Hi, Back in 2002, I went into a branch of Lloyds TSB to apply for a student account (to gain access to the interest free overdraft facility). I was an existing Lloyds account holder, had recently enrolled on a law degree course (full time) and was reliant on my Disability Living Allowance (plus Student Loan) as my income. I was taken into an interview room and the account application was declined. I was then offered a personal loan to cover the credit card and overdraft debts I intended to pay from the the interest free overdraft attached to the student account. I made it perfectly clear to the sales chap that my sole income was in the form of the DLA benefit and the Student Loan I would be in receipt of. He explained that it would be ok to consider these as my income. I was originally needing £3k to clear my existing debts. He looked at what the maximum I would be able to borrow, based on the system's calculations and offered me £7k, at £286 per month. The sum of interest was not mentioned, nor the repayment period. The extra £4k was suggested to be left in the account to cover the loan payments for 6 months, at which point I would be able to to apply for another loan, which should be at a lower monthly figure. I was in turmoil at the time and listened to the sales chap, thinking his "advice" was exactly that. He printed the paperwork off, and I signed it - no reading through it with me, just placed in front and "sign here, here, here", etc...So I went ahead and signed. I paid off my credit cards, Lloyds TSB overdraft (made predominantly from penalty charges) and bought a couple of text books for my law course... (One of which happened to be on Contract Law). After the 5th payment was due to go out, I looked at reapplying for another loan to bring the monthly payment down. I then realised that I was not going to be offered a better rate... Jump to 2006 and many months of letters and phonecalls between myself, the collections centre and the Bristol Customer Service Centre, I had a result - Lloyds admitted that they should not have loaned me the amount they did, so the interest would be cancelled (29% APR!!), all charges removed (some £900 was refunded to my current account as they had been taking my DLA Benefit from my savings account to pay for account, overdraft and late payment charges) and an affordable repayment (at the time, when I'd had to leave uni and go back to work) set up. 6 months later, the monthly repayment figure reverted to the original £286 (I was never informed this would happen), so I had to jump through hoops again to try and bypass the offshore call centre, speak to someone in the Brighton collections centre, re-set-up an affordable monthly payment and have the late payment, unauthorised overdraft and missed direct debit charges refunded. I wrote to Bristol again, explaining that whilst I had agreed to their "offer" initially, by changing the amount without my consent, they had breached the contract and I no longer felt that repaying a loan that had been mis-sold (in it's entirety) was neither fair nor reasonable. I am at a standstill - I no longer work after being medically retired, so cannot afford what used to be the "affordable repayment" of £75 per month. My credit rating is ruined, Lloyd's have passed on the debt to a collection agency that call 4-8 times per day, plus send letters that clearly state "Debt Collection" and "Final Demand" within the address window. I am currently in receipt of DLA (Mobility & Care at the highest rate) plus ESA (Support Group), so there is no chance of being able to work to pay this off, nor do have the facility (let alone the intention) to apply for finances elsewhere. I am in desperate need of some advice - I would like to get this mess sorted but have no idea where I stand. (If you have read this far, I thank you for your patience and look forward to your advice) Ollie

Dear Forum, I'm after a bit of advice in advance if you can help? To cut a long a long story very short I have an outstanding debt with LloydsTSB for £5600 I negotiated with LloydsTSB to pay £75 a month (should have been £246, this went on for a couple of years) but now they have passed me to these lot! After getting what sounds like the standard letter from the 'Pre Court Division' I went to the CAB website and filled out the budgeting forms. It calculated I could afford just £25 per month which I would be happy to set up a direct debit to pay on the 23rd of the month when I get my salary, (result)! I sent this off together with the CAB offer letter template (recorded delivery). This has since been delivered and signed for by someone with the surname Moorcroft, (family company)? Now bear in mind I sent this off on the Friday, after getting their letter on the Thursday and got a call at 8:30am on the Monday. The person on the phone didn’t know about the letter and was phoning on the off chance I presume. So I explained what was contained in the letter. After first asking for my card details for full payment there and then (lol) they accepted my offer of £25 per month if I could make the first payment today, no problem. I gave them my card details, £25 was taken from my account, they set up the direct debit and said they would review it in 2 to 3 months time. I have since received a letter from them setting out my repayment plan that stretches till 2029. Now I don’t want to seem blasé about this, I know 19 years is a long time to pay off a debt but I am quite happy to pay £25 a month for as long as it takes... So my question is how do I deal with the inevitable phone call(s) that will come a couple of months from now? How do I best phrase that I WILL NOT increase my payments for as long as the debt lasts? Any advice would be most helpful! Many thanks, TC

Hi all, Just wanted to post on here to say a big thank-you to all the contributors whose posts have given me a tremendous amount of insight into dealing with dca's and the courage to stand up to the bully-boy tactics that they employ. I am currently helping my better half with her dealings with the pondlife at Gm-Law, here is a brief summary of her story so far: Back in 1997 she ran up an unauthorized overdraft of around £1000 on her Lloyds current account with her chequebook, which (as far as she remembers) was passed to Gm-Law when she couldn't repay at a satisfactory rate for Lloyds. Since that time she has been making payments to Gm-Law at a rate of £25 per month, as a rough calculation she has repaid around £3500! ,without really thinking about how much she had paid off. What triggered my involvement was when she was reduced to tears the other day on the phone by an incredibly aggressive sounding phone bully from Gm who threatened her that he would 'get my client Lloyds-Tsb to add interest on to this loan from when it was first taken out if she didn't come up with a better repayment plan' and basically implying that she was **** for ever having fallen in to debt in the first place. After he hung up on her for daring to argue her case, we attempted to call them back to complain and were met with sarcasm and further veiled threats regarding increasing the amount owed 'if she didn't behave accordingly' Naturally, as the queen would say, I was not amused by this and began furiously googling to try and establish the facts regarding her rights in this case when I stumbled across this site and the veritable goldmine of information it contains. After several hours of reading it seemed that the best approach would be to throw up a CCA and dispute the account in order to hit them where it hurts, in the pocket! I must stress that my girlfriend has every intention of paying back the money owed, but it would appear that she has already done this 3 times over now and I do not see why Gm-Law should make a penny out of the 'administration of her account' when they seem to think it is ok to treat her so poorly. After reading several similar horror stories on here she has now issued a CCA to Gm-Law and we are keenly awaiting a response and I will update this post as events unfold (hopefully in a positive fashion!). Apologies for the length of this post, it has turned out to be a very long (and rambling!) thank-you to those whose contributions have helped us. Best wishes to you all