This topic was closed on 10 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 10 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 09 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/07/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

'Sorry, think I posted in the wrong place please feel free to move!!! lol' Can anyone gimme any hints on how to deal with this one?? lol : Before Christmas I ordered a Christmas tree from Studio the total came to just over £30.00. I received the tree and the delivery note said I would receive a statement within the nex few days. This never arrived! I phoned the customer service (if you can call them that!) 4 times (0870 number) and each time was told they would send it out. In the mean time I paid the full amount over the phone anyway just to get it out of the way then the statement arrived! Because I had made a 'late payment' I had been charged £20.00 plus a service charge!!!!! I have now had 4 statement (nice red ones may I add!!) saying I now owe them £64.46!! This is all from an outstanding balance of £0.00!!!!! Hows that work?????????? What do I do now? Its COMPLETELY made up of THEIR charges!

Just a quick update to let you know I have received exactly the same info as you Andrew1, although it looks as though they have not added a single penny to my debt????? No copy of original documentation either Just reams of when they have contacted me and loads of stuff I cant make head nor tail of!! Im going to send a DPA to Barclays. Guess I should have done that in the beginning too! Here we go again then!

Hi Andrew, I stil havn't heard a word from them yet, they have till the 20th June so hoping they get a move on soon! lol Did they send you everything? As in ALL the data they hold on you including the original debt etc? One good thing is they have stopped calling me every morning at 8.30am so they must know somethings up!!! Let us know how you get on with going through the statements!!

Hey again Andrew! Looks like this is gonna be one of their delaying tactics so to speak! lol Like I said this morning to them "I dont care what you claim to have "thought" this payment was for, I know it was sent with a DPA request, and so your 40 days are ticking away!" The poor woman on the other end didnt have a clue what to say! But hey never mind, lets hope we get a bit further VERY soon!

Hey there everyone! Just to let you know I started my own thread on Cabot in "other institutions" so any help or advice would be GREAT!! They're driving me mad!! lol

Recevied a reply from Cabot today saying "thanks for your recent payment"!!!!!! It wasnt a payment it was the £10 DPA request charge!! Called them earlier this morning to find out what on earth was going on, and very politely "stressed" what the payment was actually for! Can these people not read?? Anyway, they admitted they had received the letter with payment (obviously! They cashed the cheque on the 22nd May! lol) and they would get back to me with the "collated info" once they get round to doing it! Again I made it quite clear the 40 days are ticking!! Thought I was finally getting somewhere with these people when i saw the letter on the mat today!! They have till the 20th June by my calculations! (If I worked it out right! lol)

Thought it best to start my own thread on this topic instead of hijacking the initial thread in the bear garden! lol Sent DPA to Cabot and their 40 days runs out on the 20th June, took me a little while to get the £10 together , nothing from them in writing as yet but STILL getting the annoying phonecalls at 8.30am EVERY morning after telling them MILLIONS of times I'm not going to discuss the matter over the phone! AARRGGHH!! They will never listen will they??

Thanks so much Don Quioxte too!!! There are quite a few points you made there that I am going to follow up tomoro! Things always seem better in the light of day! I wouldnt care tho, im only needing a couple of months of lower payments as Im going back to full time employment asap!!! They dont make life easy do they???

Hi Overdrawn, thanks for your swift reply! Ive used the site for a couple of months now with sucess I may add! lol Really all I need to know is do I really need a reference number from the debt help people, I thought I was entitled to do it all myself and use their templates etc like they said, so therefore I had no need to register with them, I've made offers on what I can pay and sent it all off with my budget sheet (incoming outgoings money left over for debts etc) So really all I need from them is the agreement on whether they will accept the payment for now. Why is a reference number needed?? Its not hard to confuse me!!!

Recently I've been trying to sort my finances out and contacted the National Debtline. As I (thought) I knew roughly what I was doing they refered me to their site, ie template letters and budget sheet which works out payments etc, I did my budget sheet to send off with letters making an offer of lowered monthly payments and was waiting for a reply. Today I had a call from some snotty oik who informed me that he "personally" had not received my letter and was unlikely to in the future, so I explained what I have done ie using debtline templates etc. He now tells me there is nothing he will do with my account, interest is still going up and up etc until he receives a reference number from National Debtline themselves!!! They said I could do all the offers and stuff on my own and so I have never kind of registered with them to get one! Where do I stand with this, they have me very confused and to top matters I could'nt get through to the Debtline today at all! Any advice would be MUCH appreciated!!

A few weeks ago I was approached by the B.A.G to give my story so it could be used to highlight what people are going through and for it to be used for media releases etc. I must admit that at first I was a little unsure, what would it entail? Would I be forced into saying things I didn’t want to say? The answer to that is a big fat NO WAY!! It’s the best thing I have done so far as I have had a lot of fun in doing it! Basically my story in a nutshell is I am a single mum on benefit who set up a direct debit to pay off my credit card. The card company claimed money a week early so no funds in account, the bank immediately took a massive £35 charge the same day!! That’s when I found out about the B.A.G who have become my best mates! lol They recommended ringing the bank first and asking nicely for my money back, so I did and low and behold was given a 50% refund there and then! After that I followed the "step by step guide" and sent off my first letter, within 7 days the rest of the money was credited back to my account! HOORAY! It was then that I was asked if I would be willing to talk to the media, I must stress that the B.A.G respected my anonimity and told me that NONE of my personal info would be given out, which it wasn’t at any point! Then I had a call from the "You and Yours" programme for BBC Radio 4, and asked to take part in a radio interview! Again at first I was a bit nervous but thought Hey! Why not! Before the interview I had loads of help from the group, who explained what was likely to happen and that I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to, again they reminded me that I didn’t have to use any of my personal details. So off I went last Friday to the BBC studio! They even sent a car to pick me up then wait to bring me home afterwards! How special did I feel??? lol As soon as I got there I was made to feel really comfortable (just like a celebrity!!) and got to have a look round the studio's and stuff. I must admit it was a great morning and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The lady that did the interview was great, she did everything she could to make sure I got everything in that I wanted to say, I even decided to let her use my name. The way I looked at it was "Im a real person with a real story so why not let people know that!" That was purely my choice though, at no time did anyone talk me into giving my real details out. So, there it is, within the space of a few weeks I've got my money back from the bank and had a great morning out being treated like a celebrity! Not bad for someone who knew NOTHING about this a little while ago!!! Anyone interested in doing something similar to me can contact moderator Janet-M by Private Message so it can continue to be highlighted and let as many people know about the group! The more people that get to know about this site and get their money back the better ..

I told my taxi driver about it all today as he was taking me to do a radio interview for this site! Said his wife is gonna love him forever!!! Bless! Hopefully he will pass it on to all his mates too!

Hello! Just to let everyone know that today I sent off my DPA request to Cabot!! Now the wait begins to see what they come up with next! Will be back for advice as soon as I hear anything back from them. Its fingers crossed from here on in!!! eeek!

Thank you SO much! That sounds much better! Its in the post today, will let you know what happens next.....

Hey again everyone, do you guys think this is ok to send off to Cabot?? : Data Protection Act Disclosure Request Dear Sir/Madam ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my account since January 1999 or exact date which you took over my account, this includes the account history prior to the sale of the debt to Cabot. Alternatively a complete set of statements for that period will be acceptable. I also ask for a copy of any default notices you hold, interest I have paid, from when, and at what rate. Additionally where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my business with you. If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be kind as to confirm this in your response to this request. I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me then I shall be reclaiming them and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 DPA disclosure fee. Yours faithfully, BLAH BLAH BLAH

Hi again, im about to begin to tackle Cabot and need clarification, is my first step to ask them to supply a true copy of the original signed agreement enlosing the £1 p.o to clarify the original debt outstanding? Then request a statement of original debt plus all their charges? Its just with them not dishing out statements like the banks do im not sure what exactly i need to get from them first! Any advice would be GREAT im stil VERY new to all this and the way Cabot have treated me over the last few years leaves a lot to be desired!!!! I want to get it RIGHT so they dont have a leg to stand on!

Thank you so much for your help with this! In a strange way its nice to know we are not alone in being bullied by these companies! Im off to sort out that letter right now! Will be back as soon as i find anything out! Thanks again and good luck!!!

Hi, the debt was purchased from Barclays apporox 6 to 7 years ago. I dont have any original paperwork from them at all, maybe just a few of their original letters telling me they wanted payment. Thats all I have ever received from them! I have been paying them for the past 3 years and the most help i got from them was when i registered with their website, it tells me how much i have left to pay! lol And thats IT! Not very helpful at all really! In the beginning they did say, over the phone, that they would remove their "charges" but as all i ever got from them was a piece of paper with full outstanding amount i've no idea if they ever did! They have had me completely confused since the beginning! (Must stress i had JUST given birth to my daughter when they came sniffing around so wasnt in my best frame of mind!)

Hi, was wondering if anyone could help me? I had a run in with Cabot a few years ago and have been paying them off ever since as i was terified as to what they were going to do. I did at one point ask for a breakdown of what i owed and why from them but all i received was a blank piece of paper with the total amount outstanding written on it. I didnt give it a second thought really, just thought this is what i owed as they said they hadnt added any extra charges!! Im still paying this off (nearly finished very soon actually) is there any way i can find out if they have added massive charges to this or am i too late? This debt goes back a few years now!

Thank you soooo much for all of your information!!! I will have to make sure i have this page open when i call them just so i remember to get in EVERY detail!! You have been a LOT of help, thank you again!! xxx

RESULT!!! Thought i'd give it one last chance and call them again, have been given a 50% refund for the time being and told to take the rest up in writing, hence the letter from the library section! lol Fantastic! Another kick in the teeth for the banks!!!! Every penny counts!