Hi, Bit of a long shot here. One of my neighbours was taken quite ill the other day and it doesn't look good. He will (hopefully) be 95 this year. He is very secretive about his time in the second World War but I have been informed he was at the Normandy Landings. Does anyone know how to find out what regiment he was in and his service record. Should he die, I would like to organise a military escort or something similar. Thanks in advance.

New Which? research has revealed a startlingly low awareness of the 7726 text service that enables you to report spam texts for free. A whopping 90% of people said they have never heard of this number to report spam text messages to their mobile phone provider. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is now warning of an imminent increase in spam text messages following the changes to pension rules coming into force on 6 April. You can report spam texts directly to your mobile phone provider. All operators now use 7726 - with the exception of Vodafone who uses 87726 - as the short code to report spam texts which is free of charge. Once reported you should get an automated response thanking you for the report and giving you further instructions. http://www.which.co.uk/news/2015/04/most-people-in-the-dark-about-reporting-spam-texts-399675/

Driving licences will go paperless from June as the government continues to press ahead with plans to take more service online. For the past 17 years drivers have had to keep two parts of a driving licence: one a sheet of paper detailing their penalty points and endorsements, and the other a plastic ID card. The government has decided to phase out the paper element of the licence. "The reason for abolishing the counterpart is to reduce the burden on motorists,” a government spokesperson explained. "For most drivers there simply isn’t a need to have this information on a piece of paper when it is now freely and easily available online. It also saves drivers from paying £20 to replace a lost or damaged counterpart," they told the Plymouth Herald. When are the changes coming into effect? Earlier this year minister announced that all paper counterparts to licences would no longer be valid after 8th June this year. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) are also advising all drivers to destroy their paper counterparts. If my licence was issued before 1998 do I need to get a new licence? No. Your licence will still be valid and does not need to be replaced, until it is due for renewal. "The next time you need to update your name, address or renew your licence, you will be issued with a photocard only," a DVLA spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph. How will I check my driving record? All of your details – and the details of Britain’s approximately 30 million motorists – will be compiled on an online database that you will be able to access. The decision is part of the government’s “Red Tape Challenge”. The site, launched last year, is available here but those who wish can still request their records either by telephone or post. I’m a business owner and employer. How will these changes affect me? A similar site for employers, allowing them to check the driving details of possible employees, is planned for launch at some point in spring this year. A date for the launch has not yet been released.

I was checking my credit report earlier and found a ccj I know nothing about. Judgment date 05/10/2011 Amount £ 288 Court name Northampton I have a court number but it doesn't say who I owe. How do I find more information on this? I do not recognise the amount at all. If its an old debt that I have paid, how do I remove it etc? Any advice would be splendid!

Sounds like she's buying lunch, maybe, maybe not. Another brainless statement. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2865301/Food-banks-rise-poor-people-don-t-know-cook-claims-Tory-peer-Baroness-Jenkin.html

OK I appreciate I'm quite late to the event, but I had opportunity to dig out all my old credit card statements yesterday, and it set me thinking about PPI. I cannot honestly remember EVER being sold PPI, and I'm pretty sure I would have turned it down if it was offered. I can't see any reference to PPI on any of my statements - no 2nd charges, no 2nd interest statements etc. How else would I know if I have it...? Yes I appreciate this may be a totally stupid question haha. Do I have to put in what may be a speculative claim anyway...? Cheers for your kind assistance. R.

Hi anyone else recieve a letter from virgin about changing billing dates? below is the text from the letter . they now want me to pay in advance for my services and according to their website it doesnt give me the right to opt out of the contract without paying fees . Anyone with any thoughts ? I cant really get my head around it , and they say they are doing it because some of their customers are confused, I think lots are going to get confused. We wanted to let you know about some important changes were making to the way your billed .Please take a few moments to read this letter so you know what to expect Were always looking to improve our service, so in October we are making some tweaks to our billing system that simlify the way it works Some of our customers tell us they find it confusing that their billing date isnt the same day they get their monthly allowance of minutes texts and data. With our new system were able to bring these two dates closer together , and hopefully make things more straight forward. First things first you wont pay any more for your package than normal but you will have a new billing date . This means your bill will arrive earlier than your used to, and will continue to arrive on ( or no earlier than ) this new date in the future. So you can see exactly how the change affects your bill in the next three months have a look at this table Allowance date 30 sep 2014 31 oct 2014 30 nov2014 Earliest bill date 10 oct 14 2 nov 14 2 dec 14 direct debit 24 oct 14 14 nov 14 16 dec 14 I wasnt confused before this but now I am This is their FAQS on the subject BILLING All you need to know about Billing Bill Change FAQs 1. I still don’t understand why my bill dates are changing, what does it mean to me? Billing isn’t very exciting, but it doesn’t have to be confusing. In making the change to our billing systems, we are going to improve the way it works which means you will find it easier to know when you're allowances are added and when you’re billed for them. It’s a one-off change that we think will make things a bit simpler. 2. What is an allowance? Your allowance is how many inclusive minutes, texts or data that are included in your tariff. It’s easy to keep track of what you’ve got or how much you’re using. 3. Why are you making this change now? You’ve been telling us that billing isn’t as straightforward as it could be and some of you find it confusing as things happen at different times. So we wanted to take the opportunity to make the change as soon as possible. 4. What if I don’t want my dates changed? Can I undo it later? Unfortunately not, but if you need to discuss this with us, one of our agents will be happy to discuss it further and see if we can do anything as an exception. 5. What happens if I change my tariff or upgrade? If you change tariff or upgrade to one of our SIM Only packages after we’ve changed your bill date, the date your allowance gets added will change again. Don’t worry though, we’ll tidy this up by the end of this year without moving your bill date again.If you upgrade to anything else like another contract, it won’t. 6. Why am I being billed twice in a month? Currently your bill date and refresh date have a significant gap between them. As we bring them closer together, this means that your bills will be produced in quicker succession so you may therefore get two bills and two direct debits in the same month. Don’t worry though we’ll only do this once 7. Are you allowed to do this, do I have the right to cancel my contract without penalty if I’m unhappy with the proposal? From time to time we need to make changes to improve the experience all our customers get. If you were unhappy and wanted to leave without early termination fees that wouldn’t be possible. We’ve tried our best to give you the maximum warning to reduce any impact from this change and in some cases can discuss alternative solutions if there are no other options. 8. Is there any chance of a delay to when you make the changes, how will you let me know in advance? Any delay is unlikely, but we would take steps to tell you by SMS if anything changes 9. Do I need to contact my bank if you’re moving my Direct Debit? No, you won’t have to do anything, we’ll take care of all the details. 10. Since you’ve made the change I have two direct debits taking in the same month which I can’t afford, what happens? If you find yourself in that scenario we’ll do our best to help by giving you longer to pay. 11. What is a refresh date? Will this change too? Every mobile customer has a monthly date where your allowances are refreshed. This helps you track how long you have to use your voice, texts or data. Nothing changes, we’ll just be bringing the bill date closer so its all aligned around a closer period. 12. Will the change affect any promos or discounts I have? No. These will remain on your account as normal. 13. If I receive two bills in a month will I pay more than I normally do? No. You will receive two bills in a shorter space of time. Both will have a charge for your monthly allowance and any charges outside of this e.g. charges for using your phone abroad. 14. Will I get pro-ration on my bill? No, you will not receive any pro-ration on your bill. 15. Why am I getting two bundle charges on one bill? Some customers will experience this because you're bill date is being moved later so you will be billed as we apply your next bundle i.e. you will be paying for it in advance rather than in arrears. Therefore, for one month only, you’ll pay for two (the one from the previous month and the one for the following month).

I have been looking for a caravan and came across a seller wanting to use Google Wallet for payment. I have never heard of this before. It seems too good to be true. The only thing that worries me is he wants the money deposited before he will "deliver" the caravan. He says he is in Perth, Scotland and I live in Northamptonshire. I canntn see how he can deliver the caravan all that way at no cost to me. I think this may be a [problem]. Any comments please.

As above really. I did have an agreement but unfortunately broke it, I do owe them £158 which I will be paying on wednesday which will clear the balance in full. Checked Experian today and the last update was 9th September and shows 2 payments in arrears. Called orange collections this morning and said i'll be paying wednesday and she put a note on file. The contract has just ended also. She seems to think the account is not dead despite being disconnected etc but was unable to help regarding its status with the cra. I know phone companies are notoriously brutal with defaults and don't send out notices. Just wondered if anyone knew how quick they tend to default customers?, I have been with them for about 8 years and my bills this last 2 years have been £120-160 a month so they have done well off me, would just be annoyed to default it now as I'm 3 years from being clean default wise. Is there any manual intervention or do you think it all done automatically?. Are they likely to still default me even after the account has been cleared?

Don't Know What to Make Of This https://www.facebook.com/groups/beatthebailiffsandthebanks/

Might sound like a stupid question but here goes... In 2006 my wife instituted divorce proceedings. I was in a bad place at the time and didn't respond at all. I received a decree nisi and a solicitor's bill but I didn't get a decree absolute. How do I find out if the decree was made absolute? If it wasn't, am I still married?

Hi. I just have a question regarding ESA. My husband had spinal surgery in October and has been on ESA since the end of September. He has received a letter saying he has to attend a medical on the 13th February but thats the day he is due back to work and all being well he will go back that day. Do I ring and tell them that he is back to work that day and they should cancel the appointment for the medical? Many Thanks

So obviously you must know by now that I got snapped doing 60 (apparently) on a dual carriageway (50 limit) I saw the van (too late obviously) and thought there was a chance I'd be done... Believe me when I say my 21 year old car was not zipping through the traffic; in fact as I automatically looked down at the speedo (we all do it, don't we?) I read mid 50's and my speedo generally reads higher than my car is going. There were plenty more cars overtaking me during my entire journey, but here were are...The police must have had a good day. Sooo the ticket arrived and unlike any others I've had during my life (14 years ago the last time), I have been offered a £100 fine and 3 points OR £110 fine and a driver awareness course... Soooo what I want to find out is what are the pros and cons, if any, of taking the course, or accepting the points... Over to you boffins

Hello, Like most I suppose, I join the board to seek help. I am currently resident in Europe, but last week my partners parents received at their address a notice of enforcement from Marston Group, addressed to me. It claims I owe almost £9k for a fine in 2001. I know nothing of this. I spoke to them, and followed up with an email giving my current address. They replied that due to DPA they could only address me at the address given by their client (the court). ..I had asked them for details so that I could address this, but today my in-laws have received another mail saying that enforcement action has been delayed by 14 days for me to prove everything. Erm, I am a resident in Europe, my UK stuff is in storage, I know nothing so do not know who/how to contact anyone. This relates to 2001- I was not in the UK much then, but I am not sure I could even prove this as I am not sure I still have my old passport. What on earth can I do to: a) stop my partners elderly parents getting these worrying and distressing mails. (I had my mail on re-direct, I was not resident at their address). b) Make this go away? Any and all advice most gratefully received.

I am contractually employed for 25 hours per week. For the past 3 years I have been an acting manager. This means that I regularly find that i am being asked to 'Act Up', work as a manager instead of doing my contracted role. On the weeks that I am managing, I have an increased wage both due to level of responsibility, and also number of hours. I've recently been informed that on the weeks that i have been managing, i have been overpaid, and I now owe nearly £5000 which they are taking from my wages. Had I known that I was being overpaid, I would have contacted them, however I do not see how I was expected to know. Moving from part time to full time, and also working at a higher level, I would have expected a significant increase in my weekly wage. I could not have known how much this difference would be as they never informed me what the new rate would be. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what, if any, rights i have to argue my case. A friend has suggested the Estoppel law but i'm struggling to understand how this would apply. Any help/advice would be appreciated.

I'd be so pleased if someone could let me know the name of this song and who sings it. [ATTACH]50309[/ATTACH] Please don't pay any attention to the French bot voice. It has nothing to do with the song (in case you thought it did!!) Ta

I was taken to small claims court and I lost, the reason that I lost was that the claimant lied in court and the judge completely ignored my evidences and witness statement, also the claimant in question was my former tutor and I got some advice from a solicitor friend and the solicitor says that the judge was bias to the teacher and automatically believe in the words of a retired tutor and ignored the students side of the story, so at the end of the hearing I asked the judge for an appeal. She asked why and I then said that the tutor made false allegation and she did not present any proof to her allegations and the judge refused my appeal and said that I have to ask permission from another court and that I have to pay what I owe, so basically the solicitor said for me to forget about because will ended too costly and a judge will not grant us a permission to appeal because that means going against another judges opinion and I only have 21 days to appeal and before appealing I have to ask permission from the court to appeal and time is against me. So I was given 14 days to pay and I said to the judge I’m unemployed and I do not received any benefits and she simply ignored and said well you have to search online at the small claims website. So now my question is how can I get out of this situation without paying my ex tutor because she lied, so she does not deserve the money? The woman in question took me and my friend to court and my friend is employed and will be able to pay her even thou we both agreed that were stitched up by the teacher, but my friend has a mortgage and cannot have a CCJ, on my case I’m unemployed and I absolutely do not want pay this teacher back, I much rather take the money when I have and give to charity. The only reason the teacher won in court was because she lied and she told the judge that at the time she was a retired teacher working for free foe the University and she never mentioned to the judge or to the court that besides her retirement from teaching she is owns a investment company and she is the director of the company. In court she played the poor pensioner and the money that she’s allegedly say that we owe was for accommodation costs for a field trip to a foreigner country, when we were promised by her that in regards of food and accommodation costs we will not be spending a penny because we’ll be taken care by a the association that we went to work for, but when we arrived there the teacher denied everything and everything that she promised was a lied and she paid and said that we would sort it out once we are back. In court she said that we arrived in a foreign country without money and she said that we were offered free accommodation but refused and asked to be taken to the hotel, so the judge thought that we were taking advantage of this 66 year old lady and ordered us to pay the now £254,00 Without the permission to appeal and completely ignored mine and the other defendants evidences and a signed document accepting our staying for free at the charity association. Plus 3 days before our hearing the teacher contacted my witness and said for them to change their statement otherwise she will drag them to court and the judge completely ignore the fact that the teacher blackmailed the other students and she also asked them to write a statement in her favour. I'm a very honest person and I believe in honesty but the tutor made so many false allegation, she even said that we all have criminal records and I asked the judge to ask for proof of that because myself and the other defendant do not have any criminal records and amongst other lies in which she has no proof to what she’s alleging, but guess what the judge just absolutely believed in the words of a teacher with a PhD and ignore the students. I’m still in shock with the judge’s decision and the fact that a former tutor made up so many lies I do not believe that was a fair decision made by the biased judge. So what should I do? Thanks everyone for reading my lengthy post.

I had loans and credit cards in the past but I have no idea which banks they were with as its been so long and I don't have paperwork. Is there anyway I can find out if I ever had PPI on a product

Hi all I've been suspended from work on full pay, pending investigation and without prejudice however I am not sure why. The reason given and the reason in their letter is for misusing social media and breach of data protection but I'm not sure what they're referring too. I've tried twice now to find out specifics of their allegations but they're not telling me. I was suspended at 5.35pm on Friday and I've been asked to attend a investigatory interview on Monday lunch time which gives me no time to seek advice from anyone. Does my employer have to give me the specifics of the allegations? I really don't think it's fair that I'm expected to attend an interview without having a clue what it's about and would like to prepare myself prior to the interview. Also - have they given me enough notice to attend a interview? Bearing in mind that I cannot get any legal advice during a weekend and it would be extremely difficult to speak to HR prior to the interview on Monday. Thanks for reading and thanks in advice for helping

So long story short, I had two bad accidents in a day. I first dropped my laptop in the kitchen and the screen ended up breaking. Then while backing up my data my little brother spilled juice over it and the hard drive ended up failing then after that it wouldn't even turn on :/ I sent it in for repair and they gave it back to me today with a letter simply saying they consider the damage to not be covered by our Service Agreement. I'm suppose to write back to the Claims Investigation Department. What say do I have in this? Should I get someone to inspect my laptop so they can also back me up to prove it was an accident? Because I assume they don't believe it was an accident which is why they didn't repair it. I've written about 2 pages so far explaining what happened, I'm sure if I get a technician to check out the laptop it would help but I don't know how much that would cost or where to find one. Thanks,

Petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/prime-minister-this-petition-is-to-clean-up-the-financial-enforcement-industry-by-creating-a-public-authority-whose-members-are-selected-by-public-vote This petition is to set up a publicly run body overseeing all debt recovery personnel, debt recovery businesses and government financial penalty issuing authorities. The public body members will be selected by a public vote. The public run body will have full authority to grant licences to, investigate, punish or dismiss any court appointment bailiff, debt recovery agent, enforcement officer or their businesses. The public body will have complete authority and autonomy from government or judicial interference to make decisions based on its own findings on any persons or entities working within the UK who are responsible for collecting monies or issuing financial penalties. The public body will oversee all debt recovery businesses and people within these businesses. The public body will oversee and contribute to regulation on the industry and licences to trade. The purpose of the agency is to: · Ensure ‘fit and proper’ people are working within the industry. · Create a culture of ethical behaviour within the industry. · Create transparency within the industry. · Regulate practice that is deemed publicly fit. · Be an authority for the public to raise serious concerns to and have them investigated as an authority. · Grant compensation to people who are caused serious issues through regulatory negligence or unfit practices. To impose fines upon, investigate, punish or dismiss these persons or companies who are not working within the guidelines set out by the public authority.

I'm having trouble getting a refund (for a defective domestic appliance) from Currys/Know How. The product was bought from Currys (online) but delivered and returned to the vendor by Know How. Currys Customer Services doesn't seem to exist. I have had contact, by email, with Know How, but I'm not sure whether it's their responsibility to deal with refunds. I've also wasted time and money on the phone and got nowhere. It looks like I shall have to go to the top and ask the CEO to sort out the problem. Can any member give me an up-to-date email address for Sebastian James, please?

Hi all, I couldn't find an appropriate forum to post this in. A friend of mine set off a smoke alarm in a hotel a couple of weeks ago. She said (and I can verify this as I visited her room) that there were no no-smoking signs in the room (or any that she saw outside of the main lobby). Her room was booked and there was no mention of the room being non-smoking. She apologised when the manager of the hotel arrived at her room and thought that was the end of it. The room was booked for a wedding. Now, the hotel are demanding a £100 'fine' and are saying that if she doesn't pay it, then they will bill the bride's credit card that they still have on file. Can they actually do this? Firstly, she signed nothing apart from the card that she filled her address on when she checked in - there was no mention of the room being non-smoking and no mention of a 'fine'. Secondly, even if there is an implied contract (which I would guess there is), would this not be considered a breach of contract therefore rendering this 'fine' unenforcable as per the 'Dunlop v New Tyre Co' argument? ...or should she simply pay up as they have her over a barrel?

Hi Is there an eg ombudsman I can escalate my PC Know How complaitn to? I had issues with them lasting over 60 days They have sent my private data off to the wrong address and still not sent it through despite repeated reassurances They did not reply to all of the things I put in my complaint letter which is unacceptable as well as totally infuriating thank you

There is a bit of a back-story to this, however I need to put that in another thread at a later date as there are numerous ongoing issues relating to this company. A relative of mine receives a company car cash alternative. Can the company demand to know who the registered keeper of the vehicle is and can they demand to see a copy of the V5 registration document? Just to clarify, none of the above is mentioned in the company policy - it only asks that the employee provides a suitable vehicle in-keeping with the company image and that copies of valid MOT/insurance certificates are provided (which they have been) Thanks in advance!