Hi everyone. I've been a member here for a while and have read some good advice. I haven't posted before as I didn't have much to contribute (there's plenty of wiser and more knowledgeable posters than I!) but I do have an issue that hopefully one of you wiser heads can help with. My sister recently got a letter from a Debt Collection Agency claiming she owed almost £2k to EE which had now sold the debt onto the DCA. I advised her to check with the DCA and EE - as well as her credit files. Eventually she found out that someone had given her name, date of birth and address to take out a contract with Orange over the phone and then stopped paying. After much to-ing and fro-ing, she finally got EE to admit their error. EE said they would write to confirm and instruct the DCA not to chase my sister. However, when my sister called the DCA they said they would wait for Orange to confirm (which is fair enough). However, when my sister requested that the DCA remove her details from their database, the DCA curtly told her that they had a legal obligation to keep her details for six years! I think they're wrong - the only six year limit I know of is that once you settle a debt, it stays on your credit file (as settled) for six years. And that is if the debt is yours! I think my sister either spoke to a "script jockey" (i.e. someone who reads the standard script regardless of your question) or the DCA is not training their staff correctly. Would anyone be able to confirm? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, my Peugeot 207 came to the end of its 3 year lease this month and they advised me the collection company would be in touch. They arranged to collect my car yesterday, and spent sometime inspecting the vehicle over. Before they drove off I was shell shocked to hear they are going to bill me for some minor bumps on the car, bearing in mind this is an auction company coming to collect the vehicle, they want ME to pay for the car to look fancy again so THEY can make more money on it. I was never explained exactly how this money needs to be paid or by when or anything, they just took the vehicle after this. Of course I am livid as the charge is just shy of 400 quid. Any advice you have on this matter I would greatly appreciate and advice that may help me in this matter. Thanks, Chris

Hi, I took out car insurance in Jan 2012 with right choice insurance. I definately did not make the right choice. I phoned them to cancel on 17 May 2013. They told me I needed to send them an email with the policy number and my details to ensure the policy was canclled. I did this them phoned back. They told me they had recieved the email, and that the policy would be cancelled with a charge of over £300. I argued this as I had my policy documents in front of me, and there was no charge for early cancellation. Escalated to management who advised they had closed the account with no charge. Happy with this I went on my way. I moved from cumbria, and as a result did not check my Cumberland account often, as there are no Cumberland banks in merseyside. It was only when I was visiting friends in keswick I saw that £200 had been taken out! They had carried on taking my direct debit for 3 months!! I phoned my bank and told them the Direct Debit was not there with my permission, and they refunded it to me immediately, but now Right Choice are persuing me for the £200 saying my policy ran until August. I have the email proof of the date I cancelled, yet they are claiming to not have received it and that they have no records of my call!! I scrapped the car in May and they wont even accept that as proof. Now theyve sent it to a debt collector. What on earth do I do??

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26539569

Hi wondering if any one can help me I was contacted by Westcott regarding a dept owed to TRBOS for aprox £900 I contacted them asking what the dept was they informed me it was a style card which was opened around 9 years ago, I may or may not have opened this in a time where i went mad with credit. I sent of for a copy of the agreement under section 77-79 of the 1974 consumer credit act to which the sent me a blank copy of the terms and conditions of the account with a pre contract information sheet with my name printed on it. I informed Westcott that i wanted a copy of the agreement with my signature on it, to which i was given a different address to send of to, i received a letter today saying that leagaly all they had to send me was a gopy of the agreement and terms and conditions of the time the account was opened, I contacted TSBOS on a number supplied and was told that they no longer have a copy of the original signed agreement as they don't have to keep them after 6 yrs. I just want to see the orginal signed aggrement before i aggree to pay anything. Can any one offer any advice please :?:

Early last year I received a letter from Ruthbridge on the 16th and they said roughly, they were trying to contact the named person on a personal matter, if I am the person named I should contact them immediately. If they didn't receive a response within 7 days they would have an agent telephone me. On the 24th I received another letter from them saying: We note you have failed to respond to mail directed to you. YOU HAVE BEEN TRACED AS LIVING AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY. If you have not established contact with this department within the next five days an agent may telephone you. I ignored the letters and I have not heard from them since! However this year I have recently been contacted by CCS and they say more or less the same thing, but I haven't received a second letter yet, but I know I probably will! Although I have some debts that I walked away from in the mid nineties, I thought by now they would be statute barred? Should I continue to ignore their letters and see what happens? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hi Im not sure if this is the correct place for this but couldn't find anywhere else to put it. We are currently £240 in arrears with Anglian Water, however i got my new bill and on this is states that i have until the 2 April to pay £336 which will be the arrears plus the first half of the years payment. I have set up a DD for this and i thought all was fine. I came home from work yesterday to a postcard that had been left in my letterbox, stating that someone called Denholm had come regarding Anglian Water account and that i was to phone a mobile number to sort payment out. What i am really angry about is the fact that this person has also handwritten my account number on the card and the amount i am in arrears and the amount of my full years bill, there was no need for him to write any of this on the card and indeed there was only spaces available for him to put his name and number. He did NOT put this in a sealed envelope addressed to the occupier, but left it half in and half out of the postbox, i have written a complaint to Anglian water. My question is "is this allowed"? Is this breaching the Data Protection Act, do i have a leg to stand on if i make a formal complaint? As i say it was purely a calling card and i don't believe he should have handwritten my details all over the card, but i would like to know if i am correct in this before i go any further with it. Many thanks for any help you can give.

Hello all, I received a 'fine' back in June last year, and after some research I decided to ignore all 3 letters they sent. I have just walked through the door and 8 months later I have received a letter from debt collection plus, regarding that I pay £140 pounds within 14 days. Any ideas on what to do or shall I just keep ignoring? Thanks very much

Please could you offer advice on the Following I have been chased by several Debt Companies over the past few Years The Original Date was with HBOS, The first debt company Wescot Contacted Myself . I went through the procedures of Sending Letter to say I would only liase by Letter, Then sent a Letter along with Postal Order for them to Produce CCA, of which they did not produce, All went Quiet then I received a Letter from Capquest, yet again went through the procedure of asking them to produce CCA, Of which they returned a Copy of The CCA, all my details where correct on the front Page, the second page of which is where I would have signed was blank No Signature. I wrote back and said I would send a copy to the Financial Ombudsman, Capquest Noted my Complaint, and I have now received a further letter saying that they wish to proceed and collect the debt, How can they without signed CCA of which I have given them the time to produce and Have not. At present I, am trying to apply for a mortgage , but because the debt is still against me on my credit Score. How can I finally get rid of these debt companies asking for the debt when they cannot produce the CCA Any Help and Advise would be gratefully received

Hi everyone, This is my first post so I apologise if I am in the wrong section for this type of query. A forum member at Moneysaving Expert recommended I ask for help/advice from CAG and I have spent the last couple of hours looking over posts but I just need a bit of clarification if anyone can help......... My husband received a claim form through the post from a county court on Tuesday. The claimant is a DCA and on the claim form they say that a Notice of Assignment has been sent to him to explain that they now own the debt. The sum they are claiming with solicitors costs is just under £6,000 and they state that it relates to the Lloyds Banking Group. My husband had a debt with Lloyds which defaulted in 1999 . The debt is made up almost entirely of bank charges that piled up when he went over his overdraft after he was made redundant. Since then he has lived at the same address but in the intervening years there have been no letters or phone calls...nothing until now. We have filed an acknowledgment to the court and asked for the full 28days but looking through all the posts that seemed similar to our case I think that this is a statute barred debt but if someone could just confirm that they agree or disagree with me I would be very grateful. One big worry that I have got is that the DCA registered the default date as being 2008. This is definitely wrong but does this affect our claim that it is statute barred debt? If anyone can point me in the right direction regarding the correct templates to base our letters on I would be grateful. Do we send any correspondence only to the court or to the DCA as well ? Any advice very much appreciated Thanks in advance Elizabeth

Can anybody please advise me on this as I have no idea about any of it. I owe £107.41 to Scottish Power for Gas and Electricity combined. I pay in monthly installments of £85. On the 26th of October 2013 I was £28.56 in credit When my next bill came I expected it to be £85, but it actually came early on the 11th of November 2013 and was £277.47. I have no idea how this happened. I have been trying my very very best to pay it off. As I say I have it down to £107.41 I have a 7 month old baby, I live in a house where half the radiators don't work, landlord wont give me double glazing, I'm just turning 20 this month, my maternity pay has stopped. I have no income at all now except for my boyfriends £90 a week from his job. I don't receive any benefits. I got a letter on the 8th of January from Sterling Collections on behalf of SP saying that they want £85 immediately after several requests for payment. But I haven't had several requests I've had one letter in the post and an online letter on the 14th January, after the letter from the debt collection agency. What on earth is going on. Can somebody please, please advise me.

Just received the exact same letter - with an amount I don't recognise. I did give notice to withdraw from the league as they were holding games without qualified refs and there were lots of fights etc Am wondering just how likely the CCJ is to go ahead?

Hello there. I am a player of a 5 a side football team and we use to be in a league called footballmundial. We left and I believe we owed a small amount but then we got an email saying that we owed a lot more than I expected (£160.) They are asking for money and the other team's fees for a game that they changed the time for so we got confused and turned up late and missed the game. here is the letter one of my team mates just received: We have been instructed by football mundial to commence formal debt recover against you. TAKE NOTICE There will be no further reminders sent to you or any opportunities for you to delay this payment any longer. Should you wish to avoid a COURT SUMMONS being served on you, payment must be made in full within the next three working days using the pre-paid envelope enclosed. Alternatively we accept all major credit and debit cards. We are advised you have been previously furnished with full details of our clients claim however please telephone our offices immediately should this not be the case and we shall endeavour to resolve and queries you may have. Please note that our client has consented to legal action and therefore any litigation issued against you may result in your credit rating being adversely affected. OK so I tried to ring but they are closed till Monday. I accept we may owe some but we do not owe £160. So what is my next move?

Hi All I have had a letter from Advantis credit control stating that there sre clients for the DVLA,claiming they want to verify my contact address,and its in relationship to a outstanding business matter as i have moved to Devon from Leicester,they had my address to send the letter and i have retaxed my van here to, any help please

Hi First time post hope someone can help Bit of background we enlisted an educational psychologist for our son (can of worms wont go into the details) and a £500 fixed fee was verbally agreed for services including attendance at a tribunal. The invoice for this came through and we paid immediately - they were due to attend the tribunal 2 days after this and tried to bail on us which would have severely impacted our case. We managed to get hold of them and convinced them to still attend after 48 hours of extreme badgering ! - It should also be mentioned that their service was less than professional, having to constantly chase, emails not answered, phones not manned, voicemails not replied to etc etc. all was well and as far as we were concerned that was it - months later we got an invoice through for a further £900 for the attendance at the tribunal which we had not agreed. We disputed the invoice verbally and they said they would look into it. We heard nothing back and then got an email saying the account was overdue etc etc and we need to pay the £900 we emailed back and stated that we did not agree to it verbally and did not have any record of any prices etc for any additional work on email however if they had supportive evidence to the contrary forward it over and we would look into the matter. beginning of last week my wife got a phone call from the psyche's husband saying we had to pay or they would take us to court, we referred him to the previous email we had sent to the company etc. we then had some email tennis where he was saying we were fully aware of the fact it would be done on hourly rate etc etc despite the fact it had been agreed on a flat rate and sent over an email with hourly rates on that had been sent weeks after the tribunal attendance - the hourly rates were actually in relation to a question we asked on how much it would be for a further supporting letter which we agreed for them to do (estimated at 3 hours work). We had asked them to proceed via email with the 3 hours work but received no email reply or supporting letter - awesome service ! He told us to pay or they would take us to court - we said ok fine take us to court but we dispute the invoice and have all correspondence necessary to back up what we were saying. Instead of taking us to small claims court (they literally have the company's secretary's word against mine that we apparently agreed to the £900 fee - trust me I didn't agree as the initial conversation we had when enlisting their services agreed a £500 flat fee!) they have passed the matter to a debt collection agency. I need to know what my next step is legally - there is zero hard evidence and one person's word against mine that the conversation regarding the £900 actually took place. I could really do without someone dinging the snot out of my credit rating for money that I legitimately don't owe - I am not being bullied by these guys ! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi folks, new to the site and looking for any advice on how to deal with Mitcheldean Collections/Contact centre. A little while back I received a letter from them stating they were seeking repayment of £881.82p of unpaid crisis loans, dating from 2000 to around 2003( when I then had a partner and her 2 kids whom I was claiming for as a couple). The bug bear for me with this claim is that several large amounts are not, rightly in my mind, for repayment as we were at the time 'told' to claim crisis loans to the amount of out Income Support at the time. Which was £180 a fortnight. after receiveing the letter I called them, and asked for all the dates in question to be sent to me. I in turn sent these letter to an 'apparent' office in Clyebank asking for details of all my signing on dates to be confirmed as well as receipt of payment by Giro cheque. This I know they must have as I was told back then that it would take 11 weeks minum to process any lost cheques. These never turned up. There are payments on there which I wouldnt mind paying back ( although a part of me stupidly asks that if they knew I couldnt pay it all back then...why give it to me at all????). Can anyone help or have advice on this. Much apprecieted in advance

Hi Need some advice guidance as im at a loose end at the moment. This is in releation to my now wife, who in 2002 claimed for housing benefit she wasnt entitled too, as a result she went to court in 2004, who found her guilty and she got community service. She moved back to her mums address in 2003 (so prior to court so all documents went to this address), she served her community service however there was no mention of paying the money back to DWP. Fast forward to april this year, where we bought a house in 2011, we recieved a letter from DWP stating that you owed £3500, she phoned them up asking what the debt related too, then ended the call. We sent a letter stating statuary barred as the debt is long past the 6 years. We have now just recieved a letter from a DCA (CCS Collect) asking to make payment within 7 days of the letter. We were under the impression that the debt could only be repaid from benefits etc and they couldnt pass the debt onto a collection agency due to it being over 6 years old? Can anyone help?

hi i have a quick question on guidelines for DCAs. i have searched around but cannot find the answer. I have received a letter from Mackenzie Hall for an alleged debt. the debt issue is fine, and i can handle. my problem is when the send a letter they send the letter in a brown envelope with urgent in capital letters on the front of the envelope. this seems to me, to be breaching debt collection guidelines? can anyone comment on this? thanks

I have just come home to a letter from Parking Collection Services on behalf of Minster Baywatch LTD. saying I received a fine for not displaying a valid ticket on 06/10/2013, so have to pay them £115 within 28 days. There are a couple of issues here: 1) The car park had a huge sign saying parking for Mecca Bingo customers only to right of the sign, display permit. Parking for non mecca customers to left of the sign, pay and display Monday to Friday. It was a Saturday so I parked in the non-Mecca area and checked the pay machine which had nothing displayed on it and it spat out the pound I put in it. 2) I did not receive a parking ticket - if I did then someone must have pinched it. 3) It has been nearly 2 months since the ticket was supposedly issued - so why did they wait so long to tell me if I needed to pay within 28 days? I am tempted to write to them and tell them to forget the legal threats - just take me to court and see what a judge has to say about the parking instructions. If they want the £1 something I owe them, then I will happily give it to them. Should I write to them and tell them where to go?

hi i just recived that letter from RLP can you help me : do i neet to pay,is it going to be in my criminal recort

I had a Lloyds Bank Account that I used to collect £150 monthly charges on regularly. I found out that I could use another bank and not be slammed with such outrageous charges every month so I switched. I went into the bank in 2007 and shut my account in person. I didn't hand over a letter, I just checked I had a £0 balance and closed it. The lady at the desk agreed this was the end of the account and I owed nothing. Then our lives went haywire, business collapsed, house repossessed, and a house move. We went straight onto the electoral role at our new address, and our post was forwarded properly. I heard nothing from Lloyds. Fast forward a few years and I had a letter at my new address chasing a debt of £600! Apparently I was overdrawn when I left Lloyds,and they added their charges! Despite my checking etc. Nowadays I'm older and wiser and would have had it all put in writing, but clearly I didn't do it properly. I ignored the letters, but now they're stepping up the heat, demanding letters almost daily. How do I go about dealing with this? Are they picking up the pace because we're heading toward the 6 year mark?

This company called Harland is chasing me for £114.99 for a months gym membership that i never used... I agreed a month to month contract with Simply Gym in reading... no ongoing contract.. after 1 day i told them i want to cancel its awful. the gym was disgusting and falling apart... then 2 months later a debt copllection agency mails me saying they want 6 times the monthly amount of the gym... what is going on in the country?

I really can't believe I'm having to ask this but here goes. An elderly relative has decided to move from their house which has become too much for them into sheltered accommodation and tasked me with clearing the house and putting it on the market. I'm obviously filling the bin and the council are refusing to empty because the house is unoccupied. Said relative is now paying council tax for both properties and more for the house than when they lived in it because the single occupancy discount has been transferred to the new flat. Can they really refuse to empty the bins? I'd understand it if they chose to allow some temporary relief in such circumstances but this council doesn't.

Hi, I've got two barclays bank accounts that were closed in 2009 and they called in the overdrafts. At the time, I was complaining about charges, although I had not gone as far as a court claim. Latterly, I have settled the smaller of the accounts to its full value, but I have not paid anything to the other since it was closed. It has now been passed on through several debt collection agencies. At the time of closure, Barclays registered two defaults with the CRAs and, as my financial situation has improved in the last few years, these are now causing me some inconvenience. I have discussed removal with various customer service reps over the years, but they have been unwilling to concede. I previously believed that Barclays had correctly followed the necessary processes before registering the defaults, but I think there's a chance they only sent me a termination notice and there is no specific mention of a default - I still have these letters and believe I would have kept anything else sent at the time. If I'm correct about this, I understand this would be grounds for removing the defaults. However, since the debt has been sold on but is still outstanding, I'm not sure whether there would be the possibility to issue a further default with the correct documentation? If so, it seems like the best strategy would be to attempt a percentage settlement with the collection agency (~25%) and simultaneously send in a request for the default documentation? If the debt was settled with the collection agency, I guess there is no way that a further default could be issued? My other question is whether a written offer of settlement constitutes acknowledgement of the debt and would start the clock again on the statute of limitations? It would seem prejudicial if it did, but I would like to make sure before I start going down that route. I had previously been thinking of eeking it out until the 6 year mark, as it's only two more years. However, if there was the opportunity to clear these 2 defaults off my file for a reasonable cost, I would definitely go for that. FYI, I also have 2 other accounts that also show defaults from the same time (BT and barclaycard). I think there may be similar options with these, so it makes sense for me to take them all through the same process now - I will start separate threads if I need help with these. Thanks, James

Hello all! I was wondering whether I can reclaim a collection charge on the same basis as credit card penalty charges with interest in restitution? It is on an old credit card that I had with the dreaded HFC. They applied the charge, in the sum of around 2k, well just shy of that. The charge was added in 2006. The debt has been sold on as well. The way I am looking at this is the collection charge never formed any part of an agreement with them, added to the fact that the agreement is entirely unenforceable. All advice appreciated! Figgydoody.