Thankyou cerberusalert. I'll send them a letter stating its not my responsibility to provide information on a debtor and that I will be contacting trading standards. We'll see how it goes

Hi again Sorry, I don't think I've explained my story very well so I'll start again I received a letter from Wescot stating they had been instructed by their client to collect a debt off me. They wrote back to me asking for my date of birth and my previous address in order for them to not breach the Date Protection Act and continue with my enquiry. They state they require the information by March 2nd. I am now wondering if I should reply giving them my DOB and previous address. It seems to be that they need this information to pin the debt on me, rather than aid with the enquiry into proving the debt is actually mine? Should I now send them a letter stating it is unfair practice to ask for my DOB and address within OFT Guidance? and if so could someone point me in the direction of the relevant information/template letter that I will need to send Thankyou again

Thankyou. Massive mistake quoting an American act. I obviously referenced letters from an american debt collection help site. To my next letter I shall add I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY ALLEGED DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY/CLIENTS/ASSOCIATES/AFILLIATES So I should now send them a letter stating it is unfair practice to ask for my DOB and address within OFT Guidance. Are there any template letters relevant to this on the site? Thanks again for the help

Hi I recently contacted Wescot Collection agency asking them for proof of the debt that I owe. They replied asking for my Date of Birth and my previous address in order for them to get the information due to the Date Protection Act? Shouldn't they already have this information on their system? I feel like they should and don't want to pass on any information that will put them in a position of power. They have given me until the 2nd of March to provide the information. I've had a look round the forums and can't find anything that states if I should or not. Any help would be much appreciated. Heres a copy of the letter I sent them for further reference Hope someone can help. Thankyou bagultrait To Whom It May Concern: I am sending this letter to you in response to a notice I received from you dated 07/02/2012. Be advised, this is not a refusal to pay, but a notice sent pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b) that your claim is disputed and validation is requested. This is NOT a request for “verification” or proof of my mailing address, but a request for VALIDATION made pursuant to the above named Title and Section. I respectfully request that your office provide me with competent evidence that I have any legal obligation to pay you. Please provide me with the following: • What the money you say I owe is for; • Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe; • Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe; • Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable; • Identify the original creditor; • Prove the Statute of Limitations has not expired on this account; • Show me that you are licensed to collect in my state; and • Provide me with your license numbers and Registered Agent. If your offices have reported invalidated information to any of the three major Credit Bureau’s (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion), said action might constitute fraud under both Federal and State Laws. Due to this fact, if any negative mark is found on any of my credit reports by your company or the company that you represent I will not hesitate in bringing legal action against you for the following: • Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act • Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act • Defamation of Character If your offices are able to provide the proper documentation as requested, I will require at least 30 days to investigate this information and during such time all collection activity must cease and desist. Also during this validation period, if any action is taken which could be considered detrimental to any of my credit reports, I will consult with my legal counsel. This includes any information to a credit reporting repository that could be inaccurate or invalidated or verifying an account as accurate when in fact there is no provided proof that it is. If your offices fail to respond to this validation request within 30 days from the date of your receipt, all references to this account must be deleted and completely removed from my credit file and a copy of such deletion request shall be sent to me immediately. I would also like to request, in writing, that no telephone contact be made by your offices to my home or to my place of employment. If your offices attempt telephone communication with me, including but not limited to computer generated calls or correspondence sent to any third parties, it will be considered harassment and I will have no choice but to file suit. All future communications with me MUST be done in writing and sent to the address noted in this letter. This is an attempt to correct your records, any information obtained shall be used for that purpose. Best Regards, Me

A quick update of where I am at. The current account debt of £1800 still exists and has been passed around several different debt collectors. I ignored the phone calls for so long that I no longer receive them, just occasional letters. My latest letter states that I should ring the collection agency as they are willing to make a deal with me and accept less money than I owe to clear the debt. This is pretty much what I have been waiting for, but I think I shall wait it out a bit longer as I presume they will make me offer if I wait it out. I no longer receive letters or phone calls about my credit card. It exists but I am not being asked to pay off the debt and I am not being asked for monthly fees. Ignoring them does seem to be working. Hopefully my credit card will just be ignored forever now and my current account overdraft will be settled midway of the actual balance that I owe. We shall see

Hi It has taken me a long while to reply to this message but here's where I am upto. My claim for charges was denied shortly after the appeal for bank charges didn't go through the courts. My account has now been defaulted. And I owe Halifax £1800. The £1800 has been moved to a debt agency called "Blair and Oliver" or something similar. They have been ringing since feb but I have been ignoring the calls. I am also getting letters stating I must 'pay NOW' and '5 days till we take serious action'. I have also ignored these letters. I have read and heard that the best thing to do is to just ignore the company's until they sell the debt so far down the line that you can pay just a fraction of the original debt. What should I do now? Should I just carry on my claim with the bank anyway? Would this put a hold on the debt? Thankyou p.s. and yes, it was a student account but apparently that didn't matter and they had the right to remove my overdraft/student account status :S

Hey After waiting for along time I have eventually received some good news referring to my Credit Card account with Halifax. I received a letter that basically said all my charges and fees were in accordance with the terms and conditions of the account BUT have a refund of £513.63 (charges over the past 6 years with £31.51 interest and another £86.12 interest). This is really good, but is it possible to get more back? My CC was only for £1000 in the first place. Even though I have received this refund (it went through automatically) I still owe Halifax over £150 in interest for the past 3/4 months as Im a student and haven't been able to pay and they're telling me I need to goto the Citizens Advice, sign a form which will stop the interest and I'll make an agreement with Halifax towards paying back the outstanding amount which is around £500. This doesn't sound like a good idea to me.... is it? Or should I be writing to the ombudsman saying I'm still dissatisfied? I hope that all makes sense Please help. And thanks for all the advice I have received from this site already. Thank-you

To cut a long story short. I am over my arranged overdraft with Halifax by £682.44 I was waiting on a claim for my bank charges to come through (being sorted by Alison & Reilly Solicitors) but now that the courts have favored the banks it seems that Halifax will no longer wait on my claim and are demanding £682.44 off me before the 26th December. I have breached contract and they want me to pay up. Obviously I don't want to ring the Retail Bank Collections as they are a bunch of turds and never listen and always make agreements that I have not agreed too. What are my options here? Ive heard from Alison & Reilly that the maximum time it will take for my claim to go through and find out if I can get anything will be 3 months... is there anyway of putting Halifax off until the claim has been settled? Is it worth going to the citizen advice bureau? Thankyou

Thats great, thanks alot. Ive had more of a read through the forum and feel I am ready to get started. I'll let you know how it goes

Thanks for the advice. Ive had a look through the site but Im finding it quite confusing and dont really know where to start. Am I right in thinking that I need to initially send off this letter to Halifax? http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/data-protection-default-issues/149449-put-your-credit-reference.html Do I just send it to my branch? Im sorry for being a pain, i just kinda need a simple step by step guide of what I need to do. Im sure theres probably one here on the site but I cant find it. I will keep reading through the forums anyway to get a jist of how these affairs are normally carried out. Thanks to everyone who helps keep this forum going, im sure you're going to be a big help David

Hey there Im a 24 year old student, studying in Manchester at MMU and am now going into my second year of study. I have had a halifax account for approx 10 years and now it seems to be coming to an end, and I am unsure on where I stand. I also have a credit card with Halifax. Before I was a student I worked full time and had a few late credit card payments, but nothing too drastic at all. A few months ago I accidently exceeded my overdraft limit of £1000 when a direct debit went out of my account. I suffered the obvious charges but had no money to get my account out of the red. I had already spent all of my student loan on Rent upfront and couldnt aford the payment. I also failed to pay my credit card payments. I did inform Halifax by phone that I couldnt make these payments but they were very unhelpful. Now I am swamped in phone calls where I reel off the same story and am told that I must make a payment. I told Halifax that i wouldnt be able to make a payment until 21st September when I get my loan, but as of that date would pay all my debts in full. I then recieved a bank statement saying my overdraft had been increased to £1300 and I had £90 to spend (£210 had accumilated through charges and the direct debit) Being a poor student I was confused and went to check my balance at a cash machine but the machine ate my card. I went into my Halifax branch to find out exactly what was going on. Heres what happened: I was made to ring the Retail Bank blah people again. They told me that a plan had been set up to remove my overdraft completely and I had to pay £250 for the next four months till I was back at 0. I was gob smacked. I explained that I was a student and the person on the phone said that the Retail Bank had acted unfairly and couldnt do that and I had to sort it out in branch. So I spoke to the lovely lady and she said she'd sort it..... She rang a few people and told me there was nothing she could do, the branch were technically recovering my whole overdraft without telling me and if my loan went in they would "swallow" my money. She then covertly advised me to open a new bank account and put my student loan in there. Where do I stand? Can Halifax really just take away my student overdraft? I understand that I owe them money but I need all the money I have just to cover my rent, food and bills Is there anything I can do to stop them from totally taking away from my overdraft? I have set up the loan to go into another acount now and havnt as of yet told Halifax. Any help or advice would be much appreciated Thankyou David x