I agree with Eddie to be honest...and I most definitely have seen both sides, not from a call handler point of view though. There are good eggs and bad eggs in every box. Halifax were exemplary and efficient throughout my home insurance claim. 1st Central however were abysmal during my car claim. I wish Direct Line had the same attitude as you regarding fraud. The 3rd party in question in my car claim ran into me and then decided to lie about it. Despite the fact he has no witnesses and I have a completely independent witness stating I never moved an inch, they still see fit to harbor him and 'give him the benefit of the doubt'. What doubt?

PS I would advise you send any letters recorded delivery, and if you believe you have paid as much as you need to then cancel the DD as they are unscrupulous enough to take out more. I must stress though that you need to be sure you don't owe anything at this point...or they will send the heavies after you (so I hear). I was ok as I worked out I'd paid up the full year so I covered myself by stopping the DD before they could charge me in advance for the renewal I would never take out. Getting money out of them, blood and stones...

Hi there. I had a 1st Central Car Insurance policy. Biggest bandits on God's earth. My claim from March 2010 STILL has not been settled. However, I digress.... Check your policy wording carefully. If you haven't made a claim it should say that you only owe up to the period you cancelled. I think they charge something round about £35 for a cancellation on top of that. I got stung by the cowboys because I had the pleasure of being run into by a boy racer. Therefore I had to stump up the whole year's premium as I'd had a claim. Odd...I thought fully comp meant just that...and NCD changes were supposed to cover claims. Silly me. However nice insurers do only charge you pro rata. It's good business sense to charge a customer for the time they are on risk. Hope that helps

Is there any way you can call the co and get your number changed to a personal mobile or something? I'm thinking they probably only wanted a landline for you to get past credit checking. To be honest, I'd try and get rid of the Malta outfit asap...not sure on financial companies, but there seems to be a horrendous spate of dodgy overseas insurance companies who wouldn't know how to operate a business if it hit them - I'm concerned that the same may be for loans. You don't want to be on the receiving end if it goes Pete Tong. Provident will probably be able to come to a personal agreement with you if you contact your relevant branch. I assume it's agent collected and they rely on your continued custom as they won't get paid commission if they don't collect anything from you. I'm sure they'd rather have you pay longer and actually collect the money, than have to write it off.

Thank you hon Am not a bloke though Caught something on tv the other day commenting that some of the regular bank's charges can equate to high APRs if you actually work them out. But for some reason, banks seem to be allowed to call them 'charges' and hence they get away with not showing the APR equivalent...so they get away with charging the poor customers on an equivalent or more extortionate rate than the doorstep/payday loans people. Example: Provident or Shopacheck (and this is only an example, I don't actually know this), may charge a customer £40 for borrowing £100 over say 30 weeks. That equates roughly to £69 for a year (although I believe in reality you would only get charged the £40 if you pay something regularly even if it's a lower amount), hence £69% interest (or 40% actually in reality - I'm not best with interest so bear with me). Take, as an example, a Halifax overdraft who could charge their £1 per day (but that's a charge not interest lol). If you were overdrawn, (i.e. borrowed) £100 that would equate to £210 charges over 30 weeks, £365 for a year. And that's an AGREED amount! If it's unauthorised (£5 per day), then that's £1,050 charges and £1,825 for 30 weeks/a year respectively...assuming I've got my sums right. Calculating the %age, that would be 1825% for a year. Nice. So...doorstep lending (whilst it's not to everyone's taste) might not seem so silly now. The high street banks seem to be able to get away with hiding extortionate rates under the disguise of 'charges' rather than interest so the man on the street doesn't always do the sums and compare. And yes that would mean the pay day loans people look a lot more attractive now. People just don't do the maths and that's where the bandits at the high street banks luck out.

I think a few things here need to be cleared up as there are a few anomalies in what you are saying. There is a lot of mention here relating to 'interest'. Shopacheck do not charge interest on their loans, they add on a fixed charge. Therefore the amount you pay does not vary no matter how long you take to pay. Hence if you borrow £100 and the charge is £40 then you will pay in total £140, whether you pay over the contracted period of (say) 60 weeks or if you take 80 weeks to pay, you will still pay the £140. Compare this to 'interest' which is a %age of the outstanding balance...therefore if you were to reduce payments and pay £100 over 80 weeks with interest then you could end up paying more, despite the %age looking very attractive. This is a mistake a lot of people fail to recognise. Secondly, the doorstep lending business is aimed at creating a personal relationship with the customer. Unfortunately Baz, it sounds like your agent wasn't doing the necessary. There is an onus on the branch to ensure this, but equally, your other half could have got in touch with the branch and made a complaint about the agent...this meant you would have been able to avoid the trouble you are experiencing now. Another thing I'd like to mention, is that commonly in this business, when a customer is close to completing the payments on one loan, the agent (as it is business) will try to encourage a loyal customer to take out a new loan which will probably include a part settlement on the existing one. For example, you have £30 to pay on an existing loan, you wish to borrow another £100. The agent would arrange a loan for £130 + charges but the customer would only see £100 in their hand as £30 has settled the previous loan. It sounds like your other half maybe did some sort of loan consoliation i.e. had 3 loans in totality but one of them was to settle a previous one, hence leaving her with 2 active. Given the type of business this is, and that the agents (good ones) like to create a relationship with their customers, agreements are often arranged at branch levels to reduce payments. It is NOT in the agent's interest to have a debt written off as they will only get paid when they collect money from you! If the debt is written off then they lose a loyal customer AND future income. Just for the record (and I've worked the Finance industry a fair bit), this type of business typically writes off 50% of the original income it records for each loan AND the majority of customers will take at least double their agreed term to pay the money back. Selling to the debt recovery outfit is a final cause only when all other avenues are normally exhausted. Can you imagine a bank doing that?

Oh...come to me baby... This is my specialist subject. If you really want to find out HOW lucky you are go to the review centre.com (sorry I have low post levels so can't post the link yet) Check this. I had an accident MARCH 17TH 2010. My claim has STILL not been settled. This is nothing but a mickey mouse outfit. As it happens, the guy who ran into me, decided in his wisdom, to commit fraud and say I caused the accident...despite me having a totally independent witness. First Central promised me free legal cover if I wasn't at fault. Not so. Because the lying little toe rag said it was me, they almost led me into £1000s of solicitor charges as they failed to support me. The only way I have been able to pursue this is because I had a v v small amount of whiplash (which I wasn't going to bother claiming for) so I claimed under no win/no fee for personal injury, and as a consequence, fault will be proven and all my other losses claimed back. My car is still in my garage and finally being inspected (for the third time) on Monday. Hopefully then I'll get rid and at least the claim will be closed, even if the legal stuff is dragging on. Little sheister is now going to court and still professes his innocence (am I missing something here??). Oh and the best bit...I'd just started my new job and because I didn't have a company car I bought an old banger to tide me over in the probation period. The MOT was due on 17th April 2010 and the tax 1st May 2010. As 1st Central had indicated they would probably write it off (but hadn't got their thumb out of their butts), I was reluctant to MOT or tax the car as it would cost me. The Friday before the MOT was due, I was on the phone stressing because I needed a hire car whilst all this was sorted. 'Advisor' Robert Johns (after having consulted with his supervisor) stated that the car was driveable so I had no need for a hire car. When I explained that it would have no MOT I asked "What if the police stop me". He said (almost verbatim) "Just tell them you have a claim ongoing, they'll understand" and it was being 'sorted' by them. I nearly choked. Needless to say their policy states if you have an invalid tax/MOT on the car then you are not insured. Basically I have a 3rd party only insurance which states it is fully comp as it covers you for FA. Trust me, I've heard stories of people coming home to find their 'written off' cars towed away and scrapped along with personal effects. Thankfully my garage is locked. STAY AWAY FROM THEM. Unfortunately your only option is to keep on hassling them and I'd also throw a report into the FSA for good measure. They have to cough up £250 for every complaint. My energy is being spent on the court case (God knows when that will be), but after that 1st Central will be getting a lovely complaint letter. Oh and another laugh. I wrote to them cancelling my insurance (I cancelled the DD too just in case). I had a good moan in the cancellation letter. Imagine my surprise when they wrote back saying they would respond to my 'complaint' in due course...if they'd wanted a complaint I'd have been more factual!!!! Anyway, the exciting bit is, over a month after the cancellation, I've now got a renewal notice. Happy days! Good luck!

Hi I'm new to this forum. I posted a query in the general section but have since reviewed my situation so can add better details. I need URGENT help as every month MBNA are posting a £12 charge to my card every month and a late flag to my CR which is wrong and this is wrecking my credit rating. I need to stop this asp, but not sure on best steps. I've read a bit on this site, but a lot of the issues I can see relate to people who have charges pre the OFT changes and also those in debt who are looking to prove unenforceable contracts. Long story then, here goes: In July/August 2009 I had a Virgin card that hadn’t been used in at least a couple of years, and they offered me 0% till December 2009. I took it. Safe in the knowledge I’d always had my DD set up, I relaxed. My statement arrived stating I’d be paying by DD so I did nothing. Next thing I got a letter saying my DD had rejected. On checking my bank account there was plenty of money for the DD and no trace of a DD going out and then being reversed…so I was confused. A day after receiving the letter (and the same night I was going to call to complain) I got a call from MBNA asking for a £25 payment. When I challenged why the DD had failed they (after some investigation) said the mandate was cancelled. I don’t remember doing this with my bank and can only assume it happened due to lack of use on the card. I was adamant that the mandate had been set up as I’d had no issues previously with the Virgin DD. The assistant took a £25 payment off me and clarified that yes all my details were correct and that he’d set up a new mandate. He specified to me that my next statement was due and that he wasn’t sure if the DD application would go through in time. I was advised to phone up when I got my next statement to check it had been set up and if necessary make an additional payment. When my statement arrived (with a late fee of £12 for the previous month), it again stated my bill would be paid by DD. I assumed the worst and rang up to make a payment. I received an automated message saying “We cannot take a payment from you over the phone as your bill is being collected by DD”. I thought everything was fine. Then I realised it had been rejected again. I only found out when I received the statement (again my money situation was fine). I never received a letter telling me of the reject (obviously it didn't show in my bank account). I received an automated email to my home email address, which didn't get picked up until the payment was due for statement 3 anyway. I assumed that the DD had been set up by this time. On my 3rd statement I had another late fee obviously and this time the payments did start collecting from my bank ok. NOTE: I have NEVER had a missed payment since. Now I know this is stupid, but I had a hell of a lot going on personally at the time (medical and job wise), so I didn't check my CC statements as I knew I had more than enough money to cover the monthly payments, so there shouldn't have been an issue. Wrong! I found out a couple of days ago that since November 2009 they have been charging a £12 ‘default fee’ to my card EVERY MONTH. At no point have I ever been requested to "Pay £X or we will charge you a fee every month". Every other card charges you a fee for the month you are late to cover admin and then that's it (unless you're in arrears). They've also put a late payment flag on my CR every month, and flagged my account as being in ‘arrears’, they have never requested that I pay anything to clear an ‘arrears’ amount. I believe they have charged me illegally as a) they cannot substantiate the cost they are charging me (£12 a month for doing nothing? Not even a letter?) b) they must be in breach of T&Cs because surely under unfair terms it wouldn't allow a repeated charge for something they haven't asked me to resolve? and c) it wasn't my fault the mandate was cancelled...surely whether it was my bank or MBNA they would have had an AUDDIS or ADDACS notification telling them of the change and hence had the chance to contact me (which didn’t happen)? and d) assuming I'm correct then they have breached DPA by making it look like I'm a persistent late payer (I checked my credit file and they have posted a 'late flag' every single month that a charge has been made. This resulted in me getting rejected for a CC application a couple of days ago. MBNA knew I’d challenged on the phone that it was not my fault the mandate was cancelled, they stripped me of my 0% offer and charged me normal/extortionate rates of interest and didn’t retract the 2 late fees. I had been charged. Now I know I’ve been stupid in so much as I should have complained to them ages ago, got my interest refunded etc. Now I know the fault regarding the initial late payments is a bit he said/she said, but certainly the record regarding subsequent late payments is wrong. What I don't know is what to tackle first! Can anyone help? My first priority is to get them to stop posting late payment flags to my CR. I thought of contacting the data controller but I'm suspecting the DC won't be able to do anything unless the default fees are stopped. Therefore I’m not sure who to tackle first as I would prefer to sort the CR bit out first and then tackle the losses side later. During the time this was going on in the background, I have had to buy a new car and I know only 1 out of 3 finance companies agreed to lend to me – I assumed this was due to the amounts I currently had on loan. My new job involved a credit check on me so this could have easily been jeopardised (thankfully it wasn't). Additionally both MBNA and Barclaycard have reduced my credit limit, stopped me removing cash by credit card and raised my %age rates (Barclaycard specifically said it was due to changes in my credit file), but again I thought this was all due to tightening up of rules off the back of the credit crunch. I’m desperate for a template and some advice about this as it needs sorting pronto. I have had my CC since 2002 so I might be able to go down the unenforceable contracts route but I’d prefer not to unless they refuse to correct the details/resolve this. I can afford to repay, I’m just disputing all the consequential losses they have caused me (damage to reputation, incorrect charges, increases of finance agreement %ages because of their actions, stress etc). Please please help advise on the best tactic. I want to complain but not sure which area to complain to first. Also I need my letter to come across as meaning business, not like I'm having a general moan, so they ignore it. Thanks in advance

Hi I'm no expert but there's no reason for them not to be able to find your details if you have given them your current and previous relevant addresses and any name changes they might have you listed under. Good luck Mel

Hi, I'm new to this forum and hope you can help...bit of a long story. I went into my bank yesterday, and was offered a great deal on a CC, so thought I'd apply (I’m aiming to get them paid off this year so 0% interest for a while would be great). They rejected me (the assistant couldn't believe it as my accounts were in great shape). The only thing he could advise was that I had a credit card showing 17 late payments over the last 3 years. I couldn’t believe this as all my bills go out by DD and none had rejected. Checking my credit file last night it turns out it’s MBNA – long story alert. In July/August 2009 I had a Virgin card that hadn’t been used in at least a couple of years, and they offered me 0% till December 2009. I took it. Safe in the knowledge I’d always had my DD set up, I relaxed. My statement arrived stating I’d be paying by DD so I did nothing. Next thing I got a letter saying my DD had rejected. On checking my bank account there was plenty of money for the DD and no trace of a DD going out and then being reversed…so I was confused. A day after receiving the letter (and the same night I was going to call to complain) I got a call from MBNA asking for a £25 payment. When I challenged why the DD had failed they (after some investigation) said the mandate was cancelled. I don’t remember doing this with my bank and can only assume it happened due to lack of use on the card. I was adamant that the mandate had been set up as I’d had no issues previously with the Virgin DD. The assistant took a £25 payment off me and clarified that yes all my details were correct and that he’d set up a new mandate. He specified to me that my next statement was due and that he wasn’t sure if the DD application would go through in time. I was advised to phone up when I got my next statement to check it had been set up and if necessary make an additional payment. When my statement arrived (with a late fee! For the previous month), it again stated my bill would be paid by DD. I assumed the worst anyway and rang up to make a payment. I received an automated message saying “We cannot take a payment from you over the phone as your bill is being collected by DD”. I relaxed thinking everything was fine. Then I realised it had been rejected again (again I could not see this on my statement and my money situation was fine). The following month (3rd statement) I had another late fee and this time the payments did start collecting from my bank ok. Despite the fact MBNA knew I’d challenged that it was not my fault the mandate was cancelled, they stripped me of my 0% offer and charged me normal rates of interest and didn’t retract the 2 late fees. I had been charged. Now I know I’ve been stupid in so much as I should have complained to them ages ago, got my interest refunded etc, but I’ve had a lot on family wise and change of job etc. Until yesterday and my credit card rejection. It turns out that since September 2009 MBNA have posted a ‘late payment’ flag on my credit file EVERY month (not just the 2 that are in dispute), which is totally incorrect and makes it look like I’ve never paid my bill on time since 2009 (despite the fact I have an unblemished DD collection record since then). It also shows my account as being in arrears. Now I know the fault regarding the initial late payments is a bit he said/she said, but certainly the record regarding subsequent late payments is wrong and I’m going to ask for compensation. I know there are a couple of posts of this nature on this site that state compensation is potentially £1000 + dispute/default value but I have no idea how much this would be in my case (see below). During the time this was going on in the background, I have had to buy a new car and I know only 1 out of 3 finance companies agreed to lend to me – I assumed this was due to the amounts I currently had on loan. My new job involved a credit check on me so this could have easily been jeopardised (thankfully it wasn't). Additionally both MBNA and Barclaycard have reduced my credit limit, stopped me removing cash by credit card and raised my %age rates (Barclaycard specifically said it was due to changes in my credit file), but again I thought this was all due to tightening up of rules off the back of the credit crunch. As a result of the above paragraph and MBNAs error, they have cost me hundreds of pounds due to themselves and other organisations working off the back of the credit file data they posted, plus the money that I will be set to lose in the future as it is unlikely that these same companies will reduced their rates once they’ve upped them. How on earth to I quantify any of these losses as I have no idea what rates would have been given to me had MBNA not stuffed up? I’m formulating a complaint letter to MBNA so any advice would be gratefully received. And yes I am keeping an eye on my file very closely now!