I'd love to have been a party to that particular conversation:lol:

MBNA sold my £8000 credit card to Wescot back in September 2005. After various feeble threats from Wescot, they calmed down when they realised I was on a DMP with CCCS Unfortunately, due to a significant decrease in my income, CCCS were no longer able to support my DMP. I kinda let things drift, and Wescot started getting heavy again (unsurprisingly they didn't carry out any threats to 'doorstep collect' etc) and eventually the debt was passed to Fredrickson International to act on their behalf. In Aug 08 I was sent an LBA (I was too poorly to deal with any of this nonsense) but again this proved to be an empty threat, my next communication being from Bryan Carter. I did make an offer at that time and, I think, paid one amount, but then was unable to continue paying. Again, foolishly, I let it drift on. I got another load of idle threats from Fred Intl, and then a scarily titled FINAL NOTICE from Carter in Jan 09 which I responded to, making a reduced offer. They failed to reply. So, I badgered them with a reminder letter, repeating my offer. In March comes the most incredible letter from Carter stating they had been instructed to take no further action against me and that they had closed their file. And nothing since....My CRA file only shows that the debt was defaulted in Aug 05 and then assigned in Sep 05 - nowt added since then. Am I starting to celebrate prematurely do you think, or will Wescot suddenly appear ? Either way, I was completely ignorant of the CCA request avenue thing (been away from this site for ages) so didn't even follow that procedure, but it seems I simply bored Carter and his cronies into submission in the end... If only all DCAs were this straightforward to defeat !

The Combatting Consumer Groups 'workshop' (good grief, I hate that word with a passion) is at 3.45pm

CSA & DBSG Annual Conference 9th & 10th September 2009 Hilton Metropole, Brighton

I've submitted a hardship claim (and upped my original claim from 2006 from 385.50 to 505.50) to Nationwide today, so we'll see what bobbins they come back with. I pointed out in my letter I was in arrears on all of my priority debts (rent, council tax, water, gas, electric), and that I am in receipt of benefit. I also enclosed an income/expenditure form (which rather handily showed my expenditure as exceeding my income - crumbs, no wonder I'm struggling !). I'll keep you all posted on how it goes, but I suspect from previous stories on here that they won't be caving in easily

Am I right in stating I can reclaim student loan charges levied to my account since 2002 (it's a pre-1998 loan) ? If so, presumably I firstly send the prelim letter as in the Templates library (amended slightly to remove references to SLC being a bank) ? And, if it needs to go to court after the LBAs, it should be done manually, not via Moneyclaim ? £229 worth of charges here Thanks for your help

May be worth contacting the EDF Energy Trust to see if they can help EDF Energy Trust

Job done £704 credited today Happened a lot faster than I first thought. Survey done, donation on its way...

£299.41 credited today (interest and court fee) I suspect the £704 will follow soon....

Hang on a tick - have you informed the DCA that the debt is in dispute ? If not, they need to be told quickly. Are you sure they are actually taking you to court (ie do you have a date ?) ? Most DCAs threaten until they're blue in the face but rarely mean it. P.S. I'm in Nottingham - feel free to PM me. I've seen many DCA letters, 99% of which are sheer ploppy-poos

Not a sausage for me

Nearly - mine was acknowledged 26 July. I'm not expecting anything for at least another week, to be honest.

Do not pay the balance at this stage - advise the debt collections agency (have they written to you ?) that the account is in dispute and they should send the debt back to MBNA

Wise words of course, but it's unlikely for the simple reason that the banks know they simply cannot justify to a judge that their charges reflect the true administrative cost to them - i.e. they are penalties, not charges, and thus unlawful. I wish they would defend it in court, however - it would open the floodgates for thousand of claims if the court found in the consumer's favour which, as the banks themselves surely know, they would. Halifax refuse to settle until folks register a claim with the Small Claims Court because they operate on the basis that there'll be a substantial percentage who won't have the courage to see a claim through - sadly, I believe they're right, given that the 49,000 or so members of CAG reflect only a small percentage of the people who have been overcharged by banks. We are the lucky ones

It's extremely unlikely they'll demand all the money back. What they will do is (eventually) credit the charges back to your card account, so it may actually help both parties. The total worse case scenario is that, after refunding all the charges, they pursue you vigorously for the debt - if you have already told them how much you can afford to pay them realistically each month (ie £10) then there's little they can do above and beyond that. I say go for it

The person you need for a Works version of the spreadsheet is Vampiress - send her a PM/e-mail (see here) for she is queen of the spreadsheet on this forum

All you need do at this stage is send a formal Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act, enlcosing payment of £10 payable to Halifax plc. Send your request by recorded delivery to : Data Protection Office HBOS PLC Trinity Road Halifax HX1 2RG

Great result - spend it wisely (holidays, plasma TV, new car, etc)

Absolutement - remember, you have 45,000 members of CAG right behind you (well, not literally, as it would end up looking like one of those Halifax adverts on the telly). Just bask in the glory of knowing you are right, they are wrong, nernerner... Nowt to be scared of - all done in polite correspondence.

Wow - 100% refund without going to court - result Actually, MBNA do seem to be one of the better ones as long as you perservere with them - mind you, your claim was fairly effortless Congratulations.

£400 cheque received today

Did you send a subject access request ? See here for step by step instructions

Stick to your timetable, not theirs - send your LBA 14 days after your prelim approach

Start here

Welcome aboard Lizzie - keep us posted