Dear all I was issued with a penalty fare about a month ago as I had stupidly failed to notice that my railcard was out of date. I paid half the penalty fare on the spot as I was down to my last £10 cash and was already at my overdraft limit, so (I thought) it would have cost me more to go into unpaid overdraft... The ticket inspector issued me with a bit of paper which I then lost (I am the Queen of organisation....:/). Thus I did not have the PF number so waited for the reminder letter which arrived on 2 Dec dated 26 November. The internet payment option failed to recognise my penalty number notice so I sent my card details by post on about the 7th of December. Within the allotted time. I today received a letter dated 11 Dec saying they had not received payment and I now had to pay another£20 'administration costs' or they will prosecute. They could well have lost my letter or delayed the payment themselves. Should I pay yet another£20 on top (for a £10 'missing' amount!?) or should I write to them about the matter first? It is grim that they use the threat of criminal prosecution as a cosh in this way and I've vowed never to use FCC's poxy service again (I'm not a commuter on that line thank God). I also wondered if it would be worth representing myself in court to get declared not guilty as I accepted the PF and had no intention whatever to evade fares. Stupidity and ignorance are defences to an intentional fraud prosecution. There is also the strict liability element, but as I have in fact paid (and sent my card details today authorising them to take the £10 again) would this apply? And how can a strict liability offence (like a parking fine) bar you from certain careers and entering the USA etc?! This seems crazy to me (and I am a lawyer ) I've also written to FCC customer complaints about the whole sorry saga and am waiting to hear back. I'll let you know what they say :S R

Anyone else having difficulty with the posts not showing the correct time now that the clocks have gone back? I have gone into the User Control Panel and selected Auto Detect DST but it hasn't worked. I'm posting this message at 9pm but it displays it as being made at 10pm. Edit: Fixed it by selecting Turn Off Auto Detect - oops! Mods feel free to delete this thread.

Hi all, Just to let you know there is light at the end of the tunnel. At my worst, I was paying around £700 per month to Payday loans (3 loans). I have now cleared 2 of them (Lending Stream and Payday Express) and have a repayment plan for Speed Credit of £100 per month for the next 3 months (clear just before Christmas). I know some of you will know the relief felt by this freedom, and want to let those of you who feel like you are stuck in the mire that there is a way out

I apologise if this is posted in the wrong forum. Further to my last posts I have now had my Capital One debt referred to CapQuest. There was a standing order set up for Capital One for the sum of £1 pound as instructed this is still in place. I have had no telephone conversations with CapQuest, not that they have not stopped trying. I recieved a letter from them this morning stating that Capital One are happy to accept a reduced amount of £1088.41 to be paid in full or over a 3 month period. I am still in no position to pay this amount of and cannot see this changing in the near future. But my belly is full and my bills are all paid so happy days, well not so happy but life goes on as they say

Anyone been clamped post ban yet ?

HSBC is to allow customers to use the Post Office counter network for basic transactions following criticism by the government. Most UK banks, except for HSBC and Santander, allow customers to make withdrawals and deposits at post offices. A previous consumer minister last year accused the duo of "holding out" against offering the service. HSBC said that it was changing its policy owing to customer demand. A year ago it had claimed that fewer than three in 10 of its customers actually wanted such access. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19623327

Article also states Cabot spent £100m on £6.6b of face value debt, wtf. Is that approx 1.4p in the £ ? http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/14330/online-news/cabot-credit-management-posts-first-results

Hey folks! I am very new to this site (in fact this is my first post) and I apologise if this has been done to death but I am very frustrated with this. I declared myself bankrupt (BR) in march 2009 and was discharged later that year. Now I know that this will "haunt me" on my credit files for six years from that date (so by that reckoning off there in 2015). Yet I seem to have a problem which is: I signed up to "Noddle" and on there I see that I still seem to have a credit card and loan which show as "active" and still in default. So I went off and got my statutory credit files and lo and behold on them all there are so many defaults with dates ranging from after discharge and even this year! I do not have any lending (I only have two basic bank accounts and domestic fuel supply in my name) and I know that all of these debts were included in the BR (any debt at the date is included as far as I know - declared or otherwise). I asked the official receiver to send me a list of all creditors and this has been done. Question is what do I do about this mess? It seems to me (looking at the files) that not only was I bankrupt but I also still owe all this money as defaults lodged in years after the BR date! As you can imagine for someone who wants to put this all behind him that this is stressful and frustrating! Advice most welcomed.

Hi I was wondering if one of the mods would be willing to put something in writing to reassure my other half. Six years ago TODAY (15th Aug 2006) I received the last of a series of defaults on my credit file following identity fraud. I have posted on this site over the years for help and won against DCAs, including ones that tried to issue me with CCJs. Thanks to absolutely rubbish help from the police I have never been able to prove who committed the fraud (I know who it was) so have basically had to wait for a few defaults to drop off my file: A couple of companies were more helpful including Halifax who wrote off £14,000 I alledgedly owed them when I proved it wasn't me. I would like to assure my other half that after today my credit file is clean, as in, the defaults are removed 6 years after being placed there. I am going to apply for my credit file to physically show him in about two weeks (give the credit company a little while to remove the defaults), but I would like to be able to show him something in the meantime - so far he has only been able to take my word for it and is worrying that it will affect his credit status and ability to get a mortgage in the future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank this site, you saved a 24 year old girl who was scared of her own shadow losing sleep and turned her into a 30 year old woman who smiles at the 'threatening' letters full of ifs, buts and maybes and is no longer afraid to admit it is her speaking on the phone when random callers ask. Through this I have been able to help others and will always direct them to you guys. You are genuinely saving lives through this site.

i will try and be brief on this one as baliff issues is not my thing an ex collegue at work has been having problems with HCEO he had a ccj for 6.5 k, with costs 7k the claimant set their dogs onto him via HCEO and all he is paying is £10 a month due to his employment status. HCEO are now saying they are going to start and charge INTEREST on the outstanding amount. the ccj judgement states judgement for the claimant and must pay 6.5 k (and interest to date of judgement) with £500 costs so my question is can HCEO charge post judgement interst when the ccj judgement is interest up to the judgement date and states nothing about post judgement intersts

Hello everyone - first post, hope someone can provide advice. I was recently released from part-time employment after a six month probationary period in a local media organisation. The reason given was that I had declared myself unavailable to attend at short notice certain key events for a limited period due to conflicts with my other source of income. At the interview I had made it crystal clear that I could not survive on the wages of a part-time job and that I had a second source of income which I would attempt to work around wherever possible. In practice , the short notice that was occasionally given for events for the media company meant that in a few instances I was unable to re-organise my diary to be able to attend. A Contract of Employment was only issued to me 10 days before the end of the probationary period and states that "support and feedback" will be provided to help meet the required standard and that any concerns " will be discussed " and "corrective actions detailed ... if regarded sufficiently serious." It goes on to state , that if there are any continuing concerns upon completion of the Probationary Period it might be extended to "demonstrate improvement". They failed to implement any of these procedures and I was simply let go on the basis that I couldn't commit to attend a couple of events at short notice for a limited period of about a month. This was cited as the only reason that I was being released and that otherwise they had been extremely pleased with my performance, that a glowing reference would be provided and that I would be welcomed back at some point in the future in another (unpaid) capacity. My release came as a bolt from the blue given that I was never informed that failure to attend a couple of events was a major problem that would result in my employment being terminated. My belief is that my face simply didn't fit in what is a very small, tightly-knit organisation. I had a number of disagreements with my newly appointed line manager (also on probation) who took my constructive suggestions as criticism. The fact that I was older and a lot more experienced in certain aspects of the job certainly didn't help our relationship which could best be described as strained. I'm pretty sure that I don't have any legal redress but I'd welcome any comments or suggestions from any experts in this field. Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

Hi, I recieved a parking ticket through the post about a month ago. It alleges that I was "parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours". Apparently I had driven off before the PCN could be handed over, therefore it came through the post. I appealed via email, within 14 days. My defense was that I have never parked where alleged, nor did I prevent a parking attendant from issuing me a ticket. My recollection of the day was that my girlfriend was driving my car, she was driving herself to the pub on the road where I was allegedly parked. She got out, I got out and went over to the drivers side in order to then go and carry on with my own business. I sat in the car for a minute adjusting the seat, mirrors, (general faffing about!) and I noticed the traffic warden who was walking along issuing tickets, taking details etc. As I was stopped on a single yellow line, I decided it obviously would be sensible to now actually carry on my journey. The notice of rejection said evidence was available on their website, I logged on and there is no evidence, just the details of the alleged contravention. The notice however states the councils reasons as "the evidence recorded by the CEO shows that when the PCN was issued the male driver returned from the co-op. He was advised he had a ticket but drove off". There is no evidence rcorded by the CEO (on the website at least) and I was never told I had a ticket or even entered into any communication with a warden for that matter. I have now recieved a "notice of rejection of formal appeal". My questions are; why did I recieve a rejection of 'formal rather than 'informal appeal'? How can they make such a bold accusation of me 'returning from the co-op??? (FYI the co-op was directly opposite where my car was stopped, the pub is on my side of the road, they are directly opposite each other). I walked around my car to the drivers side and got in from the passenger seat. Any advice appreciated, I can provide further information if needed! Cheers.

Dear Ed's, spent hours on a new post, I clicked preview, tried to go back and then got a message that I was not logged in. I did log in earlier and cannot see how i became logged out. what happened and can I retreive my post

Hi, I'm due to move to a new company in 3 weeks time and despite handing in my notice nearly 10 weeks ago my current employers have decided that i have breached the restrictive covenants in my contract and have sent me a letter from their solicitors looking for an injunction to stop me starting my new role ? A few facts of this are: there is a cross over of products between my current & new employers but there core products are different although in the same industry so not entirely direct competitors the core products amount of business only accounts for 1.35% of my exisiting companies business which they are trying to protect I have worked in this industry all my life and have therefore built my career and knowledge in this industry I am still working for my current employer they decided not to grant gardening leave. In fact I'm still out selling for them albeit on the Trade side and not the retail side which is my usual area. I know of other employees who have left for direct competitors and nothing happended. So my question is can they really enforce these and what are my next steps. Do I need a solicitor or should I acknowledge the letters myself ???

News as at 5th.July suggests it could be next week before all issues are resolved.There are many reports of failed direct debits and some being duplicated.

Hi guys, Just wondering if you could help me answer my query: (claims of race discrimination, victimisation and constructive dismissal) When claimant resigns in the middle of appeal investigation to earlier grievance in an act of last straw motion from the authority appealed from, do the remaining discriminating actions of the employer who in the end decides not to uphold appeal (surprise surprise but hey! manages to dig themselves even more) count as acts of disrimination and can be claimed in ET1 or is it all until resignation (apart from discrimination with references, whenever that is the case) that should be put in ET1? (the "post-resignation discrimination" will be evidenced anyway, innit?....another bunch of **** looking for trouble...) Ta. xxx

Dear all, This has been sent to my father, last week. My mother was driving in a bus lane, however, is it usual to not include photographic evidence of the alleged contravention anymore, or is that just me being old fashioned, and owners are expected to log in online to see themselves on grainy CCTV? Advise sought! Best wishes, Barnet PCN bus lane 14.06.2012 WEB.pdf

I have several creditors with whom I have come to an arrangement due to my circumstances. My only income is in the form of "Inalienable Benefits", and all have agreed to accept £1.00 per calendar month which I pay by standing order. However, one is giving me a problem. For the last three months they have written to me claiming that I have failed to comply with the agreement, and that they now demand payment in full immediately. I have responded explaining the position and enclosing a copy of their letter which states they have accepted my offer. They have not replied to any of my correspondence and continue to send these threatening letters monthly. What should I do next?

How do you sue royal mail? I have had a p.o. box with them for two years and their banking system failed to take the payment this year which neither my bank or royal mail informed me of, royal mail did not inform me of the cancellation of my p.o. box either. This mail box is used for business and is redirected to my home. I have lost lots of cheques from clients and god knows how much other very important mail, a days wage for both myself and my p.a. to write to customers explaining the situation, postage and the whole embarrassment and loss of face with my clients, which is still going on to date. The box was cancelled on the 30/01/2011, I realized something was wrong & on the 01/03/2011, immediately contacted them, paid for the service to be reinstated (which I was assured it would be put back into place straight away as they would contact the sorting office manager direct) but still lost further post for another three weeks. Surely this service is exempt from the protection of the crown because it is a commercial service and under a contract to deliver? I have had customers that have had to cancel cheques twice and they are not happy, neither am I as I rely on repeat business and recommendations from existing clients. Can I sue for the loss of earnings £400, postage £41, compensation £10k for loss of face/goodwill etc