explanation" This suggests to me that arrangement to pay is an acceptable entry (at least with the Creditexpert service)??? If I am wrong, please correct me. Ste

Hi, I have gone through this...... PM Me if you still need help! I know it can be a nightmare! Hang in there; it will improve. Ste

Hi All, I have two entries on my credit reference files which are from a debt which is at least two years old. The debt is not SB. I have moved house since taking out the account, and have written to JD on a number of occasions to advise them of this. The last letter that I remember sending (29/12/09) was sent recorded, to the debt collection agency (BCW) and also a copy to JD head office. After checking my CR file again today, still no change, so I checked the post office receipts against the website - they are both still "being processed for delivery"! Shall I send another one to JD? I am quite willing to come to an arrangement to pay, as long as they change my credit file to show an arrangement is in place. Any suggestions gratefully received! Thanks in advance!

Thanks once again! It may take me a few days to dig it all out, but will update this when I have done. The prepayment was a key type meter which was a nightmare to find a retailer who was willing to top it up by the way! Like a right idiot, I wrote down the final meter reading on an envelope, and then promptly used the envelope! What a plonker! I have not yet sent back a copy of the tenancy agreement, I wanted to post on here first to see what the best course of action was. I only spoke to them on the phone about the faulty meter, so never got anything into writing. Many Thanks.

Hi, Thanks for your help. I have proof of the meter start reading and date from the tenancy agreement, signed by the letting agent as well as me. I requested the meter be changed as soon as I received the large bill; I was told it was not policy to change meter "just for the sake of it". At this I made it clear that I believed the meter to be faulty and was told the only way of getting a replacement meter was to go onto prepayment, but I would have to be in debt for that to happen. At that point, I had been making payments by direct debit regularly, so I was not in arrears. There was never any offer of checking the meter. Many Thanks,

Yes. I moved out in November 2009, but Scottishpower are trying to charge me until Jan 2010

The funny thing that gets me is that the bill went from £1200 and suddenly dropped to £834 and there was no mention of the £1200 again. Are the just picking figures out of the air?

Thanks, wasn't sure weather or not to generate an extra thread! Cheers,

Hi All, Yet again, Another Past Due "Customer"; I will give you a run down on my situation. (Apologies for the length of the post, it is summarised below!) I moved into a property and took out an account with Scottish Power for electric. I then received a bill for over £1200 for 3 months electric usage. I advised them by telephone that the meter must be faulty, and their reply was "we will not change the meter, you must have used that amount". The long and short of it, they refused to change the meter until I was in debt; so I cancelled the direct debit, and waited. After a while, they agreed to change the meter for a prepayment key meter, with the provisio that a payment of £5 per week was to be taken automatically when using the key to pay for the debt. Please see next section for a direct copy of text from their email: (some details have been amended to try to remove identifying stuff!) "From the XX November 2008 when we gained the property supply to the XX May 2009 a credit meter was on site. The cahrges for this period total £834.XX. During this period you made four paymenst of £49.XX each and a further paymenst of £122.XX. This gave a debt outstanding to the prepaymenst meter installation date of £515.XX. Should you dispute this balance you will need to contact the general call centre on 0845 027 2700. The engineer added £5.00 credit to your new meter and this left a total debt to be repaid of £520.XX. You were issued an invoice to the meter exchnage date showing a debt of £435.XX. This invoices reflects your charges on the credit meter however at the time the invoice was issued there were £80.XX key paymenst on the account plus the £5.00 credit added by the engineer to the new meter giving a true debt of £520.XX as detailed above. No debt recovery rate was set on the meter and therefore the balance has not reduced. The charges on the key meter from the XX May 2009 to the XX January 2010 total £350.XX. The meter has recorded you purchasing £335.XX during the same period - this confirms no debt recovery was added to the meter. The account has been closed to an accuarte final read for the XX january 2010. The final balance is £496.XX and this reflects the meter being £1X.XX in the emergancy credit facility as at the XX January 2010." I have now received a letter from Past Due demanding £744.XX, oh and a gesture of goodwil are offering to lower it to £558.XX! Postpay: I make it 5 months at £834 = £166.8 per month. Prepay: I make it 7 months at £350 = £50 per month. Note: I did not make any changes to the amount of time lights / boiler / TV / cooker / washing machine were on etc. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to go from here? I have asked Scottish Power to reconsider their demand, and have advised Past Due that the debt is in dispute. Thanks for your assistance in advance,

Bump! A very useful post.....

Does paypal not give you some sort of cover against this sort of issue? How are you paying paypal?? -- if it is credit card, does this open up the credit card company for any liabilities? Just a couple of thoughts..... Ste

The only other one I found useful was their data protection officer; if they start recording adverse entries on your credit file: Data Controller: WELCOME FINANCIAL SERVICES LTD KINGSTON HOUSE CENTRE 27 BUSINESS PARK WOODHEAD ROAD BIRSTALL BATLEY WF17 9TD As provided by the information commisioners office search facility. Ste

I might sound paranoid, but they managed to loose 8 of my letters..... 2 of which I took into the local branch, handed to the manager and got a written receipt for! Ste

If I was in your position, I would send off a subject access request letter (with a £10 cheque which is the usual fee I believe), and make it clear in the letter that the cheque is only to be used for the subject access request and is not to be used as a part payment on the loan or insurance. If they do not answer within a number of days then write to them again. MAKE SURE YOU USE RECORDED DELIVERY for all letters you send to them. Make sure you tell them that you are disputing the account and keep a copy of all receipts for letters that the post office give you and keep a copy of all letters - from you to them and also from them to you. Good Luck! Ste P.S. This is what I would do...... Make sure you get more advice before doing anything and check anything I say with someone more qualified in this area. This is only my opinion.

I had loads of problems with Welcome Financial Services, please see thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/credit-reference-agencies/203042-welcome-financial-credit-reference.html for the address of their data controller and write to them directly - "go for the jugular" as I have heard someone say on this site. Welcome do not give any leeway when you are having problems, so if they are having "problems" and "finding" paperwork with a signature you do not recognise then you need to do as the previous poster has mentioned and ask them for a SAR, and then keep a copy of everything they send you and also of eveything ou send them. Also, a very important note: use recorded delivery, otherwise they have a nasty habit of "loosing" mail. Even if your recorded mail gets returned a couple of times, stick to it and persevere and you will come out of it in a better position. Good luck and keep us posted! Ste

I had a problem with Welcome Financial Services who defaulted my account some time after my bankruptcy. After I sent them a signed for letter, they back dated the account which removed the default and changed the history of the account to show a good payment history; so yes it is possible, but you have to be very specific what you ask for and make sure you send the letter as a signed for letter. They should change the status to show as having an agreement in place, but I am unsure if this is enforcable, so it might be worth being nice to them! If anyone else can offer any suggestions or corrections to this then please feel free...... Cheers, Ste

I don't believe it! its all sorted! Many Thanks to all who helped! Ste

Hi All, After working away for a couple of weeks I came back to find the following letter from Welcome Finance..... START LETTER: I write with reference to the above agreement and the related account information recorded at Experian, Equifax and Call Credit by Welcome Financial Services Limited. I am pleased to confim that we have requested that Experian, Equifax and Call Credit to amend the account information to show that the account was settled on [DATE 2007], as per your discharge from bankruptcy. I hope you are satisfied with the outcome of our investigations. Please feel free to use this letter as proof of the amendment request. ........... etc END LETTER I have now sent a copy of this letter to all 3 of the credit reference agencies.... whats the bets that it takes them a while to sort it out??? I have only been battling this incorrect entry since 2007! How long should I give them to respond to this? I put the letters in the post today. Many Thanks in advance, Ste:eek: