This is infuriating. We would be due a refund of around £6,900 from this but we'll get nothing. Our unsecured element was sucked into our Trust Deeds and as such any refund will almost certainly be offset against the amount we did not pay back to NRAM. That in itself I don't have a problem with (it would be a bit cheeky really) but what's infuriating is that if our debt was £6K less we could probably have cleared our debts with a DMP rather than the Trust Deed and the years of grief that came along with it.

I had a claims management company acting on my behalf a few years back after an accident which the other party was to blame - my insurer (elephant) do not handle these kinds of claims themselves. When I got a copy of the invoices after it was settled they had charged the other party's insurer (Direct Line) £185 per day for my hire car, an Alfa Romeo 156. For perspective that's more than what Avis would charge for an E Class Merc or double what they charge for a Passat which is reasonably comparable. The whole claim including courtesy car was more than my car's value.

They were applied to the account at the end of July 2009, three weeks after I had asked Nationwide to close the account. I think the original charges referred to DDs which went unpaid on first request the month before - I had no issues with the recipients of the DD so I must have put money in for their second DD request that month.

I might be fixing this, but I'd appreciate some feedback if possible. Background: In August 2008 I entered into a Trust Deed. Because some of the debts were with Abbey National (as was) I had to get myself a new bank for a current account. I went to Nationwide as they appeared to have a good reputation; well there's a new lesson every day I suppose. After a year of struggling along with two basic bank accounts (one was joint with my wife which we used to manage our household bills) and trying to get by using cash and a prepaid debit card only it was time to change and Barclays offered me a debit card with their basic account. After getting all my direct debits changed over I transferred the remaining few pence and asked Nationwide to close the accounts as they now each had balances of £0. Nationwide wrote back refusing to do so saying there were pending charges - two unpaid DDs from the previous month (I think) on each account (charges of £30 a time) which had not yet been applied. I then began the usual process of disputing the validity of the charges using guidance from this site. I even used the tack of asking them how their charges were calculated as they claimed they were based on cost and not punitive - the irony of that was that they sent a letter saying that they were "open and transparent about charges" but wouldn't provide the cost detail as it was "commercially sensitive". Such charges on my new account with Barclays would have been £8. every month during this dispute period Nationwide put a further £30 unauthorised overdraft charge, and interest on to the -ve balance. This dragged on until I gave them an ultimatum and offered them £16 (based on paying the level of Barclays charge for the original two unpaid DDs) without accepting the liability for them. They accepted this and marked my credit file with a partial settlement from March 2011, preceded by over a year of sustained arrears markers. I have recently read the ICO's publication: “Principles for the Reporting of Arrears, Arrangements and Defaults at Credit Reference Agencies” which clearly states that I wrote to Nationwide just the other day to request that they remove the defaults as the balance they showed was indeed only made up of charges and interest on those charges. Is this right?

My trustee appointed a PPI reclaim "specialist" company to look into this for him / me. They were utterly useless and took 8 months to reclaim the only PPI I'd had Alliance & Leicester forced me to take life cover on a personal loan). They also kept 40% of the PPI refund before giving the rest to my trustee. They must have phoned me and written to me over twenty times before they actually made any progress.

Is that the same with Trust Deeds? I just received my discharge two weeks ago and it will be six years this September since it became protected - it was extended to allow time to cover the property equity without forcing me to sell my home.

I had PPI on a Northern Rock mortgage I took out in early 2001. It was a fixed monthly amount with a 3rd party company rather than NR themselves and I don't have their details, but I still have a letter from NR with the account number, and I still have an NR mortgage, although it's separate from the old one which was settled in late 2005. It's was at NR's pushing that I agreed to it though so it must have been a company they dealt with often. I do remember realising after a few years that the policy was rubbish but it's only recently I realised it was mis-sold. I don't have any details of what I'd paid and I'm with a different bank too so cannot trace it though old statements. What's the starting point for this? Do I demand that NR investigate it? Or just ask them for any details they hold?

Cheers. That's probably why they are not answering my request as they know what's coming next! A wee letter to their complaints office methinks now!

Last year I recieved a replacement debit card from an online only Alliance & Leicester account which I had long since stopped using. I cut it up and returned it requesting that the account be closed and any balance sent to me by cheque, I was expecting less than £1. What I got was a reply telling me that it could not be closed as there was an overdraft balance of around £100, although this is within the £250 authorised limit they want it repaid before closing the account. Because the balance is within allowed limits they'd never requested its repayment before. I do not receive posted statements for the account, just e-mail reminders that my account is available to view. I also cannot remember when the last time I accessed the account was - I'd guess that it's about 7 years ago, it's certainly over 6 anyway - and I have requested this of Santander (who bought up A&L a while back) although they have not yet answered this request. I genuinely cannot remember when I last used the account at all, and I genuinely cannot figure out how the account became overdrawn. I asked for details of the transaction(s) which took it from credit to debit balance, and again they have not responded - well they responded by sending me a printed statement for the last 6 months, not very useful when I'm looking for transactions from 6 years ago! Would the last time I accessed the account be considered the last time the debt (if indeed there is one) was acknowledge? If so, assuming it was indeed over 5 years ago (the Scottish limit), could I reject it as statute barred? I was clear when I wrote to them that the requests I made were not an acknowledgement of any debt.

Santander wrote to me, without any prompting on my part, asking if I was likely to reclaim my PPI. Given that I was told that it was a condition of the loan it seemed to me to be a no-brainer that I was due a refund. Lo and behold they have offered me pretty much what I'd have expected within a few days of me returning my form to them - about £800. But: I defaulted on the account (along with my other unsecured debt) at about the half-way stage when my finances fell apart and I entered into a protected trust deed. Santander say on their refund offer letter that anything they are due to return to me will be used to offset the outstanding balance of said loan, which is significantly more than the refund due. Even if they did not do this, under the terms of the PTD I'd be obliged to declare and pay that to my trustee anyway. The thing is I am due to be discharged from my PTD before the end of the year, which raises two questions: 1. Would I be right in thinking that on the date that I am discharged my previous unsecured debts become written off and no longer in existance, other than as a 6 year stain on my credit file? Or indeed should that have happened on the date my PTD became protected (in which case I shouldn't still get 6 monthly statements of arrears)? 2. Is there a legal issue with me neither accepting nor rejecting this offer until my PTD is no longer in force, then attempting to reclaim this mis-sold PPI then? I know that it sounds like I'm trying to have my cake and eat it, but I am working hard to rebuild my financial position which hit rock bottom a couple of years ago and this would help, even if I have to wait months for it. The other PPI question I have is: I've seen lots of conflicting advice on time limits including 6 years since signing the PPI form and 3 years from becoming aware of the mis-selling. I had PPI on a Northern Rock mortgage which I took out just over 10 years ago, but it is only on reading about PPI issues over the last year or so that I've become aware that it too was mis-sold. Would I be eligible to claim for this? Likewise I had Barclaycard PPI dating back about 16 years for which I could say the same thing. Is this worth pursuing? Would it be beneficial to speak to one of these companies who advertise on the radio / tv?

My wife and I have trust deeds with (nominally, I suppose) about 20 months still to run. Her dad has just come in to a bit of money and wants to share a fair bit of it out among his kids, which is rather nice of him. He's thinking of about £10,000 for each of them. Now I know that if he just gave the missus ten grand then our trustee would probably take the lot, or at the very least least a significant proportion, and that would be a bit pointless since even if that happened it would be unlikely to change our monthly payment or our equity contribution. He knows this as well as I do, so has suggested doing something with the money instead and being sure that the money does not come into our possession at any time. He has always said that our house could do with a conservatory, and I tend to agree with him, so is suggesting buying one for us. At the beginning of our trust deed our house was valued and that valuation is what's to be used when we have to make a final contribution from our equity (about £15K). We were told that having the valuation done at the start would protect us from market-led house value rises. Would I be right to assume that if the value were increased by something we had done then a new valuation (and a bigger equity contribution by us) could be forced upon us? I know we have to declare "gifts" and "newly acquired assets" to our trustee, although a conservatory is not exactly something that we can be forced to sell! I'd sooner just not accept a gift of this value than have to give away a large proportion of its value.

By accepting the fixed penalty you have admitted guilt anyway, just the same as a fixed penalty speeding ticket. If you don't pay the £80, you could be cited to court for non-payment of a fine and then it will become a criminal matter too. The fine is due to the crown, not to the shop. On the other hand assuming that B&Q took back the "stolen" screwdriver and it was undamaged and still in perfectly saleable condition then they have no loss to recover from you. Civil recovery could only be applied if they could pin you as a regular shoplifter or had damaged the goods in order to try and steal them, such as folk who rip off security tags, etc. Hindsight is wonderful, but you could have argued the mistake in court as to commit this type of crime there must be an element of intent. I think it's too late to take that road now though.

My trustee sends me a form every so often to update him on my financial position. It's basic info such as asking if I'm still employed (and by whom), what bank accounts I have and their balances, etc. It has a list for regular monthly expenditure on it which is failry predictable for things like my gas bill, car insurance etc. What I'm unsure of is how much I can reasonably claim to spend on my irregular expenditure, thing such as food, clothing, clothing for my child, gifts and having a (limited) social life. What I put on the form was a rough average of what I could see from my bank statements plus a wee bit more to allow for cash purchases, but is this normal? Is there a recommended figure for what's an acceptable "allowance"?

I wasn't sure which section to put this in, so.... Wipe Credit Cards, Challenge Mortgage Agreements, Challenge unenforceable credit agreements For what appears to be a "refundable if unsuccessful" fee they believe they can wipe out your pre-2007 debts. Would I be right in thinking this is just the same as doing a CCA request, finding out the agreement is unenforceable and just blankly refusing to pay up?

I've had letters from them - I have a Trust Deed and they have been trying to collect my Abbey Overdraft which will be included in it. I wrote to them to let them know my situation and that I would not be contacting them again. They wrote back requesting a copy of my deed of trust and I ignored their letter. I haven't heard from them for over a month now, I'm glad to say!

We're still new to this, and I cannot find anything already on the forum. My wife and I both have trust deeds protected late last year. 1. She has an RBoS account which is not subject to the PTD as it is usually in credit, with a rolling £200 overdraft facility which is normally used. She is considering a reclaim of bank charges action which would likely amount to a couple of hundred - she has not yet made a subject access request to work it out. Would being subject to a PTD affect her right to do this? Also if they paid up, would she then have to turn it all over to the trustee? (which would make the claim pretty pointless I suppose) 2. I have an Abbey account, and we have a joint Abbey account too. They're both currently frozen as the overdrafts on them are subject to the PTD. A reclaim of charges on these accounts would be quite significant as several charges were made most months for quite a while. Would it be out of order to try to reclaim these? Could Abbey just refuse to deal with me because of the PTD? Likewise could Abbey off-set the claim against the outstanding overdraft? Even if they did I suspect that it would still be net in my favour. 3. (Finally) I am still receiving letters and phone calls from DCA's (on my debts only, not my wife's). Letters I can handle, they get filed and ignored but phone calls are starting (?) to annoy me - I don't want to be explaining to people I'm with why I keep ignoring phone calls. How do I get rid of them? Any DCAs who wrote to me I replied stating my position and that it's the only time I would be contacting them, and asked them firmly to leave me alone. Some of them seem to have done so, but not all. Two have written back asking for a copy of my TD. I have not replied to them because I believe that it's a private document between me, my trustee and my creditors, and not the business of any DCA. Am I right to refuse this? Thanks for your help. We're slowly getting used to everything this PTD means to us.

It became protected last August, although payments never began until the turn of the year. I'm paying £420 per month, although I've just submitted a new income / expenditure declaration so I don't know if that will affect it. I'll approach my trustee with it although I do feel a bit cheeky as I've only made a couple of payments so far.

I maybe should have added that I have a toddler at home in case that could influence a decision.

I have a protected trust deed which seems to be working out for me so far. The trouble is that my central heating boiler is in the late stages of packing up, diagnosed independently by 3 heating engineers who have each quoted me £1,600 - £1,800 for replacement. With the spare income in the household it would take about 2 years to save up for this! Does anyone know if there is any leeway to allow me to reduce my PTD payments to help me save for this? It has been difficult over the winter cold, but as it's getting worse I'm having trouble maintaining sufficient hot water - I can't even run a full bath now, although thankfully I have an electric shower. I own the house (on a mortgage) so there's no issue with landlords either.