Now that winter is here and we are restricted somewhat and unable to get out and about in our caravan we are looking for a hobby to pass the time. Unfortunately arthritis does no justice for any hobby as my fingers are thick and I am all thumbs. DIY is probably out of the question. The wife suffers from osteoarthritis so has her own issues. Gets boring on the computer after awhile and watching Tv is not exactly exciting after a few hours. I used to lead an active life a few years ago when cold weather never bothered me. Not sure what we can do. Any serious suggestions.

Hi I have an unsecured loan with Everyday Loans with an extortionate APR rate. I don't have a copy of the signed credit agreement at present but I have requested this in writing together with a statement of transactions, as I have never received this either! At present my monthly repayments are £275 per month on a very small loan (£4k). Although I haven't missed a payment I am struggling to maintain the payments and wondered what my options are and if there's any way I can possibly get this written off? Any advice would be gratefully appreciated! Thanks

To give a little background: My partner asked if I would help her reclaim mis-sold PPI. We have sent the SAR to Nat West and received a repsonse (see attached) in what I thought was good timing - ~3 weeks. I understand the 2003 loans will be a bit different to the 2008 one but I would just like to know : 1. do we need to get all the old statements dating back to 2003 before we can move any further? 2. if so is this a usual stalling tactic from the bank? 3. do I just resend the SAR with the £10 again so we can get staements / agreements etc ? Any help would be gratefully appreciated

The council pays my rent on a private rented property for me, and my children. My dad agreed to be guarantor for the property when i moved in almost 3 years ago. I have never missed a payment. My father retires in April 2013 and obviously doesn't want to be guarantor of the property any more. Ideally i do not want to move house, and disrupt my children, however my landlady when we got house nearly 3 years ago required this. Is there anyway i can stay here without this? What options do i have? Is it all down to talking to landlady? or is there some legal jargon somewhere which may allow me to be my own guarantor, or for the council to be? Please advise. x

I had a credit card with Capital One, got into difficulties, debt passed to Lowells, I then got a Debt Management to look after this debt. Debt management went bust. Now I have Robinson Way after me on behalf on Lowells and Capital One. Looked at what little paper work I had and it looked like it might have been six years since last payment, so I wrote to Robinson Way saying statue barred. this is the contents of their letter. (We do not accept the statue barred on this account. and if you were to demonstrate that this debt is time barred the debt still legally exists and will be reported as such .we would consider a substantial reduction to settle this accounti

Hello guys, This is my first post and before i start, i would like to say how great a site like this is. Reading through some success stories etc. It's nice to see people sharing their knowledge and helping people they have never even met. Here's my situation. I'm currently with the cccs and i have a DMP with 3 lenders; HSBC loan (now with Metropol) -approx £11k left to pay, paid around 6k. Barclay credit card - approx 2,500 left to pay, paid around 1k. Old goldfish credit card (around 10 years old) - Approx £500. The main thing is my loan. I currently pay just over £200 to cccs and they pay most of that to hsbc (metropol now). After reading threads on this site i believe i could have alot of this loan reduced through PPI etc. This loan is now with Metropol but would they of brought the loan of HSBC for less then it is ? The loan is around 7 years old. I went into HSBC the other day and enquired that as my income is alot better then it used to be, could i come off the CCCS and pay them more money directly. They said that my loan is closed with them and that i would need to call Metropol to discuss. Can anyone advise what to do. I don't have any paperwork with regards to my loan so perhaps i could send one of the forms on this site ?? I have never missed a payment to the CCCS in around 4 years but after seeing a few stories on here, i can see that people like metropol buy the loan for less ? I'm trying to determine if i could offer a chunk of money to pay it off and then move on to the other two lenders ??? Thanks in advance

Hi, I am trying to gather some information to help me clear up a few CSA related issues and was hoping someone could clarify a few points for me. Background: NRP was self-employed and earning a low income. As a result of income levels the NRP was exempt from submitting a tax return and was also in receipt of the full amount of Working Tax Credit. During this period of self employment the NRP believed that they were paying the minimum of £5/week to the CSA. The PWC stated that they were in receipt of £5/week during this time. It was the belief that this minimum payment was being paid from source through the Working Tax Credit. More recently the CSA have demanded several £1000's of arrears from the NRP, stating that the £30/week default minimum applied. They further stated that this was because the NRP had not declared the low income from self-employment. To muddy the waters a little the CSA stated that they could only calculate the actual amount owed from the tax returns and as no tax return had been submitted the arrears @ £30/week were correct. (They seemed incapable of understanding that the individual was exempt in law from submitting a full tax return, due to low income from self-employment). The NRP, as stated, believed the £5/week min was deducted from his WTC payments and the PWC says that she received this payment during the revelvant period. The CSA say that this never happened and that no payments were collected during the period of self-employment - thus the arrears calculated at £30/week. Can anyone please please offer guidance on the rules in action here. i.e. Can the CSA collect the minimum payment directly from the NRP's WTC? If they did can they still enforce arrears at £30/week? Can they really claim that the alleged arrears (@ £30/week) are enforceable as no tax return was submitted - bearing in mind that the NRP was exempt in law from having to do so. Additionally, the PWC is currently on Income Support and the NRP would like to pay the PWC a reasonable amount monthly and in person as I believe the PWC has the right to do this and remove the CSA from the equation? Can some please advise if possible, as the situation is remarkably confusing and the NRP cannot afford to pay twice simultaneously (direct to PWC and CSA) should the info he has so far be incorrect. Thanks!

I bought a new tyre for £47.50 from a local garage, when I went to pay my card was declined, it shouldn't have been there was plenty in the account. I paid in cash, when I checked the bank later the money had come out my account, at the time of the transaction the bloke in the garage said there machine was playing up. I went back to the garage they refunded the money back to my card. A few days later the garage called and said the money hadn't gone into their account, I phone my bank they said nothing they can do its an error the other end. The garage are now calling me two or three times a day demanding I sort this out. My bank say its not my problem, they are saying it is. Can I legally tell them to stop harassing me?

Hi All, In January of this year, I requested my credit file from all CRA's however I am still awaiting my fille from EQUIFAX. They are now requesting photographic identification which I am not happy about as they wont give me a reason why this is required. How can I get my credit file without having to supply this documentation, I have absolutely no confidence in sending any personal information to these companies. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!! Kind Regards S13

I was taken to the small claims court by a child minder who minded my daughter for a total of two and a half weeks as I didn't give her 4 weeks notice. Long story short her daughter bit mine very badly twice in the space of a week which went unnoticed, so I removed her from her care after the second time. She was paid for 3 weeks even though she only watched her for two and a half. She won in court as there was no settling in period agreed. I stated at the time and in all correspondence to the lady that I was unable to pay her and the new child care provider. I have always been honest and have never ignored letters etc. The court set the repayments too high so I completed an attachment of earnings, the court agreed for me to make payments of £20pm until the debt is paid. The child minder has challenged this and now I have to go back to court on the 1st October, advise needed, can they increase the payments when I have provided bank statements and pay slips showing I clearly cannot afford any more? I am not a confident public speaker and get very tongue tied can you give advice on how I could word my defence. Thank you for your advice. This lady is very intimidating her letter of dispute was very sarcastic challenging how can anyone live on such a low disposable income (er well me) I am struggling financially but not quite drowning. I make ends meat but have very little left. She is also requesting that I cancel luxury items like my tv package, I haven't had a holiday in years we don't go out on trips as a family as it costs too much so thats about the only thing we do do as a family. I am a single mum of 3, I work as many hours as I can to viably run a home and look after 3 daughters and I am the first to admit I financially struggle. Not looking for sympathy just thought a picture of my situation could help. We go to court on 1st Oct 2012. My first installment of the £20 is due on 1st sept so I will keep to these payments to prove I was not, not paying I just couldn't afford the previous requests.

Hi first post please help I have a property I have owned for 12 years and was made into to flats the gable wall had to be demolished and the property lay empty for 7years I had to move in 5 years ago and and have been making do with the small part I could make for my family so I'm now making the place into 1 house and have received a bill from the council for 12 years council tax for one of the flats can they do this ?

A big thank you to everyone on this site for giving so generously & freely of their time & knowledge. It is invaluable, and has helped me to go from a position of being helpless & hopeless to one of having a lot of control over my financial position. They say knowledge is power and that is certainly true where debts & creditors are concerned. I hope my request for assistance below is not going stretch your generosity too far:-) I need some help with Blair, Oliver Scott (BOS) (Bank of Scotland DCA). My questions are at the end of my preamble. Here is a brief background to the situation: 2010 lost my job, Owed £20K on five credit cards. Continued with payments on the cards using redundancy money and pension Income thinking I would get another job (I was 63 at the time, now 65). I didn’t and ended up in a financial mess. Took advice from National Debtline, scoured this forum for user experiences and then Set up a DMP with CCCS. Started July 2011, creditors agreed and also agreed not to add interest or charges to the accounts. Everything was fine until Halifax (Bank of Scotland) passed the debt to BOS. At first they agreed the DMP but then began to send the usual ‘ThreatO’grams’ , coupled with 2 or 3 phone calls per day. I ignored them and sent the Standard anti-harassment letter from the forum library. This had some effect but I was concerned about the threats of court action., so I decided to take some action to limit the possibility. NOTE: I am still running the DMP and I intend to continue doing so. No other creditor has caused me hassle, and so I was reasonably confident that BOS would not go to court under the circumstances. The DMP is fully in accordance with the Common Financial Statement used by the courts, and administered by CCCS , who are respected in the Industry. However, just in case, I wanted a solid defence (defences) of some sort. I was sure they would not be able to supply the original agreement with Halifax due to the way it was initially set up in March 2007, so I sent a CCA request with a postal order for £1 (which they used as a payment against the debt !). My thinking was that I might be able to put the debt into dispute and prevent any future judgement, whilst still behaving reasonably myself and thereby showing BOS as being unreasonable if they later went to court. Today I received a reply, posted two days after the prescribed period time limit expired, enclosing a reconstituted agreement which is materially different in a number of ways from the original, they did not include a statement of account as requested and did not include other documentation which I think they should have. Questions:- 1) If the reconstituted agreement is materially different from the original then they have not complied with S78 Correct ?? (I can post all documents on-line if you want me to??) 2) Problem is, how do I use that to my advantage because to do so would mean admitting I have the original. 3) As they have not sent a statement of account does that by itself, put them in a non-compliant S78 position?? 4) Also the OFT guidelines state in relation to the CCA:- ‘Where an agreement has been varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Act, the OFT considers that, by virtue of Regulation 7 of the Copies of Documents Regulations, the duty is to provide not only a copy of the agreement as originally executed but also either a copy of the latest variation given in accordance with section 82(1) of the Act relating to each discrete term of the agreement which has been varied, or a clear statement of the terms of the agreement as varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Act. 2.28 Although some creditors have apparently considered it is sufficient to provide a copy of the current terms and conditions (that is, 'a statement of the terms of the agreement as varied'), that does not comply with the requirements of Regulation 7. In Carey v HSBC Bank plc, there was detailed analysis of this issue and it was confirmed that 'include' meant that the documents showing the variations were to be supplied in addition to a copy of the original agreement.’ Halifax only included a copy of their current terms & conditions but there have been several variations of the original agreement. How do I use that omission without falling foul of the problem I raised in question 2 ?? 5) Would you agree that a DPA section 10/12 request is valid in a dispute scenario ? 6) Problem is, I want to make a SAR and the above action would make that hard? 7) If I could legitimately now place the account into dispute, how long do they have to comply with the CCA S78 before they commit offences under other Acts and compound their problems. (e.g. CPUTR ) 8) If at the end of the day I cannot dispute the account, and ‘if’ they ever go to court, can I use the Civil Procedures Rules 4.6, pre-action disclosure ? Is it still the case that BOS would have to produce the Original agreement and not a reconstituted agreement as per CCA S78(1) ? Thanks in anticipation. I have another subject to raise about Blair Oliver Scott but I am not sure where to post it. It is regarding Accounting anomalies & possible trading violations, where would you suggest?

Hello, I'm proposing the spreadsheet guru's out there devise a new one to replace the runningfos one. In my case, if I remove Over limit Fees and Late Payment fees from the monthly payment column, it eventually puts the PPI payment column into a positive black rather than a negative red, thus rendering the rest of the calculations useless after the point that happens. It starts counting the running PPI balance from 0 instead of the last rows value. Before anyone says you cannot claim charges on PPI, I would ask you to read the following information taken from the FoS website. If this is wrong, is there any evidence? If you read the ombudsman case studies, they suggest the bank should re-instate you to the position you would have been had you not taken out PPI. This includes charges as a result of the premiums. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/ppi/redress.html case study 2: credit-card account closed and PPI policy cancelled before ombudsman decision So, although credit card "penalties" could be dealt with as unfair and illegal, they should also be able to be dealt with via PPI redress - IF the reconstructed statement shows the account would have been within it's limits had it not been for PPI. Ie my case I received 8 charges totalling £395 in 2004 in late payment and over limit fees on my way to a trust deed My reconstructed statement shows that with the removal of PPI and associated interest, my account was actually in credit from 03/09/03 until the account was closed on 10/03/05. That shows that the over limit charges and late payment fees were a direct result of PPi being added to the account. As the account would have been in credit - No payments would have been due and I would not have been over the limit. I would imagine it would be easier to win back your charges this way, albiet the reward may be less.

Hi All, I am new to this so apologies for any mistakes, i just wanted some advice on the debt collector Robinson Way (or any debt collector for that matter), i got in financial difficulties a few years ago and was being charged stupid amounts in default charges by santandar, i had an overdraft with them of £1000 which they decided to cancel once my wages went in, luckily i managed to get it back on the agreement that i kept within my limit and then half way through the month they hit me with more charges from the previous month which sent me over again so i just moved banks, this was approx five years ago. I was contacted by Robinson Way and i agreed to pay £50 per month which i have been paying every month for approx 2 years (i forgot to mention that the debt ended up around £2000 after all the charges etc. In those 18 months i think i missed two payments, one of them i paid double the month after and the other i just carried on with the £50. i lost my job 2 weeks ago so got a reduced wage for the month and so this didnt get paid but i have started a new job already but dont get paid until the end of the month, now this is where the fun starts, i spoke to Robinson Way today and explained this and they have stated that Robinson ways payment policy has now changed and now they no longer accept card payments and will now only accept cash payments which will be collected by a doorstep collector. Firstly, they only have my Mothers address which i dont live there anymore and dont particularly want them callng there to scare an old lady and secondly, there is no chance i want to be handing over cash to anyone knocking at the door full stop. What are my rights/options in this situation and what course of action should i take? Any help is appreciated.

I've requested documents under the CCA, and had enclosed the standard £1 postal order. My letter and fee have been returned stating my signature is required before they can proceed. I've read elsewhere that signatures are not needed and are discouraged from being included so that they cannot be used or falsified in documents. Can anyone advise as to how I should proceed please? If I resend this unsigned again (they've sent an alternative address to send to), will the original date it was sent still be valid for their statutory time limit? Many thanks

Hi, I was accepted for my debt relief order this week, before it was submitted on the day I rang creditors and got up to date balances, these were submitted. My DRO was granted the next day, this morning I received a statement from one of my creditors and it seems the day I rang up for the balances that evening they updated the balance and now one of my amounts is wrong, it is only out by about £9 I actually added extra to the balance in case of charges, so now what do I do? I am so annoyed I asked on the phone was the balance correct for the day and they said yes, no mention of charges being added the end of the day. I know I am not supposed to make payments when the DRO has been granted, but I am afraid now the balance is wrong the company will add charges and interest to the £9 owed and then I will be back to square one again. The creditor is a catalogue and we all know how they like to add on the £12 charges. I am going to ring the insolvency service to ask but they are not there until monday, and I feel anxious about this now, has anyone else been in a similar position who could advise me, any answers or advice greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Background My daughter is a tenant in a shared house on a (joint) AST which runs from July2011 until June 2012. Unusually, the landlord required a new AST agreement (From July 2012 until June 2013) to be signed by the 3 tenants already in December 2011. I signed as guarantor for my daughter for both tenancy agreements based upon the fact that she was receiving a maintenance grant from Student Finance. She was never provided with a copy of the tenancy agreement in either case. In January this year, she decided (for a number of reasons) to drop out of Uni and moved out of the house. Over the last 5 months she has found a number of potential replacement tenants that have all been (initially) approved by the other 2 tenants only to have them rejected at the last moment without any reasons being given. Two of her potential tenants were even given viewings by the landlord who then recommended them to the others but these were also rejected without any reasons being given. My daughter has religiously paid the rent over the last 5 months but cannot afford to pay any more as she is now an apprentice on a very low income. The landlord has stated that he cannot take sides or show favour to anyone and has said (quite rightly) that cooperation is needed. Unfortunately, all attempts by my daughter to make contact by telephone or email receive no reply. They are holding her to ransom and this cannot continue. The landlord has made no efforts to mediate or to help in finding a new tenant. The landlord is now chasing me for the unpaid rent for June 2012. Due to these events, I started to research my liability as guarantor. Here are the facts as they pertain to me. 1. The landlord sent guarantor "forms" for me to sign. They simply state that I agree to stand guarantor for my daughter and to pay any rent or costs from a breach of the Tenancy Agreement . They are not deeds and only contain the address of the rental property. Only my daughters name is mentioned and there is nothing mentioned about how much the rent is. 2. No accompanying letters (requiring me to study the tenancy agreement) were sent and the only copy of a tenancy agreement I have ever seen is one I requested from the landlord on the 1st June this year. 3. The landlord maintains that there is a "template" tenancy agreement on his website and this is sufficient for me to have seen what my responsibilities were. 4. The CAB have advised me not to pay but it was not a solicitor who provided the advice. I would simply like to know where I stand and if I have a reasonable defence if this ever comes to the small claims court. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

My friend got a PCN while delivering parcels in Exeter High Street where loading is not allowed between 10am and 6pm (ie. the only times when some shops are open which is a bit daft). It all looks legitimate (checked the TRO and dates on the ticket) except for one point. There are no yellow markings on the pavements. Are yellow markings on the pavements an essential requirement for loading restrictions? The contravention is "Parked or loading/unloading in a restricted street where waiting and loading/unloading restrictions are in force (02)"