Hi and thanks for the response. To be honest I don't think HSBC ever did accept I was in hardship. They asked for proof and an I&E, which I sent them, and which they subsequently lost (or claimed never to have received). I've since re-sent the I&E and have spent so much time trying to get them to see that asking for funds (via the DD) from an account that was already at it's overdraft limit and therefore was going to be refused was a fruitless exercise that was going to get neither of us anywhere at all, but in their totally inept and arrogant defiance they STILL insisted that they couldn't cancel the DD ... so I took the attitude of "stuff 'em" and let them continually ask for payment, be refused, and charge me £25 for the privilege until such time as they passed my debt on to a DCA. As soon as they did, I told the DCA that I was in dispute over the amount owing (due to these charges over the DD). DCA dropped it like a hot potato and HSBC passed it straight onto their solicitors (DG Solicitors). I've written to (and spoke to) DG and informed them of the situation and agreed to make a token monthly payment whilst I try and resolve this direct with HSBC. Complaints thus far have met with a "we won't refund you anything more - that is our position" .They agreed to refund some of these charges about 8 months ago and then proceeded to DEBIT my account instead of crediting it! This incurred further interest charges which I am STILL asking them to refund along with ALL charges since they were initially informed about my unemployment and since I first attempted to cancel the DD. There will be a final letter of complaint going to HSBC sometime this week, and if that doesn't result in a favourable response then I'll be taking it up with the ombudsman. Sick of it now. Banks think they can just bully anyone. I have no qualms about paying back my debts, but I can ONLY do that at a rate I can afford at the moment - their belligerence beggars belief.

Does anyone know what happens to the DD guarantee when the originator IS YOUR BANK? I took out a loan with HSBC (whom I banked with at the time). DD was set up and everything was ok until I became unemployed. I tried to cancel the DD because I couldn't afford the monthly repayments and my bank REFUSED Can they legally do that? I was already overdrawn, and so the DD payments were bounced anyway. Well, all bar one were. The one that was honoured sent me over my overdraft limit and therefore has caused me to incurr further charges (and interest) despite me pleading "financial hardship" to the bank. As far as I'm concerned HSBC are a bunch of criminals, and the banking crisis and bonus situation just makes you want to rip their appendages off

Quick question for someone/anyone ... Although Halifax have provided my signed credit agreement, there are NO terms and conditions on the agreement. Instead it references a "Personal Loan Conditions 2002 booklet" for it's T&C's. I'd have thought that the CCA would have made it a stipulation to provide the T&C's also? Simply supplying the signed agreement gives me nothing except how much I was expected to repay and that I have now discovered I had a PPI policy (which I was unaware of!) cheers, Pete

Update: Moorcroft have now (courtesy of Halifax) provided me with a photocopy of a signed copy of my credit agreement and have stated that as they have complied with my original request they will now recommence normal collection methods after a period of 7 days. What they fail to have missed is that I also requested a "statement of account" and their "deeds of assignment", so they haven't complied. I will use this to put a block on any aggressive collection methods, but I have resumed paying them what I can afford (which isn't much at the moment, but tough sh*t, they are still getting a pro-rata'd payment out of what I can afford) and I will ask them to supply the requested documentation. The most interesting thing about the credit agreement is that it includes a form of PPI - and it the PPI was one of those "single premium" types. So they have added the insurance onto the loan and then charged me interest on the loan and the insurance, which I believe they can't do?! Besides which ... I now also believe I may have been mis sold the insurance on a number of points. Those being: 1) I was never asked about any pre-existing medical conditions, and I have Crohns disease, but I can't find any information anywhere as to whether Crohns is a disclosable illness or not. 2) It was never made clear to me that other products were available (this is Halifax's own insurance!) 3) I believe I was "advised" that if I didn't take out PPI then I would be paying a higher monthly premium (higher interest rate) as I would then be considered more high-risk ... or IOW, I was told that taking out PPI would increase my chances of getting credit! So think it's time for SAR to Halifax. Letter informing Moorcroft of this (and also informing them that they have failed to comply). But also having done a bit of reading up on PPI ... have discovered that I was mis sold it when I bought my car! So need to find out who I complain to in order to get a refund as it was sold me by a car salesman in a car showroom (hardly "expert financial advice" eh?!), but it was authorised by the lender (Marsh Finance) who recommended on the basis of the answers provided that I should take out PPI with Hitachi Capital Insurance. The answers provided, whilst true, failed to indicate that I was a contract worker (not self-employed but employed through an umbrella company) at the time and therefore I would not have been covered by the policy! Oh and now I'm doing battle with Metropolitan Collection Services over a HSBC overdraft ... HSBC made errors on my account and are refusing to fully refund the interest charges, so more letters of complaint. In fact they are going to get a very strongly worded one just for their sheer ignorance/arrogance! I'll start another thread for that one though

Hi Scott and thanks. I think that will be my next step. I'm going to give it a few more days as I believe they actually have until the 10th Dec to respond (as that will be 12 working days from the date of my request). Then I will send in the SAR to Halifax, and completely ignore Moorcroft Cheers, Pete

I have read many many pages of posts and threads on CAG and I must say I'm as much bewildered as I am heartened and disheartened, but thought I'd post up my case details as they may be different, they may help someone else, someone else may be able to offer some help, but mostly so that I can keep track of what's been done and when! Firstly, I do not deny my debt to Halifax. Secondly, I had a lot of debt (somewhere in the region of £40K). Thirdly, I finally admitted I had a problem in August 2003 and I've been using Payplan ever since to manage my DMP. Halifax were one of 5 initial creditors (along with my ex's parents, my divorce solicitor HA!, HFC, NatWest and Halifax). That's the background to this. So I started making repayments to them, was issued with the usual defaults (as those payments were lower than the repayments laid out in original credit agreements). Payplan told me that I would be debt free within 5 years, and informed me that they would "usually" be able to get all interest and charges frozen by my creditors. Neither turned out to be true Of all my creditors, it appears that only Halifax have not frozen interest or charges, because as my "outstanding debt" has come down over the years, my debt to the Halifax has remained unusually higher. I've even paid off HFC already - even though I have been paying all my creditors a pro-rata payment that should have seen all debts come to an end around the same time. I've actually calculated that I have paid back more than I borrowed (£7.5K). So now I believe I am only paying them back interest and charges. The debt is for a Halifax Personal Loan taken out in Oct-2002. The debt was made part of my DMP in Sept-2003. The debt was then passed to Blair Oliver Scott in Sept-2007 (I had missed ONE payment in the preceding 4 years). In April of this year I became unemployed and found I couldn't keep to my DMP. As such the debt has now passed to Moorcroft. I have sent a CCA S77/79 request as I am disputing how much is actually owed. What I want to see is how much interest and charges have been added to this account over the years, to see if any of that was either not clearly stated in my original T&Cs or if any of the charges are deemed to be illegal and which I may now be able to claim back, and I make no bones about the fact that I'm doing this because I am suffering financial hardship. So my CCA s77/79 request was posted to Moorcroft on 24th Nov 2009. I received an initial response saying they had asked their client (Halifax) for copies of agreements and then went on to ask what my purpose was for asking for these as it may help to prevent costly litigation. My initial response was going to be something along the lines of "I'm asking for this because I believe there may have been unfair charges or interest applied to the account", but then I thought it best to go with: In reference to your letter dated 2nd December 2009. Until I am in receipt of the requested documentation in accordance with the CCA 1974, including but not limited to, proof that Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd are legally entitled to collect any outstanding debt, should there be any outstanding debt, then I am unable to enter into any further correspondence with moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd. I would also like to remind you that you have 12 working days to provide this information, and stating that you have requested this information from your client does not consitute compliance in this matter. Also if the requested information is not provided within a further month (or 30 days) then you will be in breach of the CCA 1974 and open to further action. I don't want to appear to be really arsey with them, but I'm a bit miffed to say the least that (a) I didn't get a suitable response from Payplan about the lack of Halifax's willingness to freeze interest and charges and (b) I'm bloody skint at the moment and facing supposed court action from Moorcroft about an outstanding debt that they are claiming they will lump their own costs on! I've worked out that the APR% on the loan must have been around the 28% mark considering the amount borrowed, the initial repayments, the payments made since, and the amount that is claimed to still be owed. Hence why I want to see the initial agreement, and a statement of account to find out how much money I have actually already paid off this debt. If anyone has any advice/comments, then it's most welcome. Otherwise I will post back with updates for the good of anyone else that may have to go through similar. Thanks to all in the forums though, you've been a help and inspiration (and a good laugh at times) Pete