Hi everyone I had a loan with Likely Loans which unfortunately defaulted and was sold on (with an official assignment) to Cabot Financial last year. Since September last year I started to receive phone calls, then text messages and now emails, sometimes 3 times a month DEMANDING that I enter a Payment Plan with them. I had an agreed Payment Plan with Likely Loans and told Cabot over and over that I wanted that arrangement to continue. It seems they couldn't care less about that and want me to start from scratch. Now I have been a member of this Forum long enough to know that the least info that these people have on you the better! I was paying Likely Loans £60 per month and I have kept to this with Cabot who have acknowledged the payments. Now am I correct in thinking that the "Plan" would be to their benefit not mine and would enable them to apply more pressure should they choose to do so? The date I pay them varies slightly because I receive my income 4 weekly rather than monthly and I presume they would want a Direct Debit which would not work for me. Advice please would be most welcome.

Hi I would welcome some advice please. I have been a CAG member for some time and you have helped in many ways. Way back in October 2007 I took out a loan with Black Horse Finance for £4,000 to pay for a new central heating system that I was forced to install when I had to move into an old mid-terraced house. The problems with this house got worse over the years and in October 2012 the account was assigned to MEIV who traded under the name Marlin. Also at that time my affairs were being handled by a Debt Management Company. This company, Money Worries, subsequently disappeared with the MD being chased by Greater Manchester Police. There followed a long and painful period with Marlin whereby they constantly stated there was no payment plan and I stated that there was. They claimed no payments had been received and it was down to me to try and sort the mess out. I said at the time that I would maintain the same payment as I had been to the DMC which was £12.25 per month. I implemented a Standing Order to this effect. Marlin, of course, wanted an Income / Expenditure form so they could (obviously) try and pressure me to pay more. I wrote to Marlin saying their actions could amount to harassment but they continued to maintain there was no agreement and passed the account over to their so-called "solicitors", Mortimer Clarke. in April 2014 enter Mortimer Clarke who were still, like Marlin, just agents. As 'solicitors' they started threatening legal action, enclosed an Income / Expenditure form and demanded that I fill it up - effectively disclosing all. A month later they wrote saying their 'client' had told them to start legal proceedings but actually nothing happened, maybe because it was already beyond 6 years. They threatened CCJs and credit being "impacted" etc. I discover that Marlin had actually increased the debt by £500 by slapping on punitive interest. After finally getting them to realise that there was a plan, whether they liked it or not, they removed the interest. I then made a reasonable offer, I felt, to increase the monthly payment to £20. They came back again demanding their sacred Income / Expenditure form. thanks to CAG I informed them about 'reasonable' offers of payment and Court Protocol rules and just went ahead and implemented the £20 a month. Back they came saying the offer had been accepted on a "concessionary" basis - whatever that's supposed to mean. In March 2016 they seemed more reasonable and continued the £20. In October 2018 they try their tactics again and I respond with a strongly worded letter about harassment and follow through on my telephone promise to increase the monthly payment to £25. Surprise, surprise, this is accepted! All is then peaceful and calm until February this year when they start again. As things are somewhat better for me the monthly payment is increased to £60 but now in September they're back again. Now I know you will say I'm foolish but this time I completed their damn Income / Expenditure form but again, foolishly, I gave them figures based on our total family income. I am retired as a full-time carer to our disabled son. My wife is in paid employment but wants to build up savings to start a business idea that she has every chance of succeeding in. I gave them global figures for total Income and Expenditure as how much pocket money I give my son is of no relevance! They are now saying on the basis of the figures I gave them that I have £494 disposable income and that their 'client' (i.e.MEIV) wants the monthly payment to rise to £345.80. I am furious. They have given me 14 days to accept ......or else!! I am thinking I should do a new IE form based solely on my income and the expenses I pay each month but I thought I would come to you guys first. If this were to go through it would leave us, as a family, with not much over a £100 to cope with emergencies. Many thanks in anticipation.

Hi everyone Yep basically you DON'T deal with JES. They are just a post office masquerading as thugs. Treat them with the contempt they deserve. Half of their so called directors are also directors for Credit G so, yes, they are the hard face of Credit G and a DORMANT company cannot accept payments. Now I got Credit G eating out of my hand. Told 'em point blank (in writing of course) that I was having nothing to do with JES and that I was implementing the exact same payment arrangement that I had with the Housing Association so I control everything! My advice to Headaches@night is to get proof of the assignment cos in my experience it is unusual for Credit G to go down the road of buying a debt.

No no no. I have been a member of CAG long enough to know that you don't do phonecalls! I have strictly followed the CAG advice but I have tenancy arrears with a Housing Association from some years back. I had reached an agreement with the HA to pay these off at £20 a month and was doing so quite happily. It seems the HA couldn't be bothered to deal with me anymore and just passed it over to Credit G to collect who in turn passed it to JES (who are a "subsiduary" of Credit G). I have fired off several letters to JES asking them politely to confirm that the debt was assigned. All they do is send me copies of rent statements with the last entry endorsed "Passed to Credit G". I don't think there has been any assignment so when the latest ridiculous letter arrived I stopped being polite and told them (by letter) I was having nothing further to do with JES and said I was implementing exactly the same arrangement that was in place with the HA with Credit G.

Hi everyone I would just like to know if anyone else has had dealings with either of these companies. I have an ongoing issue with JES who have refused to tell me whether a debt has been assigned to them. (They do not seem to understand what "assigned" means). I have also found out from Companies House that they are a 'dormant' company. I may be wrong but are 'dormant' companies legally entitled to take money off people?

Thank you again dx100uk but is Dodgeball correct about the 3 months rule?

Thanks particularly to dx100uk. The £800 of arrears was racked up with MPLC over the course of 4 months because my wife who works in the childcare sector, and who is the principal earner in our family, was having a tough time workwise and ended up going through 3 jobs and then having to take agency work. MPLC weren't that bothered and we reached a verbal deal with them at the end of October. However, we had just successfully reclaimed a whole lot of "arrears monitoring charges" back off them although they wouldn't go back more than 3 years saying they didn't have to. Literally 2 days after this, and before the payment arrangement could be confimed in writing, we get a letter stating the mortgage had been sold to Rooftop. Coincidence or what? So of course Rooftop know nothing about the arrangement reached with MPLC. I challenged them to contact MPLC. Their response was to slap a £50 arrears fee for the month prior to when they became responsible for the mortgage plus "additional interest". I said they can't do this and they say "Oh yes we can!" We then play ping-pong where they phone me at times when I'm out and then accuse me of failing to make contact. I phone back and the arrears team are never available. So eventually I do get through and there is a somewhat aggressive conversation where I'm told in no uncertain terms to do the IE form and send in bank statements and payslips. I point out that I am retired. I'm actually a full-time carer to our special needs son who is registered disabled. Rooftop have now followed up with a letter telling me I have 7 days to do the form. Now I don't think Rooftop like people who possess the ability to think. I don't want these arrears hanging around a second longer than necessary and now that my wife is back in stable employment we worked out a plan whereby we overpay the mortgage by £200 each month. We made the first of these payments on 8 November. The overpayment was accepted and applied to the arrears so is this tantamount to acceptance? However the lady in the arrears team views this only as a 'proposal' and nothing can be agreed until I do what they want. I have no intention of doing this and sticking their noses into every aspect of our life is not going to happen!

Hi I hope someone can point me in the right direction. I am having difficulty with both my mortgage company and Vanquis who are demanding I complete an Income & Expenditure form which is very intrusive as well as sending in 3 months worth of bank statements. I have recently had my mortgage transferred to Rooftop and I know there is MUCH on the Forum about those people. I am beginning to lose sleep about this situation and so is my wife. I have £800 of arrears on the mortgage and am able to overpay the monthly amount by £200 to clear this. I have already proved this is possible by doing this last month Rooftop will have none of it and have now given me just 7 days to send in their IE form, payslips (which I've already told them I don't have as my wife is the income earner) and bank statements (which of course would tell them all about our lifestyle and do nothing to reveal that that is dictated by our special needs son. Vanquis have said much the same thing and are demanding the same. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

Thank you unclebulgaria67 and ericsbrother. Useful advice. I would just like to ask one further question if I may. I offered originally to SSE what I felt was a reasonable and affordable payment arrangement. Why the matter went to LCS is because SSE flatly rejected my proposal and demanded that the full sum be paid in 2 equal instalments over 2 months which I couldn't afford then and still can't. Can I just implement myself what I proposed and what if they say I HAVE to deal with LCS?

We used to be with SSE up until the summer and we were advised by them that we had a closing balance of £357.87. We were unable to pay this at the time and SSE were not prepared to wait for us to agree some sort of payment arrangement over a period of time because they wanted things settled there and then because we were leaving them. after the passage of some more time we heard from LCS who are saying they are authorised agents. I have never at any time had any communication from SSE that THEY were adding charges so I am assuming this is an attempt by the DCA to extract 'administration fees'.

Hi everyone I hope someone out there can point me in the right direction on this one. I have an ongoing issue with a DCA called LCS who act for Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE). I have not, and of course will not speak to them on the phone. They have, after some time, responded to my letter to them asking if SSE had sold the debt. They have responded openly and said they are agents and the debt has NOT been sold on to them. They are trying to add on "recovery charges" of £71.57 and trying to say it is SSE that has done this. They enclosed an invoice from SSE for the amount owed to them and there are NO additional charges added. Now I have already told them that if the debt has not been sold then I want to deal direct with SSE and not them but they are having none of it. I want to tell them to basically go forth and multiply but I want to do it in a legal way.

Hi everyone. I'm just after the best advice as to how to deal with Rossendales. Naturally I haven't and will not speak to them on the phone. They are claiming I owe a WTC overpayment of £139.07 from 2014. This would have been from the time when I was self-employed. I can just about remember getting some derisory amount of a couple of quid a week from way back. Could this be it? Anyway, I thought I would 'test the water' so to speak with them and wrote back asking if the debt had been assigned to them, knowing full well that HMRC doesn't assign debts. They came back with two letters, one factual, one rude saying essentially send us a statement of your finances and stop messing about! Now for the life of me I MIGHT owe this debt, but then again I might not and HMRC could be wrong. Rossendales say they don't under the 2005 Act have to provide info proving the debt. I am minded to fire back a letter along the lines of 'psychological harassment' and say if you won't provide the info get HMRC to but I would welcome all views and thoughts before I do.

PasDue became involved after 11 months.

Hi everyone. I have a comparitively small debt of £350 for gas and electricity supplied by Eon at a property I moved out of a year ago. Eon have got PastDue to "manage" and recover the debt but it has not (as far as I can tell) been assigned to them. I have followed previous Forum advice and told them I will only communicate with them in writing and offered them in writing £10 a month. They have now come back to me asking for confirmation that I owned or occupied the previous property; dates that I entered and vacated the property and confirmation of my date of birth. They say they need this information to comply with the DPA. Now I must confess I'm not a leading expert on the Data Protection Act but I thought the act was there to safeguard personal information that companies held on people NOT as a tool to extract info companies do not have about you. If these people are properly acting for Eon shouldn't Eon be able to confirm dates when we were taking energy from them. They were properly informed when we vacated the property last year. I would welcome any thoughts members have please.