Hi can I have some advice please? OH has a very account which is getting unmanageable due to a drop in wage and I was just wondering the best way to go about it and if there's any chance of getting the fees waived. The account was opened in October 15 and first used in December 15. The total purchases are 553.11 and we've made payments of 265.44 so there's 287.67 left to pay off the items ordered. The current balance remaining is 420.67 which is from an additional £54.75 normal interest. £42.25 of buy now pay later interest and £36 from 3 late payment fees at £12 each. We're doing our best to manage our debts without going into a DMP or anything but we can't meet the minimum payment this month without lending off family and I don't want it to carry on with more interest and missed payment fees added as its very quickly adding up and nearing the original purchase total. (In July they added £50.70 to the balance as 1 missed payment fee £12, interest £7.79 + buy now pay later interest £30.91) Does anyone who's dealt with them think it's worth offering a full and final settlement to close the account? And what amount would you suggest? We'd have to lend it off family so the smaller the better. I'm not trying to get anything for free but just trying to get on top of it now before it gets out of hand. Would £300 be acceptable? Any other advice would be really appreciated. I know he accepted the interest etc when he opened the account and its our fault for making the purchases but we weren't expecting the change of circumstances and are having to prioritise the mortgage etc. Thanks x

Sorry if ive posted in the wrong place, I have recently got divorced and having an NHS pension have had to surrender 24% to my ex. I have just had a letter from her solicitors demanding £3117 as admin and implementation fee which after checking on the nhs pensions website is valid, my issue is, as an ambulance man I don't tend to carry that sort of money round ( I wish I did) I have bad credit because of the marriage and after paying £425 pcm maintenance I don't have a lot left to live on, any ideas for a solution to this matter anyone, it would be appreciated.

Dear all A current AST comes to an end on a property on the 17th August. When my agent enquired whether the tenants would like to renew, they told him they were splitting up. On this basis my agent advised issuing a S21 as he was concerned about affordability. The tenants are an unmarried couple with three children. One of the current tenants (male) is now starting treatment for a serious condition and now the partner of the sick tenant has texted me offering me 6 months rent upfront to stay when the AST ends as she says that they are working on getting back together and don't want the stress of moving. There is a guarantor already in place for this AST plus 6 months deposit. I am tempted to accept this as it will avoid a void period. Is there anything to be concerned about? I know Johnson V Old has ended concerns about registering rent upfront as a deposit. If I accept this, should a new 6 month agreement be put in place (as my agent suggested)? Or should I let it go on to a monthly rolling tenancy? What about the notice period and serving a S21 when the 6 months draws to an end? The female tenant apparently told my agent 3 weeks ago when we sent the S21 that she would stay on regardless (seems to have backed down on this though) - so I am slightly worried about her volatility. It would have meant I would have had to get a possession order. My agent's renewal charge is 4 %. Would you expect that a 6 month renewal means that I would pay 4 % on the 6 months rent? Sorry if this post is confusing. I guess I am asking if anybody thinks it might be a bad idea to let them stay on after the threat of staying after the AST expires. Obviously they still might if the council advises them to stay and the 6 months upfront would mean this potential disaster is abated but what are the issues after the 6 months elapse? Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi i want to request medical records from both my local NHS Trust and my GP. Would this result in two different charges or can you relate them in some way to make it all one request? Many thanks.

I took out a car insurance policy in May 2016 with Coop Insurance, however I needed to change my car, to a Leased vehicle, so I phoned them and changed the vehicle details on my policy. The amended policy is showing me as the owner, I phoned Co-op and advised them they needed to show the owner of the vehicle as the Leasing Company, they said they could not change the name, as they did not insure personnel leased vehicles. It was then agreed the policy would have to be cancelled but they wanted charge me a £50 cancellation fee. In my opinion this should be wavered as they were unable to continue the policy due to restrictions of their rules. I have now escalated this to their Complaints Department. Has anybody had any similar experiences with Co-op Insurance with regard to cancellation fees?

Good Afternoon, I have just moved out of a property which has a £1000 Deposit secured against it. When I moved into the property just over a year ago. I was charged Agency Fees and a Tenancy Agreement fee. Upon moving out I met with a member of the Letting Agent to complete the Inventory Checkout Process. This passed with flying colours and they are looking to return all of the deposit, Minus 21 Days Rent (At my request after I needed to stay at the property for an extra 3 weeks). However they want to charge me £120.00 for a Check Out Fee!! I've had a look around and seem to find conflicting information on whether this charge is reasonable or not. There is such a charge detailed in the tenancy agreement. However from memory it's slightly vague, and £120 for 20 minutes of the LA's time is to me rather unreasonable. ( That or I'm in the wrong job ) Is there anyway I could dispute this charge? Is it enforceable? Or do I pay up like a mug? Thanks for reading caggers

I have booked for 4 people to visit Venice in June via Love Holidays. On my booking it had our dates of birth all as 28.5.86 which obviously wasn't right. I informed them of our correct dates of birth by e-mail as they never answer the phone and had an e-mail back to say that that was all OK. I have now received another e-mail from them to say that will cost £90 each from the agents and £25 each for their company. £115 each making £460 extra. this wsn't really an amendment as I had not been asked for dates of birth and certainly didn't give them that date for all of us. I am fuming mad! Can anyone help at all? I have threatened them with ABTA and am prepared to take it to the highest person. Many thanks in advance.

Hi, I have a little issue, and would like some help. I have a 24 month contract with vodafone (£44/month), unfortunately I am going to have to leave my job and the country in the next 3 month. I won't be able to pay the £500 they are asking for in one go and would like to set up a payment plan with them to re-pay what I owe. I have called them today and they told me, my only options was to pay all in one go or pay £300 and then £10 a month for a plan. I will no longer be in the country and have no interest to get another contract with them. Is there anything I can do ? Do they legally have the right to say no to my payment plan ? Thanks for your answers !

I have just emailed Virgin Media the following: "Dear Mr Mockridge, I am writing to make a formal complaint on behalf of my mother, Mrs C******** *******k. I have taken this matter into my own hands as she is, frankly, no longer able to cope with it due to the distress it has caused her. She has contacted Virgin Media Customer Services to inform them that I have her authority to discuss her account with you. My mother became a Virgin Media customer upon moving into temporary rented accommodation in September 2013. I read the information on Virgin's Home Mover website, which made a future move and transferral of services seem entirely straightforward. In February of this year she bought a house 1.6 miles away from her rented property. On 5th February my mother phoned Virgin Media to inform you of her intended house move, and to arrange transferral of services. Having been a loyal customer thus far, and having intended to remain so, she was shocked and upset to be told that, as Virgin would be unable to provide any services to her new address, she would have to pay a severance fee of £173.00. In other words, she wished to retain the service, but was told that it was not available, and transferral/retention of the service was not an option. Furthermore, she would be financially penalised for this. The lack of availability of this service, however, is down to Virgin Media, not my 71 year-old mother, and this is a forced cancellation, carried out by Virgin Media, not her. Regardless of your T's & C's this is plainly unfair. On the same day, my mother wrote to Virgin Media Customer Services outlining the above complaint, disputing the severance fee, and also pointing out recent correspondence from Virgin stating that, as the price of services would be increasing from 1st February 2014, customers were entitled to cancel "without penalty". (The same correspondence states that "the process to be followed is set out in our terms and conditions at virginmedia.com/legalstuff" - my mother is not a broadband customer, and does not own or use a computer or the internet, however I was unable to find any information on "the process" at this web address). She also asked for your help and advice, and stated that the matter was causing her to feel depressed. (My mother has been treated for severe mental illness since the death of my father, and my divorce, which has caused her to lose all contact with her three grandchildren for several years). On 18th February my mother wrote again to Virgin Media Customer Services regarding her imminent house move, the forced cancellation of services, her distress, to inform you that she had cancelled her direct debit, to enclose a cheque in payment of her most recent bill dated 7th February, to state - again - that the matter was in dispute, and to request - again - "as a matter of courtesy", a response to her letter dated 5th February 2014. On 4th March, my mother moved to her new address, an ex-council house in need of new windows, re-replumbing, re-wiring, and so on. In other words, all she could afford - she subsists on a modest pension and disability allowance. On 17th March, she wrote to Virgin Customer Services for a THIRD time, regarding your bill dated 7th March for £60.92, (billing period 19th March to 18th April, i.e. commencing over a fortnight since she had left the rented property), and referring you to her previous to letters. On 9th April, she phoned Virgin Customer Services. She discovered that correspondence was still being sent to her old address, despite having informed Virgin of her change of address weeks previously, and that the services for which she was both being charged a severance fee AND being billed (despite being unable to make use of them) were still active at the old address. She was also assured that she would receive a written response to her previous three letters. I visited my mother recently. She broke down in tears whilst trying to explain the situation to me. Clearly, she was extremely anxious, distressed and upset, as was I to see her in such a state. I instructed her to forward all further correspondence from Virgin Media to me, for me to deal with, as I didn't wish her to suffer any more upset or anxiety. To date she has still received NO reply to any of her letters. She continues to receive bills for billing periods during which the service was not in use by her, AND for which she has simultaneously been charged a severance fee. She has also received your "We're sorry to hear you've decided to leave us" letter/final bill reminder (dated 30th April), followed less than 14 days later by a default notice - on an account which is in dispute! I am only relieved that, as yet, my mum is unaware of this. She is an old-fashioned lady, and has never received a default notice or indeed any blemish whatsoever on her credit record in her entire life. I respectfully request that Virgin Media waive all outstanding charges (if indeed they can even be accounted for), all subsequent enforcement action against my mum (she did put the account in dispute months ago - as I understand it, enforcement action, including a default notice cannot therefore be taken), and immediately remove all adverse data from her credit file, with all credit reference agencies. I wish to be able to inform my mum - as soon as possible - that the matter is closed, and that she can stop worrying or getting depressed about it. That is my concern and my priority, as she is an elderly, vulnerable, fragile woman. I, however, am not, and shall be referring the matter to CISAS, the Telecommunications Ombudsman, Trading Standards, the Financial Conduct Authority, and my mother's MP, should the matter not be resolved forthwith. I look forward to your prompt response." Within an hour Virgin offered to halve the cancellation fee, bringing the total cost from £223.40 to £145.46 (cancellation fee plus revised final bill). Job done, or push harder?

BT has more than tripled charges for former broadband customers who hold on to their email address. Its Premium Mail is free for people who pay for BT broadband, but costs £1.60 a month for those with other providers — until this month From 6th April, the monthly fee rose to £5, or £60 a year. Many pay for the service to keep their BT email address, access to their inbox and contacts after moving away from the firm. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3525098/BT-triples-charges-former-broadband-customers-hold-email-address.html#ixzz46pcFcheB

The engine in my girlfriend's van recently blew up. The mechanic who she called to come out and recover the vehicle, took a look at the damage and informed her that she would need a new engine. He also informed her that he wouldn't be able to do the work, so had given it to the 'garage A around the corner'. Quite a bit of time passed by as my girlfriend deliberated upon what course of action she was going to take. When she finally decided to get a new engine, she started to attempt to make enquiries, with garage A, to which her van had been given. Not knowing much about anything, she required a bit of information from garage A, and contacted them several times, but she was poorly received, ignored, and requests for information were not responded to. Hearing all this, I told her to get her van repaired somewhere else. Thus she made new arrangements with a more customer friendly garage. All had been arranged, or so she thought, but when the new garage B (who she had arranged to do the work after the poor customer service from the original garage A) arrived to collect her van, garage A refused to hand over the keys to the van. Although garage A hadn't done any work on the vehicle, garage A has turned around and said that they wanted £25 per day as storage fee. Whilst I know that in the absence of any written or verbal contract, whereby girlfriend consented to paying a daily storage fee, garage A doesn't have a leg to stand on, I am wondering how much of a pain in the arse dealing with this issue might be. Is this a matter for the police, whereby they simply turn up whilst my girlfriend lawfully retreives her vehicle, or is might this be a real dragged out civil matter.....civil coursts, Sheriff's Officers, etc?

Today I have had the misfortune to be made aware of yet another person who took internet advice after receiving a Notice of Enforcement and was led to believe that if he made payment direct to the Magistrate Court that he would be able to avoid bailiff fees. This person took the advice and paid the court direct and;.....as it always the case.....he received a letter from the court to advise him that his payment had been forwarded direct to Marston Group. He too has now found himself in a position where an enforcement agent has made a personal visit...and the debt increased by way of an enforcement fee of £235. He now owes £310 (to also include the Compliance Fee of £75). This inaccurate advice is costly debtors many thousands of pounds and given that the debt is for an unpaid court fine....the enforcement agent is permitted to force entry. For the avoidance of doubt, all debt streams (council tax arrears, unpaid local authority penalty charge notices and unpaid magistrate court fines) may only be enforced by way of the procedure outlined under Schedule 12 of the Tribunal, Courts and Enforcement Act and the fees that can be charged are those under the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014. Worryingly, the debtor has been advised today (by the person responsible for this highly inaccurate advice) that the Magistrate Court have supposedly given him the wrong advice. He claims that the warrant 'ceased' when the payment was made to the court and that the debtor can rely upon section 52.8 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 2014. Not true: Section 52.8 was substituted under The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2015 !!!!

Hi Caggers! Brief History. I was a legacy customer (old Telewest customer) since 2005. The last contract renewal was in 2007 when I moved house the previous time, so contract was well out of band. Notified them in December that I was moving and would like to take my services with me, they said sure, no problem and could probably provide the services I wanted. Great. I moved house 9th January. I contacted them on the 19th January to find out what was happening with my service installation at the new place. Was told the service was activated on the 17th. That would have been a miracle as the house has no cable through the wall. Upon asking them to check, they had reactivated the service at my OLD address. Having established that this was their fault, and establishing that they did not in fact operate in my new area they agreed that the account was closed, I owed them nothing further and in fact was due a refund of £21. Result! Phoned Sky and got a great deal. 3 weeks later they send me a bill for a months worth of charges. After swearing at the statement I calmed down and called them. Explained everything to them in great detail (had to repeat myself a couple of times because, overseas call centre), they apologised profusely and said I dd in fact have nothing to pay (no mention of the refund though) and to disregard the bill. 2 weeks ago I get a reminder that I still owe the amount on the recently provided bill. Off I go to tweet my displeasure to Virgin Media in a lovely public forum. They were on it like a rocket, very helpful and said it was now all sorted. Monday I get a threatening letter saying pay up or they'll pass it no to a collection agency, and today I get another bill! I want to charge them an admin fee for dealing with this cr*p and having to put with the stress! Advice please, how do I deal with these muppets?

Ford Finance tell me that they have no record of PPI payments because the account was paid off more than 6 years ago. However a CMC tell me that for an upfront fee of £70 per claim they can get access to this information without any paperwork or account numbers. They call this fee a deposit which will be refunded on completion and suggest payment by credit card. They then charge 25% of any subsequent compensation. Any advice would be appreciated

Hi Over the Christmas period I was charged by Santander £25 for DD failure, 2x £25 for two standing order failures and £20 for an unarranged overdraft request (which I didnt request or receive). I have spoken to the bank who refuse to withdraw the charges so I have withdrawn my money and arranged for my pay to go into another bank prior to the charges being applied. Now they have applied charges to the empty account and written to me saying I can write to the Ombudsman etc and that the Supreme Court ruled charges fair. Any positive advice? Thanks

If a person receives notification of a County Court judgment that they had not known about, (normally because the summons etc had been either sent to a previous address or had been incorrectly addressed etc) then they can approach the court to request that the judgment be 'set aside'. The procedure is outlined in the following 'Sticky'. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?454644-What-Form-What-For-Where-does-it-go An application to 'set aside' the judgment or to 'stay' the proceedings is made on a court form called an N244 (known as a General Application). At present there is a court fee for filing an N244 of £155. If the person submitting an N244 is in receipt of qualifying benefits, they may be exempt from paying this fee. They would be required to complete an EX160 form. Last year the government issued a Consultation paper to seek views on increasings the fees for N244 applications (and many other court fees as well). There was an overwhelming response opposing the fee increases. Despite this, the cost of filing an N244 Application is to rise from £155 to £255. There are many other fees increases, one being the court fee for issuing a claim in the County Court. If a claim is made for a value of between £1,000 to £5,000, the issue fee will be £205. The link below is to an article from the Law Gazette. The online comments are worthy of reading! http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/senior-judges-lambast-government-over-court-fees/1/5053272.article?PageNo=1&SortOrder=dateadded&PageSize=10#comments

Hi, Need some advice. I sent Vanquis a DSAR request over 4 months ago. I enclosed a £10 cheque which was duly cashed however they failed to provide me with any of the reqested documents (CCA, Terms & Conditions, Default Notices, Deed of assignment etc) I received a 3 page letter consisting of a demand for a further £1 for CCA and a 2 page document consisting of an abreviated table of transactions (I believe this is supposed to constitute a statement) Can someone confirm to me whether the £10 paid for the sar superceeds the requirement for an additional £1 for the cca. My understanding was the £10 sar fee covers ALL docs & data. Thanks

Hi all! Hope this is the right place for this question, i am hoping someone can help. I am a LIP (Defendant) as a LIP can i sign a Tomlin/consent order? Secondly who is responsible for paying the fee for this order? I understand the fee is £50. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Hi everyone..... I have recently got into a dispute with a landlord regarding the return of fees paid for referencing checks. I am about to file a small claims submission, but first I'd appreciate any advice/comments. Basically what happened was put in an offer for a flat that he owns, and we believe he had accepted the offer (see email chain below). However when the tenancy agreement came through it was a higher amount than we agreed. I contacted him and he said he never accepted our offer, and the price is fixed. We therefore decided not to move ahead with going for the flat because what he was asking was too high for the standard of the flat, and we didn't think it was safe to work with someone who acts in this manner. I have tried talking to him about it but he refuses to accept that he should return the fee. I sent him a letter giving him 14 days notice before taking him to court, and he has again written back saying he will not return the fee. He says he never accepted our offer, and the price was on rightmove.co.uk. Here are the emails between my wife and this landlord (I've blanked out names) where we put an offer to him, his response. I can't see however any way in which this can't be seen as acceptance of our offer. We responded to this by negotiating an early release from our current landlord, so we could move in to meet the new landlords timescales. There were no subsequent discussions about the rental amount until I queried the amount showing on the tenancy agreement. EMAIL TRAIL STARTS HERE.... Hi Charles, Thank-you for arranging the viewing today, Graham was lovely and very helpful. We liked the flat and are interested in renting the property from you, the only issue we have is it's slightly over what we had originally planned to spend. Would you be willing to consider £1200 per month please? Thank you, Emily ============================================================================== Hi Emily, Really pleased that you liked the flat and had a good viewing with Graham. Graham said you are a really nice family and would be well suited in the flat and good tenants so I am keen to offer the flat to you. What will help me make my final decision will be when you could take the flat on, do you have an ideal date to move in? I would also ask if you can help give me some more info by filling in the attached document and send back to me. This will also assist with referencing if we go forward. Thanks again and speak soon. Charles

Today the Judiciary released their long awaited Consultation on McKenzie Friends. Most importantly, the consultation proposes a ban on fee-charging McKenzie friends in order to protect ‘vulnerable litigants’ from unregulated, uninsured and unqualified individuals. The article from the Law Gazette website outlines the Consultation in detail (and the online comments make interesting reading !!!). http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/judiciary-proposes-ban-on-fee-charging-mckenzie-friends/5053851.article

Nine High Street banks and building societies in the UK are to launch basic bank accounts which will not charge a fee for missed payments. The new accounts will be available from 1 January to people who fail to qualify for a full current account. But current basic bank account holders may not be automatically switched to a fee-free account – so you should contact your provider to check Users of the new accounts will also qualify for a debit card, which they can use to shop online, or at cash points. But they will not be able to run up an overdraft. Nine banking groups have agreed to offer fee-free basic bank accounts: Barclays – Barclays Basic Current Account The Co-operative Bank – Cashminder HSBC – Basic Bank Account Lloyds Banking Group (Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Lloyds) – Basic Account National Australia Bank Group (including Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank) – Readycash Account Nationwide – FlexBasic RBS Group (NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank) – Foundation Account and Basic Account (England and Wales) Santander – Basic Current Account TSB – Cash Account http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35168705

My son has seen out the terms of his contract with Vodafone and although he got into debt has a payment plan which he has been paying he no longer wants to use Vodafone as he's provider and they are demanding £500+ to terminate his contract his debt has been passed on to a debt management company fpc which is part of the Lowell group what can he do? :?

Hi, I am going to cancel my car insurance as I have found it cheaper else where, I’m currently paying £3120 a year (£260 on the 16th of the month) I have found it for £1160 a year. I phoned up my current insurer and asked them what I would be charged to cancel, they told me it would be £467.19p to cancel surely this can’t be right, the bloke on the phone assured me that it was the correct fee and was nothing he or I could do about it and said if I needed to I could pay it off monthly over 2 years with no interest. Just wondering if this seems correct and if not what I should do about it. Thanks, Steven.

Hi Guys, A claim with an employment tribunal has been going through, and on Friday 15th 2016, and agreement was arranged as an out of court settlement to pay a fixed sum of £9,000 by Friday 22nd 2016. I have now been informed that the company is unable to make the payment as it does not have the available funds in the bank. the company is still active, does anybody know what I should be doing to get the funds paid? The agreement was set through ACAS. Thanks Guys

I sold an item of my sons on Ebay before christmas. I was led to believe by my son that the item was fully working (I know I should have checked) On the day it was delivered the buyer messaged me to ask for a refund as it did not work. I agreed to this straight away and asked the buyer to return the item The buyer escalated the item to Ebay at the same time. The buyer sent the item back to me 8 days after they received it when I got it I tried to process the refund. For some reason Ebay/Paypal would not let me do this so I had to ask Ebay to do it (I suspect because the buyer escalated the case). Th buyer received his full monies. Ebay will now not refund me the final value fee as they say the buyer was unhappy. I am getting no where with their customer service, anyone got the CEO's email address. What a joke of an organisation they are.