That's a lot - £15 to £20 a pop. Remember the OFT said they would not investigate anything that was below £12 or were these sums before 2006. And yes claim the lot - just not the interest as it gets too complicated - the interest you charge when you file at court is meant as compensation - just don't add it in untill you file as they will realise you have made a mistake. If you are interested see my thread about Time Retail - GE Money with a different name.

The iterest rate will certainly have altered over the years. If you do decide to go for compound I have always used the current rate when I have written to them and not worried if it changed one way or the other before submitting my N1 at court - this is only restitution of the money you could have invested elsewhere if they had not applied the charges. Glad you found the info food for thought.

Preliminary letter - found in library

My understanding of wasted costs is when one party has wasted the court and the claimants time - i.e. by not entering a defence. You are right to query their reference to the supreme court - this was indeed for bank charges. It is just them trying to make you doubt yourself - after all they are fully qualified lawyers - who do you think you are you lowly individual.

Well done for getting the information out of them. With the ball well and truly in your court now send the prelim and stick to your timeline. In my case they wanted extra time all over the show - DON'T PLAY THEIR GAME. With a bit of luck they won't even bother entering a defence which makes it easy. All the best

Back again http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/162851-consumer-credit-agreements-guide.html

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/51-guidance-notes/233-interest-tutorial This should help. Steven is VERY good. He also has one for credit card agreements. Will get that for you.

Working out the formula is difficult/neigh impossible for the layman I recall being told as it relies on different 'things'. Reading between the lines are you thinking of going for compound interest? If so do lots of reading as you have to make it plain from the 1st preliminary letter that that is what you are claiming.

With the developments in Scotland hopefully making life a bit fairer after June I am now thinking of submitting revised POC and am wondering if I can state that I am not available to attend court till later on in the year? Seems reasonable to me - any thoughts?

Got home to a letter from the balliffs - GE Money are going to have to give up some of their possessions in lieu of their debt to me - interim return. Why not just pay me and keep their computers etc? I also have a wasted costs application meeting here in Birmingham in April - only 20 minutes. I am thinking I should take copies of my letters and theirs for the judge to see but leaving the 'without prejudice' ones at home. Isn't it lovely when it all comes together in the end

I feel cautiously optomistic.

Yeah, done some reading since my last posting. Rather glad I hadn't got round to paying my fee - claim is currently £20000.00 with compound interest and back to the early '90s. Better forget it then as I can't afford their costs should I lose. Don't forget to sigh the No 10 petition.

He needs to put in a claim for jsa - so he has money to live on and then he can put in a claim for housing benefit. Much easier if he is getting benefit than having to prove 'nil' income which is usually awarded for a period of 3 months at a time - this is after all public money and councils have a duty to make sure it goes to those who qualify - having said that he could put a housing benefit/council tax benefit now if money is very tight until he gets jsa claim sorted. Just because it a registered house makes no difference to the amount of housing benefit. If it were 3-bedroom property for a single person it would - just apply and see what happens

Ask about making a claim for jsa(income-based). Ask to have it backda ted to 06/02/10

Are we all still waiting for revised POC then? Any developments expected before Easter?

If you are claiming housing benefit and you list tax credits as one of your incomes the entire child tax credit is listed as income. However if part of CTC is made up of your child care costs once proof is provided the child care costs are disregarded for housing and/or council tax purposes. So if your child care costs are £100 per week this is discounted by the council. Obviously if the costs increase let the council know as well as tax credits.

Did you know that if you are claiming housing and/or council tax benefit your CCC are disregarded. Let the council know asap to maximise your income. Even if you don't have proof it is a good idea to let them know and sent proof within the month

This will probably come as no surprise to some of you readers out there but I have now received a letter from the oh-so-kind bank offering to arrange to have my claim throw out via a notice of discontinuance if I sign attached paper and post it back to them. (They are using Northampton count, surprise, surprise.) If I'm not prepared to do this can I let them know within a month under what basis I am going to defend this action. Nice try but I'm not biting. This only confirms to me that Birmingham court are not striking them out at present.

Heard that warrant no. Y0000190 sent to central London 05/02/10. Tel no. is 0207 9175000 and case no is 8BM11259 if you want to turn up come the day

Very interesting. I get the impression court response varies from court to court from previous readings. Just subbing - hope above suggestion works for you. At the very least it slows things down.

GE Capital Bank (trading as GE Money), 6 Agar Street, London, WC2N 4HR is where the baliffs will be going. Will this be good publicity for the site then and shall I get some more useful information - like when they will be turning up. If you can milk it I am a single parent with one dependant child and 2 non-dependants on jsa - one will be a fully qualified joiner by the summer and the other is going onto university this autumn. Throw being a local government officer without a pay rise this year (can't you just see strike action in the offing) and just raising baliffs £100 fee was a bit difficult.

Pensioners are now allowed savings of £10,000 before its taken into account (£6,000 for the rest of us) and your mum would need savings over £16,000 before she was not entitled to any benefit. Must be very distressing for her so I hope it comes right in the end. Is she receiving guaranteed pension credit - savings of any amount are not counted. I have no idea why this is so but in theory she could have £100,000 saved and still get benefit.

Just one silly little blip - when I filled in warrant request I carried on adding the compound interest - YOU CAN'T DO THIS. I should have entered the figure as laid down by the judge when I won by default. Apparently I am not the 1st person to make that mistake. Got the paperwork back to the baliffs last Friday so something should happen within the next 3 weeks.

Going to file at court this week with test case over and waiting for new POC for current accounts. Can I use existing POC for this visa account as I've not been doing much reading in last few months. May as well concentrate on claims that can be won.............

Sounds like they are trying to fob you off. If this is a current account wait for new POC - if something different just go for it IMHO as these are not affectd by test case result.