I am currently in dispute with the Halifax credit card people over miss sold PPI which is now with the financial ombudsman. My outstanding is around 6k, I am responsible enough to appreciate that I must pay this back. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of them returning my PPI payments. They did however offer me a settlement of half the balance a couple of months ago, ironically a similar figure to what I would expect the PPI settlement to be. Halifax then decided to hand over the outstanding debt and I received a letter 2 days ago from the delightful Moorcroft Debt Recovery, with the usual ambiguously worded threats etc. .quite honestly until the PPI issue is resolved they can whistle Dixie. My real issue is that today I received a call from my old office stating that a man called Ben from MDR had called asking for me and left a number to ring him back. Ringing me at work, really! surely thats not on and in their letter they generously gave me 7 days to respond and this is day 2 am I being harassed here, it sure feels like it.

Hi everyone, So in October 2003 I obtain a loan from First Plus. I used loans.co.uk as a broker and applied - they suggested First Plus as my best option and I obtained a loan for £42,000 over 10 years to consolidate a massive pile of smaller short term loans that were crippling me. (Yeah I know I should have done different things now but here we are, bear with the story if you can). At the time they mentioned PPI to me. I told them I havd critical illness cover and income protection cover but they said at the time that I would probabyl get the best chance of a good rate if I opted for the PPI. I said ok. I received the papers and signed up, though at the time I never even noticed that when the papers came through, they had a pre-ticked box telling me that I had selected PPI. I mention this as it was not drawn to my attention and un-ticking a printed box is quite hard to do anyway... That is besides the point, at the time I did't notice and just got on with it. It added over £14,700 to my loan and was cover for 5 years at the end of which I would receive a lump sum of the whole amount back less a small admin fee. The only way I would not get the money was if I was in arrears or so I thought. About 40 or 45 days later I called First Plus and asked them about cancellation of the PPI as it seemed like a lot of money and I really wanted to keep my payments as low as possible. I was told I would only get about £300 and the amount would remain part of my debt. So I declined to end it and thought, "look forward to getting the cheque back". Swing forward to October 2008. My 5 years is up. I can claim for the refund. So I do and get rejected. Even to this day I still do not have a full reason given to me why I was rejected though I suspect it is because I was late paying a couple of times, even though I was fully up to date at the point at which I claimed So now as you can imagine, i'm quite upset and complain to First Plus and get told to go to loans.co.uk, I go to loans.co.uk and now get told that I agreed to all this and I should go away. I write to the FOS and send everything off, they send it back because I haven't had a 'final' answer from loans.co.uk or First Plus. I then chase for a final answer and resubmit to the FOS who say they never received my papers so I send it all again. During this time they state they have no jurisdiction over the case because of when it was sold to me and that they will try to establish if the insurer is worth pursuing. This is the first point at which I find that I had an agreement with a thrid party insurer. I only ever signed an agreement with loans.co.uk and First Plus. Finally the FOS start to look at it and time goes by... bascially, they have just (last month) contacted me to say that they cannot uphold any complaint against anyone. I have asked for a review of matters with the FOS and for the case to go to an Ombudsman (quite why it hadn't already is beyond me). The bottom line is that I was sold insurance I plainly didn't need, that was front loaded to the loan, that was for only part of the term of the loan and that after re-reading the terms of the PPI, it would not have paid out anyway for any circumstance that could have befallen me. It was basically, no insurance at all and did not provide a cover appropriate to my needs. Secondary to this is that I was lied to upfront about why I needed the PPI (to get the best lender's rate). Finally, I had no idea I had made an arrangement with another party (the insurers) and if I had known I would have approached them myself for mroe information about rejection etc. Basically loans.co.uk and First Plus have played a blinder in deceiving me about everything and the FOS say there is nothing at all that can be done. Since I was rejected, I had a couple of more months where it was difficult to pay so I asked if they could extend the term and they have do but the whole debt has been re-factored and now it looks like if I pay the full amount, I will end up paying back something over £260,000 to have borrowed £42,000. I've calculated that even at the higest interest rate, if you take off the amount of overpayment made by paying each month for PPI, I've already repaid the loan. The rate just keeps going up and up and it's now at 15.9% (actually i'm sure it just went up again). What else can I do? Who else can help? In the time between the first sending of information to the FOS and now I have lost my copy of the loan agreement - it's probably me that's in the wrong there. But First Plus were unable to provide the FOS with any paperwork showing I had signed up to a loan. I'm about to send First Plus a subject access request to get all records from them. Hopefully this will help me sort out what atual agreement I have with them. I've followed what was apaprently good advice to manage my finances better but i've been left high and dry. Does anyone have any advice? I shall now be spending the rest of the weekend reading this forum to find out anything else I might need to know. Thanks for reading this far. If you have further advice then let me know. I woudl love to hear from others who have delat with First Plus and can give me any inside track. Rob.

was at work today when the fax kicked out some marketing junk. had a quick look and it was from a DCA and on the fax it states "We are Highly motivated and trained professional collectors - who are legally permitted to visit debtors at home or a place of business" are they allowed to put that? thanks

Hi all, Little bit of info that may be useful to you. I'm thinking of changing my phone, and one option I'm looking at is an iPhone. My car has built-in bluetooth, which does support the A2DP protocol that Apple (and maybe others) needs to allow you to play music from the phone via the in-car bluetooth. I'm glad I decided to check whether it would work before I changed my phone as this is the main reason I wanted a new phone. My car (11 plate Mondeo Titanium X) contains a Sony CD DAB unit with A2DP enabled bluetooth. Not sure about others, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning this little snippet.

asking for a friend. she opened a chargeback for goods not received on the 8th january, rbs are giving her the run around (in my opinion) theyve sent out 2 or 3 sets of forms for her to fill in and she was told today her case wont be reviewed til the 18th feb. she still doesn't have her money. now i thought (and this is whats happened when ive previously had to do a chargeback) you get your money back then they investigate? feel sorry for her cause its over a £100 she's loosing out on

Hi, Can anyone help with this ? Purchased a watch of an online auction (bidspotter) it had very little information on the description. Anyway, cut the story short I won the bid it arrived and it is not working eg faulty. I have obviously complained, and was duly told read our t&c's NO REFUND. Surely my statutory rights apply, as they did not state it was in a faulty condition ? The Sale of Goods Act 1979 makes it an implied term of the contract that goods be as described of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose.

I am just wondering if it is advisable to contact a DCA via email? I have had a financial statement CASHflowed by National Debtline detailing what I can afford to pay, and want to get it sent off asap as I am being threatened with a statutory demand. Is there any reason I shouldn't send it to the DCA via email?

Hi, my apologies if this is the wrong place for this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Around a year and a half ago my son was living with me and had an account with a catalogue (Premier Man I believe it was). He ordered around about 70-80 pounds worth of stuff and against me knowing a great deal, never paid it back. He's since moved out and for some time now letters have been arriving regarding the debt. It was eventually passed on to another company and another etc etc. Most of the letters eventually had the usual 'WARNING' stuff and how he had a certain amount of time to pay it off. I opened one of these letters the other day which was from Fredrickson (Fredpay.com). It said how it was a letter before action and: "The DEBT MUST BE PAID IN FULL TO THESE OFFICES WITHIN THE NEXT 7 DAYS OTHERWISE WE WILL TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION. There remains a balance outstanding on this account and legal action is now being considered. Should it be necessary to issue proceedings in the County Court (or the Sheriff Court as may be appropriate), further additional costs will be added to outstanding balance." It then says the balance is now at 275 pounds after interest, court fees, solicitor costs etc. It then says if a judgement or decree is obtained and remains unsatisfied a bailiff or sheriff officer may be instructed to recover assets to discharge the outstanding debt. Of course then goes on to say how they accept debt cards etc and to go to their site. Of course the bailiff part is the part that's got me worried. I'm worried stiff of getting a knock on the door around Christmas to find bailiffs on my door threatening to take away my own belongings. Of course my son no longer lives with me and hasn't for a while, but I'm still worried that once they're here, they'll have none of that. Am I right to be worried and is there anything I should do? The last thing I want is anything like this happening over Christmas. Any help would really be appreciated.

I had a £300 fine for speeding which I was paying off in installments. I thought I'd finished (but I hadn't) and the last £45 was passed to Rockwell for collection. They've now added £300 and are demanding half now, half in four weeks. I've said I can pay £50 a month but the lady on the phone just says it's not enough. My understanding is, as it's from the courts, that they *do* have the right to turn up and take my car from me. ( i could be wrong) Where do I stand? Can I force them to accept a £50/month payment? I'm anxious not to have the bailiffs turn up at my front door as they'll add another £200 to the debt..

Its been a while since I posted so heres the outcome. The fos have received an offer from Minicredit to settle the debt. Basically it is the original loan+interest+the 2 default fees less what i have already paid. The fos adjudicator basically said that in his view the second default charge was fair enough as I didn't contact them until after that date.In his view their offer was fair and correct. I am going to accept the offer as Minicredit said they would be willing to negotiate a payment plan if I wanted one. Also the Ombudsman could still find in there favour and I really don't want to take that chance! KEEP AT IT PEOPLE! You can EVENTUALLY make them listen!

Hi everyone. I had noticed that I was not alone in receiving a claim for "part payment of monies due," on Friday 13th. As it seems to be identical to others, I was just going to follow the great advice given, but was advised to start my own thread. This was originally a Marks & Spencer credit card, which their finance dept transferred to a loan, when repayments got too difficult for me to meet (a few years back ). Anyway, it transpires that Sigma SPV1 was assigned to take on the loan in December. Issued 10 July 2012 POC: Part only of monies due under regulated Credit Agreement number ---------- Between Marks and Spencer Financial Services plc and the Defendant the benefit of which was assigned to the Claimant on 21/12/2011 The Agreement terminated upon the Defendant(s) failure to comply with the terms of the Agreement and/or the statutory Notice of Default served by Marks and Spencer Financial Services plc The Claimant seeks interest pusuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of the issue continuing at the daily rate of 0.07 Any payments or queries should be directed to the claimant on: Phone number ---- Email: Info@------ I have already acknowledged service online with giving my intention to defend all of the claim! I really don't understand why this particular stratergy is being used! The only letter received from this company, was an apology, because they had sent correspondence with my name to the wrong address. I suspect there may have been others, as I have returned a number of letters unopened, which have arrived over the past few months, due to the envelopes being addressed to an unknown person. So next step - do I now ask them to reveal their evidence? Also, by what date should my defence be prepared by? Many thanks LEYLA

Hi there i have a long story to share but in short.. few years back i had loan which i couldnt pay the installment i supposed to but later negotiated with them and paid them the installment which i could. the most important thing is, i had ppi in that loan. so claimed it using third party.. now got the letter from barclays that i will going to get the refund of £3000 but the half of it will be used to paid the loan which is still running and half of the money will be paid in to the saving account.. which i have never access it in these 4 5 years time... now my question is how i am going to acces that account, i dont have any details of that account, on the top of that i had current acount in barclays which is of £250 of arrears... what to do to get the access that saving acount where i have about £1500 . what step should i take to get the money. now i have got call from that third party who helped me to get the refund. their charges is 30% plus VAT and i am entitled to pay the fees which is £1100.. thank you for going through my queries take care

Hi, looking for some advice - I submitted a ppi claim to MBNA using the standard FOS questionnaire form a couple of weeks later they wrote to me asking me to contact them to verify my identity before they could progress with my claim, when after 5 attempts to get through to appropriate department (on hold for at least 15mins each time - number given on letter went to a recorded message then cut you off) I was asked to confirm my date of birth which was on the form I submitted originally!! Now 2 further weeks later I got a text message today saying " To help us investigate your complaint we require some additional information. Please call us on 01244 672143 & our specialised team will be able to help you" Is this standard practice? Do I ignore or call them - I think if they are investigating my complaint they have all the information required on the claim form? Any help gratefully received

I have been sent a letter from a DCA called Consumer Credit Services acting on behalf of HMRC. I'm self employed and I have been trying to pay off a tax bill dating from January 31st of this year totalling £9,500 of which I have paid off until this date £7000. Leaving amount due of around £2,500 + a bit of interest. I did not contact HMRC which is a mistake on my part - figured it would be paid off sooner and wouldn't need a payment plan or anything. However they have now escalated this to a DCA to collect a total of £3983 (which is an outdated amount after £1,400 was paid off after date of DCAs letter). My question is how do I go about paying this, I would prefer to pay off remaining balance to HMRC - I can afford around £1000 per month give or take a few £100. Should I respond to the DCA letter saying the amount is incorrect? And then pay their correct balance off once they respond? Or just continue to pay HMRC what I can until the debt is gone, probably 2 months. I'm just not sure who takes priority I'm assuming HMRC would rather I kept paying direct into their account. Thank you in advance for your help.

hi all, This post is on behalf of a friend and im looking for some advice regarding barclays bank. My friend holds a savings account with barclays, near the end of may her entire balance was wiped out of her account. My friend immeadiately contacted her account holding barclays branch, and was advised that fraud had taken place on her account. She was told that it would take 6 months for barclays to investigate the fraud on her account and plus she would have to wait this time to get her money back. Something doesnt sit right here? Any suggestions/advice appreciated. Thanks

Hi all First post, was looking for some assistance if possible. I recently received a PCN in Manchester City Centre (Code 05) having left my vehicle in a parking bay and wanted your opinions on whether I have grounds for an arguable appeal. I used the 'pay by phone' system for the first time as I had no change on me. As it was my first time I had to register my card details and then speak to an operator to set a PIN. I was then put back through to the automated system to pay. I followed the process and left my vehicle believing that I had paid to park in the correct location and having paid to park beyond the 20:00 (!) point at which payment is no longer required. I returned to my car to find I had been issued with a PCN at around 19:30. It seems to me that either (a) 'Pay by phone' have screwed up my registration/payment; or (b) I have made a mistake in inputting either the location or my payment details. I am currently awaiting a call from the 'pay by phone' people regarding whether they can identify any fault in their systems - I can guess the outcome of that... Anyway, if I have made an error in inputting my details do I have any arguable case? Also, is code 05 the appropriate code? N.B. - To date no payment has been taken for parking. The price would have been circa £2. Many thanks in advance.

Hi all, i am looking to improve my credit rating, as i want to get a mortgage in a couple of years or so. The reason i came to this section, is that i have 2 defaults on my credit file. Both from banks RBS and Abbey/Santander, i aquired these when i was younger and stupid and very unaware of what a default is/was. I got these through unauthorised overdrafts, less than £10 or so, then getting drawn into the spiral then before long the £15/30 charge becomes £300/500 I have been looking at all routes if possible to remove the defaults, both show as satisfied, as i payed the amounts off. Can i reclaim the bank charges? or ask for removal of default from my file as a gesture of good will? Any advice much appreciated, i guess you can see i am not very clued up in this department, but learning quick