Just take your business elsewhere. Round here Tesco are the most expensive supermarket.

I think that suggests November 2018 as date of claim. Also note they're now saying the charges claimed are for the period up to 18/03/2015. Bit of a moving target these dates. But still, March 2015 to today is more than six years.

You need to check on both those points in case they resurrect or continue the current claim. The Court should give you a clear answer on when the claim was first raised, I'm surprised you don't already have that on any of the paperwork.

Earlier the claimant said the last payment was in 2013, meaning that their claim raised in 2018 was not statute barred. This wouldn't apply to a new claim, raised any time from now onwards which will clearly be more than six years from 2013.

Freedom of Information Act isn't the correct method, that's for obtaining information that should be made available to any member of the public. You want information personal to you, which wouldn't be disclosed to anyone else. Or shouldn't. This would be a Data Subject Access Request under the DPA 2018. FOI only applies to public bodies in any case.

Just for clarity, should that have read 2021? Meaning that after the alleged speeding offence on 28/10/2021, you we banned starting from 04/11/2021 for a separate matter.

Have proceedings actually been raised in Scotland?

You should get a letter from DVLA confirming you are no longer the keeper.

Now on my third attempt to switch. Bear in mind that Symbio's policy of billing advance for an excessive estimated usage makes the concept of a "debt" far from clear. However to my mind if the agreed Direct Debit payment has been taken then the account is satisfied, and since in my case the DD comes off around 14-16 days after the bill is issues there are never grounds to claim anything overdue by 28 days. So back to my story .. (1) First attempt to switch - received an objection email from Symbio on 18th January confirming they have blocked the switch citing "Outstanding balance payable on your account.". This is three days after they'd taken the agreed DD amount. When I challenged them and included a current meter read for good luck they changed their minds, issued a new bill up to 19th January and confirmed my account was in credit. Email from Customer Services on 25th and from Credit Control on the 22nd both saying the account is in credit and they would not object to a switch. (2) Second attempt. Their change of heart was too late, the switch had already failed, so I had to restart the process which I did on 26th January. I submitted the normal end of month meter read on 31st Jan. 1st Feb Symbio issued their next bill, covering 20th Jan to 28th Feb. 3rd Feb another email saying they'd blocked the switch again and again citing "Outstanding balance due". In response to my aggrieved email they next responded with the revised January bill in arrears and using actual meter readings, obviously making a much lower value than before. And again they've confirmed account is in credit and they would not block any switch. (3) Third attempt now, and in response Symbio have sent and email asking me to click on a link to confirm, but the link gives an error "Link expired". Just waiting to see if this is another trick to block the switch or whether it will or will not go ahead. They've not responded to my email.

This company is bonkers. In response to the stupid November bill I raised a complaint. As usual I had an ill judged initial reply. However after I responded to that, they came back offering a fixed Direct Debit - but they've set the DD figure not just lower than their over inflated November bill, but actually lower than I think the real bill should be. Essentially this has just kicked the can down the road for a bit, but if I decide to jump ship then hopefully it will mean we're not in dispute at the time of the change over, and not owed too much money either. Problem is, they're still the cheapest and the companies that come close look just as amateurish.

I could kick myself for staying with them. After behaving themselves from July to October, they're now back to their old tricks with a November bill over inflated by something like 40%. Just checking for the best price with a view to ditching them right now. It will be around £10/month more expensive, but I guess money isn't everything.

They've actually been behaving themselves for me, recently. I'm re-signed with them on a variable tariff, meaning not tied in and can leave any time if they get up to their old tricks. However something I noticed was that when accepting the tariff they actually showed in advance how they expected that annual total to be split into the 12 months.

IN my opinion please guilty and ask to be sentenced at the Fixed Penalty equivalent, in line with the guidelines ...

Thanks. As it happened they simply didn't take the July payment even though they said they were going to. However the August bill and estimate was perfectly fine, I've decided to give them the benefit of the doubt in the meantime. They are still the cheapest supplier that I've found so I don't see the point in switching just because they've annoyed me in the past. However once the current tariff ends I'm going to make sure I'm on an open ended deal with no cancellation change so I can jump ship immediately f they play up again. By the way them going bust isn't really a problem, I was with Iresa when they went bust and we still got our credit balance repaid. However I'd be more than happy if one of the more reputable outfits started to be price competitive, like the comment from DX about British Gas's plans.

Looks like we might have reached a resolution here. The July bill has just come in and it's based on a reasonable estimate for their advance billing. Well not too unreasonable. It's higher than our actual in June, but then again it's well below EAC/12. So on that basis I've offered to settle this bill and the two that unpaid months, bringing the account up to date. It's just a matter of agreeing manual payment vs direct debit or what.

Contract runs until mid September with a £25 penalty for early exit. I seem to remember somewhere that they're not allowed to penalise for transferring within the last 30 days or the contract. Or something like that. Can anyone confirm?

Thanks for the comments. Yes I'm providing meter readings. There was a bit of confusion earlier as they used to bill from the 2nd of each month to the 1st of the next, so ideal meter reading was on the first. They then changed to billing from 1st of the month, so ideal readings need to be from the last day. However the meter reading doesn't affect the estimate for the following month. They're billing in advance so the amount billed is always an estimate. So my current situation is that after several months of complaining about excessive estimates I mutinied, cancelled the DD and said I would only pay either a bill based on a realistic estimate in advance, or a fixed monthly amount of a sensible amount, or in arrears based on actual consumption once the meter reading is submitted. Since then we've exchanged a million emails in which they've tried to persuade me that (a) their estimates are realistic based on some mythical "national database" and (b) that I shouldn't worry because any overcharge is reconciled in the following month. And (c) repeating their suggestion that I agree a fixed DD at a figure higher than any of their previous variable bills. That's where have been for a while. The complaint is with the Ombudsman Service, awaiting their response. However later on yesterday I had a call from them which I didn't record (sorry), however they have confirmed by email. What they're now saying is that I should hold off paying the May and June bills and review the situation once they have the end of June meter reading and have generated the July bill. I'm OK with that if the July estimate is sensible, but I did point out to the guy that if July's estimate is another stupid one we will be no further forward. That point is also vaguely confirmed in their email. So it still hinges on their willingness to base their advanced billing on a sensible estimate.

Hi, I'm surprised there isn't already a thread on this outfit. The way they work is that they bill for electricity in advance, using their "estimate" for that month's use. If you provide a meter reading at the end of the month, then the next bill contains a correction for any over or under charge. So for example the May bill includes charges for 31 days standing charge, and for an "estimated" number of units for May, but also includes a calulation for the previous month comparing estimated and actual use, and applying a credit or presumably a debit as appropriate. The bills are not easy to read, but essentially you end up paying for what you use. Our problems started in January when they suddenly started to work off really high estimates meaning you're paying in advance for electricity that you won't actually use, and although the over charge is credited next month it's coupled with another stupid estimate for the following month. To put that in context their estimate for December turned out to be only 6% higher than our actual use. Their estimate for January was 52% high than their estimate for December, and 88% higher than our actual use. I've gone through a series of months in which I've challenged their estimates, each time the meter readings have shown that I was right and they were wrong. in April I dug my heels in and raised a formal complaint, stated that I would not pay any bill based on a stupid estimate and suggested either a fixed monthly sum (I named a figure), or to pay in arrears each month based on actual use. Their initial response was to ask for a fixed monthly payment, naming a figure higher than any of their previous variable bills. I was wondering if anyone else has been going through anything like this process, and if so then have they managed to reach any sort of resolution? Thanks, Tony S

Just to make up for maybe treading on CAG's toes with my initial post, if anyone signs up for Smarty using the link below then both they and I will get a free month (the new member pays for a month and gets the second free). I'll donate any saving that I get to CAG Mods - if this is out of line then please feel free to delete my post.

Smarty is similar, month by month plans with no tie-in. No credit check either. Smarty runs over 3, Giff Gaff uses O2 so the choice may come down to coverage in your area. We've been using Smarty in a Mikrotik router as our main home Internet connection for nine months now, it costs less than our ADSL broadband and gives 20meg download instead of 3.5.

If your record with Halifax is good it might still be worth asking if you could take "additional borrowing" (that's what Lloyds called it when we extended our mortgage). That's assuming there's enough equity in the house, and also that your income meets their affordability criteria. When we took additional borrowing we were also allowed to take it on a longer term than the existing mortgage.

To be honest I don't think it will help with insurance. Although it seems unfair for something that was outside his control I think that even if the accident was due to a proven fault with the car they will still see him as at fault. Regarding repair, write off etc, the car will only be classed as write off of any category if the insurer chooses not to repair but to pay out the value instead. It won't apply if he repairs the car himself dealing with the repairer directly. If the excess is that much it might be a better way.

Some ABS systems work by sensing deceleration of the wheel, meaning they would still work if all four wheels tried to lock up simultaneously. Our car works like that, on slippy wet ice you may have no braking effect at all but the wheels do not lock up. To be honest I thought they all worked like that, but if some work only be comparing speeds then yes they will be fooled by all sorts of conditions.

Just thinking about this from another angle, if I understand this correctly this loan is the only one you have secured on the house. If that's correct then £35K is quite small by mortgage standards. Could you take out a more conventional mortgage at a sensible interest rate, and pay this loan off? Or are you tied in for the term? Even if there were early repayment penalties it might still be worthwhile given the high interest rate mentioned earlier.

I think it's worth double checking the addresses on the car's registration document, and on driving licence. Just in case there's some reason which mail might not have reached you. Have you been sent any copies of prior correspondence, and if so was the name and address all in order?