Wow - they actually did take me out of the dialler by the look of it. iQor letter arrived this morning... only a week after the phone calls! The letter talks about IMMEDIATE LITIGATION, but since I've been firmly told they're NOT going to pass the case back OR take me to court, they shouldn't be sending out false threats. Anyway, I can now reply with my I&E and my offer of £1, and we'll see. Meanwhile from reading other threads looks like claiming overdraft fees back is quite tough compared to credit card - any advice on best approach?

These are just ideas... Ask them for the exact date they sent it out, in writing. If it's over the statutory time limit (May to July? could be), point this out to them and ask them to send it again, seeing as they're in breach. Also point out that you can't proceed until you have a copy, irrespective of where it ended up, so could they send a dupe. If they want another £1, give it to them. Make it very clear that you are not going to discuss the debt until you have a copy, and if they go to court you are quite prepared to ask for a stay until you jolly well have one. Ask them why they are actioning this now and not 18 months ago as you have already demonstrated you are co-operating by asking for a copy of the agreement. Has some sort of interest been running for the 18 months? [They do lie about calls at least, if not post - I caught them at it. They never answered my complaint at all, their client did, and moved me to a new DCA, so I was rid of 'em. ] DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM ON THE PHONE - they delete calls and deny they ever happened. I also had one of 'em calling from their mobile, I suspect so it wouldn't be recorded.

Two calls from iQor today. Both reasonably polite but that's possibly because I controlled the conversation from the word go. Apparently letter was sent out on 1 Nov. Now, since the OFT guidelines state they shouldn't be ringing until I have received the letter I can make a specific complaint to Trading Standards that they are deliberately flouting this specific rule - which I think is just the kind of complaint they can get a handle on? So, 3 calls in 48 hours so far and it's not 9pm yet so we might get another one...

Pumpytums: CC companies take a view on cases depending on amount owing, previous payment history, whether they think it's an easy one to enforce, etc, etc, and also will do some bulk deals which is why they sometimes keep or sell the "wrong" cases. If they know they've dropped the ball on a case they'll almost certainly sell it because then it's someone else's problem and they can get on with fleecing other punters. Some organisations are better at knowing their own customers than others. In practice I don't think MBNA have a good enough view of their customers to be making the right decisions so it's pretty much a lottery.

I am looking to keep it and I have an arrangement with mortgage arrears now. I found new job in nick of time which allowed me to make arrangement and take off market. Therefore CO fairly meaningless UNLESS something major happens. I do have one big unsecured creditor still to sort who so far have done nothing (via incompetence) and are probably going to be quite upset when they find out they're behind others in the CO queue as a result. You never know, they might try for something silly in court and courts are not always on the ball in terms of our rights, so I am thinking about absolutely worst case over next five years here.

I think he's trying to say you need to work out your cost of living and your income first and worry about paying unsecured debt second - that's what your I&E is for - think about what UNSECURED actually means. You don't gotta do nothing until a court orders it despite what debt collectors might say or (illegally) threaten. Your right to food and shelter is protected in law but every day you will have a phone call from the banks trying to take it off you. Working out your monthly budget is where CCCS and National Debtline etc can give you loads of advice - if you don't know where to get started at all, start there! We were totally lost until CCCS got us started with the basic facts. Once you know your basic cost of living then you can think about what to do with the rest of the money, if there IS any left over, and if there isn't, you don't pay anyone - simple! Open a new bank account starting from zero and then you can start your thinking afresh - otherwise trying to separate your ins and outs from your overdraft will make your head explode...

Questionable. It was on the market for over six months at 5k under what I paid, so following disbursements and conveyancing would be slightly out of pocket - ASSUMING it sold. It didn't, and the best semi-offer we had was at 15k under so perhaps it was on at too high a price. That was last year so am almost certainly underwater now as it's a middle-income-squeeze sort of house.

Hi, just posting about the last "difficult" creditor I have. I had a massive paycut, followed by a year of ZERO income, which is how I got into this situation. (Full detail on Intelligent Finance thread) Long story short I wrote to both in Dec 09 with full I&E and offering £1 until I returned to employment. Neither really responded other than with a DN followed by CCJ from Egg Loan in short space of time, and a second DN (!) from Egg Card. (They defaulted me sometime in 2009 already.) At least that stopped the fees+interest. Both are in five figures. I think these are now with totally different companies in effect, as these bits of Egg bought by different people during the Crunch? Egg Loan have now obtained a Charging Order and immediately accepted £10 per month over the phone the following week. I'd been offering them that for over two years, including post CCJ, so I can only assume they need to waste their money taking me to court for accounting reasons. Egg Card have been totally quiet since the DN. It hasn't been chased by anybody. Around April I phoned to see what was happening and the guy on the phone did a lot of muttering of "what... who... who did that... doesn't make any sense..." when looking at the notes and promised to get back to me. Never did. I am now employed again at under half of my former income, but still have the same massive mortgage AND a years' arrears on it to clear, so there's nothing in the pot for unsecured. We're living to a budget that is slightly under CCCS's figures and doing OK, and as above has been in front of a court. I don't know whether to approach Egg Card or not - what are the consequences if I don't do anything? If I do approach them will I just end up with another set of court proceedings almost immediately when they realise they've dropped the ball? On the other hand I don't want to be straight with the other creditors in 5 years' time, and then find I have to start all over again with someone that has bought an old debt. I should add there is PPI on some of the balance. I made a complaint about it which they declined almost immediately, and the letter was very much of a tone of "you can't prove it" - but that was followed a month later by the letter that went out to LOTS of people about PPI asking me to claim. I did a lot of silly things with money when I had it, but I certainly was never daft enough to sign up to PPI, so I'm certain I have a case. When I phoned about the letter the regulator made them issue I was given a lot of hoo-hah about not being able to sort it until my arrears were cleared, and then crisis mode took over and I parked it until I saw some pursuit of a final defaulted balance. (Which I never have, so far!) Do I have a problem if I've complained about it once and not pursued their nonsense "final reply" in any way? Any limitations on complaining "again" - although this time it would be coming off the balance rather than being given to me in cash. Suggestions please... but not urgent because I'm paying the tenner on the loan OK and as I say there is NO collection activity on the card. And finally - would a SAR force them to release the call centre notes on my account to me? Whatever he was reading sounded fascinating...

The DCA in Manchester was Robinson Way - was basically on hold with them for about three months and now I SEEM to have been passed on to iQor. No written confirmation yet.

No equity in my case. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why they've pursued a CO - I presume it was some sort of accounting write-off practice as they've now instantly agreed to a tenner a month on a balance in five figures without even asking for I&E... which is what I was offering for the two years previous.

What happens if it is related to a CO (if that's what you meant by "secured to property")?

When you say Summons - is it an actual court form from Northampton with a case reference number etc etc or is it some sort of final notice threatening legal action? I would certainly ring the court with the reference number as it sounds like it's a bit out of the blue. Do you have any CCJs already? Could you give a bit of background on the Santander story? (but remember - they might read your post!)

Hi - thought I'd start a thread as these are my second most painful creditor after MBNA. I thought I'd diary these last awkward creditors as much to share victories as to pick your brains as I've had quite a few complaints and things upheld so far. Background: We got into difficulties in Autumn 2007 when the company I worked for stopped paying me without bothering with any of that redundancy stuff and eventually went into liquidation. I was then out of work for about 3 months until started own business which did OK in 2008 but folded in 2009 (our main customers were banks - you see the problem!) For that 18 months I was on about 40% of previous salary. From Summer 09 to Summer 10 I had ZERO income and we were both living off a just-under-average wage with a very over-average mortgage, and threat of eviction. The house was on the market for a lot of this period. I found this new job in the nick of time and we're now paying the massive mortgage at the same rate, plus arrears on top, so there is nothing in the pot for unsecured debt until the arrears are cleared (2015 or so!) My issue is that I.F. were the first to know I had problems, way back then. They spent a year telling me they "would stop charges and payments if I could agree a repayment plan" - which I did on the phone verbally about once a month, with many many different departments, and was always told confirmation was coming, but conveniently never formalised at their end. All I was doing was servicing interest. Eventually we got to the point that the interest was going to push me over the limit. This was August 2008 so was still earning then, but struggling badly as the mortgage company would not come down though my income had halved, and I was still foolishly paying full whack on other debts. I phoned and agreed that I would paid £50 per month off if they would stop the £28 charges - I had agreement there and then and a reference for the payment, etc, etc. They added the £28 at the end of the month. At this point I phoned and told them that after a year of paying out money but standing still on the debt we needed to do something else. They passed me around a few teams and eventually I just stopped paying as I couldn't see what else to do given that they were clearly going to keep piling fees on anyway - I might as well spend the money on stopping other accounts going into crises. They phoned for a while and eventually stopped, but the Default was a long time coming - to ensure as much interest as poss went on meanwhile of course! In early 09 we got into full crisis and started missing payments on the mortgage, so at this point I just stopped paying unsecured creditors as I had no other choice as I saw it (obviously older and wiser now!), and I opened a Basic account elsewhere. I should actually have gone to £1/month with unsecured a lot earlier than I did, in retrospect. The stupid thing is that if I'd agreed something useful in 2007 I'd probably still be paying it now as would have prioritised - so they've done it to themselves. I have written to I.F. twice with a full I&E and explaining financial difficulty - once in December 09 and again in September 2010 as we have a definite arrangement to service our mortgage arrears. New job is under half of 2007 salary and our mortgage amt hasn't come down as much as you'd expect - still paying >6%! I've had no reply at all other than form letter to tell me I was in breach of T&C as not paying salary in - about a year after I'd stopped - and the final Default Notice. I have had no sensible reply from I.F. themselves in all of that time. They passed me to our friends Blair Oliver Scott without bothering to tell me. B O S phoned me a ridiculous number of times, even after a phone harassment letter, but eventually accepted my I&E and even sent me slips to pay in. I thought this was a victory but the very next week I found myself with some other outfit in Manchester. (Will have to dig name out.) They were quite good and immediately understood it was can't pay not won't pay. I wrote to them explaining I wasn't happy with the fees & interest from 2008 onwards and they put the account on hold, and wrote to me (twice!) saying they'd written to I.F. That was three months ago, and so... today... ... I had a text from iQor. (For anyone Googling iQor 0845 1460186 - 01772 832188 gets you through without paying the 08 charges - have added that to saynoto0870.) I phoned to find out which creditor it was - after reading about them here I've no intention of sending them any personal financial information. So far I had quite a good conversation. I started by explaining that this had been going on > 2 years and I knew the law backwards by now, and I was down to a basic bank account so I couldn't pay by Debit Card over the phone even if I wanted to, so it would be best if they listened. I offered them £1 per month and explained history as above without giving too much detail. She said they couldn't accept £1/month under any circumstances so I asked her not to waste her time and money and just pass the account back to IF - apparently that's out of her control too. I have advised that I am not doing anything until I see written confirmation from either I.F. or iQor that the account is now with them, so we'll see what happens. She wanted me to write in with I&E immediately but there's no way I'm doing that until I have something in writing from them, especially since they don't have a form for it. Says to me they're not really interested and just want material for later bullying. ("You could spend less on etc etc.") I'll see what their initial contact letter says when it gets here. If I don't have one I will ask for calls to stop twice, politely, and then send out harassment letter. There's no question that I had an OD and that it was around £1400 on a limit of £1600 when trouble started, so I'm not looking to make this unenforceable. However I am now wondering what sorts of fees and interest I should look to get back. Presumably anything after the point I told them I was in trouble is on shaky ground? There were several occasions before that where I was charged £28 on going over by £1-2 which I'm now thinking I might ask back on principle. And - should ALL of the £28 since I opened the account be reduced to £12? BTW it started out as an offset account, but after several charges for nonsense and acknowledged errors on their part - but no money back! - I wrote to them and told them I was going to move my mortgage away from them unless they could do something for goodwill. They didn't, so they lost the mortgage business. So - given that we've been going in circles for almost three years - what would you do next? I'll post updates on what happens with iQor. First thing is to wait for the letter. Meanwhile: my partner has a Halifax overdraft which is over the limit entirely through interest and charges added after we told them we were in difficulty. It was well under when we started. We've had a number of "we can't accept £1" letters threatening legal action, and that is all - no actual replies to correspondence. This week we've had a B O S letter and we've replied pronto explaining that so far Halifax have done nothing to address the situation and we will be contesting the balance, meanwhile here's £1 - we'll see what happens. We also included the phone harassment piece as they were calling work number, home number, and mobile, in rotation, every day. Calls to the home have stopped because they were in working hours and I was repeatedly answering them - luckily the bill is in my name, so I threatened them with Ofcom action as they knew fine well they couldn't speak to her at that address at that time of day but kept calling, which constitutes harassing me. Seems to have worked. Are calls to workplace ever acceptable? Anyway, there you go. Any thoughts welcome on either situation, thanks!

Wow - when you say long-running you mean it. Have you tried phoning the adjudicator at the FOS and asking directly what they meant? It does seem they've contradicted themselves there. They're generally quite good on the phone once you manage to get a call returned. Otherwise - is anyone pursuing you at the moment? If not I think it's a case of just putting it in the box and not worrying about it.

Oh - and once you've written to them DO NOT discuss on the phone. Just politely explain that it's now potentially a contempt situation and everything must be in writing. I've come to the conclusion that the worst possible thing you can do to the wazzocks phoning you from firms like this is stay polite - nothing annoys them more.