This is an updated sticky the original started by bookworm can be found HERE The Family Fund - grants for disabled children

My friend's mother and brother received two tickets on the same day for parking in his private car park. They were delivering items to help him move in. They parked on a single yellow line within the private car park, not in allocated spaces. The car park belongs to the residents including my friend. Rather than respond directly, the tickets have been dealt with by my fried who has written to them to say that they had his permission and were only making a delivery. They seem to treat this as appeals made by his mother and brother and keep writing back, each time with a more discounted amount to pay. It has gone from £160 per ticket down to £15 each. Should my friend pay this? Failure to pay up, they say, will result in the demand going back to £160 and possible court claim. Thoughts

I hope I am posting in this correct area. I will be as brief as possible (Fail). My Fiancee and I are looking to move her and her two kids to the US. Each kid has a different Father. One Father is in agreement with his son relocating, the other is not. So, we have submitted to the court to get approved to move to the US. My issue concerns this Court Bundle. So, I think I understand it for the most part, but where I am confused is that our case really is dependent on proving how her son will have a better life in the US then he currently has in the UK....The bundle seems to emphasize "chronology", but how do I put in chronological order events which have not yet happened. Yes, there are some events which have already happened (her x was abusive, so we have support showing what happened in this regards)... I want to support my case fully, and I have prepared documents showing how I will be able to financially support her son, information about my family, information about the area I live, insurance I get through work which will cover his health, dental, and vision, and many other things (character letters from my family). The way I had it organized before I came across these court bundles, was simply by section...So I had one section for financial support, and I put together a summary, and then included items which would support the position I am taking that I can financially care for my new family. Basically it is confusing to me because I want to organize the bundle properly, but based on what I am trying to use as "evidence" and support for my position in this case, it almost seems impossible to adhere to the requirements of the Bundle Preparation. I am also having trouble with how much support to include. When I read other sites, I see some which say to try and be brief because the judge has only so much time, but then I see others which say to be comprehensive. So, for example, in trying to show that the schools where I am are great, I have included course curriculums and lesson plan examples, so the judge can get an idea of what topics will be covered by our education system. The total amount of pages for this section was 90. I don't know whether to try and just summarize everything in my own words, or to include everything. Or do I include just a few examples. I then wanted to also submit proof showing how much I made, including the amounts posting to my bank (as evidence), but it seems like you are not allowed to include this type of stuff in the bundle. I don't want to have an underwhelming case by trying to be too succint, but I also don't want to waste the court's time and resources. Any advice on these court bundles, or examples of them, or guidance that goes beyond what I am finding when I try and search for help on the internet, would be greatly appreciated.

Hi All, We had booked with my wife on Wednesday night a taxi to drive us from Putney to Southend airport on Thursday morning. My wife said on the phone that we had a plane to catch at 11:15 and that we wanted to have plenty of time (because we are travelling with a little 8 months old baby) so we asked to be there at 10am for safety. The taxi company told us to be ready at 8am, the fare would be 75£ The driver picked us on time and got stuck in a lot of traffic in london area At some point we asked him if his GPS was right, stating that we would approximatively be at the airport around 11am He said in an unclear manner that it was impossible to do this drive in 2hours time in the morning, that the taxi company must have got it wrong,that usually it costs more than 75£ for such a drive so we get what we are paying for ???? And finally that he is not the one to schedule pickup times After discovering that we would miss our flight and there was no other flights that day in Southend we had to tell him to stop and told him to stop us by Liverpool street instead to take a train to Standsted airport to catch another plane He did the change, charged us 20£ for the drive (cancelling the 75£ for the initial drive which never happened) and we booked new plane tickets for the family Result: one holliday lost + 340£ for the new tickets I have tried to call the taxi company many times these last days, they always say that the manager will call me back but he never does...I guess they just think I will firget about it but we feel we have lost a lot of money unfairly. We don't drive in London and have no idea of the time it takes to go to Southend airport,why did the company which makes a business out of these airport drives didn't tell us to leave earlier ?? Another strange thing: when I first called the company to say there was a problem , they said that the pickup time on their system was 7:10 am which would have been fine ! Do you think I can claim for a compensation or bring the case to court? Thanks for the help! ; ) Jerome

hi all , just a quick question , i have finance with a company called http://www.familyvision.ltd.uk/contact_us.html , i have a tv and an xbox one with them , i have told them after falling out with them , i want one of the products sent bk , i got a tv at first , then an xbox last xmas for my son , i told them i want to send the tv back and still pay for the xbox , but they have told me no u cant we will have to have both items back , i said its not possible , apparently a managers coming round on tuesday to discuss this , as i will be held for a liability order , i have never missed a payment in the yr i have been with them either , i ended up speaking to the director of the company a mr black apparently , who was totally arrogant , had a complete cocky attitude and couldnt disrespect me enough on the phone , but my question is , if they took 1 half of the items back and they didnt have the other what can they do ? after all i have offered to keep paying the xbox , but they are refusing it , im cancelling my standing order with them as we speak , i would just like to know where i stand , if they come round take the tv and cant take the xbox as its with my son in another part of the uk . .. thanx in advance

Hi all I signed my girlfriend up to Noddle a few months back to check her credit rating. She had previously explained that she found a letter from a company a year ago and her mum admitted to taking out the account without her permission. They both phoned the company and they agreed a payment plan and that they would send letters to move the account into her mums name. They sent the signed letters back to the company and assumed it had been sorted. Unfortunately the company didn't transfer the account to her mums name and it was still in her name. We immediately spoke to her mum who agreed to pay the final amount, we also reported this to the police and spoke to the company who have agreed to remove this from the credit file. There is also a second entry for a defaulted account in 2010. My girlfriends mum denies she has anything to do with this but the company has read out call logs that prove it is her. She talks about missing payment due to a specific health condition that we know she has. we now want to try and get this removed from my girlfriends credit file but we have hit a stumbling block. First of all we reported it to the police and spoke to the company and they refused to remove it due to it being a civil issue. We have also signed up to Equifax and reported it through them and received the same response. The default is now paid but we want to try and correct the credit file entry. My girlfriends mum has previous doing this sort of thing and is currently giving £170 a month to her other daughter for a loan she fraudulently took out in her name. This has been a tough decision to get the police involved but ultimately it has to stop and we don't want this to affect our future. My girlfriend currently lives with her mum, who is terminally ill, and although moving out is the best option she is keen to stay in the house to help her mum & dad through this illness. Due to her getting a lot worse in the last few months we are confident there won't be any further cases but we will be keeping an eye on her credit file to ensure so. Do you think we can get this entry removed and if so what is the best course of action? Thanks

Hi folks can you advise please, If you are on bail you do not have any restrictions on your bail terms, someone calls the police says you have breached your bail conditions, you are arrested locked up for the night, the police did not bother to check the bail conditions, appear in court the next day to be told by the sheriff that this should not have happened there are no restrictions on your bail terms. What if any redress do you have? for instance can you use the freedom of information act to find out who made the call to the police? we think this is a deliberate act to make this person look bad the court hearing is due next week, can this be mentioned in court as both parties are to appear, or is it not worth mentioning. This will take place in the Scottish courts I believe the law is different from English courts, thanks for any comments.

We bought the house on a mortgage as Joint Tennants. My husband received a CCJ that was secured by a charge on his share of the property, which I understand changed the ownership to Tennants in Common. The CCJ was paid in full and the charge has been removed from the property, we have all the documents confirming this. Will ownership now have reverted back to Joint tennants or is there something we need to do to make it so. Grateful for any advice and guidance on this one.

Police called to home of Jan and Julia Tshabalala on Christmas morning Relative and neighbour discovered couple's bodies in West Sussex house Their two children, who had disabilities, were not at home at the time Hours earlier the children had Christmas dinner with their parents Thought that the couple were found dead after an apparent suicide pact http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887735/Husband-wife-two-young-children-died-Christmas-morning-suicide-pact-deep-financial-trouble.html

I am worried about some debts that i struggled with after a relationship split. My ex ran up the debts in my name and then left, leaving me to sell up and move to avoid losing my home. I couldnt pay some CC's and i left to live overseas. I have now returned and found out that in my absence my family members were traced by DCA's and subjected to constant harassment. My sister had a solicitor write to them to say the debt wasnt hers. I used her address for mail briefly after i moved overseas. She now says that she was taken to court for information on me?? this doesnt make sense as i thought they could not contact a 3rd party in this way? The debts are now 6yrs old but i am worried. I am not working and have been ill for a number of years, I am struggling to make ends meet as it is and cannot afford to pay these debts. Any advice is appreciated. thank you.

Hi, Sorry if i'm posting this in the wrong section, i'm not even sure that it is something that people may be able to help with. Anyway, i won't go into full details, but a family member is owed a large (six figure) amount of money mainly due to unwise business decisions and also being, well conned is probably the correct word to use. So if it is something that someone may have some good advice on recovering the debt i will post the whole story so people may be able to help. P.S. Not trying to portray a sob story but the person concerned is in their eighties and could possibly be made homeless quiet soon due to this situation. Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated.

Hi, Firstly I will explain my situation. I am a British national and am in a relationship with a Brazilian national. After much thinking about a way to be together in the UK, we have decided that the only way is to marry, and then for him to get a Family Visitor Visa, and from there apply for a Family of a Settled Person Visa. This will allow him to live and work in the UK as a normal citizen. We know that it is strictly illegal to work with a Family Visitor Visa. Here's where the confusion starts - when applying for the Family of a Settled Person Visa, he will have to provide evidence of a job in the UK and earnings of £18,000 or so each year. But all I keep thinking is, "How can he provide this if it's illegal for him to work here BEFORE he gets this Visa???" He is not allowed to work but yet he has to give evidence of work and earnings in order to get the Visa that will let him work. I am so confused right now. Completely illogical. Please can someone help? Thanks, Lauren

a female friend is on a six month visitors visa from Ghana.she has been here in uk for the passed 2 years by re-newing visitors visas to put her british passport holding 2 year old child in pre school etc. The husband of ten years is a British passport holder and was born in U.K.but lives and works abroad. Now she is in the U.K on another 6 months visitors visa.can she switch to another visa allowing her more permanent stay?maybe by a family of a settled persons visa in this case would her 2 year old british passport holding child who she is here in U.K with qualify as the settled person??. The british husband may not qualify to get anything other than a visitors visa for her due to his £13k per annum wage restriction. any advise or input will be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I am not sure this is in the right place, I hope someone can help, I arranged in Feb 13 to take my autistic son on a Family Holiday in September, this was authorised in writing by the school (signed by headmaster), he is due to be off for 10 days. On the school website it still states that up to 10 days may be authorised for holidays in term time. Now, i receive an email from the school (My sons teacher) 2 days before the school closes for summer advising that " I spoke to Ms Harris in Student Services. Ms Harris confirmed that all term holiday concessions on discretion of schools have been withdrawn by the Government. If a parent therefore takes a student on holiday during term time, there will be a fine of £60 to one or both parents." Can the school go back on a letter that has authorised the holiday? Can the school at this short notice (knowing full well the holiday has been booked and payed for) basically cancel the holiday for my son who is autistic and is really looking forward to it? Would i have a leg to stand on, if i take him away with us and argue the fine when he returns? Obviously being autistic he needs the stability and routine which the school are trying to change, he has been planning "his" holiday since he first found out he was going, even trying to improve his schooling so he could go. Before anyone has a go about taking him out of school in term time, it is the ONLY time we can afford any kind of holiday and he doesn't live with us, we live a couple of hundred miles away from him and only get to see him a few times a year, so understandably he loves anytime he gets to see us.

Details of our complaint with HSBC are explained below; HSBS COLLECTIONS DEPT ARE CALLING UP TO 7 TIMES A DAY FOR PAYMENT. SHE IS 8 MONTHS PREGNANT, IN A WHEELCHAIR AND CRUTCHES. CONSTANTLY IN PAIN. WHEN RESTING IS CONSTANTLY BEING DISTURB BY HSBC BABARDMENT OF CALLS. MY SON ILL WITH WORRY EFFECTED HIS CREDIT RATING I AM DESPERATE I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT TO HELP IT’S A LIVING NIGHTMARE. PLEASE IF THERE IS A SOLICITOR OUT THEIR CAN YOU HELP US. My daughter in law, has had a current account with HSBC for 20yrs. She took out a loan from HSBC 5yrs ago and was repaying the loan at a rate of £260.31 per month; the loan is due to finish September 2016. She has not missed one payment whilst paying back the loan over the last 5yrs. MARCH 2013 I suggested she try and reduce her loan repayments, and at the same time perhaps she could release some more money by re-structuring the original loan and she would be able to perhaps gain a better interest rate. APRIL 2013 She was made redundant from her job. She immediately rang up HSBC in April and asked them for advice through their Finance Department as she knew she would have difficulty paying her loan repayment of £260 31 in May without going over her agreed overdraft limit. She informed them she would be able to continue with the repayments the following month in June as per usual as she had already found new employment (she is a Paramedic) however, there would be two weeks during which she would be without employment and therefore earnings. The result of this was that she would be missing ONE Month DD payment in May with agreement. She specifically asked if this would affect her credit rating and was assured that up to 7 payments could be missed or deferred before any action would be taken. At no point during the conversation was she advised that this would be registered as a default on her credit rating file. In the meantime, to reduce payments she stated to the financial team that she would stop using her credit card but she also stated that she did not wish to cancel the card. HSBC informed her “that was absolutely fine” and the May payment could be paid back at the end of the loan time or earlier if she were able to. HSBC did in fact take the May payment from her account but immediately refunded the payment into her current account. She was then expecting the loan payment to be taken from her account in June as normal, as agreed in the telephone conversation to HSBC in April. Loan payments continued to be paid as normal and as agreed. AUGUST 2013 She an her partner made an evening appointment with the local HSBC customer service manager in Solihull during the week commencing 12th August, now knowing that they were expecting a baby and sensibly planning ahead for the additional financial pressure this would put them under. They asked the customer service representative, if they could re-structure the loan, hoping to be able to get a better interest rate and another loan. He took some details, and started the process of entering information, saying that he was hopeful she could consolidate the loan with her credit card, borrow some more money to help with the baby and still reduce her monthly payments. The application was refused, much to everyone’s surprise, so he investigated why that should be. It transpired that HSBC had without consent or any contact with her cancelled the direct debits paying back her HSBC gold credit card. As a result of this there was a note on the file cancelling the credit card and registering a default. At no time was she informed that the DD payments had NOT been taken from her account. She at no time received any correspondence from HSBC informing her that she was behind with the repayments of the Credit Card. The Customer service manager telephoned Head Office to find out why the Direct Debits had not been taken from her account. He also tried to contact the assessing agency to see if they would change their mind, pointing out that she had been a loyal customer since December 1993, and had never, in all that time, defaulted on any payment. As it was now around 5.30 pm in the evening, head office informed him that it would be looked into immediately the next morning and they would telephone first thing the following day, but for now they could progress no further. She was totally unaware that the JUNE, JULY and now AUGUST Direct Debit had NOT been taken from her current account until this appointment with the local HSBC Branch. The HSBC customer service manager informed her that “had it not been for the Direct Debit mistake there would not have been a problem for her obtaining further credit.” The following morning HSBC head office listened to the tape of the telephone conversation which she had made in April. As agreed, the customer services manager telephoned her to advise her as to the results of the investigation. The Customer Services Manager stated the following: The telephone conversation confirmed that she was not advised about the default. The telephone conversation confirmed that she was not advised that the direct debits would be stopped on her credit card. The policy of the bank was to automatically cancel all direct debits associated with borrowing through the bank (loans, credit cards) but again she had not been advised of this. The member of staff she spoke to had been “spoken to” and would undergo retraining. Payment of £142.00, the amount accrued by the bank cancelling the DD would be taken from her current account on 2nd September. HSBC person apologised for the error but stated that they could not “undo” the effect their error had had on her credit status. Later that week she returned home to find a letter from HSBC dated after her meeting with Customer services manager Solihull branch informing her that her credit card was in arrears and would be cancelled if she didn’t make a payment. This was a direct contradiction of the information that the Solihull Branch had found on her file, which showed that the account had already been closed. This is a further example of the mis-management of Paula’s account. 2nd September 2013 The direct debit was NOT reinstated, and the credit card payment was not taken despite having been promised as resolved by the customer services manager. She had to make a manual payment to rectify this. 5th September 2013 She noticed that the loan repayment had not been taken from her account either, for the first time. She had not asked for this to be cancelled, delayed, deferred or anything else. At this point she was under immense stress, upset, and had a complete lack of faith in HSBC and its staff. 21st September 2013 She and her partner made another appointment with Solihull HSBC branch Manager, to discuss the effect this had had on them, and requesting her help. The stress of the catalogue of errors was by this point causing her to suffer blood pressure problems which are especially dangerous in pregnancy. She explained that the DD had still not been taken from her account for the HSBC Credit Card and in addition HSBC had cancelled the Direct Debit for the LOAN without informing my daughter in law Ms Bond agreed immediately to refund any late payment charges she had incurred as she agreed that the defaults were not her fault. However, the default would still remain on her credit file. Ms Bond informed them that Branch Managers do not have any authority to remove defaults from credit files, and despite previous requests with two employers at HSBC head office to have the default removed not one individual within HSBC company says that they have the authority to do so. Ms Bond stated she wanted to further investigate and although she would be going on holiday she would make sure that daughter in law would be contacted personally by herself on the Wednesday and after that her colleague would deal with it. Ms Bond contacted her on the Thursday and stated that she could confirm everything she had told her – however, a loan default would permanently stay on her file with regard to the agreed deferment because in actual fact their policy is that you cannot defer payments and settle the loan a month later than agreed. Again, a direct contradiction of what Paula was told originally. While they were with her, Ms Bond initiated a new standing order mandate for the personal loan and credit card which would go out around 5nd October 2013. Since she initiated this, payments have been taken correctly. However, daughter in law is still not able to get any credit due to the default placed on her credit file by HSBC, and is unable to restructure her loan to gain a better interest rate. She is now 7months pregnant and has had to start her maternity leave earlier than anticipated because she has developed a serious medical condition associated with the pregnancy which has means she must now be on a wheelchair. It is more necessary than ever that she consolidate her loan and card, and despite the fact that Ms Bond confirmed her credit rating within the bank was “very good”, they will not assist Paula further. Ms Bond assured her that she would receive a letter detailing the results of investigation and offering a full unreserved apology in writing regarding their error. This letter has still not been written, now nearly 3 months after meeting with Ms Bond. My daughter in law and my son are extremely distressed and she is suffering severe anxiety attacks as a result of the financial stress. Both her midwife and obstetric registrar have cautioned against further stress as it has the potential to be detrimental to her unborn child. IT IS AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE FOR US ALL. I am so sorry this explanation is long and drawn out. I wanted you to have the facts that I/we am aware off. I/we would be so grateful if you can help us to get the default removed from her credit file. It would make such a difference to their situation as they are feeling quite desperate with life at the moment. We are all incredulous at the ineptitude of HSBC and the lack of logic and common sense in refusing to consider her for a consolidation loan which would reduce her repayments – a refusal directly caused by HSBC own error!

I agreed to lend my brother some money off my card for food and gas, i have social anxiety and depression and so i barely leave the house anymore so obviously he knew my pin so he could get it. Ive trusted him in the past with it before, except this time i didn't get the card back straight away. About a week later on september 15th when i did, i realised £155 was put in and taken out by wageday advance. Now i asked him about it, and we had a big argument he said he didnt tell me because he was going to put the money back anyway. It turns out a friend of his gets these loans all the time and helped him do it, obviously he knew all my details as we are immediate family, but he used his own email address as he didn't know mine. The due date was october 12th for £194 and i have no idea what the interest is but i am guessing its extortionate as these usually are. Obviously i cant prove to the company that it isnt my debt, ive thought through it and thought through it no end but no solution comes up, and i dont want to acknowledge the debt by contacting them. Is there any options here at all?

Impending homelessness (family) We have been renting for the last 6 years (having moved 3 times during that time from one rental to another as a result of rent increases). On each occasion we have moved via an estate/letting agency. We have been in our current home for the last 2 years and have been asked to move by the owner as he wants to sell. Fair play. 2 months notice was given by him and we have spent the last 5 weeks looking for somewhere suitable. My first shock was how much rentals have gone up in the last 2 years (approximately 150-200.00 more a month). The second shock was ‘set –up fees’ – some agents asking for 10 days rent on top of fees and a deposit, making the average money required straight away £2,650.00 The average rent here is £1250.00 – 1300.00 for a 3 bed place. I’ve looked further afield but travel to work would take nearly 3 hours on public transport The biggest shock, however, was to discover (yesterday) that we have absolutely no hope of renting anything. I have recently acquired a CCJ in respect of a former housing association property I rented. I left it, over 11 years ago, but my lodger remained. The HA was informed by me (they telephoned me) that I wouldn’t be returning but they seemingly allowed the lodger to stay as the rent was being paid, and did not remove my name from the tenancy. A few months ago the housing association tracked me down and told me I owed them over 5 grand in unpaid rent. I disputed it all but it went to court (I couldn’t afford to attend as the hearing was up north) so I have a CCJ. Yesterday I telephoned an estate agency that I have found to be very reasonable in the past just to ask if I could still rent, given that I have 6 years worth of impeccable rent accounts (supplied by former estate/lettings agencies). The answer was categorically ‘no’. The reason, she continued, was that a lot of insurers won’t accept a poor credit history. I have been advised by a couple of well-known organisations to stay put and await a section 21, otherwise the council will say I have made myself homeless. However, given that a lot of sites have sprung up for LL, (naming and shaming bad tenants), I do not want to run the risk of being put on a ‘said’ blacklist. In any event, my local council has a waiting list of over 2000 (average of 2 yrs) to get any assistance. I am not prepared to live in a b and b with 2 teenage children either. I imagine the cost would be pretty scary as well, given that my partner and I earn £50,000 gross between us. I have been advised to ‘shop’ around, be honest, etc, but given what was explained to me yesterday, it’d be pointless, surely? I am exploring all options from living on a narrow boat/static caravan (for now), to even buying, but as properties here begin at 300,000, that too is out of reach. Coming up with 6 months rent is not an option: that would work out at 7,500, and I have no extended family to act as a guarantor. Has anyone else been in this situation, or can anyone advise me as to what I could do?

Hi all I am an only child with elderly parents. My mum has depression, i have quite bad anxiety & my dad has just had a heart attack & is in hospital awaiting Angiogram & after either a stent or surgery. A very worrying time that is affecting my mum's depression & my anxiety. We all kind of care for each other at normal times & i help out a lot, but am not an official carer. This morning i've received ESA50, perfect timing hey! So now i've got the added stress of filling that form in. I have filled it, or similar in before & not had to have a medical assessment as i guess by sending in a letter from my gp & proof of medications, they saw that as sufficient. I just have a few questions. 1. Have others sent in Dr's letters & not had to go for assessments, what is the best way. 2. Does Honey Bee's sticky about ESA50 contain a template to follow. Because my illness is classed at Mental, i'm unsure what to write. 3. I am currently staying with my mum until we know more about my dad's situation, but i have a flat & when things are more on a level i spend half my time there & half with family. I'm unsure as to which one i should use as my address. My flat is part of my rehabilitation but all my correspondence goes to my family home. The benefits people know about this as my ESA adviser told them. I have also attended the interviews at mandatory JC+ Anxiety is awkward because there is no given day that i can say that i will be ok, so the part about days i cannot attend i don't know!! Any help appreciated Gaz

I was wanting some advice. My husband and I have come back from abroad. We are trying to find a place to live, a relative has offered us somewhere but this has thrown up more problems than it solves. She is renting from an estate agent, but doesn't indicate that we will be signing any sort of contract (we need a contract or we can't have anything towards rent) There is still alot of things in the appartment, cat pee and so on, which we would be responsible for. What should we be asking for before moving in? Our moving in is helping them out, but we do feel like we will be waiting to move out again. Plus her term is only 2 months left, but if it was 6 months we would want to choose our own place. Do you have any advice on how to do this officially. Especially, as others aren't keen to talk to the agency.

Hello everyone, I am in a bit of a difficult position. My sister and brother in law have been opening catalogues in my name, using my date of birth but getting the year wrong. They did this late last year (November I think). I found out about this by accident in late January whilst going round to their house to say hello before I left for overseas. They informed me it was simply for a few items such as a new deep fat fryer and a microwave and that they would pay it off as soon as possible. At the time I was travelling abroad and although very unhappy with what had happened I decided I could do little about it as I would be spending a few months out of the UK. Unfortunatly, for a few years now I have lived a none settled life, in that I have moved often and travelled the world. Good for me, but it meant keeping an address for mail (bank records and what not) was needed, so I opted to register their address as my own as otherwise I would essentially go off of the grid. Over the last year or so I have been trying to build up a credit history with small loans and a mobile phone contract, registered to that address but never falling behind on any payments. I thought this year I would apply for a credit building credit card (as part of a long term plan to get a mortgage in about 5 years) but have failed their checks. The reason I have now discovered is due to 3 seperate accounts with the Littlewoods group with debt of around £800! I have no idea what has been bought, though I suspect a new laptop has been made of this as I recall that they did have such a laptop though it now seems to have vanished (not sure if they sold it). To make matters worse, my brother in law has had por health recently and even had a mild heart attack which means he has had to reduce his time at work, so his pay has been cut short. I am also at this moment in time staying at their home whilst I await a new flat I will be moving to in a week or so. So, it makes it difficult as they now have access to my passport and have even asked me for it due to Littlewoods getting suspicious as they have 3 accounts with slightly different dates of birth. I can see these accounts on my credit file, so far they look like they have not fallen behind with payments but if I leave this alone I know at some point they will default. I also don't want to see either of them hauled before the courts for fraud, though I also don't fancy paying £800+ for a debt I did not start. What can I do?

Just after some quick advice if poss. I purchased a fridge freezer from family vision 13 months ago. The fridge developed a fault where it stopped chilling. And after a little research we discovered that this a common fault with this model and it nearly always happens when it is 13 months old. As it is out of 12 months family vision advised that it would be hotpoint calling to us and not one of their own guys. They made the call for me with hotpoint to raise the fault and advised me that someone from hotpoint would be in touch. Which they did the next day. After being told that I would have to wait a week for an engineer to visit. I raised the issue about this common fault. And was told that. They are aware of it but it was only in the earlier model and has been sorted. I advised them that they were Wrong and the exact same issue had happened on my fridge Engineer turned up and confirmed my suspicion also advising me that it was the third fridge of this model he had found this week with the same fault. So he had to order a new door which would take a week to arrive leaving me with no fridge for 2 weeks Family vision would not give me a loaner as they state that they ave done everything in the contract to fix the issue as quickly as poss. But they also claim that I have to pay for the 2 weeks that I could not use the fridge. Surely ths ain't right is it???

Can anyone shed any light on this query for me please. Have a friend whom has had to lower his working hours from full time employment to 16 hours per week due to a disability,he has a family, can he claim family tax or not as I was under the impression you now had to work 24 hours per week to claim FTC but he seems to be under the impression you only need to work 16 hours per week if you are disabled.

alright there ive recently been contacted by littlewoods as a family member (i assume) has got credit at my address in there name and had it delivered to my address which ive not recieved ran up a £500 bill and now im being accused of it i havnt signed for any thing or received any thing and now the debt collector has told me its being sent back to littlewoods to see if they want to prosecute but surely they have nothing to prosecute with or will they even bother for £500 i cant believe someones been devious enough to do this but i just dont know how its happened surely before credit is given they check who lives at an address and they shouldnt really of got it to my address anyway as my address is black listed as i have debt problems of my own but i just dont know what to do legal advise costs money i dont really want to pay out when ive done nothing wrong and i just cant find the help on the net please guys any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi All, Just looking for a bit of advice after a bit of a run in with Thomas Cook. I am a single mum with 5 children eldest of whom has Autism, so we received a charitable donation towards a holiday and proceeded to book with Thomas Cook. They offered us the low deposit and remainder to be paid within 8 weeks, 8 weeks came and an unexpected bill came out of my account, taking money from the holiday balance, so I called and explained, they extended for another 13 days. The time came to pay and i called with my card and it was declined, we tried again for a lower amount, declined again. I was advised that if the holiday was not paid by close of business that day that it would be cancelled, at which point i asked if they could just extend for 24-48 hours and we could sort this situation out, the answer was no, the branch were not prepared to take us on 'trust' as they have done this in the past and been let down (so they can be flexible, they just don't trust us??) the remainder of the balance would then become the brances debt and if we didn't pay then they would have to. At around 4.30pm I found out that the bank had carried out a routine fraud check on my card. by which time the holiday had been cancelled, as we felt backed into a corner with the advisor saying, you'll have to find some other way to pay (and we didn't have any other way) We were gutted, I haven't even broken the news to my autistic son yet, don't know how to. We decided to make a complaint a while later, as we felt that we had been treat in an unforgiving way and when holidays are booked in this way, it's not black and white as far as im concerned. We emailed our complaint to TC and received a call from the branch manager, basically trying to argue the point with me, my response to her was that i knew this would be their attitude and this is the reason they were cc'd into the email that was directly sent to TC complaints dept. She continued to labour the point about dates and extensions, my point was that i did call to pay, but because the bank carried out their fraud check, we are now £550 down and without a holiday, not only that we are not able to apply for family fund holiday for a further two years! So part of the conversation she mentioned again the taking customers on trust (and to me this just feels like why for others and not for us?) also that there is a chance we could reinstate the holiday. I asked her to do whatever she could and come back to me with some sort of resolve for the situation. At around 5pm (6-7 hours later) I am advised that she has been trying to get hold of 'them' for 3 1/2 hours but she can't and that she feels that they will say no because reinstatements must be booked within 2 weeks (why weren't we told this when we were asking for a 24-48 hour extension and our holiday was cancelled). Also that if I am going to pursue with their customer relations dept. that i should do so as they may be able to override the branches decision. I just feel wholly dissatisfied at the actions of the branch, their withholding information that would've resolved this issue, when we were trying the pay the deposit and their obvious flexibilities, when they feel like it. I run my own business and appreciate risks involved but, we had a holiday costing around £5k booked with an additional family joining us at around £2k (carers and support). Can any let me know if they think i can any case for appealing this matter. Regards

My Mum passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. To cut a long story short, I had my suspicions that my sister and niece were helping themselves from my mothers bank account for a long time. My mum was never very good with technology and when she became ill she trusted them both with her debit card and pin number to get small amounts of money when she needed it. On her death there was no money left in her account. I went to the bank and as next of kin got statements dating back 24 months. They systemmatically pillaged her account over a period of 18 months resulting in the theft of at least £15,000. I have not confronted them yet as I didn't want to upset the funeral but with that now over I am preparing to take action and looking for advice. Obviously they are going to say that my Mum knew about it although my Mum confided in my brother just before Xmas and said she couldn't understand why there was no money in her account. He got a statement and could see that in that month money was being withdrawn from ATM's. He finally got a confession from my niece who said she was a bit hard up that month and had "borrowed" the money but would put it back. Also they made the mistake of drawing out money from a cash machine a week AFTER my mum had died. What would you advise my next course of action to be. Confront them first with the knowledge that i know or go straight to the police? What about the bank, should I inform them, and are the police likely to want to get involved? I'd appreciate any advice as they deserve to be punished for their despicable actions. Many thanks.