If they can't take the car as he needs it for his work as a mechanic, is there a law/legislation etc that my friend can quote at him? I've googled and googled but can't find anything, I can find lots saying that they can't take his car but nothing stating where in legislation this is covered.

Not as far as I know. I've told him to bring everything he has relating to the debt to my house today so I can go through it. I'm pretty sure though that he had the original fine, then nothing until a letter from Swift saying pay us in 7 days or we're sending the bailiffs round, then a letter saying we called and will be back on monday to take your stuff. He has let them in (he thought you had to as they were court bailiffs, not the 'normal' ones) but hasn't signed anything.

Yes, it's the court appointed bailiff. How does my friend find out what court it is in order to try to contact them? All he's had (allegedly!) is the letter from the bailiffs saying when they're coming round. Thanks for all your help

The car is a beat up old Merc (N reg), probably worth about £150 max if he sold it privately so I don't think it would be worth much towards the fine. So if the prison thing is just to scare him, what should his next step be? Just refuse to let them take the car and see what they do next?

Hi, I'm posting on here on behalf of a friend who stupidly has ignored a couple of police fines. One of them has been passed to the bailiff company (swift), the other hasn't gone over yet so he's hoping he can arrange a payment plan with them. Basically, he's set up as S/E and at the moment isn't making much money which is why he ignored the fines. He is a mobile mechanic so is reliant on his vehicle in order to work. The bailiff went to his house today (he did try to come to an agreement over the phone but they said tough, it's gone to a bailiff so he has to sort it out with him) and saw that he has nothing worth taking, so he said he'll give him until Friday to come up with £400 otherwise the choice is either they take his car or he'll go to prison. I was under the impression that they couldn't take anything that you require for your business? There's no way he can come up with £400 by Friday, maybe £50 but that would probably be the max he could get. If he loses his car then he wouldn't be able to afford to get another one so he'd end up out of work, even less chance of being able to pay the debt. He would obviously prefer not to go to prison (although he already has a criminal record - bad choices when he was younger, part of why he went S/E as it was easier to do that than find someone who would take him on) but if he did 'choose' the prison option, would the fines be wiped out? Basically, does anyone have any suggestions about how to deal with this, and whether they can take his car? Thanks for your help

Thanks - fingers crossed that this time they'll actually listen!!

the phone calls are still continuing, and now they're also texting me. In the last 3 days they've called me well over 15 times and texted several times as well. I've written to the complaince manager enclosing previous letters and also asking him/her to address the issues and to cease the phone calls. Nothing. I've now reported them to OFT but don't know what to do next. To be honest, I dread my phone ringing now, it's making me feel physically ill. I owe £1200, not the greatest sum in the world! (and about £150 of that is charges which I've done the reclaim thingy to get back). Please someone help and give me advice about what to do now!

So to reclaim the charges, can I send the hardship/financial difficulty one first or do I need to send the credit card letter template first? And is a schedule of charges just a list of when the charges were applied and how much each one was for? Are they allowed to refund it as money off my debt or do they have to give it back by cheque/BACS? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of this, I've tried reading the guides but I just get confused by all the different actions.

How do I report them to OFT, I looked on the website but can't see the relevant section Thanks for your help, I'll try to get that letter done today.

Hi I've got a Capone credit card on which I owe just over £1000. Due to various reasons such as losing my job, I have been unable to make the payments over the last few months. They have been calling me 3+ times a day (originally it was about 7). I wrote to them, stupidly before reading advice on here, offering £30/mth. They wrote back saying I need to speak to them on the phone. I wrote again, explaining that I don't want to deal with them by phone and please would they keep all correspondence in writing. The phone calls continued, 3 this Sunday gone, and they call up until 9pm. I sent them another letter making the offer (using the template on here) and after a few days I sent them the telephone harrasment letter. I have had 2 replies from them since, one stating that they need to speak to me regarding my payment plan, and one enclosing payment slips but mentioning nothing about the payment offer that I made, or about freezing the interest. What can I do now? I want the phone calls to stop as I won't answer and it's stressing me each time they call as I'm worried that they won't accept the payment plan until I answer the phone. Please help.

Hi, I need some advcie/help please with a debt I have with littlewoods/ndr. I stopped paying anything on my littlewoods acc cause I was having money problems and I stupidly ignored all the letters. it got passed to ndr and they sent me a letter which said We have been instructed by Littlewoods Finance Company Ltd to ceoolect your oevrdue debt of £806.46. The debt was transferred to us because our client has been unable to contact you. Therefore we are treating you as an evasive debtor. a GONE AWAY REGISTRATION FEE of £20 has been added to your account. This registration fee will be deferred and £20 will be credited to your account if you provide NDR with a contact telephone number and a payment. Please phone us on 0870 600 This has confused me, how do I owe £806.46 at the beginning of the letter and £1008.58 at the end? Is that my arrears and my balance? Surely when a debt gets passed on to a DCA then there's just one amount owed? I wrote to them explaining that I do not have a phone anymore because I was cut off but that I made a payment at the beginning of April of £20 and I would be prepared to pay them £20/mth and then in 6mths I will be able to increase this to probably £50/mth. They haven't replied to my letter and have now sent me a yellow slip saying please call alex vaughan butno company details or anything. (I recoginsed the phone number which is how I knew that it was from them). I am not disputing the debt as I feel that I spent the money so I shouldn't try to avoid paying them back, but how can I force them to deal with me by letter? Surely at the moment the fact that they have ignored my letter and are sending me demands for me to call them, means that although I have made an offer to pay, they are still marking my acount as no contact etc which will mean that it will go to court? Please please can anyone help because I have no idea what to do next. Thanks

thanks everyone for your help. I'm going to give it a go. Fingers Crossed

Hi, I was just wondering how many people who have claimed back charges with Halifax have had their accounts closed? I want to claim back my charges but my credit rating is really bad and I don't think I'll get a bank account anywhere else. Also my Halifax overdraft is £1600 and I can't afford to pay it back at the moment. I know in the FAQs it says that the bank can close your account but I just want to know how often Halifax takes that course of action? Cheers for any help