I have a credit agreement for home insurance. £20 a month. Direct debit accidentally cancelled by the wife. I contact the 5 days later to pay the missed payment. They want to charge me £30 for the missed payment. Does this come under the unlawful charges similar to the banks? I thought charges had to be not profit and their true costs? Their only cost so far has been a single text message to me. I set up the direct debit again with the bank.

After checking out of a property about 9 months ago (after a 2 year and 5 month tenancy) we received a letter of claim from the landlady. We negotiated through the Agents and came to an amount which we both agree to be a fair deduction from the deposit. (Although we believe we were very generous). The Landlady refused any offer and said that she want to take this to court, and after 9 months send her letter of demand. She refused any input from a mediator like the TDS and did not even received our responses to the agent about a number of the issues on the list of claims. Therefore her claim do include things which are irrelevant because of her lack of knowledge as a result of her refusal for any negotiation. The deposit was £1600 (which now has been fully returned to us) but she claim £8300+. Many of the high claim items is round figures plucked out of thin air and zero information where it come from (like quotations, costings, etc.) and there is anyway no way that, should we agree to the issue, that the cost will even come to close the amount she claim. A solicitor send her a letter asking for calculations and evidence where the cost is coming from. The solicitor also pointed out to her that the court will frown on her refusal for negotiation. Her response once again illustrated that she is clueless with once again nothing to substantiate her amounts. I am very happy to see her in court and many of her claims will be very easy to shoot down but I have a few questions. Filing a claim of this amount and going to a hearing will be expensive. We will make her a reasonable offer (on the same basis as before) but what will happen to this costs? If the judge accept our proposal, or order an amount slightly more, will be require to pay these costs? I will really appreciate it if someone can give me more clarity on this.

Hi so, I will try to be succinct! We all know the law changed, but I didn't quite get it. I bought a car second hand, it came with a tax disk, I thought I was fine for a few months. Obviously I wasn't, I understand that, and am happy to pay a REASONABLE amount because of this. I was caught on camera on 21st December near Oxford. I was caught on my home street in London on 13th January. I was clamped on 14th of January, costing me £100 to get out. I taxed my car that same day. On 15th January I get two letters, both dated 14th January - obviously these would not be received until after I got clamped. One letter referred to being caught on camera in December, charging me £117. The second letter referred to being caught on 13th January, asking me to pay £145. On phoning the DVLA, I was told I am supposed to pay BOTH fines. PLUS the £100 for the clamping. DO the maths if you want but it's a lot of money, for one (accidental) offence. I wrote a nice long, detailed letter of appeal, asking for a reasonable reduction and consolidation of these "out of court settlements). I have just received a letter telling me that none of my reasons were valid, and I still have to pay everything. Shall I fight it? It seems a crazy system, even if I swallow the fee for the clamping, having to pay twice for the same offence. And the fact that they seem to have KEPT THE DECEMBER OFFENCE BACK UNTIL THEY CAUGHT ME AGAIN, SENDING LETTERS FOR BOTH THE OFFENCES ON THE SAME DAY seems either very sneaky, to get maximum money from me, or at least very bad admin. If I do fight it, where will the court case be held? Locally to me or in Swansea? Anyone know? If I do fight it, how much might I have to pay if I lose? If I do fight it, anyone know my chances? Should I just pay because offences are offences? Thanks all, looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Jon

Our workplace, a data entry organisation has come up with two new rules. As yet, I have only heard about this third-hand but expect to hear it from management when I go on my shift tonight (night shift). Apparently, if we want to go to the loo, we have to raise our hands like little kiddies in school and ask for permission. Degrading and humiliating in the extreme, especially to female members of staff - there are only 3 of us on our shift. Second, and utterly stupid "rule" is from now on, we cannot leave our desk. If we want something on another desk we have to stretch across. We are not even allowed to stand up! You can imagine what's going to happen. Someone is going to stretch across, the chair is going to go out from underneath them and they are going to get injured. You couldn't make it up. Seriously, if I wasn't the chief breadwinner (the only breadwinner) for my household and wasn't nearly 60 years old, I would tell them where to stick their job. We also have a manageress who is an out and out bully (to everyone except her "pets") who is a bully, tyrant and liar but that's another thread for another time. If anyone can give any advice on how to deal with this, please let me know. Tried the HSE but they don't give advice over the phone and it can take up to 30 days for a response to their online form. I am not a union type person but I'm now seriously considering joining a union as the petty rules and bullying are getting out of hand.

Hello. I am currently getting income based JSA for about 1 year now. I stay with my mum, But all of a sudden my mum is saying i need to pay £27 towards to rent as the council will only pay £109. So why now do i need to pay. I have a brother who gets ESA, and my mum gets income support. What are causing the housing benefit deduction, My brother only started claiming ESA this year in march, And all of a sudden the housing benefit is cut. So could someone help me because i am getting the impression the cut is because of me but i have been getting jsa for around a year and my mum has been getting full housing benefit since untill now.

Hi I had a letter from Marstons a few months ago stating I owed an outstanding amount from a fine and marstons fees 82.00. I sent them a ltter asking why the fees are so high,and they just advised thats what the fees are,as from some time last year.I paid the fine immediatly but held back from the fees,as I beleived one letter from them does not cost 82.00. About 8 weeks on,i have just had a doorstop visit by the creeps and they have told me that in no uncertain terms that I now owe them 300.00.Pay up or they will take my car.. It was a saturday morn,I was a little intimidated and I paid....I am very uncomfortable and feel very angry that this has happened...arent I suppose to get a warning or letter etc.. any help will be greatly appreciated. Mjack

A while back JCP asked me to apply for a number of jobs with low hours and high travel costs. The vast majority either ignored my application or got back to me telling me that I lived too far to be considered. However, two of the employers have been completely moronic and have actually offered me job interviews. I wasted £10.50 travelling to one yesterday, where the interviewer immediately rejected me for living too far. However, my upcoming interview is much worse. The job is six hours a day and five days a week, which sounds nice enough compared to most jobs out there. It's minimum wage of course, so I'll be paid £30.95 a day. However, it will cost me £48.50 a day to travel there. I'd be working too many hours and would also be paid too much to be able to claim JSA, so I'd end up paying £87.75 a week to have a job if I took it. The interview clashes with my signing time, so if I am to attend the interview I'll have to inform JCP that I can't make it to my usual signing time as I have an interview. I'm not sure what the best course of action would be. £48.50 is a lot to spend just to travel to a job interview for a job I'll have no choice but to turn down if I'm offered it. Do I just not bother attending the interview and hope it doesn't get back to DWP? Or should I explain to them why the job wouldn't be worth having, hoping they'll allow me to not attend the interview and sign on as normal this week.

Hi all I hope somebody can help. My wife recently sold her car and I gave her mine. When she called Hastings to update the policy, the quote she was given to change the car was very expensive compared to others she had received. She advised them of this and they offered to reduce, but that was still not competitive. She has now asked to cancel the policy and they are charging her for the £55 cancellation fee, plus outstanding amounts. I feel that this is totally disgraceful. I can understand the cancellation fee (although I still think this is steep as my last policy with another well know company was cancelled for the large sum of £2.12), however I do not think that charging her for a service that she no longer needs, on top of the fact that the only reason she is cancelling is because the quote was astronomically noncompetitive. What can she do to get this fee levied as it seems as though she is 'screwed if she stays, screwed if she goes'. If this is the case, then we will be telling everybody we know not to use Hastings due to their rip-off policies. It seems as though we are not the only ones upon reading through this forum. Thanks

Hi, Hoping someone can help... Used my Topshop card to purchase £18 worth of goods. Statement came through in the post mid August and was due to be paid by 30th August. This left approx 2 weeks for the balance to be paid. During this time I was hardly at home (various trips away) and only managed to pick my post up on 2nd Sept. I paid the balance off there and then online. Had a letter through a week or so later stating I owed £12 in late payment fees, which seemed rather unfair (only 3 days late and a very small debit of £18) so I challenged it via email. Got a letter acknowledging my complaint in the post then a few weeks later an email saying the case was closed. Today I received another statement with ANOTHER £12 charge added, and a separate letter saying there was a delay in responding to the case. Any advice on what I should do? I appreciate this isn't a great deal of money, but it's the principle. £24 charges on an £18 balance (which I paid off) seems ridiculous! Thanks in advance

Who agrees with me: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ian-brady-moors-murderer-died-1364973