Hi Padja, I did just that and thats exactly what it was but if I had not noticed they would have still taken the full payment and said absolutely nothing about it.

Hi everyone, My mother is severely mentally impaired and I look after her affairs. I was in hospital for a while and her gas and electricity bill was outstanding. I paid it when I got out of hospital. However I noticed on her latest bill there is a charge of £43.78 for a Collections Visit Charge on both her electricity bill and gass bill. A total of £87.44 0n top of her bill. I was pretty shocked at this I assume that someone had come to the door looking for payment. My mother cant and wouldnt open the door to anyone and the care team said that no one came when they were in so my question is what proof do I have that anyone actually came to the door? Has anyone any advice on where I should go with this, its outrageous to do this to woman in her 80's. By the way I have already told them all about the situation several times.

One of my dogs became diabetic. He needed 2 shots of insulin a day. I asked the vet if i could do the blood testing myself and he said no. I noticed thatwhen he did it that the glucometer was the same as a human one you can buy in Boots. I did a bit of research on the internet and sure enough you can do the tests yourself. The test at the vet alone was £45 then the appointment fee and this needed done weekly..GULP! I saved a fortune doing it myself, not only that you can regulate the dogs blood sugar levels more accurately with daily tests. I managed to kep his blood realyl well regulated, this would never have happened with weekly or monthly tests

My latest problem: In Novemebr 2009 I paid a deposit on getting some printing done...a small ad in a magazine for my work. I am self employed part time/carer rest of time. So money isnt plentiful. The ad was not as promised it was garbage. I refused to pay the balance until it was sorted and redone. They bombarded me with calls and threatening letters for a year but I stood my ground. They are a massive company by the way. I just noticed tonight that over the past 2 months (which is over a year later) they have been taking money off my card in small and various amounts using their parent companys details. I was shocked because basically they took it without my permission. I called the bank, its one of those accounts with a prepaid mastecad attached that you can transfer money onto as needed. Can anything be done about this? Thanks

Your pup is gorgeous by the way.

I totally agree with this statement, I have 3 dogs all pedigrees , rescue mind you but I love them all. I would NEVER have returned the pup if I was that lady.! I read through all the comments today and you did everything right, bending over backwards to be helpful. Good for you I am glad it went this way!

I have a contract with O2 and if the monthly bill is getting high it texts me this message and I will print it word for word: "We have noticed that your phone usage is unusually high. We might have to restrict your service. To avoid this call the customer service number on your bill" Surely 02 as a responsible company that realises that peoples phones get stolen have in place systems to recognize the sudden massive usage and auto restrict it. Banks do it, credit card companies block cards with unusual transactions. This is ridiculous!

Thanks seq, i am really mad about their lying and saying that I had put money into the account when I had shut the account years previously. I was also really angry that they were sending me threatening letters of a doorstep visit with a fake PO box number and Motherwell Postcode on the back to make me think that someone was local and just round the corner about to appear at my door at any moment. I know it was fake because ii put the postcode in the sat nave and took a drive out and it was an old run down industrial yard. Its a complete disgrace that these people do this they are disgusting and I really dont want to let this go just with a letter saying that they had closed the account when there was none to close! Ive never checked my credit record but will do so and see if they have put anything on it.

Darn, i can's seem to get this right,. I will just type what it says. Dear Mr xxxxxxxxxx Our Ref: xxxxxxxxxx RE: Lowell Portfolio1 Ltd We apoligise for the delay in responding to the query you raised with us. We have been making every effort to contact the original client to resolve this matter on your behalf. After reveiwing the account and in light of the timescales it has taken to achieve a satisfactory response, we are prepared to take a commercial view in relation to this matter and as a gesture of goodwill and strictly without admission of liability are prepared to close the account. We will ensure your credit file will be ammended to reflect this outcome, if indeed this is applicable to you. We trust you will find this satisfactory and that this matter is now closed. Yourse sincerely xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx Customer Services Anyone any idea what this means? Does it mean that they did contact the RBOS or did the RBOS not get back to them? I'm still kindda mad about this especially as they harrassed me for a year about it and lied through their back teeth by writing to me saying that it wasn't statute barred as I had made a payment into the account on 10thJ anuary 2005 which was a pack of lies as I had closed the account over 5 years before. I was gonna write to them and make a formal complaint about this and demand an apology and if I didn't get it take it to trading standards. Is it worthwhile or a waste of time. Can I do anything about them if they leave negative ratings on my credit file??????????????? The main thing is I wanted to thank you very very much for all your help, the suggestions you made really worked. It was well worth the long wait and fighting it something I might not have done on my own!

Hi everyone, its taken a while but I got a result with this case. As I mentioned a few months ago I sent the template statute barred letter. They wrote a couple of times and I completely ignored their trash. Finally I got this letter through trying to scan it but not haveing great success. Hope it comes out ok.

Hi Ida, many thanks Im getting so tired of all of this and as usual your advice is spot on. In the letter they said that the "Limitation Act 1980 section 5 is not applicable in your case" Correct me if I am wrong but doesnt the Limitation act 1980 only apply to England?

Hi Yanni, Thank you for your explanation I agree that RBS havent a clue what they are doing. This whole issue was caused by their incompetence in dealing with investigating the theft from my account. I have a question, I was told in a letter from Lowells filth that they had bought the debt so it belongs to them now. Should I send them the SAR as I know for a fact that they will have no proof of this claim that they make about me making a payment in January 2005?

Lowell Financial for outright lying and dishonesty.

This is unbelievable! I finally got a response to the 3rd letter I sent! They claim they received it on the 18th March. They say that they will contact the RBS for information to support their claim. I will scan it later but Lowells then say that it is not statute barred as I made a payment to the account on the 10th January 2005 which is a COMPLETE pack of lies! I have made no payments whatsoever as it wasnt my money stolen from the account. I had not uded the account in over 10 years! In addition they are so stupid as not to realise that if this was the case the 10th January 2005 is still 5 years before they claim they received my letter and withing the statute barred time period in Scotland. Are these people allowed to lie like this? Any advice as to how I should proceed.

This made my day!

Many thanks Ozzy It was good to hear that the same applies to this.

Many thanks Kiptower. I was not sure if it was the same.

Well, I've gone from not knowing anything about debt collection industry a few months ago to having regular dealings with them now. Thank God for this forum! The latest thing is that I received a letter from a company called 1st credit demanding £83 they said I owed on a mobile phone contract away back in 1997.... I haven't a clue what its about? I did have a contract with T-Mobiel or whatever they were called then but that was done and duseted many moons ago and I havent heard a word from them since. Does anyone know if mobile phone debts covered by the statute barred laws as reading in the forum I see that they are not covered by the Consumer credit act? Thanks

Spoke to soon. 8.30 pm tonight the phone rang, picked it up, long silence then this what sounded like a young blokes voice "Hello, can you confirm your address please"? I said "nope i am not confirming any personal details over the phone to some random bloke that calls my home asking for personal details" He asked "are you H... P......."? Me: Im not telling you who i am... anyway I wound him up for about 5 minutes when he finally admitted hes from the Bank of Scotland. Chasing up the same bloke that Wescott was. Going to call VM and change number in morning, they do it immediately free of charge if you give them a good enough reason.

Thanks for that advice, this is one situatiuon that I dealt with by telephone i have since learned from the forum NO phone calls everything in writing. I did call the Society of Sherriffs Officers and Messengers at Arms but the guy said that they had no powers whatsoever!

Hi Surfer, I had the business account for several years after the money was stolen from the personal account It was a small limited company. I closed it 3 years ago when I went solo and part time. I assumed that as all was well with my dealings on the business account that they had sorted it out. I had put a stop on the personal account when I discovered what had happened. I spoke to fairly new friend recently about it and he laughed and said "If you knew what went on behind the counters in branches you would be shocked".

Hi everyone thanks to the good advice in this forum I was able to sort this problem out and nip it in the bud immedately. As I have mentined before my elderly mum has dementia she lives with me. Despite the telephone being registered with the TPS she kept getting calls from call centres which distressed her as she couldnt cope. I called the telephone people and they kindly gave me a new number free of charge and made it ex directory. I was in the kitchen and the phone rang last week and i heard her repeating a guys name. By the time I walked in she had hung up which is what she does when she gets confused. She couldnt tell me ehat the call was about. Anyway I thought "hmm strange but oh well" Yesterday however the same thing happened and i heard her repeating the same name and i rushed in, but she had hung up. So i did 1471 and guess what, WESCOTT! Yeuk! I called them back and informed the CS agent that the person that they were after did not live here and that I had gotten the number a few months earlier. I thought "Thats sorted it" An hour later it rang again and I heard mum repeating this guys name they were looking for. Again I did 1471 and asked to speak to a supervisor. The arrogant pig refused saying that they cant sort it until I gave them my mum and my name. I absolutely refused to give them any names and just kept saying over and over " I wish to speak to a manager or supervisor please" Even when I threatened to immediately call the FSA the kid refused! So after the 11th time i said " Look this is the 12th time I am asking to speak to a supervisor are you refusing"? He said "yes, I wil sort it if you give me your name" I hung up and called back, the same conversation went on and i hung up repeatedly with another 3 customer agents i got this bloke and i said to him as soon as he spoke, "This conversation is being recorded and if you refuse to put me through to a supervisor immediately I will then hang up and make a formal complaint to trading Standards immediately about a very vaery serious offence you are commiting" He put me through and the supervisor asked for my name and i told him he was not getting my name because it was none of his business and that if he did not Immediately stop these calls I would make a formal complaint. He was very apologetic and was furious that his cretins had not put me through to him. he called me back and said that what had happened was that the number i got for mum had belonged to this other guy that they were looking for and that the phone company recycles other peoples numbers after 6 months. He promised that the number was removed from their automatic dialler. Lets hope it over. But thanks again because of you guys I kindda have the guts now to tell them to get stuffed! I am shocked at how threatening almost to the point of being menacing these people are allowed to be even to people that are completely not the person they are after..

Yet another ongoing problem has raised its head. Away back in 2004 my mother moved house to another local authority area. Despite my carefully informing everyone (By fax, by recorded delivery and by telephone) Glasgow city council charged her for the month that she had moved and so did the new council. Can you believe this? It took me 18 visits to GCC finance offices to sort this out. I took 18 afternoons off work. At the last visit way back in 2004 I actually said in a very loud voice to the rather obnoxious receptionist who refused point blank to let me see a supervisor " DO I have to get up on this reception stark naked screaming my head off to get you people to sort this out"? one of the supervisors heard me and took me into a wee room and I thought that was that. She promised it was sorted. My mum has dementia and I gave them my work contact number to call me about it. They did and said it was sorted. It wasn't though because, last year I started getting letters at work about my mums alleged one months council tax, they were addrerssed to my mum with my work address on the window label but inside it was in reference to my mums old address. Despite my calls it persisted and a guy from Scott and co turned up at my work recently. Looking for my mother. They are idiots, I work in an industrial area, I told the guy "does it look like my mother lives here"? He agreed that it was not the address where they claimed the council tax was due. Anyway to cut this short, it appears that GCC got my work address from the phone number and gave Scott and co that address so they pester me and even though they keep saying, ok we will sort it, every month its letters out and a threat of a visit. I said to them look, its not even my alleged debt! They totally agree yet they say because GCC gave them my work address they come out. It's mental because they say they can't pursue me for it anyway as it actually is nothing to do with me. I am sick to death of it, My mum now lives with me she has severe demetia which as you will know is quite demanding in itself and I work part time. I'm exhausted with all this kind of crap. I have not given them my home address. Does anyone have any idea what I can do about this?

Hi friends, Just thought I would update you on this problem, despite my letter to Lowells they passed it on to Hampton legan and now on to RED, The letters arrive with a ficticious Bellshill address on the back. I know it is ficticious because I went to the postcode using sat nav and its a really run down industrial estate with no specific building with the postcode. I will send yat another recorded delivery letter to red today and let you know what happens. I HATE their guts!

Hi friends , I decided to leave it a while before I got the recommended template letter off about this being statute barred, ( things mental in life as well) I think I am getting brave since I found the forum and all the great advice. Anyway the DCA have sent a letter a week, with various offers to pay this fake debt off. The latest was that they offered to let me pay the £9500 off at £50 a month. To me this shows that they know this is statute barred and they are chancing their arm coz that would take about 16 years when it is paid off!! Anyway Im sending the letter in tomorrow recorded now will let you know what happens