Hello everybody, I am acting for my partner who had PPI added to his Capital One credit card account one month after he took on the credit card. He did not sign or tick a box to accept PPI. He was quite clear to Capital One during the application process - he didn't want PPI. One month after he signed the agreement, Capital One telephoned him and asked him to have a direct debit. He said yes to the direct debit. He always worked very long hours so did not notice until last year that Capital One had added PPI to his account the same day as that phone call. As soon as he noticed, he cancelled it. Capital One refused to refund the PPI payments. We went to the FOS, whose adjudicator gave his decision that because my partner spoke to Capital One in that telephone conversation one month after opening the account, my partner "must have, on the balance of probabilities", agreed to taking out PPI. This, despite the fact that my partner provided the copy original credit card agreement, (hard evidence), and Capital One only provided the standard blank telephone script. We complained to the adjudicator and asked for an ombudsman to take on the case. The adjudicator wrote back explaining his reasons in full, and saying he wanted to "resolve the matter informally", and asked my partner again if he wanted to put it to an Ombudsman, or accept his "view" so as "not to delay matters further". My partner has written back saying that he had already requested that the matter go to an Ombudsman and that he is contacting our local MP. I personally believe that the FOS have agreed a quota with the credit card companies, as to how many consumers' claims they will let through (decide in favour of), and that they are now under so much pressure due to the number of claims they are processing, that they now wish to get rid of as many claims as possible, without looking at hard evidence. I believe it will take interference from an MP to get a fair investigation and a fair decision from the FOS.

Hi guys, new here and after some advice on a rather messy situation if possible..... Around 2011/2012, i was discharged from an IVA id been paying into as i lost my job at the time, was out of work for a lengthy period, and had no way of covering the amounts set. The IVA company handling my account told me the creditors would "probably" start contacting me again in pursuit of the monies outstanding. Some did, some didn't. After a period of around 6 months, i was offered settlement on a couple of these, which I accepted. As i wasn't being pursued by the others, i assumed the matters were closed. Naively. Roll on to 2 weeks ago when I received a letter from Drydens, this was a phishing letter as they wanted to know if i lived at my new address, of which ive been at 8 months. No mention of debt, just an "is this you" letter. i ignored it. Today ive received another letter from them, addressed to me and detailing the debt of approx £1200 to a company I've never heard of. I believe this company to be a Luxembourg company that buys debts. But to me, it could be anyone, and none of the original creditors I owed. After 5.5 years, to be honest, I have no idea who i paid off, who's was left chasing, and who gave up. This amount is on my credit file, but again, i have no recollection of the company Drysdens are claiming i owe this money to. Also, it looks like this debt will become SB'd in December of this year, Dec 2017. There are 3 entries, of which this is one, on my CF that are "closed", whatever that means. where do i go from here? Do i just ignore Drydens, do i ask who this is they claim i owe money to? Do i try and ride it out to SB'd? Any advice appreciated. S

Hi, Can someone help pls, i just received a court claim for a money i owed on credit card about £1k with Xcredit card company since 2010 which was passed to capquest then to drysden fairfax solicitor, what do i do pls the court letter was issed on 14th Oct 16, i check my credit report from experian and it does not show the credit drysden are requesting for, it only show two other credit i owed only, i have called experian again to recheck my file but they are having problem with their server now, will do that tomorrow, can i go get a no-win-mo-fee to help me out pls, i will appreciate any question to help me.

Hi First post here. I have an old debt with Egg from around 2000 for roughly £2900. I was on a CAB plan paying £1 token payment for a while at the time but stopped paying , I never heard anything for years and now Capquest own the debt . I think I might remember paying them £10 a month 3-4 years ago for a while but due to financial hardship stopped paying. Though I cant be certain on this as I cant seem to find any details at the moment. They have recently sent me letters again and have refered it to Drydens Fairfax who have given me to the 30th Nov to offer a payment proposal otherwise court action. Which means I`ll have to send them a ltter either today or tomorrow .What should I do , offer £5 a month or something or play hardball. I don't really want a CCJ as I already have one from Drydens at £10 a month for another card debt. I wish I had know of the Statute Barred act before I may(possibly) have paid Capquest 3-4 years ago as it was probably unenforceable back then. thanks Tired and Weary

Hi all Been very quiet on here for quite a while, due to no DCA's trying to contact me about the usual. Today however, I have received a letter from a company called Drydens Fairfax. There is perhaps one debt I have that COULD still be enforceable - mortgage shortfall, sadly! All the others to the best of my knowledge, Statute barred. Any idea who the clients of this outfit could be?? The letter is the DCA's usual, "Are you XXX? Do you know where XXX is?? If you are not XXX, please accept our apologies........." and so on and so forth. Obviously I have no intention of contacting them unless they come up with something a little more convincing. Worrying thing is, the wife has one as well, which means if there is a debt, it's a joint one, and there's only two of I know of that could be - one being the shortfall, another being Wel**** Finance. It's a company based up north, which makes me think it may be from Cattles Group/Welcome finance, which is definitely SB. Any words of wisdom, folks?? Thanks.

Afternoon All, I owe around £1k to HMRC I have written to them to explain that I am only earning a very small amount of money and in receipt of tax credits. At the moment my outgoings are higher than my income by quite some margin. I've paid a small amount towards the debt directly to HMRC (£25) on their website and offered to pay a regularly monthly amount in my letter directly to them, no response. I sent my letter by recorded delivery, so I know it was received but nothing back. Now I'm getting letters from their debt collecting solicitors Drysden Fairfax. They're obviously written to play on peoples ignorance of the law, insinuating they'll seize goods etc, but there is not CCJ summons, its just a threatening letter. My understanding is until this goes to CCJ they don't have any power to recover this beyond writing threatening letters. I assume if I engage with these solicitors I have to pay my debt plus their fees? My questions are, can I still deal directly with HMRC or do I have to deal with their debt collectors. Or do HMRC stop dealing with your account whilst its been given to this company? They've already threatened to take me to court three times and given three deadlines which they haven't kept. Would they take me to court for £1k? How long before they would actually take me to court? Can they do so when I have paid money and offered to pay money, the most I can afford.. Thank you. .

Hi, A bit of background history. I took out a Vanquis card about 4 years ago, 2 years ago I got into financial trouble and couldn't afford to repay all my debts, everybody except Vanquis agreed to let me pay a reduced sum for a few months to get back on track which I have done. However, while trying to repay everything Vanquis were getting a payment each month but not always the minimum payment and as a result the debt on the card spiralled with missed payment charges, then over limit charges and any other charge they decided to add. I will be honest and say that once the minimum payment got so high that there was no way I could afford it, I stupidly made the decision to stop paying them and concentrate on the other debts (1 bad debt as opposed to 4 bad debts is how i looked at it). In the past year or so I have had a couple of letters from Capquest saying they wanted the money etc, I just put them to the side and forgot about them. this weekend I get a letter from Drydens Fairfax Solicitors saying. "We have now received instructions to issue a claim against you in the County Court to recover the sum outstanding. It is not too late to stop the claim being issued, please call us on 0113 823 3386 or if you prefer write to us at the address below. "(The address is Capquest) They then have a paragraph titled: Information about our claim In here they then list the pre action conduct and how they intend to prove to the court the money is owed. My question is, I do admit I owe the money and do want to repay it so am not looking for a way out, but I do want to try and get it reduced due to the repayment protection policy i had at the beginning that did not benefit me as I was self employed so cancelled it after a few months and also all the charges added to the account. I am sending an SAR to Capquest but wondered if there is any way I can hold Drydens off issuing a cliam as they only give me until the 21st Jan to pay or advise of a dispute, otherwise a claim will be issued straight away. As the SAR takes 40 days that takes me way past the 21st, but I don't want to write to them and let them know that I am requesting the info incase they see that as a trigger to fire of the claim before the info comes through, on the other hand I want them to hold off. I was thinking of writing and offering them a monthly offer (it wont be much as I am self employed, made a loss last year, going to make a loss again this year, get housing benefit and tax credit with no real income) don't think they will go for it, but by making an offer do you think it would it then open dialogue with them enough to hold off claiming? I hope I have explained what I would like to happen, I am not very good at explaining things Any advice appreciated

Hi All I had a credit card with MBNA which I defaulted on, as I couldn't afford the payments on it. I sent a CCA request many moons ago (Feb 2009 to be precise) and all I received back was a template CCA with no signature. I have now received a letter from Drydens Fairfax stating that I must pay the outstanding amount (£10K). It also states if I do not respond by 9th May 2014 then they may commence legal action. I have not paid any money since I sent my original CCA request back in Feb 09. I am also aware that in Feb 2015 this would be Statute Barred ? Is it worth me asking Drydens for a CCA ? Or is there anything else I could do, such as asking it to be passed back to the original creditor ? Regards Lee

Today I received the attached letter from Arrow regarding a debt they purchased original date of account 2007? and have now reassigned it to Drydan Fairfax. I have never had any dealings with Arrow and I cannot recall any debt to them. It mentions that the original account was for Orange. I have had an Orange phone in the past but that was in the mid 2000's. Can you advise me how to deal with it please as I am at a total blank with this.

Hi hoping someone can have a look at these letters for me , i am posting these for my brother, he received some very nice letters from a place called drysden fairfax claiming to act on behalf of arrow global. these very nice people are demanding £1300 two days before christmas or they are threatening court, bailiffs etc. As soon as he received the first letter i advised him to send a CCA to this arrow global to see what this debt is and who they bought it from as he doesnt know what it is. I confirmed that Global received it the same day that Drysden sent their second threatening letter to him. So he is hoping that might slow them down for a week or two until he figures out what this debt actually is. Can they start legal proceedings before they provide the documents he has requested? Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Regards

Hi, I am wondering if anyone can advise. After months of harassment I agreed payments on a £6k debt of £50/month with these people. I sent the first payment by Postal Order and a letter requesting a form to set the standing order up. No response. Month two I did the same but stated I could not afford to continue to pay the £50 plus the cost of the PO plus the cost of the recorded delivery and asked for a SO form or I would only be able to pay the PO for the amount minus the cost of buying it and the postage, no response. Month 3 I sent the PO less the amount for recorded delivery and the cost of the PO, again requested a SO form. No response. Today they sent me a letter stating I failed to maintain the payment and I have 7 days to bring this up to date of they will take action to recover the full amount. They have also started calling me again, despite my stating quite strongly that I will only correspond in writing. Can someone please advise me what I can do here? I am getting extremely stressed and upset. Thanks!

I am about to go to court with drydens over an old vanquis card. I am just wondering if anyone else can post up ; 1. have drydens taken them to court and if so how did they get on? 2. did drydens start bthe action with no CCA agreement? 3.how near to statute barred was your account? 4. did they send you a real CCA or a 'true copy' or a dodgey internet one? I want to see if this is a policy with them and if they are bringing frivilous actions in the hope of scareing people into settling. If there is a pattern I make make a complaint to the SRA and the OFT

Hey everyone, I am new to the forums and although I had joined a few weeks ago I haven't been able to come online to air my problem(s). I will cut to the chase and give only the details rather than a fluffy story so here goes. I have in the past received letters from the Halifax but after becoming almost homeless I ended up in emergency accommodation for the university I attended. For a short time I dropped off the radar and didn't hear anything (nor did I think anything of them...out of sight out of mind etc.) Since then I have moved a few times and after a fall out with my parents (who I am now fully estranged from) my father gave them my address after a letter had come to their house. Anyway I was unable to pay anything as I was studying and looking after my young son so I then had westcott debt services onto me last year. I paid them some money but again fell into hardship and they chased me for a while. Then all of a sudden it was a new company after me...Comquest agency. They fell by the wayside after a month or two and then I never heard anything of it. That was a couple of months ago and then a couple of weeks ago I had a letter from Robinson Way stating that I now owe them money. I responded via email to state I had received the letter and I would only contact them via email or letter. Since then I had and still am unable to pay them anything (I've a lot of other things to worry about as well as them). So they sent another letter and I had not responded as I haven't had the time to. Then 10 days ago I was sent a letter from Drydens Fairfax Solicitors (I will attach image to this post). Basically they state I have ten days (those ten days end today) to get in touch and pay in full or call and pay what I can etc. Thing is I have nothing to pay them as I'm currently unable to work due to personal reasons and the doctors will not allow me to go back yet. So I'm not sure what to do but I only have today to do it. The debt is 5yrs old from a student overdraft (long story short I had my son and spent most of the money on looking after him and rent). Any help would be great as I am a complete novice at this stuff. Many thanks, John. For those who cannot read the letter from the image I shall write it out below:

Hello, I wonder if you can help me, my husband has received a letter from these people for a debt just over £6K it says the client is "Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 LTD" He has absolutley no idea who Hoist is, but from the amount he thinks its from an Abbey National Loan from about 2001/2002 and he hasnt had any contact for over 6 years. He also received a phone call from Drysden today, I actually answered his phone as I thought it was one of our business contacts, it was a blocked number. I told them he wasnt here and asked for a number to call them back on. The letter is just a bog standard, please call us to arrange a payment plan or make full payment. Failure to contact us may result i legal action being taken which may result in further charges being added to your outstanding amount. We can discuss the possibility of a significant discount if you pay in full. I have just got a copy of my husbands Experian file and there is no mention of any outstanding/defaulted debt on there, nor anything from Abbey National. Now would we just ignore this letter or send the statute barred letter, if we send the letter do we put our address on it as I notice on the template it doesnt mention that, also I seem to recall not signing the letter either. Any advice would be gratefully received. Paula

the above defaulted account was sold onto Lowell a few years ago. At that point I served them with a CCA for which they could only provide a "made up" application I wrote pointing out they were in default of the CCA and that as they failed to provide an original application I could only conclude they didn't hold one I therefore considered the account to be in permanent dispute (all this done with the brilliant info on this site). All went quiet with them and alonside other accounts in default of CCA requests I was waiting for the 6 years to pass. The other old account Lowell had has now become statue barred-they recently passed this to Red collections so I hung on till it went SB and have now informed them. now..getting a few calls from leeds numbers I ignored over the past few weeks. Today get a letter from DF to say if no payment or arrangement by 11/2 they will commence legal action. I will be double checking regarding the SB date, but the default doesn't drop off till late 2013 and I believe the last payment to have been shortly before that, so not yet there. Other info total figure between 1k and 2k (don't want to give exact figures for obvious reasons). Plus the original account with capital one is currently with the FOS for the PPI (the adjudicator found in my favour, but CO won't pay up and want the ombudsman to take a look. Not sure this is relavent though as the account was sold to capital one in full. I am wondering if the CCA request still stands or do I need a fresh one? Not sure what route of attack to take on this one and would appreciate any advice. I am thinking contact to both L and DF and assume I take the line the CCA request is still not satisfied (from the FOS capital one have said there is no agreement and they now allege it was online only). Would appreciate any input of the best way to proceed. Ali x

I had an MBNA debt which has been passed on to Arrow Global / Drydens Fairfax & have been making regular payments since June last year. Drydens have been a nightmare to deal with, they are abusive & incompetent to put it mildly. I have now received yet another threatogram, this time they have enclosed an income & expenditure form to fill in. They want proof of income, bank statements & any proof of benefits, and if I do not return it within 2 weeks, they will consider further action to recover the debt, possibly court action. Has anyone had any dealings with these people? and am I leagally bound to return the I&E forms?

Hi i received court papers recently for a debt of over 4 years ago. (Quick history, was made redundant from a £31k a year job in mortgage co, couldn't find equivalent salary locally, voluntarily surrendered house, have debts totalling over £214,000!, already had 2 children back then, then found out was pregnant, made redundant in 2011 again, now have 1 year old twins, 8 and 11 year old boys, manage to survive on housing benefit, hubbys wage, and selling my belongings on ebay!) the solicitor Drysden Fairfax pestered me once I'd spoken to them via the phone and I filled in the court papers saying I admitted the debt but can not pay it. I sent them income and expenditure info, creditors list as they requested and now have had a letter saying they are still going for a ccj judgement. i have nothing to give, no large assets other than my banger of a 7 seater car which has just broke down (again!!)I do have a small job working 6 hours a week as that's all I can do bearing in mind that to put twins into nursery full time would require a salary equivalent to the Prime Minister! What do i do here?? I am frightened a court will pass judgement and me not be able to repay it each month then they say bailiffs will be sent! not sure what bailiffs would take as even the tv isn't mine, we borrowed it off my mum when ours broke. Can someone advise how I can proceed, i don't know if it's too late to do anything as I admitted the debt (I don't deny it's mine, never have done) I could ask for a copy of the credit agreement? would that help? Please help me someone thank you

I do not have debt problems, and actually have no debt. I have spent much of my adult life working abroad so depending on the country I am in I have different levels of credit. In the UK I do not have great credit as have never had a UK credit card and do no want or need one. Yesterday I received two letters. The first I opened was from Farifax Solicitors. It was laser printed, and not on letter headed paper. It was not signed by a solicitor, or even a legal assistant on behalf of a solicitor. The signature was an electronic signature saying Fairfax Solicitors. The letter stated I owed £5500 to Barclaycard and if this was not paid then they would pursue me in the courts. In a little shock I opened the second letter. This was from Max Recovery services. It was the same letters as the Fairfax one, and on the same laser printed paper, not letter headed, same address, same everything, stating that I owed £5500 to Barclaycard and agreed last August to enter into a payment plan. Now all this is impossible. When I returned to the UK I looked at credit cards when finding an apartment and was told specifically by Barclaycard that they would not give me one until I have lived in the address for 2 more years, so there is no way I could have run up a debt so high prior to the agreement date of August last year. I have only been living in my current address for 9 months too. So I called Fairfax. Fairfax, for a solicitors, sounded like a call centre. My call was connected but no one picked up so I got to listen to laughing, and a room of people talking for a while before a woman picked up. I told her about the letters. She told me it was about an IVA signed last August. I did not know what an IVA was, and am still not 100% sure. I told her I have never had a Barclaycard. She then asked my DOB. I thought this was odd and feel stupid because I told her. She said this was the DOB they had on record. I told her I have never had a Barclaycard, and never signed an IVA, and have only lived at my address for 9 months. She asked of my previous addresses but I could tell from her tone that she was not interested. I asked her why and how she got this address. She then asked, out of the blue, if I have ever lived in Sunderland. I have never lived in Sunderland, or even been there. She then wrapped up quickly, saying it was a "bad trace" and hung up. I called the Financial Ombudsman's office and was told that these companies buy a chunk of bad debt from a bank for virtually nothing, as the bank has already written them off in their books. The company then search for the name via many sources and, as soon as they find matches, they blanket bomb the people they find with such letters. Innocent people, like myself, will then call, complain and say they have no debt and the company will apologize and say it was a "bad trace." There is nothing we can do apparently. I am concerned though, that my credit report has a couple of blips put on it by Fairfax without thinking, so I have asked for an up to date credit report and have mailed Fairfax asking specifically that question. Did your bad practices damage my credit score in any way? Let's see what they say. I would advise anyone that gets such a letter to be very wary.

Hi, I have a default from Lloyds TSB for a Master Card, the date of the agreement is early 2003, the date of the default is Nov 2006. The debt was sold to Arrow Global in Sept 2009, they now have the default on my credit file, this has been causing no end of problems as I am a director of a company and any credit or contracts that the company apply for it brings up my default and the application fails. I have disputed the debt since May 2006, I sent all the standard letters off here (could'nt remember my old account details to log in) back in May, June July 2006, Got all the way up to sending a N1 then droppped it due to work commitments. I have been in contact with Lloyds, Arrow and their solicitors (I use this term lightly) Fairfax. Seem to be going round in circles, any advice would be great. Thanks in advance

Hi, I have a default from Lloyds TSB for a Master Card, the date of the agreement is early 2003, the date of the default is Nov 2006. The debt was sold to Arrow Global in Sept 2009, they now have the default on my Credit File, this has been causing no end of problems as I am a director of a company and any credit or contracts that the company apply for it brings up my default and the application fails. I have disputed the debt since May 2006, I sent all the standard letters off here (could'nt remember my old account details to log in) back in May, June July 2006, Got all the way up to sending a N1 then droppped it due to work commitments. I have been in contact with Lloyds, Arrow and their solicitors (I use this term lightly) Fairfax. Seem to be going round in circles, any advice would be great. Thanks in advance