Hi, I'm looking to order some goods from the US but the store in question does not ship to the UK so I'm looking for a reliable forwarding company - The type that give you your own US address to send orders to and then ship the goods on to you. Problem is that I've read some nightmare reviews of companies losing parcels, denying they'd received them, holding goods hostage until you pay more fees etc etc. The internet also seems to be awash with what appears to be false reviews where various companies have written glowing reviews about themselves which makes it very hard to form an objective opinion. Every forum thread I've read on the subject has got numerous good reports on certain companies by members who have only just joined and posted once. The goods I plan to buy are quite expensive, not expensive enough to warrant a trip to the US but certainly enough to not want to lose them. Does anyone here have any experience with any of these companies and if so do you have any recommendations or am I just best off steering well clear? Thanks.

OK thanks.

Thanks for all the comments. No they didn't cancel the policy and certainly didn't write to me. But I did ask them to renew it and they did say no. Does this count as being refused insurance? Obviously, if I hadn't asked, I'd have never known. I would have thought that when phoning around for insurance quotes many people get turned down as they don't meet a certain company's criteria. Does this mean all these people have been refused insurance and should declare so? The SAR is a good idea but what I'm worried about is then I'll "officially" know that I've been refused. At the moment there's just one phone call which they may or may not have a record of. If I do a SAR and the info in it says I've been refused, I can hardly deny that I knew this. Anyway, do these companies share information like this? We're talking about 1 phone call 7 years ago. Would this not mean that any future insurance company looking to deny a claim would have to track back through all the insurance companies I've used over the years and request information from all of them. And even if they did this, a record of the phone call and what was said would need to have been keept for all this time and be accessible to them. Or is all this info just kept on a big database accessible by all companies? Thanks again.

How does that work then?

Hi, I've been driving for about 10 years now. Around 7 years ago I had an accident where someone drove into the back of me through no fault of my own. At the time I had aftermarket alloy wheels fitted to my car which I had made my insurance company aware of by way of a phone call. During this call I was told that this didn't affect my premiums and the wheels had been added to the policy. When the accident happened my insurance company tried to refuse the claim based on the fact the car had been "modified" without their knoledge. This was despite the fact that they weren't even going to have to pay anything as this was being taken care of by the other guy's insurance company as he was at fault. I suspect my insurance company was attempting to keep the funds they received and not pay out. After much negotiation they agreed to look back in their notes and confirmed that they had a record of me calling about the wheels but they weren't added to the policy for some reason. Because of this they agreed to release the funds and do the repair. The repair (Done at their recommended repairer) was a complete bodge job, that went on for months and months, resulted in many complaints and eventually them paying me the princely sum of £100 compensation. The policy had a few months left to run and I assumed that they would contact me with renewal documents when the end of the policy was drawing close. I knew the policy ran out in August so assumed they would contact me. When they didn't contact me by the 4th week in August I phoned them and asked what was going on. It turned out the policy ran out 2 weeks previously and I had been driving around with no insurance for 2 weeks. I know this was my fault for not checking the policy date but I naturally assumed they would contact me. I asked them why the hadn't renewed the policy and they said they wouldn't renew the policy because I had lied about the wheels that were fitted to the car. I asked why they didn't even send out a letter to make me aware of this and they said they don't send out letters telling people that their policy is ending unless they are going to renew it. At that point I went with a different insurance company but didn't mention the above debacle to them and have never made a claim since. My question is, should I make any future insurance companies I use aware of the above? Most companies ask if you have ever been refused insurance. Should I say yes to this? Had I not of phoned the insurance company in question I would have never even known that they weren't prepared to insure me. It also seems very unfair that for the rest of my life I should have to declare that I've been refused insurance due to their incompetence. If I don't declare it, whats the chances that this info is stored / shared between insurance companies and will come back and bite me? What would you do? Thanks.

Thanks for all of your advice - very much appreciated. Will keep you posted. PatsyTheCat

Thanks for the replies. The complaints department have now phoned me and it looks like I have a big problem. They've said that I can cancel the new loan but I can't go back to the old one at the same rate. So this means that if I want to cancel then I have to pay them all the money I owe them from the old loan (£8000) in a lump sum OR I can apply again for the old £8000 that I already had but at the much higher rate OR I can just accept that I have to borrow the full amount and can't cancel. Can they do this? Is this right? I feel like the old loan is being used to blackmail me into not canceling. Can someone tell me what my rights are please? Or which official body I can go to that can tell me my rights? Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I cancelled the loan the very next day. Took a copy of my letter into the branch who forwarded it onto 'the right' department. As it happens the 'right dept' doesn't have a phone number. Staff in branch have made notes on what Barclays call 'note pad' and I've made 2 complaints about the length of time it's taking to get anywhere. Worryingly to date I do not have anything official from Barclays what so ever to acknowledge my request to cancel. Not really, sure what my next move should be - what would you suggest loopinlouie?

Hi, I have a loan with Barclays with about an £8000 balance remaining. The APR is about 15%. I needed some more money for something (£3000) and decided to to apply for another loan with them. They agreed to this as long as I borrowed enough money to pay back the existing loan, so in effect this would be a top up loan. The rate for the new loan was going to be 29.9%. Foolishly I signed the forms. When I got home it dawned on me that I'd made a big mistake. If the loan ran it's full course I would end up paying almost £30,000 in total for the sake of an extra £3000! I no longer need the £3000. My understanding is that I have the right to cancel this new loan within 30 days and revert back to the old agreement. I phoned them that night and asked to do this over the phone. They informed me that I had to take a letter into the branch, which I did the next day. Since then I've been pushed from pillar to post trying to cancel this loan and revert to the previous loan. I've been told by various members of staff it should take 24 hours, 10 days, 3 days etc etc. I've phoned them and been into the branch numerous times. I get the impression (and they have in fact told me this) that no one knows how to reinstate the old loan. After another phone call tonight I was told that they no longer have any details of the old loan, what rate I was on, or the balance etc as this has now been canceled. It's now been 2 weeks since I applied (and canceled) and the only thing I've received from them is details of the new loan including the first payment date which is fast approaching. What should I do? Am I entitled to cancel the loan and go back to my old agreement? Should I pay the first payment on this new loan? I'm really, really, really worried about this so any help anyone can give would be very gratefully received. Thanks, PatsyTheCat

Hi, Wasn't sure which section to post this (Travel insurance, NHS, Holiday Companies) so it's ended up in general. Please let me know if it would be better somewhere else. Someone I know has traveled to America with no insurance. They had a medical emergency when they were there and ended up in intensive care for around 2 weeks. The hospital are still calculating the bill for this but have said it will be in excess of $200,000. They have now let him leave the country without paying. What happens now? I assume they will chase for this money somehow? But how will they do that? Do they have an agreement with the UK government where they would retrieve the money on behalf of the US? Will they sue? What happens if he can't pay? There's not much info around on the web about this as the advice just seems to be "Don't go without insurance". Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the response. Yes the purchase was made over the net just a couple of hours ago. So I have 7 days in which to write and cancel? What happens if they send a voucher stating the persons name on it? Could this be classed as personalised and therefore not covered by the DSR? Should I email them to cancel now so there's less chance of them sending anything or should I post a letter? Or should I contact my card company and cancel the transaction? I know I may be jumping the gun a bit but from the reviews I've read I'm anticipating a fight to get the money back.

Hi, I've just purchased a Skydiving voucher for my brother in law for his 40th. Foolishly I didn't read any reviews on the company in question before booking the voucher. I've now read a few which have made me a bit concerned and have decided I want to cancel the voucher and book it somewhere else. Just wondering what my rights are here? Do I get 7 days to cancel as per the DSR? No specific date has been booked. It's just a voucher that he can redeem by booking his chosen date. Thanks PTC

Even though 50% of the product had been used (I'm not arguing just asking)? What about a pack of 100 blank CDs? If I had used 99 and the 100th didn't work, am I entitled to 100% refund?

Hi, Just over 6 months ago I purchased some goods on a 6 months interest free credit deal, signed a contract and took the goods. It was the usual scheme of being "completely interest free" unless you forget to pay before the interest free period ends in which case you get a huge back dated interest bill added to the total and the whole lot gets paid off monthly. My plan was to pay before this happened. Well around 3 months in I phoned the finance company to make a part payment. I was told that because I hadn't paid the £15 admin fee at the start of the agreement then no money was owing to them as there was no agreement in place. They said that if I wanted then I could pay the admin fee and then make a payment. I asked when the interest free period would start if I was to pay the admin fee today. They said that it would start as soon as the admin fee was paid. So I asked what would happen if I waited a month and then paid the fee and they replied that the 6 months would run from when the fee was paid. So I began to think to myself why would I ever want to pay this fee? Why not never pay it and just get never ending free credit? So I asked what the incentive was to pay the fee and they didn't seem to have an answer. I asked what would happen if I never paid the admin fee and they said that I wouldn't be able to take the goods away from the store. I explained that I'd had the goods for about 3 months but they seemed to find this mildly amusing and said that in which case I would probably need to pay the store. At that point I said goodbye and decided to contemplate for a while. I decided to send them an email asking if I owed them any money and they sent this reply: "If you wish to proceed with your application you need to make a payment of £15 for the service fee to us. If don't wish to proceed can you please sent us an email confirming cancellation. If you cancel no payments are due to us." It says on the paperwork that I signed that a reminder would be sent before the interest free period ended to remind me to pay before the interest kicks in. So I decided I was going to pay the admin fee a month or so before the original interest free period ended and then see what paper work I got through the post explaining when my final payment needed to be made in order to avoid the interest. Really what I was trying to do here was get another 6 months interest free (A bit naughty I know). Problem is I stupidly forgot to pay the admin fee and the interest free period is now up. So in short, I haven't paid them a penny, they say I don't owe them anything and they haven't yet contacted me about making any monthly payments. What should I do in this scenario? I'm a bit reluctant to contact them now in case they try and charge me the interest. Should I just keep quiet? If I keep quiet what are the chances of them approaching me for payment at some point? Also, if they do approach me for payment, do they have a legitimate claim for the interest, considering that no reminder was sent to me and the email states that I don't owe them anything unless I pay them £15? If a finance company states that they will send a reminder and they don't, does this mean they can't claim the interest? What would you do? Thanks.

OK thanks. Any idea what they are?