Still hoping for some help with the Experian carry on. Payments being taken now. Any advice out there?

Well, I was told it would be taken off on the second of September and so far they haven't taken ANY payment although the direct debits are in place. PLEASE can anyone give me any idea what they are up to:confused:

Well, have finally had financial statement from CAB formally accepted by these people and two direct debits arranged starting on the 2nd Sept, one for electricity and one for gas. It's been a complete nightmare and we have done everything by the book, according to what the Scottish Power website says for people having difficulty. What is really annoying me now, and I mean REALLY, is that when I phoned these people this morning to make the arrangment for the direct debits, they wanted a minimum payment of about £250 per account, and haver informed me that because I can't pay that, that I will have a mark against me with Experian, EVEN THOUGH I HAVE MADE AN ARRANGEMENT WITH THEM, which has only just started and which therefore has had no chance to be in default or anything. Is there anything that I can do about this? I am so p*ssed off about this. They have totally mismanaged everything and it is me that gets into bother for it. Advice someone please?

Only been with Npower for a month, so early days. Quite frankly they all seem to be bad as each other these days! Going to make sure though that they know that I am a vulnerable customer. I have quite a few medications that need to be kept refrigerated and a stairlift which these days is an absolute essential! All good fun...

thank you mattlamb. CAB told Scottish Power that it would be about a fortnight so they knew nothing would happen immediately. Going to go back and see them on Tuesday though just to see how they are getting on. Got a letter this morning from some collection agency that have now added on just over £100 to the debt for each account. Threatening must get in touch straight away etc etc. Not sent recorded or anything like that just in the post this morning. My hubby wanted to phone them but I said to just reply in writing. Am I right in this? I'm not really worried about this but I am concerned. We were bankrupt in 1999 and although it was completely painless, I do not want to repeat the process. We have been trying hard since then to build up a good credit rating and I will be very annoyed if this carry-on undoes all our good work. Any and all advice gratefully received.

Thank you all very much.

Signed - just had my renewal through "indefinitely" thought I could stop worrying

Any help out there at all? Have I done something wrong? Help!

Got a call today from a number which I have identified as belonging to the Lowell Group. Asked to speak to someone who does not and never has lived here. This person is one of my children who last lived with us two house moves ago. Am I under any obligation to tell them this should they phone again or to give them a forwarding address? My natural impulse is just to say not here and hang up. And what do I do if they keep on with this? Just looking on the black side Thank you.

Hi, new here so forgive any errors in etiquette please. We moved house in September last year and continued to get our electricity and gas from Scottish Power. We paid £96 by direct debit to cover both. In November they said they wanted to put it up to £128. Bit of a rise but fair enough. The direct debit was set up and first payment was supposed to be taken in Dec 2008. They never took from this direct debit and kept taking from the old one. End of April we had a letter saying that our monthly payment had been revised to £256 (approx) per month. Then two days later we had one saying it was staying at £96, then another two days later one giving the £256 again. I phoned them and they said this was correct. As there was no way that I could have that much money in the bank to pay this I canceled the direct debit. If I had not, then no-one else would have got paid and I would have had hundreds in bank charges! I also took steps then to change my supplier to n-power. I stopped communicating with them by phone and carried out the rest of the correspondence by email, keeping copies. We then had a letter saying that we were not being allowed to change suppliers and wanting their cash at £256 per month. We took this to the CAB who phoned them on our behalf. They offered to reduce the monthly payments from £256 to £240! Which was no good whatsoever. However the CAB did find out that the transfer to the new supplier was going ahead, which it did on the 19th of June for electricity and about ten days later for gas. We had final bills for these accounts at the start of July, but due to personal circumstances, did not get the chance to deal with this then. Then on the 25th July we had a letter from SPM Collections with the usual threats etc, demanding immediate payment of the full amount for both accounts. This comes to roughly £1100. I did not bother contacting them by phone but went down to CAB as soon as possible, which was the 28th - they are only part time in this area - and they phoned Scottish Power on our behalf. First phone call they got nowhere, but after several discussions they phoned again, spoke to someone who agreed to take monthly payments of £25 on each account, provided the CAB sent them a financial assessment. This is being done and we are also having a check done to see if we are entitled to any more benefits as well. However since then we are getting constant phone calls from SPM Collections. The first couple of times we answered and told them what had been agreed with Scottish Power and asked them to make a note on their system. This has had no effect. Today they have called five times. We no longer answer the calls as it comes through with an international calling prefix and no-one else calls us from abroad! Is there anything else we can do? To fill in the background a little, my husband is 62 and had a stent put in his heart due to angina in May. I am disabled and in receipt of DLA at the higher rate for both mobility and the care component. We are self-employed working with computers which is great when your mobility is limited, but we make very little money. However it is better than doing nothing. I have pulmonary hypertension, scleroderma, Raynaud's disease, telangectesia, palindromic rheumatism, osteo-arthritis, glaucoma, a damaged cornea in my left eye which makes the vision in it quite limited, and I have suffered from severe depression since the early eighties. Apart from that I'm fine. We get full housing and council tax benefit and have a motability car. We also get working tax credits. In the past three weeks we have additionally had two of our cats ill, with one having to be put to sleep, and my father who is 88 being rushed to hospital with a blood clot in his leg, although this has been resolved now. So it has all been a bit stressful and Scottish Power was down my list of priorities a wee bit. Any and all helpful suggestions gratefully recieved. Thank you. I should also add that I am to start chemotherapy later this month to help with the autoimmune illnesses and while I hope that it does not affect me too badly, I may not be too great for a while.

Mine's not even listed on the front page - had to go through a couple of other conditions that I have to find it!

As I understand it the short answer is no. Unless you get mobility before 65 you've had it. I believe the reasoning is that anyone over that age is supposed to have trouble getting about anyway, which of course is stupid, but that's nothing new.

I really feel for you. I have a son with very severe autism. He's 35 now. sadly his problems were so severe when he was young, that he had to go into long term fostering. Additionally at the time I had two other very young children, was a single parent, with an ex husband who gave up work so he would not have to give the children any money, oh and I was in such a state I was seeing a psychiatrist every week for three years. I know how difficult life can be with such a child, especially when they look so normal until they behave differently. I am severely disabled myself now, and have just received my DLA renewal, which they have now classified as "indefinite", but I have been in such a state of nerves over it, as it took over three months just to get the decision that I have been on Valium! Anyone who has lived for any length of time with an autistic child or adult will know how hard it is. My son lives in sheltered accommodation and has to have 24 hr care. I truly wish you and your son all the best and all the luck (not that you should need luck) for the tribunal. You are a remarkable woman and if your son could know what you do for him he would be very proud to have you as his mother.