Hi all Apologies for the long post but I have been lurking/reading for a quite a while now and wondered if somebody could explain in laymans terms if there's any chance of me having a default removed from my credit file as I can't really make sense of all the jargon?! I had a student account with Santander that had a maxed out £2000 overdraft. I had been reducing it slowly after graduation and managed to reduce the limit to -£1000 with a £350 cash deposit (which was a large sum of money to deposit into the account at that time). Only a few days later I went to New York and couldn't make a payment on my current account debit card (I'd forgotten to notify the Halifax that I was going abroad) thus used my Santander card - completely forgetting that I'd actually reduced the limit after making the deposit. This transaction went through fine, shortly after I received a letter to say my interest free graduate/student account had been changed to a current account, and I needed to pay back the overdraft immediately and would be accruing charges and interest until it was paid back in full. After finishing university I was only able to find work part time at a bar. So I set up a £50 a month payment plan. A handful of times I knew I would struggle to be able to make the payment but I always called the bank to let them know either prior or on the due date to make alternative arrangements and this always seemed satisfactory. Santander have sent a trasnscript letter, outlining they would have told me at the time of the calls that it could effect my credit score but I don't recall this. I struggled to clear this account in full, and felt I had done well in doing so, particularly having started to clear the account so soon after graduation - only to find out so many months later that the account that it had been registered as a default. The only reason I am even aware of the default is because a finance company declined my application. I then used a credit reference agency (Experian) to get an explanation and the result came back that I had a default that I was not aware of. I've received a FRL from Santander instructing to go to the FOS, which I will. I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea on my chances with this one? I received no default notice, and there is no 'D' on my credit score? In fact, there is no '1, 2, 3' it goes straight from solid green ticks to '5, 5, 6, 6' - which are the four months immediately after the account closed and I had to pay back the £350 to get out of my unplanned overdraft and THEN start the payment plan. As a student who'd just graduated from a fashion degree (not cheap) on a part time bar wage I find this to be unfair treatment. My account was managed well prior to the overdraft reduction and managed well after the three or four months where I struggled when the account changed over. I don't actually know why it was changed to a current account?! The account is now settled and had been for over 12 months, but remains open (but unused). Any advice at all would be incredible, I don't really have anyone to break this down to me in layman's terms… my mum's advice was 'well you just learn about these things along the way'. Sure… one default in mum! It's extremely frustrating as my credit score is actually ranked 'good'. Many thanks in advance! I really appreciate any advice, no matter how little W

I ordered a Three Piece Suite from Sofaworks Thurrock Essex on 29/12/2013 to be delivered in approx 16 weeks from the date. I paid the first Deposit of £100.00 on 29/12/2013 + another £200.00 on this same day. On the 28/12/2014 I paid the Full Remaining Payment of £1.641.95. The suite was delivered on 11/03/2014. Within 2 weeks there was a problem with a cushion on the 3 seater Settee and I attempted to contact the Company and eventually got through to express my concern after such a short space of time! On 16/04/2014 a man came and looked at the problem stating that he would "pack" the faulty cushion, but realised in the end that this was not going to work and decided to order 1 Inch foam for under the LHF 3 seat. 8 Weeks later he returned with the replacement cushion. We were told not to "Sit" so long in one particular place and that "We" *must Rotate and change seating every 2 hours because continually sitting in one place will make the cushions collapse* ,which beggars belief really as a Suite is for sitting on and not just for show surely. This time the newly replaced Cushion lasted less than 2 weeks and after attempting to make contact again and awaited their response from Head Office about this issue! By 01/08/14 still no word from them and I decided to go to the Store personally and visited them on 07/01/2015 voiced my concerns and once again I waited with nothing forthcoming at all from this company. I returned to the Store again on 21/01/2015 & was told that I would hear from them before the end of the month which didn't happen. While I was sat in a Hospital waiting room I received a phone call on 09/02/2015 to say that they would send someone on 23/02/2015 not giving a time. The man came and sat on the "Bad" seat and decided there was nothing structurally wrong with the suite ,it's *simply* the fact that it's sat on too long once again. The end result is this Suite is Not Fit for Purpose at less than 1 year old and the only thing the company will do is replace the cushion at my own cost. I have told them I will take this further which I am doing now. We have been told again not to "Sit" in one place too long as this will "degrade" the suite and we have to rotate cushions which we can't rotate because of the suites design. They will replace the Cushion at a fee to me but I am not willing to pay anything more to this company. The Suite is "Not Fit for Purpose" and as you can imagine we are at the end of our tether. The goods are shoddy rubbish.

Hi, I had been working as a personal assistant for almost two years and was recently dismissed. I was texted by the person supporteds mum to tell me that they would be coming in to discuss my job. When I started I was contracted to 17 hours and another worker had 3 hours at the weekend. When the other worker left I was offered the extra hours and accepted. I had been informed in an informal chat (all meetings were informal no notes taken and would be without warning) that there were changes happening with the persons support ie Autism in Scotland would be talking up the hours I had been given and there was some talks of me working alongside them. I was obviously unhappy about my hours being cut but recognised that I hadnt taken the steps to have the hours formalised. All I asked was that I was given as much notice of the changes as possible so that I could sort my finances. Months later there was still no notice of the changes. I then received a text whilst I was working telling me that they were coming in to speak to me at 12. This meeting occurred in the Kitchen of the flat of the person supported and I had no representation. I was then told that I no longer had a job and that Autism in Scotland were to be taking over as they required more flexibility. It's important to note here that on more than one occasion I was contacted through text late at night and expected to not come in the next day and would not be paid. Eventually I told them this wasn't acceptable and I would hope that we could come to a mutual agreement on notice for not coming in and was told it was to the same as me calling in sick ( I still have this text). I extremely upset because I had no Idea this was about to happen and was told that I was not to work my notice (two weeks) but would be paid for four. Anyway I received a letter a few days later and it was the first time It was described as dismissal. I was very upset by this letter and was surprised to read that the situation had been discussed with a care manager from the council, Autism in Scotland (who are not linked to my employment in any way) and the person supported themselves. I would also assume Care in Scotland were party to this as they are responsible for my contract and wages. I found this distressing as I take pride in work and have been described as very competent in similar roles. I was really uncomfortable that my competence had been discussed in these meetings and that my reputation was at risk. I was never invited to any of these meetings and I also never received support and supervision throughout my time within the role. The letter also mentioned that they would be seeking someone who was more in line with their sons personality. At the end of the letter it stated that I had six days to reply if i wanted to dispute it. At this time my older sister had been diagnosed with cancer and the day prior to my dismissal had been in for a radical hysterectomy (they were aware of this and stated in the meeting that they had been holding off telling me for weeks because of this). So because of the situation with my sister I stupidly didn't reply- I didn't have the time or energy and there also wasn't an address to reply to. On a side note within the dismissal letter envelope was a personal letter saying how grateful they were for all my hard work! On the way home from the hospital a few days later I was looking for a job on my phone and found almost the exact advertisement that I had applied to to get the job but for one less hour a week. I knew this was for my old job because of the mention of Autism in Scotland and the fact that the address shows up on the map in gumtree when you post an Ad. In my opinion I have been dismissed on my personality and if not I was dismissed without being given the opportunity to improve on my performance. I was unaware that they were unhappy with my work- I never had support and supervision. It also states in the dismissal letter that they need someone who could be more flexible- I was never asked to change my hours or be more flexible and can't help but speculate that this was something to do with me not accepting that I could be told not to come to work within 12 hours of starting my shift. Most importantly I feel that my reputation in my field of work has been tarnished due to being discussed at meetings and this could affect me gaining future employment. I am currently studying a post grad to become qualified in this field and already have associations within the sector. I also was not given the offer of representation at the meeting where I was told I did not have a job and this was not recorded. What I would like to know is have I been unfairly dismissed? Secondly has my stupidity in not replying to the letter (I was sent a text to ask if I received it and I said yes) resulted in me not being able to take it further and Lastly if I do have a case what are my next steps? Thanks in advance.

Hi each and all, not a happy bunny with this one I will be as brief as I can and hope for some good advice Took out Van Insurance through one of those price comparison sites, got a fair price of £350 ish pound for the year Paid it in full via my credit card, today I get a letter stating " CLAIM DISCLOSURE PROBLEM - PLEAESE CALL URGENTLY I did just that, I thought I had got the claim date wrong or something ( I did inform them of an accident in 2013 which is still pending ), and put it down as not my fault, as it wasnt, they said I should have put it was my fault ( THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A LIE ) long story short they said they can continue my Insurance but there will be an increase of £500 ish, ( YEA RIGHT ) if I wish to cancel the broker will want there £35.00 admin fee, then the underwriter will want there cancelation fee, plus insurance tax of£26 ish, plus pro rata something or other which I assume is the 8 days I had the van, my breakdown equates to about £7.00 off the 12 month policy I got another quote, from a diferent company, all the same details, and stated that the accident was my fault ( WHICH IS A LIE ) and they quoted me £359 for the year, obviously sensible to go with the new company, my problem is how can they charge me so much to cancel after only 8 days? or I can pay £500 ish more to stay with them, or probably over £100 to leave, is there any way round this? could I cancel the credit card payment? it doesnt seem fair to me :/

Hi, just looking for some advice please! I was in receipt of JSA and was sanctioned for 3 month after a training provider failed to send me written details about a MWA placement. I have appealed to the DWP and received a Mandatory reconsideration notice just before the sanction ended. They are basically saying that I did receive the letter as it was addressed correctly, there was no postal dispute and I cannot prove that I didn't receive it, so the sanction still stands. How can I prove I didn't receive a letter!? I completed a form and sent it to the tribunal service and the DWP have had a solicitor go over what I've said to discredit everything. I now have received several documents that the DWP have sent to the tribunal but they contain several errors which lead me to believe the MWA letter has been reproduced. If the tribunal doesn't notice these errors would I have the right to appeal? Anyone else not received letters from DWP and been sanctioned as a result? Any help or advice on what to do next or what to expect would be appreciated. Thanks [i'm still actively looking for and applying for jobs, attending interviews and registering with agencies every week.]

Hi all, I have been pointed to this forum by a friend who was certain someone on here can help. Back in November, I parked in my usual train station car park, run by NCP. I arrived later than usual, so there was no spaces in my usual spot downstairs. I had to drive to the top floor, where i found plenty of spaces. I parked up and walked away, paying for my ticket on the 'Ringo' mobile app as I do every morning. When I returned to my car I was surprised to find that I had received a ticket, as had about 12 other cars around me. It turned out that the space I parked in was a 'Premier Bay' (not usually what I'd expect to find on the top floor of a multi-story). When I looked closer, the bays were indeed marked (unclearly) 'Premier Parking', however the words were spaced about 15 foot apart, meaning in front of my car there was just the word 'Parking'. There was also no visible signage. The only sign displayed was next to the pay and display machine, which I never use due to preferring the mobile app. This was on a lamp post around 20 meters from where I parked, positioned side on so I wouldn't have noticed it even if I looked that way. There were two lamp posts either side of my car, neither of which had a Premier Parking sign displayed. I appealed to the NCP but it was declined (in hindsight after reading a few posts, this was the wrong thing to do). I then appealed to POPLA, but they said my appeal was received more than 28 days after the ticket was issued, so was declined. I have now received a letter from 'Debt Recovery Plus' demanding payment or court proceedings may commence. I have genuinely forgotten to purchase a ticket on occasions, and reluctantly paid the fine as I was in breach of the car park conditions, but on this occasion I believe NCP should have done more to make it clear that the spaces were allocated Premier Parking bays. Can anyone please advise me what would be best in this situation? The amount owed is now £120, which is outrageous considering I paid for a ticket that day. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Neil

Hi, We just heard that our first appeal against this PCN has been rejected so I thought I'd better seek some advice before submitting a second one. The story is that: 1) We wanted to stay for the maximum 2 hour limit in a Teignbridge District Council (Devon) car park. Like many kids, our 6 year old son likes to put the money in the machine so we gave him two pound coins but, unfortunately, he pressed the green button before the machine had registered the 2nd coin so we ended up with a ticket for only 30 minutes and no change (as the machine would not return the 2nd pound and, typically, we didn't have any more change on us). 2) I jotted down the RINGO automatic payment number and then went to a café where I paid by phone for a 2 hour stay. At the time, I just assumed I'd only be guilty of overpaying the council (and the ticket machine has no problems with overpayments so we didn't think twice about overpaying via the telephone system). By the way, since losing our appeal, I've realised that the service doesn't even allow for a 1 and a half hour payment. 3) We were desperate to keep to the maximum 2 hour limit and so returned to the car 1 and a half hours after our first payment (so well within the two hour limit) and, you guessed it, found a Contravention 84 notice on the car: “Parked with additional payment made to extend the stay beyond first time purchased”. 4) I immediately tried to ring the number provided but it was on December 31st and so no-one answered, however, in our appeal, I took a screen shot of this attempted call and suggested that it supports our claim that we were not trying to fiddle the system by staying beyond their time limit. 5) Our appeal was rejected as they stated we weren't specifically acknowledging the details of Contravention 84. We've since read this convention many, many times (i.e. “Parked with additional payment made to extend the stay beyond first time purchased”) and, despite feeling like we are being well and truly stitched up here, find it hard to argue with the narrow scope of the wording of the contravention. Any suggestions? I've attached photos of the PCN, the original ticket and the ticket machine. I don't have any photos of the car park signs and, as we were on holiday, it would be tricky (though not impossible - my family live there) to get one. Thank you in advance!

Hi guys, I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on whether I would have a case for getting this default removed from my credit file. To cut a long story short, I managed to go overdrawn on my HSBC account by £88 and was quite slow paying it back due to financial difficulty at the time. The money went to Metropolitan (still HSBC as far as i'm aware) where we agreed that it would be ok for me to pay the full amount into my HSBC account, to clear the debt, on a particular day. When this day came around, I went on my Natwest online banking to transfer the £88 into my HSBC account and assumed everything to be fine. The next letter i received from Metropolitan told me that the amount was outstanding and a default had been added to my account! When I went back and checked my Natwest online banking, the £88 had bounced back to me. There was more than enough money in the account, the only thing I can think of is that HSBC closed the account which made it impossible for me to pay on the day that we agreed! I have tried writing to Metropolitan to have this looked into, and enclosed copies of my bank statement as proof but have not yet had any replies. Do you think I would have a case for getting this removed? Thanks in advance.

Hi. I would like some help please. My daughter has had seen payment taken from her account by companies who she has never had dealings with. She complained to the bank and they told her that 1: All Direct debits would be cancelled. 2: She would be refunded the money for fraudulent use. 3: Any charges would be waived for matters arising from this. Unsurprisingly they lied. We believe that somebody hacked/stole details and put them on a loan companies search website. My daughter does not use loans as she has me as her loan facility if needed. The bank subsequent to this destroyed my daughters card and issued another. Then we were told that they were going to claw back approx £140 of the fraudulent transactions. They then bounced a DD TV Licence (after informing us they had cancelled them all) So this took her overdrawn and they apply a penalty charge of £10 per day. They have now authorised another £140 (of fraudulent payments) on this account. My daughter is a single parent with 2 Children living on DLA and benefits and housing allowance all of which the bank is either paying to fraudsters or gobbling up in charges. Assistance would be greatly be appreciated

Hi all I wonder if I could ask for your advice please. I am in arrears with my mortgage and am trying to sort out making repayments towards the arrears. I have sent them a letter with a list of my expenditure and made an offer of £100.00 pcm towards them. They have replied saying they will not accept the offer until they have spoken to me on the telephone. The letter sent also said that they will continue charging me an arrears monitoring charge of £50.00 pcm. So I have a couple of questions 1) Can I reclaim these charges - they do go back a couple of years to be honest 2) Is there a template I can use regarding speaking to them only by letter or email. I really don't want to speak to them on the telephone Any advice is really appreciated Thanks Madge

I have had an ongoing claim with Jet2 for compensation following a fight delay in Feb 2011. There are six family members in the group, my wife and I, and four children under 16. I am the lead passenger and paid for the flights and the booking was made using my Jet2 account. It was a technical fault and they have been using the “unexpected circumstances” excuse since 2011, and most recently said they were waiting the outcome of their appeal to the Supreme Court which they said would affect the outcome of my claim. When the Supreme Court refused permission for them to appeal, I wrote again asking for the full amount plus interest. They have now asked me to submit a separate claim for each individual or they won’t consider them. This is the first time since I first claimed in 2011 that they have made such a request. After my initial claim, they made a partial pay-out for our allocated seats booking-fee, all on the same claim. So they have the all the passenger details and they have even partially paid out on the claim. I am inclined just to go straight to the County Court now because they are obviously just time-wasting. In my most recent letter, I said that if they did not inform me within 14 days of how and when they are going to compensate me, I would pursue the matter in the court. Am I now justified in taking them to court? Is it reasonable of me to expect a reply in two weeks after an almost four year on-going case ? Their normal reply time is six to eight weeks. If I don’t submit the claims again individually, would they be able to use that as reason for not paying if I go to County Court? Many Thanks

I would like to bring to everyone's attention what I believe is an unfair trading by Railways ( no specific company ). To commute from Croydon (zone-5) to Canary Wharf (zone-2), daily office going passengers have to travel via London Bridge (Zone-1), because the direct connectivity between Croydon and Canary Wharf is poor. The direct connectivity from Croydon to London Bridge is the only re-course for passengers but they have to shell out extra £1020.00 per annum as London Bridge is in Zone-1. £1020.00 /annum is a huge amount by any standard, Someone buying a zone5-zone-2 ticket also deserves a good service as well. After all the cost is based on zone and not on level of service. I believe the current method is directing funds from thousands of daily travellers in an unfair way to rail companies. Besides this, it is depriving the people of time I have raised this with ORR (Office of Rail regulation). I want to know if I Can take this to court? I am willing to chase this public interest, in court, if I get advise.

looking for advice for my son. He was employed as a fitter for a large company and had good feedback for his work, doing all hours and on call. A new manager came and things started to go wrong. Another employee was suspected of stealing and several (my son included) was forced into giving statements against him, forced by way of saying if they didn't they would be surplus to requirements. My son expressed he wasn't happy with this but as he has a young family and another on they way he had to go along with it. Following this word was getting back to him that the accused man was after him and he had to watch his back. The manager was seen walking around with a baseball bat. When leaving work one night my son was stopped by this manager and baseball bat and demanded to search his vehicle, nothing was found on him. Shortly after it got too much for my son and he had to go off with stress, this was for a week followed by a weeks previously booked holiday. On his return he was summoned to a meeting with this manager and one other and told he could have a union rep with him. In the meeting he was told there was no issues with his work but they thought he had a negative attitude on the other staff as he looked miserable. The following day he was sacked, that day they said it was for gross misconduct. No verbal or written warnings had been issued previously.

I’ve been researching into ‘typical’ courier terms and conditions, with a particular interest in liability clauses. I’ve long been of the opinion the majority constitute unfair contracts and a shirking of responsibilities at the expense of consumer rights. What annoys me more than anything is the tendency for couriers to imply consumers require (and should pay for) additional insurance against loss, theft and damage. In my opinion if any of these eventualities occur it is as a result of negligence and (or) failure of the supplier to exercise reasonable care and skill. It is for the supplier to arrange their own liability insurance for such eventualities and neither fair nor reasonable to expect the consumer to be made responsible for supplier negligence. To this end I am particularly fond of point 18.2.3 in the OFT, which among other things states that “The supplier should not make the consumer his insurer”. For the purposes of this post I have analysed CityLinks terms and conditions which I assume to be typical of most. I have highlighted each clause which I believe to be at odds or at least questionable according to the OFT Unfair Contract Guidance. Please note the following are not the FULL terms and conditions provided by Citylink, they are merely the ones I deem relevant or dubious: The corresponding sections from the guidance are: I also felt the following section was useful for when the supplier tries to push toward the subcontractor (perhaps if you used a parcel broker service) I hope people find this useful when taking these organisations to task.

I'm not sure how much I can do on this but I need to ask if there is something I can do. In February this year I was caught speeding on a motorway that had a restricted 50mph speed limit on it. I was caught at the end of the restricted zone doing +-62mph. Documents were sent to me that I duly completed admitting my guilt and these were returned in time apart from my licence and counterpart that I couldn't find at the time. As I was due to go on holiday the following day I felt that it could wait till I returned before I sent it. The fine of £100 was paid electronically. In about June, I received a cheque for £100 from the court whom I contacted to be informed that the money was returned as they had not received my Licence and counterpart and that I must now wait for more papers. As you can see I forgot about the licence when I returned from holiday. After searching again I couldn't find the offending items and so I asked for duplicates from the DVLA which I received. The next set of documents arrived which were duly completed along with a statement of my mitigating circumstances as above and I enclosed the new licence and counterpart. A couple of days ago I received notice from the court that my fine was now £700 with a £70 victim surcharge and £85 costs a total of £855!! This is a large increase from the original fine of £100 and all because I failed to send in my licence. I had completed the original documents, I had paid the fine, I had completed the next set of documents, I sent in my licence and now I have a fine that is, in my opinion, out of context with the original offence. I have spoken to and now written to the court to ask why this has happened and the reasons for it and have asked for that fine to be reviewed. I have also asked the court to hold the Enforcement Notice. The fine was due to be paid on the 1st. October. Does anyone have any other way that I can appeal this vast increase for something which is fairly easy to have been resolved. All they had to do was to send me a reminder for the licence and it would have been done. Thank you in advance. Alan.

Motorists could demand the refund of more than £100m in parking fines, after what experts described as an “explosive” tribunal ruling left local government traffic officials in “absolute panic”. Councils have handed over parking management to private companies, but in many instances have also asked them to handle any appeals against penalty charge notices (PCNs). This process is supposed to be handled by councils, partly because it would be a conflict of interest for a company to examine its own possible mistakes. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal is the second point of appeal and an adjudicator, Christopher Nicholls, has spelled out that council contractors must not be left to process PCN objections. His ruling stated: “I find that no reasonable local authority could have concluded this contract met the terms of its regulatory and public law duties.” As a result, 13 motorists in Gloucestershire were awarded their parking fines and costs after their initial appeals were turned down by the county council’s contractor, Apcoa. The motorists were repaid sums ranging from £42.50 to £155.67. The decision has widespread implications for people who may have been incorrectly fined. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drivers-may-reclaim-millions-in-unfair-parking-fines-9746466.html

Afternoon all, Myself and my wife left our property on the 3rd of sept and have since received this email from the agent. Which we believe to be highly unfair. We then received an emailing detailing cleaning costs to be £292 (for the WHOLE property to be cleaned... despite only two rooms being said as not clean enough in the check out report) in total. Our position is that:- The inventory that they have supplied is unsigned and undated by either party Costs totalling £292 (£190 for garden, £50 painting and £52 for the socket) had already been carried out. With no opportunity for us to rectify anything or agree to the fairness of costs. The property had not been cleaned professionally prior to arrival (check in states unclean level) and now the landlord is insisting on it being professionally cleaned. We have offered £150 in total and for our own cleaner to clean the kitchen and bathroom as on the check out report it states these were the unclean areas. We are now awaiting the landlords response. Please can someone advise to the above of how to approach this and if we've done the right thing? The second issue is that the the deposit was secured with mydeposits.co.uk and our initial one year tenancy ended on the 3rd July 2014 we then moved onto a periodic tenancy agreement. I have spoken to mydeposits who have confirmed the option to automatically extend the protection was not selected. Do we also now have grounds for pursuing the landlord for our deposit x3? If so how do we go about this? Can someone please point me in the direction of any guidance. kind regards Stuart

Hi, I am new to 'forums' so please bear with me. In July, Nationwide allowed transactions to go through which took me over my agreed overdraft limit by 30p. I have now been charged two 'paid transaction fees' of £15 each. I know £30 is not a large amount of money but it is huge compared to the 30p that I was over. Is there anything I can do?

Hello, I rented a property directly with the landlord (no agency involved). The contract was for 1 year from may-2014 to may-2015. I have got a job somewhere else and unfortunately have to move. I discussed this with the landlord and he agreed to let me find a new tenant (and I pay the rent until the new tenant starts). This is all Ok. However he is saying he would take all my deposit in lieu of the breach of contract. The point he is referring to in the contract is: "In the event of the tenancy being terminated by the tenant before the end of the term the tenant shall pay the full cost of re-letting the premises to include any loss of rent incurred by the landlord as a result of the tenant's breach and the agent's fees normally payable by the landlord until the end of the term and the tenant shall remain fully responsible for all terms of the current tenancy until a new tenancy commences". Is this correct on the landlord's part to take all my deposit as I've agreed to finding a new tenant (as no agent was involved) and pay the rent until the new tenant comes in. Is the landlord eligible to claim the agent fees from me for re-letting considering he is not incurring any costs for re-letting and there is no agent involved. What are my options? Will the landlord be eligible to claim agent fees if he decides to go with one? Thanks Best Regards, Smith

Hospitals have been told to give free or cheap parking to the relatives of chronically ill patients. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said new guidelines for English hospitals have been created in order to end the stress of "unfair" charges. Patients with disabilities, those who have frequent appointments and members of staff working shifts will also benefit from the changes, Mr Hunt said. The guidelines state hospital trusts should waive fines when an overstay is beyond the control of the driver, for instance if treatment takes longer than planned. Mr Hunt last month admitted he was concerned about parking fees being charged at some hospitals after being pressed by backbenchers to end "rip-off" costs. The guidance sets out for the first time that hospital trusts are responsible for the actions of any private firms they use to run parking facilities. It also calls on hospitals to look at introducing pay on exit systems so those visiting only pay for the time they have used. Mr Hunt said: "Patients and families shouldn't have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges. "These clear ground rules set out our expectations, and will help the public hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices." https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hospitals-told-end-unfair-parking-charges-233556779.html#BM0Avdn

Have had this card now for approx 8 months, with a small limit of £150. Have been fine with this manageable limit, until this past week. My card was very close to its limit on the last week of last month (July). As usual I made my payment when I got paid (last working day of the month), the payment having to reach Vanquis by 1st of Aug. This has never caused an issue previously, but as last months payday was only a day before the first, this month it has. I received a text message informing me I had to pay £29 immediately as I was over my agreed credit limit. I went online and saw that my payment has been classed as late (not received until the 2nd). Therefore I have been charged £12 late payment fee and £12 overlimit fee, apparently I had gone overlimit by £1 due to the Repayment Option Plan fee being applied £2.11(which I didn't even know I had!) On phoning them a short while ago, I was informed that I will have been notified about the repayment option plan and agreed (I have no memory of this), and that the applied fees for this month would stand. So I asked what the option plan did, and one of the options was to freeze the account. By now I was furious (unfortunately I have a very short temper with these CS morons), so I asked to do this. I would rather not have the card than face extortionate fees. I was then informed the only way I could freeze the account was if was ill, and could PROVE IT!. They would be sending out a claim pack which I must complete and return with a doctors certificate and not until they had received this back and processed it would the account be frozen. The amount outstanding now is £179.00, not a great deal, but all this has made so angry. Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all, I recently applied for a job with a company and got the message from the recruiter asking me a couple of questions and afterwards, he sent me an email that everything seems fine and would like me to attend a telephone interview. We agreed on the time that was friday and I skipped my other interview as this job looked more promising, however, friday morning he emailed me that he is very busy with other stuff and would like to reschedule the telephone meeting/ interview next week. I agreed and then on monday, I received an email that they had telephone interviews on friday and somebody was hired and that they no longer have any jobs. I have the emails and I believe that they lied to me and this was totally unfair as they could have told me the truth and I would have attended my other interview. I would like to know if I could sue the company or take any legal action against them. Many thanks in advance Dinesh

Hi all. Just wanted to share my story and gather any opinions or similar stories. So I have a dreaded "Together Mortgage" (interest only) which I took in Feb 2007. Like many other people I went through some financial hardship in 2008/9 when the GFC bit. I couldn't afford my monthly payments and so Northern Rock offered me a "mortgage concession agreement" for 12 months where as I was only required to pay a certain percentage of my interest only payments. I don't remember the exact amounts but let's say my payments went down from around £550 per month to around £250 per month. The agreement was that the £300 that I wasn't paying would accumulate in arrears until the arrangement ended (I extended it after 12 months for another year) at which point the arrears would be capitalised/put back into my mortgage for me to pay off over the remainder of my mortgage term. Great. This was a big help at the time. However...... When the 2 year period was up NRAM decided that as they no longer offer that same agreement I had to pay back all of the arrears (over £6k) immediately.!!! I argued this and they basically told me that as I had no proof of the agreement then they would take me to court and repossess the house unless I come to an arrangement with them to pay back the money ASAP. The agreement they came up with would increase my monthly mortgage payments from £400 to over £1000 per month...! I now live overseas and so don't have any paperwork to help argue my case, the judge wouldn't postpone the hearing so that I could be present and ruled in NRAMs favour. They won a suspended repossession order that would only be enforceable if i don't meet my new payments. (I managed to get them don't to £850 per month). I laid all of the money back early but the order still stands for a few years. I recently asked the for consent to let the property out while I'm away. The max rent I will get is £450, my payments are £670 and they want £750 to give me permission. They also told me that The £750 fee will be added to my mortgage balance... How can they do that if the no longer borrow money? This really annoyed me as they wouldn't/couldn't add my arrears to the mortgage as per their agreement...! Well lately I've been reading about the CCA issues with loans over £25k and I'm wondering if I may have a case for them to answer. Like I say, I don't have all my paperwork with me at the moment but I'm in the process of having it sent to me and I'm also going to apply for SAR. I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has a similar story or even from anyone who could offer any advice. Cheers all.

We got the sports package from BT @£15.00 p.m. Apl 13th Started Paid Apl 31st Cancelled - No Record of this at BT D/Debits returned for May & June £30 Lttr from BT £30.00 o/s Rang BT July 4th said no record of cancellation so wld need to pay the £30 which I agreed to. Then told me it was a 30day notice period which had to be paid for (£15.00) Refused July 4th Email from BT as below: Your 30 day rental liability charge As we say in our terms and conditions, we need 30 days' notice to stop your BT services - so you'll need to pay for them for 30 days from the date you asked us to stop them. For more information about the 30 day notice period We're stopping your service on 04 Jul 2014. If you don't want your service to stop, get in touch with us on 0800 800 150 as soon as you can. The sooner you call us the easier it is to change things. " (I presumed wrongly that it meant if I wanted to resume sports package so did not ring them) Looked at their terms & conditions online and states in 62 as below 62. If you or we end this agreement, we will block further access to BT Sport at the end of your notice period. Once we have provided you with access to BT Sport, you may tell us to stop providing it at any time by giving us 30 days' notice via telephone. During your notice period we will continue to charge you the subscription fee. Rang them again today to say they had stopped service on 4th July and acc to their terms & conditions the service shld stop at the end of the notice period!!! They said no they had terminated it because I hadn't paid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I said that was not the issue and it was I who had terminated it and had agreed on receipt of bill to pay the £30. But wld not pay the £15 due for July as they had stopped the service and it didn't agree with their terms & conditions. Who is right pls??

Hi All i want to reclaim ppi miss sold to me by egg many years ago i have all my statements and have the figures however i cant find what interest was charged although i have just found "merchandise interest at 1.385 per month" should i use this (im not sure if it would be more if treated as cash) could anyone point me to a ppi calculator (spreadsheet) also would i have a case for excessive charges or has that boat sailed thanks in advance for any advice D