Hi, Was wondering if any has had any experience with Ruthbridge or any other bottom feeding dca actually taking anyone to court? Are they all mouth and trousers or do they ever fulfil their threats? I have 4 year old debt now in their hands.

Hi All I recently left a company due to the unreasonable behaviour of my boss, however I agreed to work my notice to keep things sweet. I worked my notice and finished after completing my notice as normal, admiteddly I did take my foot off the gas and spend some time on the BBC website as they took my work off me and gave me filing to do. I had taken some exams paid for by the company however there was nothing in my contract to state i had to repay them if i left nor did i sign any agreement to repay them. I did state that if they were difficult I would take them to court for constructive dismissal (i have written evidence of this) and we agreed to shake hands as the boss was known for this type of behaviour. Anyway 4 weeks ago I got a letter from my former boss telling me i had breached my contract by emailing a spreadsheet home with a formula on i has come up with, it did not contain client or company information and was a simple calculator based on information available on the public domain. I therefore replied to them in kind but as a gesture of goodwill i deleted the file and considered things closed. Imaging my surprise today then to receive a call at my new employer from my former boss stating that if i did not repay the exam costs they would take me to court for breach of contract. Although he did not state the grounds for taking me to court other than breach of contract, I can only assume it is because i spent time on the internet during my notice period. I did not browse any inppropriate sites nor download client information. My first question is, do they have grounds for this? as i am no longer an employee excessive internet use cannot be sued for. secondly are they allowed to contact me at my current employer? I am tempted to take them to a tribunal for the constructive dismissal to spite them but I cannot see what they are trying to achieve by behaving like this other than to salve their damaged pride and harrass me. many thanks in advance

I lived in a house for 5 years and the contract ran out in September 2012. I was in the process of buying a property, so came to an agreement with my landlady to extend my contract by one month. Each year the letting agent had charged a yearly renewal fee, but even though the contract extension was for only one month, they still wanted the entire fee of £156. As far as i'm aware, by signing the contract, i was agreeing to their terms and also the fee. So I decided not to sign. The deposit was paid back in December, minus an agreed amount with the landlady, but due to the house move, a new baby and a new joint bank account, i've only just got round to checking it. It was short and having phoned the estate agent, it turns out they've deducted the 'owed fee' from the deposit before returning it. So it's actually £156 short. The letting agent in question is well established and also part of the tenancy deposit scheme. It's my understanding that they have no right to directly access the money from my deposit and as i never actually signed the contract extension, no right to charge me £156. Obviously, i may be wrong, so was hoping for some advice on where i actually stand with this?

Hi all, My family and I moved into a rented property last January and had huge issues with the neighbours. The problems started a month after we moved in. Basically they complained about noise constantly - even to the extent that they came round to moan even if we'd been out all day! The noise they were complaining about was from that of my two young children. I'd like to point out that I don't believe I have a god given right to make as much noise as I like just because I have children. I believe running and screaming should be saved for outside and I would never allow them to bash on the walls or stomp around unnecessarily. In short, for a 2 and 3 year old (as they were then) they were not noisy at all. We spoke to the letting agent about the 'harassment' we were receiving and they admitted that there had been a similar problem with the previous tenants and they were very sorry that it had not been disclosed to us. Tensions between us and the neighbours escalated. They started blasting loud music into our living room of an evening, banging on the walls and calling round regularly to complain. I told them to speak to the letting agent because we were not doing anything wrong. The situation came to a head when the guy next door came round and verbally threatened me in front of my children when he knew my husband was out (no car on the drive). Their behaviour effected me so badly that I ended up depressed and in counselling because I couldn't handle the living situation. We ended up moving out at the end of October last year, which put us to unnecessary expense and yet more stress. Only now do I feel strong enough to take some action over this, but am I too late? Where would I even start? My aim is to slap a harassment charge on the neighbours. I don't believe I can do anything about the letting agent as we didn't ask about the neighbours when we applied for the house. Is that correct? Many thanks in advance for any replies.

first post go easy on me. went for my assessment by atos think it is the esa medical on 20 December how long does it take to get to now results . only thing i have received so far is a brown envelope dated 28 jan 2012 saying about income support rates .is this normal having to wait so long or should i ring up and ask it is making me worse plus should i ask for a copy of my medical .thank you hope somebody can help me

Hi.. I am new here. I really hope somebody could help me. I entered sequestration 3 years ago. And this February is my final month to pay contribution towards my sequestration, which is £200 per month. And my IP has advised me that I will be released from my sequestration afterwards. Unfortunately, to my surprise, I just received an email yesterday from my IP saying that they decided to take my car which is worth £1550, or I have to pay the same amount if I want to keep the car. What make me really confuse here is, at the beginning of my sequestration, I owned BMW which was worth around £2300 at that time. But my IP assured me at that time that they not touching the car as the value is not significant and I needed it to get to work, and as long as I have maintain a £200 contribution per month. After a year in sequestration, I have decided to sell the BMW with an advise from my IP, as result that I could not maintained the car. And I swapped to more fuel efficient car. I sold BMW for £2000 and with the whole lot of the money I bought Renault. And I have updated everything to my IP. In fact, I never failed to submit my circumstances review form every 6 months to my IP. I was so confused and shocked by the decision that they make at the final month of my sequestration, while they have 3 whole years to decide about this. Is this sounds right to you? I also wondered why they could be OK with BMW that worth £2300 at the beginning, but not OK with Renault worth £1550 at the end? Please somebody advise me regarding this matter. Your help and words are very much appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Vanquis of course is part of Provident Financial services,the doorstep loan firm recently featured in TV docs for its aggressive dealings with vulnerable people. There is no shortage of Vanquis stories on The CAG or indeed on the internet itself about Vanquis,and also Argos suspicions about passing details about customers previously to Vanquis. Do NOT be tempted by offers of vouchers !

Hi a Bailiff from Jacobs visited my house recently whilst I was out and left a Notice of Seizure in my letterbox. He has written the details of my van and car on the notice and added fees of £172.50 on top of the amount that I already owe. I did make an arrangement to pay him and have the money but have just been laid off from work, if I pay him I wont be able to look after my family until work starts again. I rang him and tried to make a smaller payment but he would not accept it. I have signed on this morning at the job centre. I am due to pay him today and am really worried that if I dont pay he will come and take my van and car. Can any one give me some advice.:sad:

Hi. Sometimes in December I have booked slot for Lite in the UK test (£50) charged in advance for it. At the test center I was told that I can`t take the test because my name given while registering on website does`t match the name on my passport. My name on the passport is ie. Peter Paul Smith, while registering I have only filled fields with first name, Piotr And surname, Smith - I have left middle name field blank because there was only *(star) next to first and surname fields.So I was sure it`s not needed. Also in 2011 I have booked the same test but was unable to take it at the time because I did`t have proof of address on me (thats fair enough. my mistake). When I showed for that test there was nothing wrong with my name, they were only unhappy with no proof of address. Now when you register on the website https://www.lituktestbooking.co.uk/eass/registrationPersonalDetails!input.action there is advice about the middle name, says if you have it you must include it while registering (there was no such advice in 2011, not even in December when my wife registered on website, they put it on recently.) In t&c only says: `If the following details are not correct on the day of your test, we may not allow you to take the test and we will not refund your test fee. Your name` I have complained to them but they refusing to refund the fee, what do you think, do I have any chance of winning that with them? I`m thinking of going small claim route if there is any chance of taking the money back from them, that rip off. Thanks

Hi I need advise in taking littleswoods to court over a computer that I broughtfor my son, now 17 months ago also my son helped by putting his savings to thiscomputer some £325 pounds of his own money, the computer packed up last Februaryand was still in warranty, when I phoned littlewoods they give me a number for AcerI phoned them and they said that the computer was not sold by littlewoods andhad no listing for it funny? so I phoned littlewoods again after long conversationthey said we don’t take computers back they have to go back to the manufacturer,so jump forward many months and many phone calls to June Acer finely said oksend it to us and we will fix it 2 weeks later computer comes back unfixed Acerhave no record of it, jump forward to august lots of phone calls littlewoods don’twant to no And will not take computer back. For the last 6 months I said ok no fix nomoney so littlewoods put charges on my account every month now standing at£162.00 in charges also they have sent my account to outside collection agencywhich are threatening to take me to court and default my credit file so i give inand now have a payment plan with them, so where do I stand iam left with acomputer that’s out of wanrenty, and out of pocket. i want to get my and my sons money back the charges they have put on my account and all the phone calls that i made to them which total up to about 6 hours on the phone. Help Please? Kind Regards David

Just a few pointers on how to deal with these muppets!! 1.Email them as soon as you know you are in troubles! 2.Go onto the website an update your details(change the phone numbers youve given them to 000000000!! you get the picture!) Also change the address of you employer to nothing! This will stop any calls to you or your workplace! 3.Secure your money,open a different bank account with a different bank...you know the drill! 4.Keep emailing them with offers of repayment 5.Ignore threatening letters but do keep them filed away for future proof! 6.Make an official complaint to Minicredit(you will get fobbed off!),ask for their FINAL RESPONSE to your complaint. 7.When you get that final response make a complaint with fos,send them all correspondence and basically tell them the truth! All this worked for me and thanks to fos I am know paying the original loan plus 1 months interest and the first default fee(£25 but that was only added because I didnt tell them I was in difficulty sooner!) Also I am able to pay in installments that I can afford! Good Luck

Hi guys, How are you all today? I have an issue with my ex landlord. Myself and my partner were in a 6 month lease at our last address which passed with no real issues. We then went onto a rolling monthly contract. The landlord after 6 months decided to increase the rent by 5% and said that he will be doing this every 6 months. The property didn't have saftey catches on the downstairs windows so they could just swing wide open and we have 2 kids aged 4 and 2 and found this to be dangerous. Because of these reasons we have had to look elsewhere for a property. We found a house that had cheaper rent with double glazed windows with saftey catches and no 6 monthly rent increases + it had front and back gardens for our kids. Needless to say we jumped at the chance of taking this property. But there was a lot of interest and we had had to take the property or we would miss out on it. We had spoken with our neighbours about how the landlord would react to us moving out, deposit ect.... and they said pretty much that he had been really awkward at giving deposits back.... to the extent that he tried to doctor a final gas/electrcity bill to keep as much of previous tenants deposit as possible. I think you get the idea as to what kind of land lord he is. Anyway, we decided to move out giving a months notice but we did not pay for the month. Instead we informed our landlord to keep our deposit to cover that rent instead. If he had any issues with the property he could then discuss it with us and we could come to an agreement with any costs or work that was needing done. He came back saying that we had to give 2 months notice (although we are on a rolling monthly contract) and that we had to pay all outstanding costs into his account within 48 hours or he would persue legal action. He also got really personal with his text messages saying things like me and my wife won't have a good xmas with our kids because we're poor and that he will be in Florida with 24 members of his family and that we remind him about how fortunate he is when other people struggle to makes ends meat. (Are you getting the idea as to what kind of person he is? lol) Anyway, I challenged him on the fact that his property is not on a buy to let mortgage (I heard this from a little birdy) and that I don't think he could take me to court on this basis. (It is worth noting that he has a number of property's so I don't think that he will have consent to let from his mortgage provider) I have not heard back from him in the last 24 hours. Does anybody know whether, if it is true that he does not have a buy to let mortgage, he can take me to court or is he leasing this property out illegally? Any advice wold be very much appreciated. Thank you guys, Scott

Hi I was looking for some advise or help with how to move forward. If anyone has any experience with changing jobs with a reduction in salary then it would be great to know how you managed etc. I'm currently earning 30k per annum in a job thats going down hill fairly quickly due to the company losing some major clients. I can get another job but the salary is probably around 18-19k per annum. I currently rent a house from the local housing association, have 1 child and a partner that works 2 days a week. Currently we receive no benefits other then the standard child benefit. If I was to accept the job at a lesser wage would this make much difference to what we are entitled too? I would rather take a job at a lesser wage then be unemployed. Thank you!

Very disturbing http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/14557/online-news/one-in-five-will-seek-payday-loan

This is probably a daft question, but I read somewhere that only the original lender can apply for a CCJ, not a debt collection agency. Is this true?

Hello I am considering setting up my own business - I was wondering to avoid breach of contract claims etc do I have to have an employment handbook provided or would I be in breach of contract if I employed anyone? I am just trying to avoid making mistakes if I set up a company and I do not know if this is an important thing or not.

Earlier this year I bought a car. I don't drive so we registered my partner on the V5 as he is the one who is doing the driving. Recently he received a letter from a debt collector Saying that if my partner doesn't pay such and such (from an old mobile phone contract) they will look into his financial situation to see how else they can recover the monies owed. Now i'm worried sick as the reason I bought the car was so my autistic would have transport to help him get around. Can they just clamp my car or take it away? Apologies is this is in the wrong bit.

Two questions. 1. If I am half of a joint account and I enter into legal proceedings (in this instance challenging the level of charges - not the bank's right to raise charges) and lose, then if I'm not worth a 'carrot' (name not on any deeds and no earnings to attach) can 'they' go after the other named person on the account, for costs? 2. When claiming back cr.card charges I always quote "It was held in earlier actions (and I can provide examples if required) that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss." and I believe this is included in UTCCR. If this IS the law of this land then is it not 'deployable' when claiming back bank charges? After all, we're not challenging the banks right to charge - merely the level at which they do so. One also wonders whether BCOBs could be used in unison. Thoughts please.

Hi everyone, overjoyed I found this site! I'm 24 and have just learnt the value of money (finally). I'm roughly 10k in debt to around 10 creditors. Yesterday I worked out I should be paying out around £850? a month. I only earn £750 a month. I'd really appreciate some advice on how to tackle this? Debts are in this order... Loan with co-op. 6400 total including interest, 2800 left to pay. Up to date with payments. Credit card with halifax. £2654 total balance. 104 over limit, 2 months behind. Credit card with Natwest. £2794 total balance. £6 remaining credit. Up to date with payments. Credit card with Vanquis. £500 total balance. 1p remaining credit. Up to date with payments. Credit card with Capital one 198 total balance. £2 remaining credit. Up to date with payments. Payday express loan. 690 including interest. interest frozen. up to date with repayment plan, won't be able to make next payment of 87. Wonga. 403 total balance. interest frozen. 50 a month repayment plan. up to date. Mr lender. £150. up to date, been rolling over £33 for 5 months now. Quick quid. Owed a fair amount, got it down to £160 now. Agreed 160 a month repayment plan, won't be able to make next payment but up to date so far. Another PDL I can't remember the name of. £150, due on 20th august. won't be able to meet payment. I don't know how I've managed to keep this up so long but there we go. (actually yes I do, borrowing from elsewhere to pay bills) Household expenses food etc come to around 60 a week. I've filled in the CCCS DMP plan. Do you think this would be the right option for me? I'm hoping to pay around 200-300 a month, so I can live without credit. Thanks so much for the help in advance, much appreciated!

Hi everyone, I need a bit of information in regards to Brighthouse. My girlfriend has got a few things from them and pays around £140 per week. A few weeks back she missed one weeks payments due to not having the right amount. She walked into her local store to pay the missed weeks payment as well as the payment that was due. The member of staff informed her that there was a £20 late payment charge to be paid on top of what was owed. She said she is not going to pay it and walked out the store. She phoned me and explained what had happened. I said to her that she did the right thing, but go back in and pay the money that was owed on the account. When she walked back into the store, the branch manager tried to force her to pay the £20 charge or he will not accept the money for the account. She argued with him and he called his area manager. After a lengthy conversation he put the phone down and told my girlfriend that she did not have to pay the £20 charge. Last weekend my girlfriend had the same problem only this time Brighthouse and the store manager were using dirty nasty tactics. She missed a weeks payment and the store manager came out to her house. He told her that she has to pay a late payment charge of £20 or he will not take her weekly payments and that she will have a visit by bailiffs to remove her goods. She told him to leave her property straight away. She was quite shaken by this and called me straight away. I was raging with fury after she told me what this idiot had told her. I know quite a bit about bailiffs and what they can and can not do. I reassured her that no bailiffs will come and remove her goods. He left her his card and told her she has got until 14:00hrs to pay the amount with charges. I told her to go to the store with a friend(I live in Portsmouth, she lives in Birmingham otherwise he would of been dealing with me) and take the digital voice recorder that I gave her a while back and ask him why he will not take her payments. She walked into the store and asked the branch manager if he was prepared to put in writing why he will not take her payments. He refused to do that and that she could contact head office and speak to them. She asked him if he was willing to take her payments and he replied no. She walked out of the store and called me straight away. I told her that she should never speak over the phone or deal with brighthouse face to face and never sign anything and that she should put a video camera by the front door in case they ever come back to the house. What I would like to do is write a letter to brighthouse about what this store manager has said, also to the OFT and FSA but I am unsure of what to put in it. Has anybody else had this problem with Brighthouse. Any help or advice of what to put in this letter would be most appreciated.

Hi, i've just moved out of a rented property. To cut a long story shot we have had a very hard 2 years with both the estate agents and the landlord. I was without heating for 8 months and even when we did have it all the heat was gone by 3pm and so we were freezing in the evening (we had storage heaters and there was no gas in the property). The house was riddled with damp and we would have to clean the mould on a regular basis. We couldn't have a bath as the water tank in the loft didn't hold enough water, luckily we had a shower though!. There are a million other things that went wrong with the property and the the estate agent nor the landlord sorted things out, it used to take months to get anything done (including when the cooker hob went off and I couldn't cook on it, this took them around 2.5 months to sort it out). Upon giving our last months notice I knew the landlord would be awkward so I said they could take the bond as the last months rent. The landlord agreed to this and everything was fine. Nobody came out to the property to inspect it, not the landlord or the estate agents. We have never ever had a rent book and our tenancy ended on the 23rd of Jan 2012, we wanted to stop in the property as we were buying our own in over the next few months so we didn't see the point in moving twice. (I wish we had now!) I asked the landlord to get another month by month contract signed up but he didn't bother himself to do so. We handed the keys back a week gone wednesday and then I received an abusive phone call from the landlords wife on monday, then they went around to my parents house on the wednesday and harrassed them claiming its costing £600 to clean the house. After I found out that they had been around my parents house I rang the landlord up and told him not to go back there again. He then went on to tell me how he has already got the carpets cleaned, the garden sorted and other bits and bobs. I did forget to clean the oven which I then offered to do and remove some rubbish I forgot to take away. He agreed and said he would ring me back later on that day. He never rang me so I rang him around 5pm. The landlord then went on to tell me he has already got a company out to clean the oven so I couldn't do it. But he still wanted the rubbish removing, I went around that night and removed the rubbish (there wasn't much!). Nothing was said / heard from him until Thursday when he rang demanding the money for the cleaning of the house. Made threats down the phone stating he was going to send 'someone' round to my parents house to get my address from them, or he was going to follow my partner home from work etc. The landlord said the tenancy agreement runs onto a month by month contract after the tenancy end date. However this doesn't state that anywhere in the agreement and we never once had any rent book from either the estate agent or the landlord. I've had nothing but bother from day one with the Estate Agents, i've got letters and photographic evidence of the house we were staying in, nothing ever got done, the landlord took the property off the estate agents half way through the tenancy and then they were just as bad at getting things done. I had put a fence and a gate up (which I left), I also had got blinds up at the windows which I told him he could have when I said that they can take the bond as the last months rent. Which again he did agree to and as far as I'm aware he took it. Nobody came to inspect the property at all before we left, it wasn't until a few days later when the phone calls started. Now he claims hes going to take me to court if I don't pay up. Thanks in advance! Regards Scott

Hi all I've had an interesting year, my business finally failed owing me £50k or so and just commencing divorce proceedings with the missus. I like a challenge! I have a new job and I'm starting to look at rebuilding my life, but the credit card sharks won't leave me alone! My credit cards are all pre 2007 so I want to challenge them, but my question is this. Can I still challenge the legality of a credit card agreement even if in an IVA? Thinking of going the IVA route just to get them off my back!!! Many thanks in advance. Trying to keep my eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel, but people keep trying to turn it off!