I have been battling a claim with Bryan Carter on a Shop Direct account they state I opened in 2006 and defaulted on. I have no knowledge of the account. They have issued proceedings that I have defended, and also I have served a CCA s77/78 on them in between. Their only evidence is a blank unsigned reconstituted credit agreement date April 2006. So far they have offered no other information under CCA, only that their client will be in touch. This was 2 months ago. Since then the Court case has been allocated to a small claims hearing in Jan. I have returned a final defence, along the lines of the CCA, and stating the fact that its a blank recon credit agreement. The judge made an order that a final claim and defence be lodged last week to all parties, however I have not had their final claim/papers in the post and its now past the deadline the judge set. Although they have in fact paid the hearing fee ? My question is, should I now make the court aware that I have not received their final defence as was ordered by the Judge. Is there a process or protocol to do this ? I would have thought they are now in breach of the order prior to hearing going ahead. Any advice gratefully received. Thanks

My daughter agreed to take up their reduced telephone charges offer on the phone. She received the hub and paid the connection charges. Then six weeks later with a poor qualitity land line and no internet just promises to fix. She decided to return the equipment and rescind the contract. Now she has a bill for over£500 and seven days to pay. Surely this cannot be correct.

HI! I'm hoping someone can give me some advice. I joined Rush Fitness in Feb 2015. I signed a contract to pay £17.99 a month for a minimum of 1 month and could cancel at any time with 1 months notice. Rush Fitness DD is managed by the Harlands Group. In Sept 2015 a payment of £29.99 was taken as direct debit from my account, I tried contacting Harlands but every time I tried they were either closed or wouldn't answer the phone. I made contact with my bank who clawed the money back under the direct debit guarantee. I then received a letter from Harlands on 29th Sept which said: "we have today received an indemnity claim from your bank to refund the sum of £29.99. Consequently we write to clarify the situation. As you should be aware, you have entered into a membership agreement with Rush Fitness. At no time did we or Rush Fitness receive notice to cancel your agreement. The agreement also states that such payments are non refundable. We therefore ask that you request your bank to withdraw its claim immediately. Should you not withdraw the claim and rectify this breech of your agreement with 14 working days, you will incur a £25.00 administration charge and matter will be referred to a debt recovery company to pursue for the full amount and cost incurred. If you would like to discuss this matter please contact the Harlands Helpline. We trust this letter receives your urgent attention." I then responded via email with this: "Dear Sir/Madam, I am deeply disappointed and disgusted to read the content of your letter dated 29th September 2015, your reference XXXX. I have been a member of Rush Fitness for a period of time and throughout this period I have ensured regular payments to the sum of £17.99/month as agreed in the terms of my contract. However, I was shocked to find a sum of £29.99 had been deduced from my bank account instead of the £17.99 agreed. With reference to the contract and your statement "your direct debit payments are protected with a money back guarantee and you will receive 3 working days advance notice of any changes" - This holds you in breach of contract, as I have received no correspondence informing me of any increase in my membership fees. Not being able to make contact with yourselves due to your restricted opening hours, I had spoken to my bank who further confirmed that you were in breach of the direct debit agreement and therefore had made contact with you to recover the payment taken. Which as your statement also states above is protected by a money back guarantee. It appears my bank has recovered the full amount rather than the overcharged, I am happy to forward you £17.99 as per our agree in lieu of 1 months notice to terminate my membership as I no longer wish to be a member of Rush Fitness. My last day of membership will therefore be 23rd October 2015. I trust you will give this email your urgent attention and hope to hear from you soon. A disappointed customer, XXXXXX" They didn't respond so I sent them another to say - I would be grateful if you either promptly respond to my email or discuss my account with my father, who may be available to call you on my behalf. They responded to that no problem and there was an email trail so they've read the first. My father then spoke with them and they were unhelpful and basically dismissed what he said saying I have to pay all of it. Sorry this is so long!! Any advice on how to resolve this before it goes any further would be really helpful! N x

Hi all You guys have helped me immensely over the past few years to send packing a number of DCA's that were treating me as a cash cow and I'm immensely grateful. I now need some advice about how to deal with a number of debts belonging to my niece that she's been paying £5 or so per month for a number of years since she was a student. She's been paying a called Debt Managers LTD based in Rotherham the £5 by DD with no contact with them for quite a while. She seems to recall receiving a notice of assignment from Lowlife a while ago about it and her current bank statements shows the DD recipient as Debt Managers. She has had the standard offer letters from both Lowlife and this latest outfit and I've explained to her what this means. The original debt was a student credit card with Barclays. Now I always paid mine over the counter at a bank or post office via a payment book. I've told her I'll send them a CCA request and the follow-up letters if necessary to get them to go skulking back under their stone, but she's asked me when she should stop the DD. If they reply they're suspending collection until they get the info, can the DD be stopped then? Or does she have to wait until they back off and admit they can't collect? One of the other debts she has relates to a student loan taken out around the turn of the century. I've asked her to do a search on Noddle but I'd be grateful for some guidelines about when to stop the Direct Debits. She seems to have around half a dozen debts each of which she's paying at around a fiver per month like this. Thank you all

Hi I am at the stage of appealing to POPLA but need some advice. On the 14th August I received via post an invoice from Park direct issued 11th August. I have a newborn and he had been sick so I briefly parked in a residential car park and sat in the back seat to attend to him. I stayed in the car park for less than 5 mins and did not exit the vehicle. The invoice stated that I must pay £100 reduced to £60 if I paid within 14 days. I replied back on the 17th stating I should not pay this invoice as I did not enter any contract as I did not leave the vehicle and with a newborn why would I leave the car without him and I would not have had any time to read any signs. In doing so they maintain upon immediately entering the car park whether I have read the signs or not, I have entered into a contract with them. There are pictures taken of my vehicle which are less than 5 mins apart and at a bit of a distance. Park direct maintain the vehicle was empty and the photos prove this but I was in the car and bent over to attend to my son. I think they did a sneaky job and took photos where I was in the back seat leaning over him! This makes me so angry!! I also asked them to show me how the invoice for £100 was justifiable and how I was causing an inconvenience (all bays were empty at this point). They quoted Beavis vs parking eye and did not provide a breakdown which I had requested showing me any losses or how they arrived at that amount. I lastly asked to see the contract between the landlord and themselves which give authority that they can issue invoices and they refused on the ground they are under no legal obligation to do so. They did provide a POPLA appeal number which I asked for and also urged me to pay right away. I did return to the scene to check. The nearest sign to me was about 15 metres away although visible but was in the bushes. It is more of a warning sign but does not issue terms and conditions of parking, other than no stopping or waiting without a permit or you will be fined. I was always under the impression that private operators usually give more lengthy terms and conditions? The way the sign was situated, one could assume it was for the car park next to the one I was in as all the bays in the area I had parked in had a "V" painted on the bay, so is it right to assume this is a visitor bay? I want to appeal to POPLA as I don't think that this is right! How should I go about it? Any advice would be greatfully received.

Hi All, I've got a couple of PPI claims that were with Shop Direct of which the FOS has upheld my complaints Back in Jan, the FOS said they were not happy with the way Shop Direct have been handling the refunds (on a mass scale not just my accounts) and is now being discussed at a more senior level. However this does not currently help me, as one of the debt collection companies which shop direct sold an account to, has turned up TWICE to my address - both times I stood my ground and they went away.. Today the FOS have comeback to me and stated that SD are willing to do an interim Payment based on two options: 1. Shop direct would buy the debt back from Lowell and would deduct the PPI and interest paid and this would then decrease the debt. The interim payment would then be deducted from what you owed Lowell and if there was no more left to pay you would receive a cheque for the amount that what was left over. 2. You could have the interim payment issued to you but this would mean the full amount you owed including the PPI charges would still need to be paid to Lowell if you did not use the money for paying off the debt. Of course I've opted for Option 2, as I dont trust them. BUT option 2 did not read right with me also - it seems that the FOS are telling me that I must use the funds to pay off the DCA even though there is a MIS-SOLD debt which they already know about? Anyway - I was wondering as to how they should calculate the refund(s) as I have the following: Account 1: PPI Charges £450, Annual Account Interest 49.4% - charges taken between May 2009 & September 2011 Account 2: PPI Charges £100, Annual Account Interest 49.4% - charges taken between April 2010 & September 2011 I've tried filling out the Calculation sheet's found on this site and seem to get £3.5K compound interest for account 1 and £800 for the other. Is that right? FOS also gave me the impression that its Charges + APR + 8%?

Hi, I need some advice about an insurance claim via Hastings Direct. My sister was involved in an accident in the middle of November. She was waiting at a roundabout on the left lane when an adjacent truck in the right lane pulled across her stationary car damaging the driver side door, wing mirror front wing and pulling the bumper off. They third party are disputing the claim which is annoying, as all my sister did was sit in her car on the left lane while the other driver pulled across her car. Hastings Direct repairers have said the car is a Cat C as it has suspension damage, though from the pictures the damage seems minor. My sisters car is a 12 year old Peugeot she has had from new. She has serviced and maintained the car at a main dealer throughout its life and car was in excellent pre-accident condition. My sister has put me on the Hastings Direct file as the contact to deal with the claim, as she is currently going through an adoption process abroad and she is not in the right frame of mind to deal with the stress of this claim and to boot she now abroad going through the process to adopt a baby. Hastings Direct initially took the car after the accident by telling my sister they wanted to take the car in to be inspected for evidence to back up her claim, my sister agreed on this basis for the car to be collected. She subsequently was sent a letter saying the car was a total write off and to send in her documents, spare key and service history, plus to remove her personal number plate. This when she asked me to deal with the claim. I called Hastings Direct to ask about the letter and said why are they asking for these documents when they have not even offered her a figure for her car. I also said we wanted the option to buy the car back at the salvage value as we might be able to repair it mechanically and leave the cosmetic damage, as my sister he not have enough money to buy a replacement at current time due to adoption process she was going through. The customer representative said it was in the policy document that they do not sell cars back as salvage to customers. I said we would not be sending the documents back until we had a figure for the value of her car, he said fair enough and that we can keep the documents until the Engineers come back with a figure. My sister was sent a letter a couple of weeks ago offering £1725 for her car. I called up Hastings Direct and said this figure was not acceptable and also mentioned that I had read the policy document and could find nowhere within the document about not selling the car back at the salvage value to the customer. The customer representative said oh, it’s not in the policy document, it’s just their internal policy not to sell cars back to the customer. This contradicts what the first customer representative said! They gave me the email address for the company dealing with the valuation and to send in three adverts with cars in similar condition at a higher price. My sister bought the car from a main dealer brand new and has serviced the car at a dealership. She is not the person that can buy privately or through some small garage as she does not have the experience. I called a couple of Peugeot dealers to get the retail value of the car, they said they wouldn’t normally sell of this age, but the retail value of the car if they were to sell one would be between £3000 and £3500. I emailed the valuation company with this information. They called me to discuss the claim and agreed that the retails value of the car is £3300, however the values are set by Hastings Direct valuers, which places the maximum value on the car at £1725 which is based on a trade guide. The valuer said he would contact Hastings Direct to speak to them. It was a couple of weeks since the call and my sister has since gone abroad to start the adoption process, so I called Hastings Direct last Friday; after being put through to two wrong departments, I finally got through to the correct team. The total loss team said that the values are based on the trade values buying a car privately and not from a dealer as they give warranties on cars and prices will be higher. I said my sister would not be able to buy a car privately based on the figure offered and she would not be sure what she would get, hence the reason for wanting to buy a car from a dealer. The representative suggested we could do a HPI check would give us some cover! The representative said they could put the case through to another independent team who would consider the value based on the current market and get back to me, but this will take 7 to 14 days. I said this would be ok as it my sister is only due back in December if all goes well. After this I asked to put through to the team dealing with the claim so that I could check on progress. The claims team said they are stilling waiting on details from the third party in regards to their damage and in these type of cases it may go to split liability. I said this is really unfair considering my sisters car was hit while stationary and the damage to her vehicle and the position on the road should clearly indicate who is at fault. If it is split liability, then with a £500 excess, this would leave my sister £1225 to buy a replacement car which really isn’t enough to replace her low mileage one owner car. Is it normally the trade values that an insurance company offers for a car? When my partners car was written off about 8 years ago the insurance company offered the retail value of the car. Can we buy the car back at salvage? If I can repair the suspension damage and make the car safe, then my sister can live with the cosmetic damage. This will give my sister a reliable car she knows the history of, until she has money to replace it. What pressure can I apply to Hastings Direct to pursue the claim rather than possibly settle for split liability. It should be quite clear from the evidence of the damage to the vehicles to see who hit who. I would like to add Hastings Direct on the phone have been very friendly and nice, unfortunately they have not been able to supply the answers that would be acceptable. This whole affair has made me realise that it pays to research the company when buying car insurance, my sister chose Hastings Direct because she thought she would be safe with a big name company. Thanks in advance for help/advice Brian

hi all furious with dial direct, missed a car insurance payment of £30 on 19th, they charged me £25 late fee on Monday, So went online to pay DD for car with other card, now my bank tells me that the payment that pending actually includes another £25, I have a email to confirm this....But the girl in call centre insists that it hasn't be charged twice.... I want now to request refund of all fees applied, is there a template letter I can use so angry

Hi Everyone, I had a debt management plan about 10 years ago, which is long since pretty much paid off / written off etc aside from two things which I would like to ask advice on. Firstly, I pay Collect Direct £45.00 a month on a standing order. I no longer have any idea what it is for but believe it may have been for an Egg credit card I have received no correspondence whatsoever from Collect Direct for about 8 years and I have no idea how to contact them or find out how much I may still owe. Nor do I really want to open that can of worms really as life has moved on. I would ideally like to stop paying them because I feel I could continue paying £45.00 forever and I don't know how much I really may owe. Is it advisable to stop paying them or just continue? If I stop paying them, what might the implications be? Secondly, I also have a CCJ from Tesco finance. This was a CCJ given in 2005 and no longer shows on my credit file. I pay £57.00 a month and at that rate it will take me longer than my entire working life to pay back what the debt was. Again my question is, what would the implications be of failing to pay a CCJ or should I just carry on. I could never afford to pay off the full amount. Is there anything else that I could do to try and get rid of this noose? Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Good Evening I am sure I have not posted about this actual debt before so wont get told off. I received a claim form from the court on 10th Feb from Lowell portfolio which I replied to and defended sayind I had asked for a cca and a sar which I had not received a reply to I have now today received a notice of proposed allocation to small claims track now I believe I just fill this in saying I case be referred to small claims mediation service what worries me is I did this with the form I received for a different debt next thinh I know the judge awarded for the claimant don't want to be in that situation again should I just go ahead fill this form in and wait or should I be writing to someone else MANY THANKS

I have a query in relation to my AMEX corporate card. This is a charge card and is fully cleared once a month by a direct debit from my personal bank account. American express are withdrawing these funds on the correct day. However, my statements and online account always report that the payment has been made a whole month beforehand. This means that my online balance is almost always wrong and the statements are not a factual record of the account. Is this even legal?? Here is their "explanation" for why this is happening: This hasn't cause any problems up until recently, but then I was surprised by a very large payment which was marked received on my September statemen t and I had removed from my budget planner. Fortunately, it went through without any charges but it could have really messed my finances up. Overall, this seems pretty dodgy and their explanation is flaky! Would greatly appreciate any advice about my options. Thanks, J

Hi, I had a loan for around £12500 with Direct Line around ten years ago, I have sent a PPI claim off to RBS who are saying I need to contact Direct Line for the account number for the loan as the have no record of this. I have contacted various different numbers for Direct Line but as they no longer do loans this is proving a very difficult exercise to get the answer that I want. Does any have any ideas as to where I can turn to obtain this information from Direct Line as it would be most appreciated.

I bought a samsung tv from Tesco Direct 22 months ago. This tv has developed a fault..i rang Samsung but they told me to ring Tesco. On doing so i asked for a out of warranty form and told them the problem. They said they would get it mended but if it couldnt be repaired give me a refund. they then got in touch and said they were not going to repair it and offered my £165. The tv cost nearly £600. I said i was not happy with this but they will not back down from the £165. could any one please advice me or do a template letter to send to them. thanks

Hi We are currently based in Spain and do not have all our bank statements, a Company from Swansea called Claims Line Direct Ltd has called us (we have a uk phone number here) and asked for 495 gbp which they guarantee to return whether they are successful on our behalf. They claim we have approx 3500 gbp to come back but cannot guarantee that figure. Does anybody know of this Company ?

Hi guys, I was hoping to get some advice on what to do about multiple parking tickets from Park Direct UK. I was working on the site for what I believed to be the landlord and somewhat naively thought that putting a note in my windscreen would be sufficient to avoid receiving a ticket. After day 1, I didn't get a ticket on my windscreen so I assumed (again, naively) that everything was hunky dory so I parked there for the next 2 days of the job. I got the call from my office to say that I had received 3 parking tickets and as it was a company van, I needed to either pay or appeal. I also later found out that I wasn't working for the landlord and that where I was working had no links to that car park. Now, if I'd have just received a ticket on my windscreen, I'd have been tempted to pay it to get rid of them but the fact they posted the tickets didn't give me the chance to do that so now, with £180 worth of tickets, I'm looking to appeal but I don't really know where to start. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The bailiff regulations (that came into force on 6th April 2014) provide a simplified fee scale that is the same for arrears of council tax, non domestic rates, local authority issued penalty charge notices and Magistrate court fines. How much are the bailiff fees? Compliance Fee: £75 This fee is added to the debt as soon as the account is passed to the enforcement company by either the local authority or the magistrate court and will appear on the Notice of Enforcement. The ‘amount oustanding’ will therefore include the Compliance fee of £75. Enforcement Fee: £235 (plus 7.5% on amounts exceeding £1,500) If full payment or a payment arrangement is not agreed during the ‘compliance stage’ the debt is passed to an individual bailiff/enforcement agent. When he makes a personal visit to the property, an ‘enforcement fee’ of £235 also becomes payable. How is the ‘amount outstanding’ calculated? The new regulations state clearly that the ‘amount outstanding’ includes the amount of the debt from the local authority or the Magistrate Court and the enforcement agent fees (and costs) calculated up until the dtae of payment. Making a payment arrangement. After the debt has been passed to the enforcement agency, a Notice of Enforcement will be sent and the ‘amount oustanding’ will include the Compliance fee of £75. The letter (NoE) must state a date and time by which payment (or a payment arrangement) can be set up. This is referred to as the ‘compliance stage’. All companies should be willing to accept a sensible payment arrangement during the ‘compliance stage’ and in most cases; will accept a payment plan over a period of 3 months and in some cases, 6 months. It is worthwhile providing a simple Income & Expenditure with the payment proposal. Due to the strict time frame, payment proposals should be set up either over the phone or by email to the enforcement company. It is at the 'compliance stage' that any 'vulnerable' circumstances should be brought to the attention of the enforcement company and evidence provided. Payments made will be split on a ‘pro rata’ basis. As outlined above, once the debt has been passed to an enforcement agent, the ‘amount outstanding’ includes bailiff fees. Of significance is the fact that the regulations state that when a payment is made, it must be split on a ‘pro rata’ basis with the Compliance fee of £75 being deducted first, and the balance split between the debt to the either the local authority or the Magistrate Court (in respect of court fines) and the remaining bailiff fees. Making payment direct to the council or the Magistrate Court. As outlined above, once the debt has been passed to the enforcement agency, the ‘amount outstanding’ includes bailiff fees. Following a Notice of Enforcement or a personal visit, some debtors may decide to pay the council or the magistrate court direct in the belief that in doing so, they can avoid paying bailiff fees. In the very early days of the regulations (April 2014) this method of trying to avoid bailiff fees may have worked but now, very rarely (if ever) succeeds. Generally, the local authority will immediately advise the enforcement company that a payment has been received by them, and the enforcement agency will allocate that payment in line with the following example: Example of how payments are allocated: Liability Order/Magistrates Court fine issued for: £525. Notice of Enforcement sent and with Compliance fee of £75 added, the ‘amount outstanding’ increases to: £600 If full payment or a payment arrangement is not set up during the ‘compliance stage’ the account is referred to the enforcement agent/bailiff for a personal visit to the property. An Enforcement Fee of £235 is added and the ‘amount outstanding’ increases to: £835 Payment is made direct to the local authority/magistrates court of £525 (being the amount of the Liability Order /or court fine). The Compliance stage fee of £75 is deducted at source and the balance of £450 is split on a ‘pro rata’ basis with approximately 70% being allocated towards reducing the debt to the creditor (ie: the local authority or magistrates court) and the remaining 30% allocated towards reducing the bailiff fees. Can the bailiff take enforcement action to recover 'his fees'? As outlined above, once a warrant has been passed to the enforcement agency, bailiff fees becomes legally due and the ‘amount outstanding’ includes bailiff fees. The enforcement regulations have made it a statutory requirement that all payments should be split on a ‘pro rata’ basis. Accordingly, unless the ‘amount outstanding’ (which includes bailiff fees) is paid in full, the warrant has only been part satisfied and enforcement action can legally continue. It needs to be made clear that paying the local authority or the magistrate court direct does not mean that the warrant has been satisfied. All that it means, is that a part payment has been made against the amount outstanding. It is as simple as that. Note: It is important to be aware that with magistrate court fines, if payment is made to the Magistrate Court (either in person or online) after a warrant of control has been issued, all courts now forward the entire payment to the relevant enforcement company so that the enforcement company (and not the court) can deduct their fees in accordance with the ‘pro rata’ provisions as outlined above and allocate the balance towards the court fine. Setting up a payment arrangement and whether you can pay the court or the council direct -------.pdf Before Printing the PDF TIP If you DO NOT wish to print Page 1 (Cover Page) of the PDF, please ensure to do the following: Ensure you go to your Printer Settings and set it to 'Print from Page 2' (this way Page 1 (Cover Page) should not print out). Note: This will save you Ink & Paper

Hello everyone, About 2 days ago someone pulled out of a junction and I had to swerve hitting all the left hand side of my front bumper, smashing the headlight, bending the wing, damaging the inner arch. Does anyone think this will be a write off without even looking at it as i've heard they tend to write cars off for less damage than my car has. So I have rang Hastings Direct and so far they have found out everything they need to know like who's fault it was etc. I've heard of other people having problems trying to buy the car back? and them trying to get your documents for the car if it is a write off? All I have seen is bad reviews. This is a Corsa C 2006. I just don't want to have any problems. I paid £2000 for this car 6 months ago and I would like to buy the car back as salvage but can anyone give me some advice on what might happen? Many thanks

Hi all could do with some advise please, I am being harassed by Bristow & Sutor, they have 3 liability orders for outstanding council tax ranging from £29 to current year £910. I have ignored all contact from Bristow & Sutor, but I did make an arrangement with the council last month. they passed the details of this arrangement to Bristow & Sutor, who emailed me acknowledging this arrangement. I have kept to the arrangement and make payments due as arranged, but I paid directly onto councils online payments. now I am getting emails and letters from Bristow & sutor, telling me that if I do not pay them direct, they will continue their enforcement action. any advise please? Mick

Anyone else bneen plagued by this company so far this week i have had 8 calls 2 a day from this company and last week the same , i have asked them to stop but they consisitently say we didnt csll you , so i need to take it to the next step but i cannot find a adrress for them ( i think they are A PPI claims company any ideasi have a number 0203 6211496 if that helps

I have been informed by the DWP that they are thinking of a DEA for overpayment of Income support from 1992. I had replied to this some time ago stating statute barred etc. I know that the DWP cannot take me to court because of this and also that they can recover from future benefits. My question is this, a DEA according to the Welfare Reform Act 2012 lists specific benefits to which it applies namely universal credit, jobseekers allowance, employment and support allowance, and except in prescribed circumstances, housing credit (within the meaning of the State Pension Credit A) The recovery they seek is for Income support which is not listed, can they still apply the DEA as I believe they can't.

Hi Everyone I'm currently trying to get all of my finances sorted out had a few catalogues which resulted in me building up late payment fees. Sorry if I'm really dim but looking at the debts on my credit file I see that I've been charged almost £300.00 in late payment fees alone. I'm not trying to dodge these but trying to understand should I be paying these or should it only be the default balance itself that was passed to debt collection agencies? Thanks Matt

When I took out my mobile phone contract with Vodafone 15 months ago I was automatically signed up to a months free insurance for £6.99 although I had to give my bank details. I decided to continue with the insurance after a month as I was conscious if anything went wrong a new i phone would be expensive. My phone suffered water damage so I put in a claim 2 weeks ago. I was asked to pay the £50 excess and send the phone for repair which cost another £7 for postage. I received the phone back after 5 days expecting it to be back to normal. The reality was that the phone was in exactly the same condition i.e. I was still unable to make or receive calls or texts. I called Citymain Administrators to explain what had happened to be told that I would have to send it back again so they could have another look at it. I am very annoyed as I feel that they are just trying to get out of replacing the phone. The initial process I was asked to follow although I was without a phone for a week was acceptable. This is now ridiculous as I have to spend another hour wiping the data off the phone (as requested by them) and then reloading it when the phone comes back. I have looked at the contract that was emailed to me when I had the first month and it is just a brief overview it says that you have to look on the reverse for the full details of the contract. Of course I cant do that as it's an email. This feels like just another example of a mobile phone company taking money off you for a service that is useless and very time consuming.

Hi all, This morning I discovered that Shop Direct having been putting defaults onto my credit file every month since 2013! This is for a debt that was sold to Lowells in 2012. Subsequently, Lowells agreed that they would take no action against me and the debt was cancelled due to having no proof that I ever had a credit account with Shop Direct. Can I get shop direct to remove/stop the defaults. They have not contacted me for payment since before they sold the debt to Lowells. I hadn't checked my credit files for so long because I haven't applied for any credit since 2011 due to being at university. My credit file is otherwise spotless! Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I signed up online to a mail order catalogue (very) a year or so ago. Last November i had to take time off due to having a major operation. The only income i was getting was statutory sick pay. As my income decreased considerably i was unable unable to make certain payments and the catalogue was one of them. I contacted the company explaining my situation and asking them to cease all interest and charges until I was back in employment. I was told they would not do this unless i filled in a i+e form and also got a letter from the CAB. I did not send them either of what they asked for as i was hoping to restart payment within a few months when i restarted work. to cut a long story short i had to take more time off work than expected and quite a few payments were missed. originally the amount of goods came to around £750 but after interest put on the goods and constant charges for missed payments, admin charges etc the debt amounted to around £995. Now the catalogue company seems to have sold the debt onto Lowell as i received a letter from them this morning. I do not deny the debt as i was willing to pay it but i do not agree with all the charges they have put onto the sum i originally owed. I am guessing i now have to correspond with Lowell but am unsure what i should be putting in a letter to them, any help or advice what i should do now or put in a letter would be greatly appreciated. thank you

Dear All, My wife was this afternoon involved in a clearly non fault accident (third party reversed into front wing and door of her car while it was parked - she was not even in the car). The third party has admitted liability verbally. The damage is wing minor dent (would need to be replaced though) and door minor dent (might be repairable with a skim of filler and respray). We rang our insurance company (Hastings Direct) this evening, their immediate response was to pass us on to a claims management company (Albany Assist), Albany Assit immediately rejected the claim saying the car would be a write off. We spoke to Hastings again and they said that due to the age of the car (05 plate - pre accident value £3k to £3.5k) and "government / VOSA guidelines" (I can find no such thing) the car would be a write off if we used their approved repairer. They then went on to say that we could go to a repairer of our choice get a quote then depending on what Hasting's inspector says they 'may' payout for the repair and claim back from the third party. But we would have to pay the excess and they migh be able to claim it back. Hastings also suggested that we contacted the third party and sort it out ourselves! To me the whole situation feels like they cannot in anyway be bothered and is little better than Third Party only insurance. I have read various post regarding Hastings and Albany and between them they sound like total [problem] merchants, only interested in credit hire and commission. I do not consider that Hastings are providing the service you would expect of fully comprehensive cover and instead are doing everything possible to avoid getting involved, they have not and at this stage will not even contact the third party's insurer. Has anyone else dealt with this situation? To make matters worse the car has a car finance loan secured against it and if the car is written off the payout will likely be less than the outstanding finance leaving us severely out of pocket though no fault of our own and in fact from Hastings' inaction and refusal to represent the insured parties interests. Thanks