Morning Mike I will try the Noddle CRA as I have already taken advantage of the main 2's 30 day free trials in the past. Are they called Muck Hall because they use dirty tactics? That's brought a smile to my face. I will try and dig up all the old paperwork I have to establish who the original creditors were. I do remember Equidebt, now EQL I guess? Anyway, I will post back when I have organised the paperwork properly and make some sense of who's who and where things stand. Have a lovely weekend.

I agree, ostrich and sand springs to mind yet again. It is so much more complicated Mike. The original credits refused nominal payments and began demanding payment in full or else. The next thing I know, different DC's started contacting demanding payment so I started asking for CCA's/SAR's as amounts quoted were beyond ridiculous. I received dodgy copies sent without my signature from one and paperwork that was completely illegible from the other. CCCS/StepChange were unfortunately never involved as I was too embarrassed to contact them due to the circumstances. Will dig up all the original paperwork over the weekend.

Right ok, I'll see if they will accept that for now. Oh gosh, unfortunately I have several. Long story short...way before I was laid off from work, I stupidly took out some loans on behalf of a now ex partner which amounts to a serious sum of money combined. This was back in 2006/7 and EQL & McKenzie Hall are now the DC's. I am not at home at the mo so do not have all the details to hand but they were both contacting me everyday on my mobile during May (don't know how they got my number). Anyway, since July nothing at all from either. No doubt it'll start again soon...

Morning Mike Thank you for your concern and yes I would feel more confident paying less to ensure I could keep up with future payments but felt that because the payments were already low I would just keep going until my financial situation improved. I suppose until such time, I could try to renegotiate and the idea of keeping some back just in case does make sense. Will do the CCA by recorded delivery today and no doubt will be asking for help with whatever paperwork I receive, if any. I'll check that as well, thank you.

Hi Mike, apologies for taking so long to reply. The £10 is just manageable going forward so will continue to pay that. Good to know the fees/charges can be reclaimed and I will direct my payments/correspondence to the Home Retail Group (HRG) as you advise. Yes, the templates you mention are the ones I received; the first was from Argos themselves and the 2nd one from FRS, hmm. Would it be okay to just send a CCA to the HRG to start with? Thanks again for your invaluable advice SH

Good morning Mike and thank you for the welcome and for your response. I did use the 'letter to creditors' template given by CCCS initially and Argos did agree to the £10 per month payment that was offered. I checked the address at the back of the envelope and yes, the return address does seem to be the same as the Argos one. Sorry Mike, should I ignore FRS and continue to pay Argos directly? I will send a formal complaint to the contact you have provided for Argos (thank you). Funnily enough, when the PPI scandal broke, I did contact them to ask if there was ever any PPI or CPP on the account in the past; had this card for over 10 years or more but cannot remember if I had taken any protection or insurance on it before I lost my job. Argos of course say there never was any PPI or CPP on the card.

Good afternoon everyone. I am new to the group so please bare with me. I was laid off from work a couple years ago and decided last year to take the plunge and become self-employed. However, work has not been coming in and I am now in serious arrears with several creditors. Argos is to the tune of £1150.38 which I was paying off at £10 per month. I had been advised by the CCCS (now Step Change) to send them a nominal fee of £1 per month but felt that was too small. Anyway, last month I received a statement from them saying I had failed to make a minimum payment. I did pay but was three days late, my fault entirely but they now want 5 times what I was paying per month starting August 13th and have added a £12 late payment fee. I have since received two threatening letters and an email from a company called FRS - Financial Recovery Services Ltd re my Argos account balance. The first letter is headed Pre-Litigation Warning in bold capitals and states my account has been referred to them to arrange payment of the full outstanding balance required immediately. I ignored it then the 2nd letter arrived headed Notice of intended court action, again in bold capitals. This says that unless the full balance is paid or an acceptable proposal of payment is received within 5 working days the following steps may be taken as a consequence and they go on to list the steps such as a recovery specialist visiting my home to recover the outstanding debt. They have also added a £12 admin charge for them sending me the letter. Could you advise on what steps I need to take? I was going to continue paying the £10 to Argos as before but am worried about continuing to ignore these FRS people, particularly if I do need to be making payments to them now. Apologies for such a long post Many thanks in advance, Stillhoping