It has come to our notice that Vanquis or its referral agents are making statements to the effect that having a Vanquis card can build your credit score/improve credit lending possibilities. It is well established that Vanquis (Provident group) are lenders to borrowers who have had poor credit histories or have been turned down from the mainstream card issuers. We think that this is miss leading. If you currently have (or have had) a Vanquis card and gone on to apply for a Credit Card from another established card issuer,please post below including; 1.When you took out your Vanquis card/the original limit and any credit increases ? 2.When you applied to another issuer and which one ? 3.Whether you were accepted or rejected ? 4.Whether you had maintained repayments on your Vanquis card as due,and had managed the card responsibly ? 5.Any other info you think may be relevant to post in response to the thread title ?

Hi all I have been searching the forum for a couple of days looking for an answer and although there are some familiar comments to my issue the advise seems to be first class so I thought i would post up my scenario. In essence I applied for a refund of ppi payments on a credit card loan. These were typically monthly payments and costs were relative to balance of the card at the time. I had this card for approx 3 years. On receiving the card I got the tear of slip saying that if you wanted ppi to fill in and return and it would be applied. This I still have and it was never sent back as i did not need the insurance. However looking back through my statements it was applied from the word go. I sent a letter claiming back the payments via the standard form and eventually got a letter back stating your claim was being turned down. The reason being was i had a call 6 month later from a call centre selling me the insurance. However when i look at my statement the ppi shows on my statement 6 months previous to this alleged sales call. They also state that as the monthly payment was clearly shown on each statement that i must have known i had it and should have claimed. Surely the issue is that it was applied to my card initially and the obviousness is irrelevant. They have sent 2 copies of statements to show this. They also sent me a copy of the terms with the cancellation rules and say it is clear. On this my counter argument is i did not receive any docs. Do I have a case to go back to them with or do i go to the ombudsman. Are these legit reasons to not pay out etc. Any advise would be most appreciated Thanks MossgG

I am from the United States and this is my first time living in London. Unfortunately, I rent from a man, who is of bad quality. We currently have 3 of 6 rooms open in our house. I lived here for four months. Since, the beginning, Jude, the agent has sent potential renters to our home for appointments. At first I was polite and let them sit in the kitchen until he arrived. This became habit and time consuming for me, especially when the agent frequently does not show for his appointment or would be 1 to 2hrs late. He also calls and asks us to show them around the house for him. The doorbell has rang as late as 9pm with no sign of the agent, just potential renters. We have asked for all of this to stop. It is not safe for the girls of the house to let strangers inside at night when no one else is home. We shouldn't be doing his job for him either. He ignore us and kept doing it his way. So, now if the doorbell rings and it is random people we just say they can't come inside until the agent arrives. The agent also frequently shows up to the house unannounced and would use his own key to get inside. Most recently, I was sweeping the hallway on Christmas eve morning getting it ready for guest I was having over later that night. It was early morning 10am and I had not changed into regular day clothes. I was in sleep shorts, tank top, no bra. The agent just uses his own key and walks inside with four guests. I am standing there in my sleepwear. I was completely caught off guard! I felt half naked and it was not acceptable for him to just walk into the house. I waited for him to finish showing the house. Once he was done I started talking to him politely about coming into the house unannounced and how I know its not legal. He kept interrupting me. Telling me I didn’t know what legal was. I told him No, I spoke with a lawyer and what your doing is unacceptable. We asked you to change politely. I could see this was not getting anywhere so I ended the conversation and walked towards my bedroom. He followed me upstairs saying " If I am going to get lawyers involved then this will be my last month at the house" I replied " Jude, I am asking you nicely. You need to leave the house now" He replied no, and continued the fight. I asked again and again for him to leave. He wouldn't leave and had me between him and a wall. I had enough room to the right and moved past him. I ran to the 3rd floor where my male room-mate Derek was sleeping. I woke Derek up and told him that the agent is harassing me please make him leave. Derek politely said "lets all go down to the kitchen and talk" I walked to my room and the agent again followed me to my bedroom. I shut my door locked it, he continued to yell at me through my door. Threatening to evict me. Now since it is Christmas the Citizen Advice B. is closed. Not only that but yesterday we received a text message from Jude saying a new room-mate will be arriving at 1pm and to please let him inside. However, the new room-mate was not actually a room-mate. The couple informed us that they were not moving in. They asked how long we were staying at the hotel. Hotel? this is our home..... They continued to inform us that they thought it was a BNB and we were all guest here. No, this is a house with all our private things. He said that explains why our shower is dirty and we have no towels in our room. The wife then asks me if she can please have two towels and use my shower because there is no shampoo in their bathroom. They also informed us that they thought their room was dirty and the sheets have not been cleaned. So, now are home is completely open to strangers he is advertising our house on AIRBNB! complete with false reviews! Please tell me this is illegal! I live in a very nice house in a great area and I don't want to move out. The agent lease ends in three months and the original landlord will take back the house. I am trying to hold out but this man is making my life miserable. Another issue is utilities. Utilities are included in our rent. Jude has the bills come to our house and picks them up. Recently, I noticed that all the bills are under false names. I open our last water bill and it was a final notice for not paying. I could go on but please most PRESSING IS AIRBNB!

Hi Everyone... I hope someone can help me! I have had a water bill of £573 when it is usually £25. We have had a lot of harassment from a neighbour, even been to Court and won but she just won't leave us alone! During the hose pipe ban, someone rang Veolia and accused us of washing cars in our field! We never take cars into the field and certainly wouldn't wash them in there. For one thing the field is too wet in winter to get a car in! We are trying to obtain a copy of the tape from Veolia as they won't disclose the persons name but they tape the call. Whoever turned the tap on, climbed over the field gate and turned it on while the hose was attached so that the hose dribbled for months. We rarely even go into the field and never hardly use the tap so it was not discovered for months! The result is a huge bill which I just cannot pay. What I can't understand is why didn't Veolia alert us when they read the meter the first time? Surely they must have realised there was a problem! My question is...how can I get out of paying this bill? What is the best way of getting Veolia to take pity on me? How do I stand legally? I have a threatening letter now...they are going to cut the water off....I don't use it anyway, but they will issue court proceedings. Thank you.

Hi everyone, New today, first post Sorry but it is a long one but to explain.... Back in 2001 I was a self- employed butcher and took out a mortgage, with my wife, with Abbey National. After paying off an extra 15k on the outstanding mortgage and 3 years later my business lease was coming to an end but as I didn't want to renew the lease, I wanted to buy a new business. Abbey would not entertain my request for equity release even though only 35k was outstanding on my mortgage (the property cost 120k in 2001). This is when my problems started. Having been a customer of HSBC both personal and business, I approached them for a business loan. They knew my banking history, and was told that, yes, they would lend me the money, 40k,on a mortgage, but I had to move the my mortgage from Abbey to them even though it was at a higher rate of interest. They said I would have to have MPPI Life, at £55 per month, but my wife was turned down for this on medical grounds.Still not really sure on what grounds they were. At that time my business was a limited company, but the landlord of the lease on the new business would not let us proceed until the business became a partnership. So that was done going through all the right channels. When the landlord decided to increase the annual rent by £8500 in 2010 and after going through some difficult times with the recession,we sold the business, sold the house, paid of the mortgage and relocated. Then wondered if I had been mid-sold PPI. Wrote to the bank giving my reasons why I thought this. * We were not told the policy was optional *It was not made clear that we could shop around *That the cover was on my life only although the loan was in joint names which I felt would put me at an unfair disadvantage. *Being self employed we were not told about the exclusions relating to unemployment cover. Received a acknowledgement within 4 weeks and a letter why I had been turned down 4 weeks later. Quite difficult to understand but briefly what they said was that the policy was not a PPI but a Mortgage Protection Plan that was designed to pay a lump sum assured in the event of death during the term, and that the level of cover reduces over a fixed period of time and that the amount payable is equivalent to to the balance outstanding on a capital repayment loan. Therefore being self employed would have no bearing on my ability to make a claim. Don't really know if I had a valid claim in the first place now I have since closed my account with HSBC. Fed up to the back teeth with them