I think it could be 6 years from the default, but I could be wrong.

I have just received a reply from aic saying that they have received payments on the account and that it was not cleared completely. However the amount owing is just over £200 and aktiv kapital are chasing me for £450. Obviously the debt that they bought from GE for £450 cannot be correct when the balance owed was much less. I am going to write to Aic and GE again to ask for statements to see if many charges were added to the account because this is likely to be made up of these. Aktiv kapital surely are wrong in their information, and while I do not mind paying any money owed, their aggressive pursuit makes me determined to hold them off. the debt will not be 6 years old until september 2009 according to the credit report. this is the only debt I have, having successfully gained back £9000 in charges and having default removed from various companies from this period. Aktiv kapital are the only crowd I am having difficulty with!

any help would be appreciated, I know this crowd are tricky people to deal with!

sorry, need to clarify, on the credit report, the defaults are to a.k. not ge or aic. tell me also, can they now apply for a ccj after so much time has lapsed?

Hi there for some years now I have been dealing unsuccessfully with Aktiv kapital. they bought 2 debts from GE that I had, and at the same time, I was paying one of them off to AIC. these debts are 5 years old. then I paid off both, one to aic as I was already paying them for it, and the other to aktiv kapital. I sold my house to pay for these and thus moved, happy in the knowledge that all was well etc. 4 years later, I get a copy of me credit report and there are the 2 defaults and they say that I have gone away and not paid. So after a few months of wrangling, I get them to update the one that was paid to them (I have to get a copy of the cheque I sent them and it was a nightmare) the second one (which was paid to AIC) they will not update saying that it is still owed to them and I must prove to them I paid it... Aic will not give access to this information as it is archived (it was paid by one of those slips for the post office that they send you so no cheque) and I need the original aic account number, not the ge account number, they are unhelpful and a complete nightmare. I sent them the data protection letter with a postal order and that was at least a year ago, I sent them further letters, nothing in reply from them! I, in the meantime sent all the paperwork to aktiv kapital to prove that I owe them it, they were unable to provide any of it, not the original agreement, default, or the transfer of the debt. so I wrote to them saying that the debt was unsubstantiated, it was paid in full, go away and leave me alone. I also got in touch with ge who say that the account is clear on their side but this could be because it was paid in full from a debt collector or bought by a debt collector. A year has passed and Buchanan wells and clark solicitor have now written to me on behalf of Aktiv kapital, I tried to explain to them that I don't owe any cash and have posted the paperwork Aktiv Kapital sent saying they could not provide any original agreements, default etc. If only Aic would respond. In August this year, it will be 6 years and I was hoping it would drop off the credit report anyway, but it seems that the harrassment will not end. what to do? dca are a bunch of arrogant people who won't help whether you pay or not! incidentally, with the moving of house all aic letter are lost, after paying in full, I naively didn't realise the importance of keeping them, Sinead

Sorry I meant to add I have had no complaints and all orders were completed so their claim has been unfounded!

is there any way we can put pressure on them to release the funds, obviously, they are not refusing to pay, just not right now, but in 90 days. the sentinel computer system they employ picks up on suspicous sellers (genuinely so or not) and when you contact them, it picks up the words on your enquiry and deals you out an appropriate computer generated answer- I know this because it has sent the same answer to me to different enquries!) What Should I write to them?

Hi there This has also happened to me and many others according to the amazon forums. Basically the "sentinel" system suspects me as a chronic failure for issuing refunds to people who buy items elsewhere or who return them due to unsuitablilty. Amazon doesn't like this so they held my seller fees for 30 days. the 30 days ended yesterday and lo and behold (despite only 3 measly book sales from then until now totalling 3p, none of which have been refunded) they have decided to hold the funds for up to 90 days. they do not speak to sellers who have been blocked and will only take email enquiries - to which no one replies except to say the account is blocked and the funds held for up to 90 days.... useless really. apparently i am in breach of the participation agreement and my funds totalling £945 are held in their bank pending an investigation that they have said is none of my business! Anyone who has had any satisfaction regarding this.. please help!

crikey

Thanks for the advice, you just don't know these days if people will take things further or not!

Hi there, just checking what people think! We run a basic cleaning firm where we clean people's houses. yesterday, when one of the cleaners went to do a house clean, (where the people supply the cleaning materials) the man who owns the house slipped on the floors. Now, firstly the floors were damp and drying and he was told to be careful. Secondly, it transpires that the floor cleaner supplied was polish not "pledge wooden floor cleaner" and so the floors were slippy. The cleaner went back and redid the floors as soon as we all realised what had happened. do you think the customer has grounds for claiming as he suppplied the floor cleaner and was told to stay off the wet floors?

Hi just to let you know that you can pursue this in n.i but in the county court rather than the small claims I have had a settlement of 1372 in full today from b of ireland, not because I pursued them in court ( i did this but it was adjourned awaiting the oft report) but because I reported them to the fin ombudsman threaten court action and report them as well. good luck

The abbey have settled two claims out of court for me that i split in two from the same bank account. I knew there was a risk but pursued it anyway, and I am glad because it paid off!

Well after all the worry, yes, the abbey have settled again in full, making the total I have got back from them in excess of £5k over the last year!! Many thanks to all the this forum who have been helpful!

Sorry to be a bit thick, I have read the sticky and just want to confirm if this also applies to Northern Ireland? Thanks

Hi We currently rent privately a 3 bedroom bungalow which used to be surrounded by trees. Last summer, the landlord decided to have all the trees ripped out (without any warning to us - we awoke one saturday with a pile of workmen out our back yard and tramping around the house) and left our garden in an awful mess. As a result, all the drains are blocked and to go out around the house, we have to wear wellies. There are also pipes sticking out from the ground and tree stumps all about, which could be a health hazard to our 4 kids, who cannot use the garden to play in. In the past we have complained about the heating which wasn't working and the landlord arrived unannounced shouting the odds that it wasn't up to him. We have taken pictures of the back garden and took them to the letting agent but they say that if we complain, we have to be prepared to be given a months notice as our landlord is short tempered and likely to evict (some protection from the letting agent eh?) They acknowledge that it looks a mess and could be dangerous. We don't want to move but we want it sorted? does anyone know where we stand?

Aw well, I will get the taxes back ok anyway and claim the rest on the insurance - it is not worth stressing about, that is what travel insurance is for! Thanks anyway.

Well, the thing is that it says that some economy flights are non refundable, surely with 4 months notice and ample opportunity to resell the tickets, a bit of lee-way might have been possible.. As for travel insurance, the post office is the only one to cover that particular period, most others do not cover from 28 wks onwards, the post office cover up to 32 weeks. Of course, you would have to know this and expect to have complications to keep this in mind.

I booked them online. There was nothing on the site to say that they would be non-refundable. In fact, it says that if the ticket is issued by Air France, and begins with a code 057, it is non refundable. Which you cannot find out until they arrive in the post!

Hi all, please help. My hubby and I booked a holiday with disneyland paris for the first week of July and booked flights to charles de gaule with air France separately, costing 647.00 (205 of which are airport taxes) Then I find out that I am pregnant and at the time of travel, I will be 28 / 29 weeks pregnant. I still intend to go. Then i go for my 12 week scan today and find out that I am carrying twins, and am advised that later in the pregnancy, it would be unwise to travel too far incase of premature labour etc and complications. So we have decided not to travel. I rang Air France and explained the circumstances but they are only able to refund the airport taxes, leaving them with a massive profit of £400+ They also say it is safe to fly until the ninth month of pregnancy. (I didn't know that telephone operators were so well medically trained) At the time of booking I unaware that the tickets were non-refundable. I have chosen to do nothing until I get advice. Air France say to claim on travel insurance, what a joke, we all know that travel insurance doesn't cover pregnancy. What should I do?

Hi thanks The first thing I have done is contact the credit ref agencies but they refuse to remove them on my say so. The info comm also was unable to do anything (i submitted a complaint) I have gone back to First National / GE money and requested all information that they have on me as ammunition against aktiv Kap as all balances left are bound to be excessive charges. Hopefully we will see that the balances are zero with first national. Then I can take ak to court for financial harrassment. I will claim back all money paid to them and any excessive charges imposed.

I have requested statements from Northern Bank but they say that without the account number, they cannot provide them. Surely not true? what should I reply?

Firstlt ring them up and ask them to send you a statement of the loan and payments in full. This way you will see if there were letter and phone call charges added as well. You might also find a few unfair penalty charges, all of which you can claim back. The interest on a welcome loan goes on every 19th of the month. if you can make the payment before this date, the interest is lower, than if you paid after this date. So if you missed a few months, the interest would climb, as it is compound. Ask them for a statement first and then you can have proof of everything then Sinead

Hi Mark. I myself have won many charges back from welcome finance and I think the best was is to tell you how I succeeded. Firstly I made a list (which almost made me sick when I realised how much I had been taken to the fair) of all the charges: 1. arrangement fees 2. letter / phone call fees. 3. ppi other fees (were u charged for home insurance and medicare also?) 4. settlement fees (Although this is normally regulated) 5. payments made 6. interest charged etc etc. get your total (which you have already done, but break it down) If you had been charged for ppi and not had a chance to use it, and in actual fact, were not informed that this would be added into the account, this is a big way to push ahead. HOWEVER if you did use the ppi, then you cannot really use this. The same applies if you were charged for medicare and home insurance and other bits that they add on. Then write a letter asking for an explanation for the excessive charges which you are not happy about. (You will get a refund of all the letter fees and phone call fees, missed payment fees without any doubt.) In your letter, explain that you are extremely unhappy with the total amount that you have paid on the loan etc. as you were never informed or given an explanation for them (especially arrangement fees, and unfair charges) Also ask them if they could investigate these fees and reply within 14 days. Print 3 copies of this letter. At the top of the letter, when you are inserting the companies address, put the local office, followed by the compliance office, and thirdly your local trading standards office. Post a copy to the local office and the welcome compliance office and put the trading standards copy in an envelope for 14 days (give them the benefit of the doubt) This way the local office knows you are complaining to their head office and trading standards and will take it seriously. The local office loses a bonus for complaints put through to the compliance office! Head office will know that you have contacted the branch, and trading standards and put the pressure on to them to sort it. When I did this, the area manager called me and asked me how much would it take to sort it! Ha ha, I had the ppi and insurances refunded, the unfair charges refunded and a goodwill gesture of £250. Since my loan was not as big as yours, this was a big gesture from them. When I contacted ts, they said that the insurances were clearly ticked on the agreement with the arrangement fees and so they would have difficulty fighting this for me. So the fact that they refunded SOME was a big bonus Good Luck

any help or advice would be really much appreciated! Thanks