I tell you what this could be a right nest of worms. What happens about the credit card cheques that people like Monument send out with a short term lower interest rates, and then cash advance rates when they run out. If they are in default then they won't be able to charge interest at all. I wonder if I should write a letter to the FSA. Mike

Rich I sent my CCA request to the Customer Relations department at Northampton, either way they've got fourteen days before they are in default. Mike

Letter sent today recorded delivery Mike

Sending my £1 PO with a CCA request today by recorded delivery, so I can find out where I am with this professional body. When I know the lie of the land, I'll be sending of a DPA request for the statements. I've got all mine back to September 2003, the charges and interest amount to over £500 at the moment with interest accruing a £7 per month I'll keep you posted Mike

Well I've had statements back from Citbank and a covering letter. AND I'M FUMING! It appears that the account was still active until I rang their call-centre to tell them to close it! This is despite me filling in the proforma on the back of each statement for three months up to June 2004 when I sent them a closure letter. It seems that the statements continued to be sent to my old address- we moved in April 2004. Correspondance continued according to the DPA listing including issue of a new credit card, god knows where that went. To add injury to insult, even the reply to my DPA request was sent to my old address as well by special delivery. This is despite the covering letter using my present address! What a ***ls up. Should I make a complaint about this? But who to. On a brighter note the £125 of charges accrued by the account in less than 12 months has grown to just over £300 thanks to the extortionate 2.529% per month they charge. Letter claiming money back going off in the next few days!

Hello, What letter did you send Mike

My son tonight (he's 15) brushed past the tail pipe of a blue corsa in Harry Tuffins at Churchstoke. He's got a burn about 3 incjes in diameter. i should have taken the reg number but was too busy trying to get the lad home to have some treatment. what should I have done? Mike

I'm claiming against, or about to do so, a number of accounts. At the end of the day if the paperwork isn't up to speed they would come after you big time if the boot was on the other foot. Mike

I noticed that one of my credit cards have done that as well - without informing me of any change in terms. Anyway, the OFT said that the £12 mark was the level at which they will no longer take action, not the point that they said was legal. So persue away they would still have to argue in court that the fee applied was fair and appropriate to a judge. It's certainly not going to put me off. Mike

Thats it big time now. I haven't heard a dicky bird from Blair et al. I know it was recieved by them because the Post Office recorded delivery service says so. It was accepted on the 27th June 2006 by a ***** ***** who works for 'HBOS' - it says so on the report sheet I had from the Post Office. So I'm writing a complaint to the OFT and trading standards. My gut feeling is they haven't got the paperwork to back up the repayment scheme. That said the payments that have been made have been collected unlawfully should I claim them back? Should I write to them before I cotact the OFT or should I just do it? Any advice greatly appreciated.

Surely though this cannot b correct since if the default was issued some 4 years after the incident the consumer is actually blacklisted for 10 years rather than the statute 6

I apologise for PM ing those of you I have, I’m new to this and any other forum, so please be patient. I suppose that the opening of this thread is rather vague and almost glib, and on reflection perhaps I should have been a little bit more professional on the starting blocks. However, this site has given me so much information and indeed, courage to face up to people and institutions that have made my life and those of my family such a s**t over the last few years. I was almost euphoric when I started driving to get back what is rightfully mine. Like the vast majority or users and readers of this site, I’m sure that my story is much the same as everyone else’s. But like everyone else my story is very personal and full of hurt, illness and debt. I blame two camps for getting me into such a mess that I didn’t know what to do. The main camp was me for being such a prat as to get into debt in the first place. The second camp consisted of the financial institutions that gave and continued to do so until I contacted the CCCS for help. When those two camps are in balance everything is hunky dory. But when illness, and loss of earnings raise their ugly head the relationship soon becomes unbalanced. I can hear the banking industry say that you can insure yourself against that with sickness insurance. Well you can’t if you have a predisposing condition as I have. When the balance started tipping the vultures started circling, some were very nice. RMA Resolve (American Xpress) were nice. Mercers and Credit Solutions (Barclaycard) were absolute b******s. I had every colour of the rainbow in between. So why have I chosen to start off with Blair Oliver & Scott. Well a loan was taken out to consolidate cards with Paramount Bank. They got taken over by Halifax, who turned into HBOS. I was defaulted in October/November 2003 after starting to pay the creditor about £12 per month after taking the advice of the CCCS. The account was taken over by Blair et al in early 2004, and I’ve been paying £270 per month ever since. Am I trying to get out of paying off the debt, well no, not really. I have been hounded, blamed and threatened so much over the last few years that I’ve just about had enough. If they have got all the paperwork correct then that’s fine we’ll see the payment scheme through to completion. If not then, I’m sorry they can go and throw themselves off the dockside at Rosyth. Sorry if this sounds bitter, but it feels a lot better getting it off my chest. Regards Mike

Well I suppose that's it times up! I've stopped my standing order, do I just sit back and wait, or send them a letter of default? Being really naughty perhaps I should wait a week or so and post the deafult notice just before the months deadline!

Still no reply from CitiFinancial

Still no reply, default applicable as Thursday at the latest

No news from CitiFinancial yet!

No reply from Blair Oliver & Scott yet!

I'm not hijacking the thread Modorators I must admit that this starting to worry me I've got a Monument card and they have just raiseed their minimum monthly payment to 2.5% from 2, a hefty 25% increase, similar to Barclaycard. I realise that they do have terms and conditions that we all sign up to and they only have to give 30 days notice. However surely those alterations cannot be to the detrement of the customer who signed up in good faith to have a service at known cost only to have that cost inctreased by a dramatic amount. In my case this is causing considerable hardship.

Dear All, My wife has a Next Directory account, which she has had since it started in the 80s (I know we're old!) Next have a very clear instruction on the back of each of their monthly statements saying that they will apply a 'service charge' of x% on the opening balance of each statement. Fair enough, seems clear! Anyway in 2003 we noticed that we had paid the equivalent of 3.25% interest of the opening balance, whereas we should have paid 2.19%. These anomalies were duplicated twice more and we wrote to them at the only address that we had to contact them (in Rotherham) but no reply. Obviously we started to pay more 'service charge' each month as time went on compounded buy the fact that we had I think three further 'anamolous' interest aplications. We wrote again this year the excess interest had risen to about £40 by now - small potatos I know but hey ho, since I had found their customer relations department. A week later we got a fob off letter giving us £10 back as a sweetner, but saying that there were no anomalies in the servce charge applied in the previous six months. But I did say that the problems were before that period, we repeated the fact in a subsequent letter together with a spreadsheet of all the overcharging (we have all the statements) they refuse to budge. There must be something we can do it's our money. Help

Just as a matter of interest sent of my £1 postal order today to Blair Oliver & Scott regarding a loan originally take out with Paramount Bank, who was taken over by Halifax who were taken over by HBOS. I'll keep you posted.

DPA sent today for charges incurred during the short life of a CitiCards account 2003-4, I wish that I had kept my statements, I only kept the last one which said that I had a credit balance of 64p Mike

We've got Norton and as you said BT have it's own firewall, Norton! However, I realise that some onus has to be placed on the PC owner, but BT do in essence make money from the Premium Rate phone line. In their reply they did say that such fees are sent to Charity, but at the end of the day (hate that cliche) an illegal (sorry unlawful) act has happened and someone has benefitted from it and the only poor sucker is me! However, I do remember that a year or so ago there was an American man in UK who was looking into Premium Rate scams and linked a number of the provider companies (of the Premium numbers) who also benefit, with existing phone companies, does anyone know anything about that? He eventually took a company to court and got them repremanded and his money back, but I can't remember the case Help!

Dear All, This site is brilliant. In 2004 I had a relativley astronomic 'phone bill from BT which was due after examination of the number listing to Premium Rate numbers. I hadn't rung them, neither had my wife or daughter and my pubescent son (who was probably the best option) denied all knowledge. After contacting BT they confirmed that the charges were correct and were due to our computer dialling the number. After contacting ICTIS it appears that the numbers were used by a Uruguayan company who offered porn downloads. I assumed therefore that one of my family had downloaded the automatic dialler on purpose, they all denied it. However, after virus checking my computer it seems that I had been infected with a 'Witzen w32' vrus that cancelled the BT connection after 5 minutes and logged the machine onto the porn at a premium rate number. Obviously not happy and clearly not a fault I contacted BT to complain who said that they would investigate. I had a letter back in two days fro BT (I still have it) saying that their systems where not at fault and therefore the bill still stood. My point is this are BT at fault in any of this since I literally have had money stolen from me (ie taken without my knowledge or power) and is there any way of retrieving my money. Help if you can Mike