A price cap to help consumers who use "rent-to-own" firms to buy goods is a possibility, the head of the City regulator has said. Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said a cap would be considered as part of its inquiry into high-cost credit. Up to 400,000 people use rent-to-own firms to buy household appliances, paying the money back over three years. After interest, they can end up paying three times the original price. It follows a call for a cap from Citizens Advice, which said restrictions imposed on payday lenders two years ago had been a success. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38132843 FCA review “opportunity” to protect more high cost credit customers Rent to own services, logbook loans and guarantor loans should be included in the FCA’s payday loan cap - and new rules introduced to provide added protections for customers including full checks to make sure people can afford to pay back what they have borrowed says Citizens Advice. The Financial Conduct Authority has today launched a call for evidence on how the wider high cost credit market is working - including rent to own, guarantor and logbook loans - to find out how firms are treating their customers. It follows the regulator’s action to clean up the payday loan market, which included a cap on interest rates and fees introduced in January 2015. The national charity had published a new report today finding rent to own customers are getting trapped in debt due to problems such as high interest rates and additional fees, inadequate affordability checks and inflexible debt collection practices. Since the introduction of the cap on payday loan interest and fees in January 2015, Citizens Advice has helped people with 45% fewer payday loan problems. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/fca-review-opportunity-to-protect-more-high-cost-credit-customers/

Hi all Need some help Just received a PPI refund offer from Barclaycard. PPI began on 4th Nov 1999 and ended on 7th Nov 2000. The account is now closed. barclaycard dont have any statements etc from this time so have estimated the refund based on average figures. The offer below is based on "average amounts we would refund someone who was sold a comparable policy on a credit card held for a similar time period" Refund of Payments made for PPI cover charged on a comparable policy £240.55 Refund of interest charged on PPI Premiums charged on a comparable policy £126.28 Statutory Compensation £155.17 Income Tax Deduction £31.03 Total Refund £490.97 So, does that sound right? Or can i add interest? if I can, is it simple or compound? is it 8% or circa 24.9% which I think was the rate charged by Barclaycard. I have looked on the forums and googled this but have lots of differing answers and opinions but would really appreciate something definitive. I remember the card limit being £2500-2700 and I would have been close to that most months Thanks for the help Sausage

I'm a court appointed deputy for my husband. In 2008 he was placed under the court of protection due to a severe head injury, at that time he had a Barclays Bank account with an overdraft of £600. When the CoP was put in place he had been in to his local branch and they refused to serve him or talk to him. He was lied to about why and we only found out a few weeks later that it was due to the CoP which had taken over a year to be put in place. His original Deputy was extremely incompetent and cause no end of problems. In a nutshell they began paying his overdraft off at £15 per month but they continued to add charges and interest. In July 2104 the amount owed was down to £126 despite over £900 having been paid, the following month they changed the interest rate and his next interest payment was £18.75, more than was being paid into the account each month. His deputy failed to notice this. I took over as his Deputy in September 2015 and only discovered this around January 2016 when the previous Deputy forwarded a bank statement for him. I then sent required CoP court rulings showing change of deputy to Barclays, who basically ignored them and I also opened a complaint with them regarding the amounts and what had been paid etc. They offered to refund the amount owed and close the account, I asked that they return some of the money that had been paid as it was far beyond what was owed. They declined so the complaint continued. They continued to try and contact the prior Deputy, who having had their duty discharged duly stopped responding or indeed forwarding paperwork to me. The updated deputy court order they had received they continued to ignore. I again contacted them in May or June this year to be told that we now needed to go into the bank to process the deputy change. Which we did, they then very quickly sent through telephone banking details and immediately afterwards a letter saying that the account had been closed and that they would be taking action to recover the outstanding amount which had now built up to £405 overdrawn again. They have closed the complaint and are refusing to refund the overdraft that they had originally offered to do and have told me to contact the Financial Ombudsman if I'm unhappy. Anyone got any suggestions how to progress this please? I'm more than happy to open court proceedings. My husband, with my help successfully won a case against them after his head injury. For bank charges etc, so we're happy to go ahead with that.

Beneficial interest on HP Agreements. I have tried to simplify this definitions in order to keep them in context with the current discussion regarding, if a vehicles on HP can legally be taken under control. The intention on this thread is not to discuss any success or failings of cases which have gone to court, it is just to examine terms which are unfamiliar to many on the Bailiff forum. It will be necessary to introduce some more terms, which should assist understanding within context. These are: “Property on goods” and “possession in goods”. Property in goods denotes ownership. A landlord has property in goods in a rental agreement for instance. This also applies to the creditor in a HP agreement. “Possession in goods” applies to the hirer in the above case. This is where he takes possession of goods for a period of years on in perpetuity under a lease. This also applies to the hirer under a HP agreement where his legal possession is prescribed by the terms of the HP agreement Interest in goods. An interest in goods occurs when someone who is not their owner, has rights in regard to a part of their value. There are numerous types of interest in goods, legal interest, equitable interest, beneficial interest, etc. All are covered by the above definition but they denote different ways the interest is held or recoverable.

Hi I made a complaint to the financial ombudsman regarding the charges that this company had applied to our mortgage. (we are no longer with this company). The ombudsman have come to a decision that SPML must pay us 1500 pounds by the 28th August. SPML have not complied with the ombudsman when they have requested any paper work connected to our old mortgage. I dont think that they will pay up by this Thursday, so what will happen? will we have to take it to court? Can the ombudsman step in or because they ahve made a final decision is this as far as the ombudsman will go? Has anyone else been paid up when the ombudsman has dealt with their complaint? Thanks

Hello people, I hope you can help. I worked in Abu Dhabi about 5 years ago. Had a credit card and used it after I left. Originally I was only about 1,500 GBP in debt. Kept paying a bit off when I could but the interest and bank charges were massive. I wasn't able to afford it any longer as whenever I paid it didn't make a difference so I just left it. The bank charges and interest were so big that the debt doubled every year. It's around 9,000 GBP now. I was also able to take a loan out on the credit card. I'm not exactly sure how this works but it was attached to the credit card and was about 1,000 GBP. This meant my charges and penalties were even higher. I didn't sign for this loan. It was all done through their online banking. I tried to talk to them but was no good so then stopped replying to their emails a few years ago. I tried to come to a plan but they wanted it all at once. They send me an email every few months. Last month they rang my work (I'm currently living abroad) and my work told me they called again today. Got an email from them yesterday as well and just see they emailed my other email address today. Not sure where they got that email address or where they found my place of work. Figured they found my place of work on Facebook. Can they send debt agencies to harrass me? I'd pay whatever I could if I had the money but it was pointless with the interest they were charging me. I'd pay 300 hundred quid when I could even though I was struggling and interest and penalties would gobble again in a month or two. That's when the debt was quite low. Is there any point in conversing with them to try to reach an agreement? Their email is in very bad English. They've sent me the same one or very similar one a couple of times before in the last few months. From the last email they sent..... I don't even know what they're trying to say! I've underlined some parts. They talk about removing interest and charges. They mention installment schemes. Then they say they are willing to settle all the long time debtors in a principal amount. Not sure what this means. They are trying to entice me to correspond. Should I reply about the non-interest and charges and installment schemes? If they did something with the interest and we had a payment plan then I could work with them. They have mentioned coming to an agreement before. I offered to pay what I had which was a lot lower than what they were wanting. However, I can't just pay 9,000 GBP as I don't have it and don't know when I'll ever have that. Not sure how I could go about getting that from a bank even. I'm currently working but in a foreign country I don't think I can easily get a loan for that amount. -------------------------------------------------------------- We wish to resolve your liability to settle in a civilized manner. However, bank is announcing an exciting offer to all the debtors to close their unpaid liabilities in a good and flexible manner on a reasonable consideration. We sincerely believe that you want to close your liability but unfortunately you could not settle it because of some critical reasons. But please remember that once we offered an opportunity of credit to you in times of your difficulty, so it is your moral duty and responsibility to repay it no matter how much you suffer, or whatever losses you incur, you should return what does not belong to you, with respect. Please understand that the legal Request is already initiated against you in UAE. Due to bank promotion you have got this limited opportunity to close your liability. Hence, please utilize this opportunity and close your liability eternally. We hope that you can understand the urgency of this matter and resolve this issue as soon as possible. We will give our utmost assistance regarding the settlement and will ensure that your account will be closed eternally and will remove all the legal action against you from the bank including travel ban. It’s an opportunity for overseas customers also to come back to UAE by paying back your liability now and will remove travel ban against you from the bank. We will give utmost assistance for settling your liability with deducting all interest and charges. Overseas customers can transfer the money and settle their account from their own country with our proper instruction and credible agreement. Hence, we would advise you to take this opportunity and settle your liability for your own security and reputation. In order that your credit history will be flawless and more facilities will be granted to you in future from the bank. Moreover, bank is willing to settle all the long time debtors in a principal amount with regards on convincing proof should be submitted (including termination letter, medical issue, bankrupted. etc). The installment schemes also provided to the customers only on a condition basis. Approvals only provided to the customers who have intention to make settlement on 100% assurance quality, reluctant and doubtful customers will not getting approvals unless they would make down payment in advance to ensure that they would be eligible. Non-payment in accordance with settlement offer can be void and it affects credibility and trustworthy of the customers, Please take this opportunity to settle all your liability in a descent manner. Note: Once you pay back and settled your account we will give 100 % official recognition that you will be receiving the ‘Clearance letter’ within 5 or 6 working days. It evidently states that you are no longer liable to the bank and cleared all your legal responsibility. Kindly contact us on or before 20/02/2016 on the below number for amicable settlement. Hope somebody can help. Thanks.

I went into Argos to use my card which had an available balance of £50 (I logged into my account online to check) and the card was declined in store. I called them up and they said my account has been closed and they are seeking to recover outstanding balance of £250. I hadn't. Even. Profiled that it had been closed and been making payments each both. They said I'd missed a couple of payments (which were late not missed). If only received statement letters from them asking for minimum payment and they are still charging me interest! I'm not in a position to pay more then the minimum payment but will never clear it at this rate and there's no point trying to and putting myself in debt with other creditors. My husband is the only earner and we struggle month to month. I've tried to keep things afloat but it's been hard. How do I get a final balance from them and get them to stop charging interest? Thank you

Hello Can anyone please help? Where i have ringed the amount in red would this be the yearly or the monthly interest amount? Thanks

I thought I was good at maths but can anyone explain this to me? I have just 1 year and 4 months left on my mortgage. The mortgage rate has just reduced by 0.25% thus my mortgage rate has also reduced fro 3.75% to 3.50%. My repayments were £357.62 a month but have INCREASED to £378.10. That about 6% INCREASE per month. The mortgage company put a note with their letter saying the increase is because I am near the end of the mortgage term but I really do not understand that. If the rate has gone down surely the repayments should go down too. Can anyone explain this to me please? #confused.

Hi Folks, Can interest incurred on legal expenses be claimed against a perpetrator? For example, if a high interest credit card is used to pay for representation against a bank that have deliberately refused redress for more than a decade, the interest alone has more than tripled the cost of litigation. Can the victim claim any expenses? For example, having to hire a private detective to trace the key witness to the crime? I'm stuck with Scottish Law at the moment but I'd be interested to hear if it's possible in England. Of course, there ought to be provisions for this and it has been talked about. I'm just wondering if it's a reality yet? Cheers, Richard.

I've received a letter saying around £100 plus another £80 of compensatory interest is to be refunded to my account reflecting a mistake in charging overdraft interest to my student account which I opened in 1998. I called the remediation operations as directed by the letter to sort out at least the charges, but the representative I spoke to wasn't able to help much, but she said that this should represent all interest charged to the account. It doesn't match up with even my last 6 years of statements, which total ten times this much, plus several charges. I've previously claimed my penalty charges back from natwest, but did not get into the interest as it seemed too complicated at the time (c.2006/7) I can only easily get statements going back 6 years through online banking, and although I have a ton of historic statements from my previous claim, I don't have anything from 2006-2009. Anyone had a similar letter? Can I get statements beyond 6 years old?

Hi I have downloaded the compound interest and simple interest XLS files for working out a PPI claim. I have all my GM card bills from 1994 to 2004 when I paid it off and stopped using it. When I enter the PPI premiums and interest in the the compound interest file it comes out to an awful lot of money as it works out the interest up until today. Is this correct? And do i also claim simple interest on top of that? I don't expect to get it all but I would like to be accurate in what I ask for. reading the forums I seem to have two options the FOS route or small claims. Is this correct?

It is the summer of 2015, August to be precise. My wife and I have just ordered a top of the range Schreiber kitchen - £24,000 worth of all singing and dancing fittings from Homebase ( now Bunnings UK ) It was going to be a large contract and we were going to be out of the country whilst the work took place, hence we gratefully accepted Homebase`s offer to project manage the delivery of goods and installation. While we had the cash to pay for the whole thing upfront, we deliberately opted for the 12 month deferred interest free loan arrangement as this would enable us to "sign off" the work to our satisfaction before the loan was activated. So far so good. The small print on the Terms and Conditions of the loan- as laid down in the Consumer Credit Act 1974 - stated that; "After we have accepted and signed this agreement and you have received the goods or services, we will pay the loan amount to the retailer". Well, the kitchen fit s a disaster. Long delays, notifications to ourselves in Florida !! on our mobile phones of goods being delivered and, worst of all, the top end larder units which had swung our decision to go for the kitchen in the first place didn't actually exist ! Trying to co ordinate the snagging from the USA was a nightmare and when we returned home in early December 2015, the kitchen was still without the units which had to be specially manufactured in Italy. We had a succession of top level meetings with senior staff at Homebase ( up to and including Divisional and Regional Managers and the attention f the then CEO ) The final meeting with 4 Homebase personnel took place on 4th December 2015. On 7th December 2015, we received an e mail from Barclays Partnership Finance congratulating us on our purchase and notifying us that our loan agreement had been activated ! Surprised ? You bet we were ! Having to fight with Homebase to get the kitchen finished was bad enough but having the one bargaining chip I possessed being taken away was even worse. Cutting a very long, painful and tedious story short, our kitchen was finally finished and compensation agreed with Homebase on 1st July 2016. The explanation was that the sign off system is computer generated ( isn`t it always ? ) and that receipt of delivery notes - plus an allowance of time for the fitting process - triggers the loan activation. Fine, except the average time for activation bore no resemblance to the date on which my loan was activated. Basically, even though Homebase knew we were heavily into dispute over the kitchen delivery and fitting, someone, somewhere decided that it was tie they got their money. I took issue with both companies but mostly with Barclays because, at the end of the day, I had NOT received all the goods and I had most certainly NOT therefore received all of the services at the time they decided to activate the agreement. Going through Barclays byzantine complaints process ( around 15 letters from them and 8 from myself plus countless hours on the phone ) got me to the point where Barclays told me that they could activate the loan at any time and that I should read the terms and conditions more carefully. Nice. EXCEPT, they are and were wrong ( see the third paragraph above ) They can only activate the loan once the goods or services have been supplied. Finally, they acknowledged that their own wording and my interpretation of it were correct. At which point, they simply re interpreted the rules - or rather, invented a new one - by saying the following ( excuse the grammar, it is Barclays own exact words ) :- "As you had received some of your goods, we are allowed to release the funds to the retailer. As Homebase requested this and because some of your goods had been delivered, we were effectively allowed to do so which meant that your loan with us went live" Problem is that this wrinkle is NOT spelled out in the terms and conditions and was not made clear to me at the time signed the contract. I am awaiting a response to my request for Barclays to point out to me exactly where it says they can do this and to date ( one month on ) I have yet to receive a reply. Spoke yesterday with an employee who said that the person I had written or someone in her team would be responding to me. Still waiting. O yes, I did point out that I had left at least three messages on the lady`s ansaphone. Guess what he told me ? They are so busy dealing with all other aspects of customers complaints that it is their policy NOT to respond telephone messages or call back if you leave one ? Apparently all you can do is request a call back when you eventually speak to someone. Other buyers beware. If you are contemplating such a purchase, ensure that you demand a satisfaction sign off for the delivery of goods AND the fitting services otherwise Barclays will simply pay YOUR money to the retailer without any recourse to you the customer. If and when I hear from them next, I shall be asking for a deadlock letter and then it`s off to the Ombudsman we shall go. Wish me luck, share any similar experiences please and watch this space. "Activation"

Currently in the active section of the Supreme Court is a case regarding the use of the wheelchair area on public transport in this case buses. See this link for the case >> http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2014/1573.html Short link >> http://preview.tinyurl.com/hjjhjyn Lord Justice Lewison : Introduction This appeal has attracted some public interest, so it is important to be clear about the issue. It is not about whether non-wheelchair users should move out of the wheelchair space on a bus in order to accommodate a passenger in a wheelchair. Of course they should if that is possible. Nor is it about whether mothers standing in the wheelchair space with a child in a folding buggy should fold their buggies in order to make way for a wheelchair user. Of course they should if that is possible. Non-wheelchair users, unlike wheelchair users, will normally have a choice about which part of the bus to sit or stand in. Common decency and respect for wheelchair users should mean that other passengers make way for them. What is at issue is whether the bus company must have a policy to compel all other passengers to vacate the wheelchair space irrespective of the reason why they are in it, on pain of being made to leave the bus if they do not, leaving no discretion to the driver. For the reasons that follow I have concluded that that is a step too far.

Hi all, I know you must get asked this a million times but i cant seem to find an answer though I am sure I have seen this before. we have just had an offer of around 2k for PPI redress from Natwest but because the policies were so old, a good half of this is the 8% interest. We do have a large CCJ (8K) with Natwest which is subject to a court ordered payment of £70PCM through Dryden Fairfax solicitors. I have 2 questions 1) Can the bank offset the returned premiums against the 8k 2) I read somewhere that the y had to pay the statutory interest direct to us and couldnt offset that. Am I right in thinking that? I have a leaky roof and could really do with the money to sort it out. Thanks

Over 15 years ago I was self employed for three years, in the last year I earned £57k which created a tax liability. I was hit by a car and broke my back two months before the tax return was due which wasn't submitted or paid. It took 5 years to recover and in that time I earned nothing, I sold everything I owned and moved in with my sister to survive. I was also entitled to nothing from the state as I had a war pension of a few hundred a month after serving in the military for 10 years, slightly confused what the tens of thousands I paid in tax and NI was for during that time, anyway. Between 2008 and 2010, I was paying £250 a month back, until the crash came and I lost everything again, I've not been able to pay anything since. I have £2.5K left to pay and I will pay it, but I have a question reference the interest and charges which is nearly £17k. HMRC have given me until June 1st to start paying again.... I can give them £10 per month once my debts are gone, but I'll never be able to clear the interest and charges, which I feel is unfair taking my genuine circumstances into account. Any advice on how to approach this issue?

Some way down the road with this already having sent letters and schedule of charges etc. Got some money knocked off twice. Sent a Letter Before Action but have not been on top of things and not followed up at 14 days. Weeks have passed. Am now going to file for court in earnest after sending a revised Letter Before Action. I'm not really happy with the way I am calculating interest in my prior documents and want to get it right and proceed with vigour. THE PROBLEM: Historic charges were applied on particular dates and did or didn't attract interest for varying amounts of time depending on how Barclaycard decided to play it i.e. A charge goes on, there is say 28 days when it does not have interest charged on it then it falls into the main balance and then charging of interest commences as if it were a purchase. When payments are made it is the first, second etc amount to be paid off and then it ceases to attract interest even if you still have a balance which was formed by purchases. THE QUESTION: Do I need to give a monkeys about the nuances of the above dates, payment thresholds etc? Is it OK to just say it attracted X numbers of months of interest which corresponded to the next time I cleared the balance? The money that paid it off would have paid off an equal amount of the "real" purchase balance if the charge had not been applied in the first place wouldn't it? ALSO: I am finding a lot of what would appear to be dead links to spreadsheets, letters etc. The ones I do find seem to be out of date for one reason or another and the forum/wiki seems to be very hard to navigate in terms of finding appropriate documents/attachments. Is there a page which has all the most up to date forms on that I am missing. I'm particularly needing a restitutional interest spreadsheet and good/recent Particulars of Claim texts. Hope someone can help. Best Regards DatumX

Hi, I had a few questions on loan agreements. I was considering lending a large sum of money by virtue of a loan agreement (commercial purposes). However, I am unsure as to its enforceability and I am concerned about this. I was considering putting a clause under enforceability that enters into a secured loan agreement of property. My question is that how do I enforce this clause if for example, the borrower ends up selling the property without me knowing. Will just mentioning the secured loan in the agreement be sufficient or do I have to take other steps?

I have about £1400 of student debt from loans I had in 95,96 and 97. I've always been able to defer. Given that Erudio are taking housing benefit, maintenance, etc. into their calculations that takes me over their income threshold. I sent back the old style SLC forms with a letter stating my concerns and requesting clarification over the new form. They ignored the letter and just sent me another copy of their form. My deferrment period is now up and they've since begun to take payments from my account - without any notice of how much and for how long. It appears they've worked out that I need to repay them back over the year and have taken about £110 this month. From what I'd read about repayments I was expecting repayments to be related to a 60 month period. What will happen if I cancel my direct debit? My credit report has only just got out of the red and I don't want them to ruin my credit rating again. Can they really take my housing benefit etc into consideration in their calculation of eligibility for repayments? I'm currently not working so I have no earned income. I always understood that to be eligible for repayments I had to be earning a wage in excess of £20k In the past when I was working part time I never earned enough to have to pay my student loan off. Even so, following a divorce settlement I paid over £3000 of it off when I didn't have to. So I feel really gutted now that I appear to be being forced to repay money to a DCA. I'd like to just cancel my direct debit and just forget about them. Is that possible?

Hi folks, I'm 14 months into a £12,000 car loan via my business through Santander Consumer Finance. The loan (HP) was over 48 months with £3000 of interest. I have to date paid £5000 back yet the settlement is £10,000. Only £2000 of the loan has been paid off. I understand that at the start of the agreement you tend to pay more interest than principle but the ENTIRE interest in the first year? Does this sound right? Thanks in advance.

Before i contact my solicitor, could somebody please tell me if this sounds about right. We went through a housing disrepair claim and to cut a long story short, we received £5000 in damages. This was paid to our solicitor around May 2014, but we were not allowed the money until the landlord payed costs to our solicitor. We have just heard from our solicitor and we were always told we would get interest on the money. We have received a cheque for 5048, is £48 interest about right? It would be 2 years next month that the solicitor as held the money. Thank you

Hi Everyone, Hope you are all doing well. I am just looking for a little reassurance that I am doing the right thing really. I have been in debt since 2012 with payday loans, to say they have ruined my life is an understatement, I know I have responsibility for this, but as you all know, desperate times call for desperate measures. I have emailed in complaints currently, to Sunny, Wonga, MyJar, QuickQuick, WageDay Advance AND MoneyBox247. During the years of 2012 – 2016, i took out so many loans with them all, the main ones being Wonga, QuickQuid and MoneyBox247. It go so bad, at one point i nearly had to go into bankruptcy, but was saved by my family with a £26,000 loan in 2014, so it does show me paying back a loan or two early, but as I stated in the emails, it wasn’t because I was able, it was because of the above. I am just looking for opinion really, do you think I stand any kind of chance? I just hope I’m not wasting my or their time with it. 247 MoneyBox. 5th March 2013 – £110 borrowed – £141 paid back 27th March 2013 – £185 borrowed – £262 paid back 1st May 2013 – £300 borrowed – £439 paid back 28th May 2013 – £480 borrowed – £692 paid back 15th June 2013 – £80 borrowed – £156 paid back 10th July 2013 – £300 borrowed – £404 paid back 26th July 2013 – £100 borrowed – £171 paid back 30th July 2013 – £480 borrowed – £692 paid back 5th August 2013 – £400 borrowed – £551 paid back 7th September 2013 – £300 borrowed – £412 paid back 12th September 2013 – £100 borrowed – £133 paid back 20th September 2013 – £480 borrowed – £698 paid back 22nd January 2014 – £125 borrowed – £211 paid back April 2014 Loan – 30th May 2014 – Extended current loan – Paying back £671 on 27th June 2014 After this loan, I had to take a big helping hand from family in the form of a £26,000 loan as from all of the loans the previous year and up to May 2014, I was in serious financial troubles and close to bankruptcy, so this stopped me lending from June 2014 – January 2015. 26th January 2015 – £200 borrowed – £252 paid back 13th February 2015 – £150 borrowed – £168 paid back 9th March 2015 – £400 borrowed – £473 paid back 2nd April 2015 – £380 borrowed – £468 paid back 20th May 2015 – £125 borrowed – £167 paid back 10th June 2015 – £150 borrowed – £170 paid back 9th July 2015 – £150 borrowed – £177 paid back 29th July 2015 – £384 borrowed – £479 paid back 3rd September 2015 – £300 borrowed – £367 paid back 22nd September 2015 – £80 borrowed – £104 paid back 30th September 2015 – £400 borrowed – £499 paid back 31st December 2015 – £411 borrowed – £509 paid back 7th January 2016 – £200 borrowed – £286 paid back 18th January 2016 – £300 borrowed – £403 paid back 12th February 2016 – £300 borrowed – £417 paid back Wonga – This is by far the worst. 2nd February 2012 – NEW LOAN £100 – £132 29th February 2012 – NEW LOAN £250 – £333.62 9th March 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £75 – £325 Total – £431 to pay back. 11th March 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £70 – £395 Total – £521 29th March 2012 – £580 NEW LOAN – £771 to be paid back. 4th April 2012 – £100 NEW LOAN – £133 to pay back 9th April 2012 – Topped up previous loan £100 – £201 Total – £261 to pay back. 25th April 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £251 Total – £319.40 to pay back. 2nd May 2012 – £100 NEW LOAN – £133 to pay back. 6th May 2012 – Topped up previous loan £250 – £350 Total – £453 to pay back. 7th May 2012 – Topped up previous loan £200 – £550 Total – £711 to pay back. 2nd June 2012 – £250 NEW LOAN – £374 to pay back. Had to pay late – Received late payment email on 29th June 2012. 9th July 2012 – £100 NEW LOAN – £133 to pay back. 27th July 2012 – £790 NEW LOAN – £1077 to pay back. 29th July 2012 – Had to contact WONGA as unable to meet repayments and had to set up a repayment arrangement. I was making payments of £269.00 for four months, last payment was made on 30th November 2012. Immediately after this repayment plan finished, I was still in big financial difficulty, which my credit check and affordability checks would have shown, also the fact that only a few months prior i just finished a repayment arrangement, I don’t feel I should have been leant to. I was desperate, how ever Wonga should of known better. 1st December 2012 – £250 NEW LOAN – to be paid back. 6th December 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £298 Total – £397 to be paid back. 7th December 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £348 Total – £465 to be paid back. 7th December 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £398 Total – £532 to be paid back. 8th December 2012 – Topped up previous loan – £121 – £519 Total – £685 to be paid back. 6th January 2013 – £50 NEW LOAN – £69 to be paid back. 11th January 2013 – Topped up previous loan – £120 – £170 Total – £219 to be paid back. 11th January 2013 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £220 Total – £285 to be paid back. 11th January 2013 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £270 Total – £352 to be paid back. 11th January 2013 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £330 Total – £418 to be paid back. 11th January 2013 – Topped up previous loan – £50 – £380 Total – £485 to be paid back. 29th January 2013 – NEW LOAN £570 – £745 to be paid back. 31st January 2013 – Had to contact Wonga again to inform them of my financial problems, and needing to set up a repayment arrangement again. In arrangement from 31st January – 4th June 2013. 10th June 2013 – I applied for a new loan, and Wonga again re borrowed to me. I find this very responsible, when I have been in to repayment arrangements previous to this now, along with a very worrying lending pattern. 10th June 2013 – NEW LOAN – £400 – £481 to be paid back. 12th June 2013 – NEW LOAN – £120 – £146 to be paid back 17th June 2013 – NEW LOAN £98 – £115 to be paid back 17th June 2013 – NEW LOAN – £110 – £145 to be paid back 17th June 2013 – NEW LOAN – £53 – £65 to be paid back 17th June 2013 – NEW LOAN – £61 – £75 to be paid back 28th June – I again had to email Wonga and inform them of my financial problems to set up once again, a third repayment arrangement. I was in this arrangement from 28th June 2013 – 28th October 2013 paying £120 back each month. 1st July 2013 – I finished my arrangement in June, and again was allowed to re borrow from Wonga. 1st July 2013 – NEW LOAN – £449 – £595 to be paid back. 25th July 2013 – NEW LOAN £220 – £239 to be paid back. 14th August 2013 – NEW LOAN £552 – £646 to be paid back. 19th February 2014 – NEW LOAN £106 – £125 to be paid back. February / March – A loan of around £1000 was taken out, I am unable to find confirmation of this in emails, but 30th March – £1353.40 was due in one single payment to which I had to change the promise to pay day on and extend from the end of February. 23rd March 2014- I AGAIN had to contact Wonga in regards to setting up ANOTHER repayment plan due to being in financial troubles – THIS IS MY FOURTH REPAYMENT ARRANGEMENT WITH WONGA IN TWO YEARS. 28th April 2014 – 28th January 2015 Arrangement – I was paying back £156 per month 27th September 2014 – I was emailed like many millions of others, to be told my most current and recent loan, was included in their affordability issues – No others! Just this one! And the remainder of my balance was wiped off, totaling 4 x £156 payments that i had left to make. Again, after having 4 repayment arranges with Wonga – They allowed me to borrow again. 13th December 2014 – NEW LOAN £250 – £283 to be paid back. 15th December 2014 – NEW LOAN £100 – £114 to be paid back. 15th December 2014 – Top up of previous loan – £100 – Total to be paid back £437 28th December 2014 – NEW LOAN £250 – £312 to be paid back. 3rd January 2015 – Topped up previous loan – £100 – £120 to be paid back 3rd January 2015 – Topped up previous loan – £100 – £479 to be paid back. 4th January 2015 – Topped up previous loan – £94 – £591 to be paid back. 12th February 2015 – NEW LOAN £150 – £168 to be paid back. 17th February 2015 – NEW LOAN £100 – £108 to be paid back. 2nd March 2015 – NEW LOAN £350 – £420 to be paid back. 22nd March 2015 – Had to set up ANOTHER REPAYMENT ARRANGEMENT! This my 5th in total in the space of 2012 – 2015. I finished paying off my loans on the 3rd July 2015. Quick Quid – Is a very similar store to Wonga, including two repayment arrangements and with them being told i was in financial problems, and they re borrowed again. I am very sad about it all, but I know you have all been in the same boat, and will not judge. I appreciate anything you can help with. It has only been a week, so I am sure it is a long road ahead, but out of curiousity, I do wonder if my story may have any hope. Thanks so much, Lillyx

Lloyds customers are losing their free, interest-paying current accounts and told to sign up for one at £60 a year. Loyal Vantage current account holders will no longer receive interest of up to 1.49 per cent from May 3. If they want to earn interest they must opt for the Club Lloyds account, which pays up to 3.93 per cent on balances of up to £5,000. It also offers access to a savings account paying the same and a 0.2 percentage point reduction on Lloyds mortgages, plus perks such as free cinema tickets. But customers will be hit with a £5 monthly bill unless they pay in £1,500 a month. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3549204/Lloyds-snubs-loyal-customers-taking-away-free-paying-current-accounts-tells-sign-one-60-year.html#ixzz46pxXHH99

Hi everyone, Any help or advise on where to go on this would be most welcome please as it's a battle I've been fighting for just over 6 years, without a break, and I NEED to get the Pension Service to put right the ultra vires decision (on the wrong legislation) and recieve the back pay owed. I am 110% correct in my findings from both DMG and legislation, the Pension Service are completely wrong and no-one will look at it. I list below a copy of the letter I have last sent, a brief outline of events leading to the wrongful withdrawal, by the Pension Service (PS), of allowable housing costs, with evidence. Brief Background History As a result of a divorce and Court proceedings an order was issued for me to acquire my ex-husband’s share in the house within a specified time limit of the Divorce. We had a joint mortgage for £30000 on our home. I had to remortgage (i) to redeem the original mortgage balance of £27108 and (ii) add £22500 equity acquisition to be paid to my ex-husband’s solicitors within a Court-specified time limit and (iii) to cover legal aid and other acquisition costs involved. However the costs amount was not only unknown but unexpectedly delayed until late 2008 because of solicitor errors. There was absolutely no problem with IS and they let me know that acquiring my ex-husband’s equity share in the house was an allowable housing cost. I received housing costs as Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI), paid direct to lender, as part of IS. The relevant letter from Wendy Steele, IS Decision Maker dated 02.06.06 quoted: “The Income Support (General) Regulations 1987, No. 1967, Sch 3, para 4(6)(a), 15(1), 16(2), DMG 29825”. After my having to involve the Law Society regarding solicitor error and resulting Legal Services Commission (LSC) error, they were resolved in my favour and as a result the LSC wrote and apologised for their error and issued the amount of legal costs to be paid back for legal aid of £5875. There was also a £500 arrangement fee and £350 broker’s fee which had to be added to the legal aid bill of £5875 making basic acquisition costs of £6725. In August 2007, on reaching age 60, I was transferred from Income Support to Pension Credit and housing costs, including the equity acquisition of my ex-husband’s share of the home, remained the same without question, as confirmed in writing by the Pension Service (PS) State Pension Credit Regs, Schedule 2, para 11, DMG 78407 – 78410. However they failed to allow the full original mortgage redemption of £27,108 because evidence had been burned by my ex-husband so I had no proof of full allowable costs, e.g. conservatory (est) £4200). Only £17776.66 was allowed as per receipt evidence. Since the beginning of the re-mortgage IS (and later the PS) were advised of the delay in submitting legal costs because of solicitor and LSC errors but after the acquisition costs were established, late 2008, I requested that the PS added these costs to my SMI now that the matter was resolved and the amount was known. I repeated the request for acquisition costs to be added several times between late 2008 and July 2009 because each request was ignored. In response to yet another request to add costs, in July 2009 “Abdul” (no surname given), instead of adding acquisition costs to SMI, informed me that I was not allowed to acquire an interest in my home and that SMI for it was stopped! The reason given was that the PS had made a mistake. This error of one lone PS employee caused the whole fiasco from which I have suffered very badly. His error opposed all correctly decided housing costs by IS and PS Decision Makers and all other current Government information whether written or online and Case Law and this miscarriage of justice to my very great detriment has not been addressed or corrected! I appealed which was denied. I telephoned IS who were at a loss as to know why the PS had stopped SMI because acquiring an interest in my home was an allowable housing cost. Buying out an ex-partner (my case) is even exampled in detail in Decision Makers Guides (DMGs) (78405, 78407, 78409) and clearly specified in other Government information and Case law. I have struggled without ceasing to get this miscarriage of justice corrected whilst my financial situation has become more and more extremely serious. This goes against the very reason for the legislation being passed in the first place. I repeatedly requested specific responses to the following because these were all correctly applicable to my case as initially determined by both IS and the PS: (i) the relevant legislation (SPC Regs 2002, Schedule 2, para 11), (ii) the relevant DMGs 78405, 78407, 78409, (iii) all current online and documented Government information and (iv) all relevant Case Law The specific responses were not addressed and, because of my persistence in trying to get the PS unlawful disallowance of legislated housing costs reversed, I was told by the PS that I would no longer be responded to except by way of acknowledgement of my correspondence. I have been disgracefully treated, dismissed and ignored over a long period of time. I have been denied any opportunity to represent myself at any interview, local or otherwise despite repeatedly explaining the extremely severe financial difficulties and anxiety/distress caused to me by the PSby the refusal to address the specific issues raised which would have resulted in reinstatement of my housing costs. Would you very kindly urgently look at the simple and uncomplicated facts relevant to my claimant category (residential homeowner acquiring an interest in my home) and the applicable legislation relevant to it, SPC Regs 2002, Schedule 2, para 11, the DMGs that apply to Schedule 2, para 11, 78405, 78407, 78409 and if necessary confirmatory Government information and Case Law and reinstate my housing costs from the unlawful disallowance. I am happy to supply any information and/or documents should they be required. To avoid any complication in looking at the above request, I would add that I am not and never have been a renter and therefore I have never been in receipt of housing benefit via the local council. I have only re-mortgaged once to acquire my ex-husband’s share in my home by Court Order. My case is very simple and straightforward: I am a residential homeowner acquiring an interest in my home which is an allowable housing cost as per: State Pension Credit Regs 2002, Schedule 2, para 11: Loans on residential property 11.—(1) A loan qualifies under this paragraph where the loan was taken out to defray monies applied for any of the following purposes— (a)acquiring an interest in the dwelling occupied as the home; or (b)paying off another loan to the extent that the other loan would have qualified under head (a) above had the loan not been paid off. (2) For the purposes of this paragraph, references to a loan include also a reference to money borrowed under a hire purchase agreement for any purpose specified in heads (a) and (b) of sub-paragraph (l). (3) Where a loan is applied only in part for the purposes specified in heads (a) and (b) of sub-paragraph (1), only that portion of the loan which is applied for that purpose shall qualify under this paragraph. The mandatory guidance referenced to the legislation above and which Decision Makers are obliged to follow is DMGs, 78405 – 78409 as copied below. Note: The suspension of IS from 6th March 2006 to 10th May 2006 referred to above (on the screenshot from the Pension Service dated 2010) was due to the remortgage funds being released through my bank to pay my ex-husbands solicitors for the acquisition. This is normal banking procedure and the money was paid out immediately. A decision maker decided that the remortgage funds constituted savings and therefore I wasn’t entitled to any Income Support or housing costs. This inappropriate decision was readily acknowledged by the people I spoke to at the IS department but I still had to go through the process of Tribunal to get this folly reversed by 10th May. None of the above circumstances (screen-shot) relates to a residential homeowner acquiring an interest in the home. That legislation is found in SPC Regs 2002, Schedule 2, para 11 and DMGs 78405, 78407, 78409. None of the DMG in the PS screenshot refer to acquiring an interest in the home or to Schedule 2, para 11. The DMGs which reference para 11 have been omitted by the PS and the PS Decision Maker has justified his error with irrelevant and unreferenced DMGs and faulty reasoning based on legislation totally inapplicable and irrelevant to my case. This Decision Maker’s faulty reasoning can be seen on examination. He stated above that increases are only allowable in points 1-5 listed. This is an error and the descriptions of points 1 and 2 above especially shows no understanding of the legislation. In point 1 above there is no increase in housing costs in a relevant period (1994/5 legislation brought in to prevent up-marketing by a full homeowner taking out a loan (e.g. change of lender, equity release) to either stay in the same home or move to a different one. The housing costs payable currently will not be increased. There is no relevance to acquiring an interest in the home in this provision of Schedule 2, para 5(7)(a)(b). This legislation is not interchangeable with Schedule 2, para 11 and cannot be applied to para 11. DMGs clearly reference each one and neither is interchangeable. In point 2 above there is no increase in housing costs in a relevant period (1994/5 legislation brought in to prevent up-marketing by changing from renting to buying in a relevant period. If a renter acquires an interest (becomes owner/co-owner Rent to Buy Scheme especially) then he must qualify by being in receipt of housing benefit payable to renters via the local council the week before the acquisition and the amount of SMI payable direct to lender will not exceed the amount of housing benefit previously paid via the local council. There will not be an increase in housing costs allowable. This legislation is not interchangeable with Schedule 2, para 11 and cannot be applied to para 11. DMGs clearly reference each one and neither is interchangeable. In points 3 and 4 above the circumstances have to be individually determined by the Decision Makers and some increase in housing costs can be allowable. In point 5 above other housing costs specifically exclude involvement of para 11 (residential homeowners acquiring an interest in the home) and there is no reference to para 11 in the relevant DMG. Many thanks and I would be so grateful for any help on how to get this sorted as I'm just hitting my head on a brick wall with every letter written. TPP x

Hi all, Havent posted in years but I just wanted to find out if anyone has had any good progress with Picture / IDEM I tried to dispute and gave up with all the red tape but after realising that I have been paying on time for 90 months and the loan hasnt moved I have found the fire again... below are my details I stupidly took out a Picture Loan in Sept 2007. the loan amount was for 25000, Picture added 5000 PPI to the total loan so the loan amount was 30,000. I found this out after and in discussion with FCSC regarding this.... Some months I have paid £500 with the hope of paying less interest but the interest was still £210 a month. Account is not in arrears so I am not sure if Idem will agree to freeze interest. Now that would be helpful. Ive read some forums that mentioned that IDEM agreed to freeze interest, does anyone have a template letter? In terms of being mis-sold I have researched and some of the below might be valid. I would love to know if any other people who have had a Picture Loan have any valid input or feedback 1) I was not informed that the 5000 would be added to the loan and I would be paying 25 years of interest on it! 2) loan is variable but even though the bank rate is 0.5 this 2nd mortgage loan hasn't decreased (unlike my Halifax Mortgage)... 3) My lack of financial knowledge was used to take advantage of me. I should have been advised to discuss my debt issue with StepChange and setup a Debt Management Plan instead I was encourage to consolidate. 4) The total amount repayable was never made clear, with my mortgage I received a key facts document 5) with my unsecured debt I am in a DMP with StepChange and fortunately the companies involved have frozen interest and charges. Stepchange are unable to assist with this loan because its secure 6) I discussed the issue of the interest rate being variable and never going down with Idem, they said there are unable to assist because initial company has gone bankrupt but Idem do regularly review??? 7) I spoke to FOS and they are unable to help. FSCS can only deal with the PPI not the entire loan 8) Citizens advice have informed me that I may be able to discuss mis representation act but it should have been done within 6 years. I am at a lost but very angry and annoyed that I got myself in this situation I am alot wiser and smarter now and would never make the same mistake. Do you think I could send a F & F settlement for a say £5000 and hope they will accept? Any help or advice is very much appreciated.