Im on mat leave and due to go back next May. I still regularly speak with people from work, however everytime I speak with someone it always comes back to the same subject. Whats going to happen when I go back to work. When I left in August they promoted someone to my job and in turn 4 people have been promoted to fill the spaces through promotions due to my leaving. However... they all are saying they have not been informed that its only for maternity cover and they will be returning to their other roles once I return. This is especially for the person who has taken over my job, he has made it plain and clear to me that he doesnt know whats going to happen once I go back as hes got his new contract and they cant take it off him and demote him when they didnt say it was only to cover me. So I just basically want to know if work are allowed to do this? Its going to make it very very awkward for me when I go back.

Whats the average length off time the banks give you, to do a charge back. Im guessing will all be different but i would just like to know some average lengths So if you are with any banks and you know the length please share. Ive heard anything from a few months for debit cards upto like a year for credit cards. thanks.

Hi all, firstly, thanks in advance, I get a lot of good advice here I have been offered a new job, which I have accepted. They would like me to start in just under 3 weeks, however. My contract states that I must give 8 weeks notice, and that they (my current employer) could give me one week if they wanted to let me go. I want to just give the notice to leave in 3 weeks, is there some way they could penalise me? I can scan a copy of the contract tomorrow if that helps, thanks! andy

Hello there, I hope you can give me some information please. To cut a long story short I have had a CCJ judgment issued against someone who owes me money. They did not contest the claim, but I now think that have intially provided me with false name and address anyway. The only thing I know that is right is the bank account details that I paid them through. They owe me £300 along with £25 to issue the claim in the first place. I don't expect them to pay this so my next step is a warrant but this will cost me another £100. What I really want to know is, is it worth carrying on? If I give the court the information about how I think it is a false name and address and their bank account will they be able to collect the money from there/get information from the bank for the right details etc? I don't want to waste another £100 if it is not going to get me anywhere. Thank you!

Hello to all, I was caught using my mobile phone whilst driving (bluetooth had not operated and answered a call) went through all the relevant questions and got a Fixed Penalty Notice, and a 'produce' ticket. I mislaid my Paper Licence, and went to local police Station, with other papers, and told them i had mislaid paper licence. Desk Sargent said don't do anything you will get a court date, The court date finally arrived, and i did not contest the Offence, just my explanation, to why i was using at that time. I didnt hear from the Court until a demand notice came demanding 197.00 ( the fine was 3 points and 86.00 pounds. I made an appeal, saying that i wasn't given the opportunity to pay the Fixed Penalty as was advised against it because paper licence was mislaid. Now the case has gone to High Court Appeal, and i am worried that i might incur more court charges, if they do not accept my explanation of events. can anyone suggest a course of action , or a letter to write in to the court? any help or comments would be appreciated, regards

Hello, Yesterday I went into my local carphone warehouse as I could not remember the date I took out my current contract on my iPhone 4S which was £36 a month with t-mobile. The girl in the shop pressed a few buttons and put my number into the computer and told me I was eligible for upgrade. So I upgraded to an iPhone 5 on £27 a month and traded in my iPhone 4S to pay for the up front cost. Today I registered a t mobile online account to track my bills and it says my upgrade date is the 1st jan 2014, in 5 months time! Also my contract has not changed from £36 a month, anyone got any clue?

Hi I need some advice please. My husband is a PSV driver and was called in for an informal chat last October. He duly attended and was told that a complaint had been made by a clients (special needs) parent. The complaint was over some banter which had offended her. He agree to tone it down and apologise, which he did. On the 20th June 2013 he was called in by his employers for an informal chat. Again he attended and was told that the clients father had complained again about something he had said. She told her parents that he had said that she was full of **** and from his recollection he said that what she said was sometimes full of ****.The client at the time was bantering other clients and my husband. At the time he was nursing a cracked rib and not slept properly for 3 nights. His employers were aware of this. He said that he would apologise to the father and agreed that he should not have said it. He phoned her father and apologise, which he accepted. The father said that he has warned his daughter that her banter would get out of hand.My husband was called in again on the 26th for another informal chat only to be told tha the had a written warning following a verbal warning last October (he was not aware ogf this), plus they were moving him of his run. They have now produced a new contract reducing his hours and pay by £1700 pa. At no point have they followed the ACAS guidelines. First he was not sent a letter inviting him or have they given him any witness statements. He was not invited to take a companion. No notes were taken.They have not given him an outcome letter with an explanation or the timeline for improvement, only a copy of the written warning. Nor have they told him his right to appeal.To top it all when he was paid last week they have taken out in one lump sum the the 2 weeks salary paid in advance so they could go from weekly pay to monthly pay. He has a letter from them stating that this would be deducted at source on a monthly basis for 12 months unless there was a resignation which there is not. Can anyone advise please. He knows he has done wrong, but is aware that this girl has got other drivers in trouble for the self same thing With another company he worked for). Many thanks in advanced.

I was given a weekly travelcard by a very kind passenger leaving Liverpool street station and travelling to the airpot. He said 'please use it or give to your family or a friend' 2 days later day ON A LONDON BUS i was informed by a ticket inspector that it should be accompanied by a photo card, it was confiscated and I received a letter saying that I may be prosecuted, what can I do, I accepted the 'gift card' for 2 days and was totally unaware that it would lead to this stage. I would appreciate your advice. I am so worried.

Hi, My apologies for not having introduced myself prior to my first post but i am trying to find out if my wife has received a wrongful default on her credit file? Neither of us have had to check our credit rating before but we recently decided to go for a mortgage and were advised prior to have a look at our credit reports just to satisfy ourselves that we would be okay. My credit report was rated as good and all the details looks exactly as i would have expected, however my wife was rated as fair with a default sitting on her report from a company called Sigma Red. Naturally she has contacted Sigma Red who stated that it was in respect of an unpaid T Mobile bill of £19.77. Obviously she then contacted T Mobile as she hasn't had a mobile with them since December 2007 and had never received any paperwork from them for any unpaid amount as her account was never in arrears and was closed correctly, this was confirmed with T Mobile who did however point out that there 'may' have been an unpaid amount due to charges that were levied after the account was closed, however they confirmed that they did not have any account details to support this. So going back to Sigma Red she informed them of what she had been told by T Mobile and she got a particularly curt reply about them not having a copy of the consumer credit agreement or anything either. Fearing the worst and needing to sort our mortgage application she then just paid the £19.77 but informed Sigma Red that she couldn't understand how she could have a default and that she would take this further but needed a letter stating that the default was settled in the meantime. After 12 days we still didn't get a letter and so she spoke to Sigma Red again, this time she was passed from pillar to post and told it wasn't policy to send letters etc and that a manager wasn't available to handle the complaint that was now going to be forthcoming. My wife was also told that they didn't need any credit agreement to put a default on her file as she could receive a default for a verbal agreement. Now up until this point whilst i was worried about how all this was going to affect our credit rating, i have pretty much taken a back seat and not really read up on the matter, but having had a read of a few of the posts around here i immediately got to wondering if this default is on her account illegally? For what its worth, having checked her credit file there is a settled account with T Mobile that was classed as satisfactory and settled on 09/12/07, and then she has a default registered by Sigma Red on 10/01/11 for £19 (which is now shown as settled). My question is, should the default even be on there and can it be taken off, if it can who do i speak to? My assumption is that this is obviously a breach of the data protection act and should be speaking to the office of fair trading? But can a debt collection agency put information on a credit file without having an account to register it against in the first place, particularly when T Mobile have an entry on her file showing her account as satisfied and closed without any arrears? Many thanks in advance. Mick

Like many people I have been refunded on my NRAM mortgage for the interest paid on a loan when NRAM were failing to provide the correct type of statements. To be honest I am happy to have the size of the debt I owe reduced and do not want the repayment in cash to me. In August 2009 I had to fight to stay in my house and had to go to the courts and ask for a repossession order to be set aside. This I was able to do. It seems to me that subsequently NRAM have been found to be in contravention of FSA regulations and have been ordered to repay the interest that had been paid from april 2009 to april 2012. In August 2009 they presented evidence in court that was wrong. ( They combined the 2 loans the mortgage and the advance and presented figures to the court that included interest payable on the advance which was subject to FSA regulations .) In efect they were claiming payments for interest on the advance for 74.20 per month that have subsequently been ruled against by the FSA. so : NRAM said I had payments of 420.20 per month to pay. FSA have had a look at the loans subject to FSA regs and have ordered NRAM to repay the interest on those loans going back to April 2009. So at the time of the hearing in the court in August 2009 NRAM provided statements to the court that were inaccurate. Can I have that repossesion order removed and can I have any expenses that NRAM added at that time removed as well? If i have not been clear it is because I am struggling to get my head around it. I might add that I was only able to save myself again from eviction this month due to the sound and sage advice I have found on these forums. I currently have 4 complaints lodged with NRAM and will be taking 2 of those on to the FSA.

HI Found out in October that my sister had joined Gregory Pennington, really wish she had told me. within 3 months her debts had increased by £400 in bank charges and credit card fees. I have read through the code of conduct for Dempsa, and it states that anyone in extreme hardship should be advised that there are non profitable companies available, - does anyone know the definition of an extreme hardship case? I have all the sars info and a recording of the hour my sister spent on the phone, in my opinion they should have sent my sister away she had £4000 mortgage arrears paying £10 per month, £600 disconnection notice from Gas and electric, and £200 water rate arrears none of which was discussed during the conversation. it was just noted as £10 mortgage arrears. her disposable income was £98 per month, they have charged her £32 per month in the fee, and during the call she starts changing the financial statement to reflect a monthly plan of £200 per month as she had sold the dream of being debt free in timescale periods so my sister (still in denial at this point) said she could afford £200 per month. i have looked as my sisters bank statements and up until that point always keeps with in her overdraft limit, however after being told not pay any debts and transfer out her wages asap, and leave it to them some interest of £7 is applied. and is left accruing excess overdraft fees of £66, then £174 the next months, had she paid £7 that day she would have prevented this, but a little naive and trusting did nothing about is as was told. ultimately i feel that it is unfair of a company to charge £32 per month and have only £10 going to the mortgage arrears, and as a priority debt surely she should be paying £1 to all other debts and the remaining disposable to the mortgage. since this time i have arranged a more suitable payment plan with the companies frozen inter and bank agreed to refund some of the charges and we got her back in her overdraft. i think what im asking is should they have taken her on with £4k mortgage arrears? Would my sister be an extreme hardship case? have i got an argument to request the £225 fee plus £32 for 2 months back since they made her situation worse many thanks

hello there ppl, i'm daryl i was persued for a debt with capitol one credit card by capquest for quite a few years until i moved house mid last year. capitol one gave me the credit card when i was 17, i had recieved one of them invitations to apply through the post.being young i honestly thought u could get credit cards at 16.the apllication made no mention of being over 18 it only mentioned that i agree all info is accurate and true,which it was. after sending off the form i got a long black and white paper document, a credit agreement i assume, but i didn't need to sign that a few day l8er my card turned up. when they get eventually trace me and get bk in touch what should my approach be? i have tried mentioning this before to capquest but they didn't care, just insisted i pay in full there and then many thanks in advance pps

I have a friend who has worked as a nurse in a care home for the past 20 years. Recently conditions and moral in the home started to deteriorate. She recently (about two months ago) ended up been disciplined for use of her mobile phone during working hours (she works part time by the way). She was given a written warning for this (a bit harsh I thought) She was also disciplined for something else can't remember what it was now. I think they may not be relevant anyway. As a result of this and how conditions are at the home, she went off sick due to stress. While off she came across a similar job closer to her home. She filled out her CV and applied for the job (all done online). The home phoned her the next day to arrange an interview. It went well and she told me it was just a matter of waiting for the necessary checks to be done. She has already handed in her notice with her current employer. I got a message from my friend this evening to say that the new place wrote to her current manager who has apparently given an unsatisfactory reference. So therefore the job has fallen through. Am I not right in thinking that an employer is not allowed to give a bad reference?

Joined Virgin on 1Jun and sales guy said that apart from half price for 6 months would get credit of 60£ on first bill. He even calculated and told me final amount payable for first month after deducting from two months initial bill. Now when the first bill has been generated, find that the 60£ credit has not been applied and calling Virgin helpdesk shows that sales guy had not put this under his notes. Requested Virgin helpdesk for checking and find that after being put through billing-sales-customer support, have to raise a complaint on online system. Feel that will be cheated by these guys of the offer and being pushed around to avoid paying back. Can someone recommend an action could be taken on them to get rederessal to issue.

Hello, I returned from holiday just over 2 weeks ago and on Monday I found out, by accident, that I have been demoted and my job has been given to my colleague (all this having happened when I was actually on holiday). When I challenged my boss he said that it was just a breakdown in communication! When I asked what grounds he had for demoting me he told me that I hadn't been doing my job properly. When i asked him why I hadn't been approached regarding my performance he couldn't give me an answer. I work for a large national opticians and following the conversation yesterday with my director i looked up the company grievance policy which he has, obviously, not followed this. The store is actually a franchise and wondered if that meant he didn't HAVE to adhere to this policy? Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

A friend of mine was in despair following Santander not only charging him for a failed direct debit,but then continued to add further daily charges. He informed me that he had called them and emailed them,explaining that the charges were punitive since his only income is Jobseekers allowance. The fees stood at £55 and were rising. He asked me if I could help,and duly wrote him a letter. I was finding it hard to understand,how a bank like Santander,were openly flouting their obligations. My friend had pleaded with them and explained his situation. Santander of course could see from the account too-that he was in reciept of benefits since they were paid into this account. No excuses then...lets get to work. Account number xxxxxxxxxxx Sort Code xx xx xx letter before action Dear Sir/Madam, I am very disappointed in your response to my complaints which were made to you today, and that you have chosen to ignore my request for hardship, I therefore have no alternative but to seek recourse through the county court system. I believe that Santander have treated me unfairly under the following BCOB rules of which Santander should be compliant with,since Santander is a firm regulated by the FSA. Rule 5.1.1 R states “A firm must provide a service in relation to a retail banking service which is prompt, efficient and fair to a banking customer and which has regard to any communications or financial promotion made by the firm to the banking customer from time to time.” Rule 5.1.4 G “Principle 6 requires a firm to pay due regard to the interests of its customers and to treat them fairly. In particular, a firm should deal fairly with a banking customer whom it has reason to believe is in financial difficulty.” Santandar have been informed that I am in reciept of state benefits and that I need these to cover essential living costs including food and heat/lighting. Santander have not at any point acknowledged that this is a hardship case despite me notifying you.You have levied charges of £55 in recent days,and have refused to refund these in your return call to me on 6th.June. For these grounds I feel that I have been treated unfairly. In order for this claim to be settled without the need for court action I require that the full amount taken of £55 returned to me by way of a credit to my account. If I have not received a satisfactory response within 14 days then court action will be commenced without further notice and further costs will be incurred. A judgment for a breach of BCOBS is very serious and the FSA would be empowered to act. Yours Faithfully Mr V. Upset Would the recipients of his email to Santander actually know what the letter was about ? You bet they did! He got a reply quite swiftly...in fact in the space of 30 minutes. Message: Good Afternoon Mr V. Upset Thank you for your email. I am happy to reverse the amount of £55, which have been waived due to exceptional circumstances. To ensure no further charges are incurred on your accounts, we would ask you to monitor your accounts throughout the month. This can be completed through Online Banking, Local Branch and Telephone Banking. I hope this information is useful and if you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact me via Secure Messaging or my colleagues on 0845 9724724. Kind Regards, The nice man (who knows his BCOBs from his bankcharges) Santander Customer Services So the message to all those who believe they have been treated unfairly,is to give them a taste of their own famous words when they fob you off with sorry we cant refund the charges..... "This may not be the reply you wanted"