Thanks SabreSheep, I thought that was the case. I spoke to Winfield hospital and they said that I couldn't pay them directly now that Icon Collections are involved. I have already paid the £60 to Icon collections, but I'm guessing they wouldn't take me to court over charges that they have added anyhow? Especially as the charges are being applied by Icon collections and not by Winfield Hospital, which, as I understand it they cannot do as I have no agreement with them in place? The initial charge was certainly added by Icon collections and was added in an email separate to the original invoice.

Hi Ell-enn, sorry I should have put the rest of the letter, it says "A court Summons will be served upon you shortly which will result in Bailiffs attending your property to remove goods if a judgment is secured against you". I'm guessing the big thing here is the "IF" part? SabreSheep thank you for your detailed reply. I may not have been clear in my original post. I actually haven't paid the £100 to the hospital, so I do owe the £100 and Icon collections have a copy of that original invoice stating that I owe £100. What I would like to know is if the additional £89 in charges that Icon collections have added on for collecting the debt are legally enforceable? IE if I email Icon Collections back with something along the lines of Dear icon Collections, following our telephone conversation today, I have made a payment of £60 relating to the outstanding amount of £100 that you were instructed to collect from me on behalf of Winfield hospital. I will Pay the remaining £40 on the 26th July 2014, making a total payment of £100, thus settling the outstanding invoice that you have on record for me as being unpaid. Kind regards, Me Could Icon collections then legally pursue me for the additional £89 in charges that they have added on in costs to the original invoice? Thank you so much for your time everyone with responses. It's great to have somewhere to turn with situations like this.

Hi there, Last year in July 2013 I had a procedure done at the Winfield private hospital. I have medical insurance with Bupa, but it has a £100 excess on it for treatment each year. This means that the first £100 of any treatment must be paid to the company carrying out the procedure, in this case the Winfield hospital. I thought that I had paid this £100, so was surprised to receive a letter from Icon Collections saying that I hadn't and that I now owed Icon collections £118, this was sent in January 2014. It stated in the letter that the money was to be paid directly to them and not to the hospital. Does this mean that they have assumed the debt now? Anyhow I ignored this letter and a couple more that I received from them. They also called me on several occasions and left voicemails for me which I also ignored. Eventually an advisor from Icon collections did get through to me and I explained that I thought that I had paid the amount and could she email me a copy of the invoice to look at. I gave her an email address that I rarely check. They did send a copy on 14th May 2014. The invoice was for £100, but in the email they said that a charge of £18 had been applied for late payment. They did send a follow up email on 2nd June 2014, but this said please contact them to arrange payment. Both of these emails I didn't actually see until today, as I rarely check the account and didn't want to give them my regular email address. I have now received another letter from icon collections dated 13th June stating a notice of Legal action. On it they say the amount due is £118. Part of the letter says the following. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS ARE NOW BEING DRAWN UP AGAINST YOU we are preparing legal proceedings against you and therefore you have rendered yourself liable for the following costs along with statutory Interest, which will accrue daily. COURT FEE £15 SOLICITORS COSTS £50 It then goes on to say a court summons will be served upon me shortly which will result in bailiffs attending my property. I then called them today 16th July, to see if they had actually sent me a copy of the invoices (which they had done) and to check if I actually had paid the original £100. It turns out I hadn't paid it, so offered to pay half of the amount now (£60 if you include the late charge fee) and the other half by 1st August to take the total up to £118. She then said the amount was now £189 because it had moved to legal proceedings. I asked what the costs were for and she said it was because it had moved to legal proceedings and that they have records of the multiple times they have called me and the number of letters that they have sent to me. My question is (apart from is the debt now with Icon?). Are these fees legally enforceable? I know that I haven't answered their letters or calls and the debt is now 1 year old with Winfield hospital (7 months that Icon collections have been chasing). But £78 on an original £100 bill seems excessive to me. Can I just pay the original £100? Do do I need to pay the late fee of £18, and do I need to pay these Court fee and solicitors costs of £65? To be fair I don't have a problem paying the additional £18 late fee, as I was in the wrong and I didn't settle the debt and did ignore their calls and emails, but I don't want to pay the additional £65 if I don't have to. Would they take me to court if I just paid £118, or even the £100? I have paid £60 to them today. But the lady wants me to email her to set out what we agreed on the phone, (which was to pay the full amount of £189 by the end of August), however at the end of the call I said I would email her, but I wanted to check the legality of the costs before emailing her to confirm the payment schedule. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated on what I am legally obliged to pay. Also I'm sorry that this email is so long, the advice on the forum is that you should be as clear and detailed as possible, so that's what I've tried to do.