HFC BANK and Restons Solicitors forced me into a CCJ now i can't get a mortgage, plea

[thx1138]

Hello,
I have found it hard to find somewhere to get good advice, as even solicitors have been no help.
My (condensed) situation is this:
I bought a computer on credit with Dixons 4 years ago, when i was working part time. Consequently i was bombarded by mail and phone calls from HFC Bank (who financed the credit) to get more credit from them. Stupidly i agreed an appointment, had to visit their branch and was sold a £5000 loan with extra payment protection and insurance that bumped the total cost up to over £10,000.
Now i'm not an idiot but when i went along i thought it was so i could clear my computer payments and maybe get a little more in way of a loan.
Instead i was pressured into a higher loan amount with all the extras sold on top and told it was in my best interests as it would consolidate all my other debts.
Not very sound finacial advice at all.
I came away almost instantly regretting what had happened but was told i could not go back on the decision as the cheques were issued and given to me at the branch and the loan was now in force.
I managed to keep up monthly repayments of £150 but as i was working part time and needed to stay alive i had to default.
HFC were not very understanding and immediately defaulted my loan and passed it to Restons Solicitors.
I then got into more financial hardship and defaulted on future payments and was consequently issued with a court summons by Restons.
I called them immediatley and was told if i signed a consent order they would send by fax then i could avoid the matter going to court.
This was my biggest worry as i was trying to get a mortgage with my girlfriend and didn't want a CCJ against me.
I signed the consent order in a panic as i was told i had no other option.
Now the consent order was for £11,500 approx (On A loan of £5000!!!).
Once i had done that the court hearing was stopped like they said but now they had cajoled me into signing an agreement on a massively over inflated figure - so basically i've been robbed blind.
I contested this through HFC complaints department and was stalled and stalled, whereupon i informed them i would not be keeping up repayments until i was given a fair and proper hearing.
I've since been to court now and forced to pay £50 a month and because Restons have been very underhanded and ruthless they have also slapped a CCJ on me for £12,300 (costs and all).
Consequently i've still not been given a fair represention of why i should owe so much and nobody at any of these companies has treated me fairly, they have basically got m under a contract that i never wanted and added multiple charges, interest etc and have basically screwed me and i can't do a thing a about it. Sorry this is long and drawn out but please is there any body out htere who can help, i WOULD LIKE TO GET A CASE AGAINST THEM WHERE I GET THE DEBT (AND MY CREDIT FILE) EITHER BROUGHT DOWN TO A FAIR AMOUNT OR WIPED OUT COMPLETELY.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[happyalf]

Hello i had the same sort of problem with the exact 2 same companies extra charges from Restons a CCJ &to top it offan Attachment Of Earnings.
I told them that iwas forming a plan with the CCCS they didn''nt care.
So i know how you feel i will be trying myself to find out what can be done if i get any details i will certainly let you know.
Regards Alan

[thx1138]

Phew!
Thank you happyalf, you've no idea how good it is to hear someone else knows what i mean!
Hopefully we can have some luck on this.
I'll also let you know if i find anything of interest, as i have no idea how these companies can basically ruin someones life as they see fit, to make a few quid.
There must be way to have this injustice sorted out.
I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer.
thanks again.

[thx1138]

As a footnote to my complaint there is also the matter that i have requested a copy of the Credit Agreement from Restons and HFC which has not been forthcoming, all i've had from them is a copy of the default notice and a computer screen printout which was supposed to be their statement of the account - now i'm lead to belive that a debt is unenforceable if a credit agreement is not supplied when requested, is this true?
Also HFC bank took money from my current account using my card number wothout my permission. Is this unlawful?
Please can anyone help?

[cresswell80]

Originally Posted by thx1138

now i'm lead to belive that a debt is unenforceable if a credit agreement is not supplied when requested, is this true?

prob not true as you've already got a CCJ, therefore the debt has been enforced by the courts...

i'm no expert on these matters however; i'm sure someone will be along to help you soon.

in the meantime have a read here

[powelll]

Originally Posted by thx1138

Also HFC bank took money from my current account using my card number wothout my permission. Is this unlawful?
Please can anyone help?

Were HFC taling their loan payment from the account? If it was their loan and their current account they have something called the First Right of Offset; basically they can take their payment from your current account without your permission as it will have been in the original T & Cs of the loan.

Have you written to complain to them about your whole situation? You can potentially take up a complaint via the FOS ( Financial Ombudsman's Service but you will need to have copies of letters you have sent to HFC as yo need to have followed HFCs complaints procedure first. Send everything recorded delivery & keep a copy as the FOS will ask for copies of all letters etc.

If your copy agreement not supplied within 12 working days they are in breach of CCA 1974 regs. If 30 days has elapsed they have committed a criminal offence - contact your local Trading Standards as they can poss be prosecuted ( again you will need a copy of your request ).

Hope this helps; I assume you are not still banking with HFC?

[powelll]

..

[thx1138]

Thanks again for the help.
I will pursue the CCA and i can confirm my account was with Co-Operative Bank, never had an HFC account, the payments to them were for a loan.
I think what happened was i gave them my card number for a one off payment over the phone one month then they continued to use that casrd number to take money out, unauthorised. Co-op Bank fraud dept got involved and had to investigate and cancel my card and as i went OD because of HFC i also defaulted on other Direct debit payments so HFC caused a lot of trouble.
I really appreciate the help

[moneyworries]

Hi Everyone
I am in EXACTLY the same boat with the mighty tag team that is HFC/Restons.
I was in a DMP with Payplan for the last 18mths or so but as I lost my job at Xmas, I missed one payment (Payplan knew about it all and advised creditors) and so whilst my other creditors were supportive as it was only one payment, Restons slapped a CCJ on there!!

To add insult to injury, a guy from HFC then rang and advised me that to stop "anything bad happening" on my account, I needed to pay them £27. Like you, I gave them my card number so I amk definitely going to keep an eye on them.

I have since offered a FF settlement of £40k on £75k debt (3 creditors), needless to say Restons are the only ones opposing it and they are my second largest creditor. They want a charging order and so are ignoring everything else...

I'm going to CCA them just to cause as much hassle as they do. I doubt they'll have their stuff in order

[powelll]

Originally Posted by moneyworries

Restons slapped a CCJ on there!!

.....They want a charging order and so are ignoring everything else...

I'm going to CCA them just to cause as much hassle as they do. I doubt they'll have their stuff in order

Was the CCJ issued for you to pay instalments? If it was and you keep up with these then they can't take futher enforcement action against you ( e.g. applying for a Charging Order ) unless you have defaulted on the CCJ ( sometimes they may have been given leave to by DJ & hybrid orders can come into play but this is a tricky area ).

Or did you get a 'forthwith' judgement saying the whole amount was payable?

[thx1138]

Good to hear your posts.
The more i find out about this situation and hear from other people, the more i am convinced that these companies are just crooks.
Restons and HFC have been nothing but unhelpful and underhanded in the way they have tried to get money from me, i dunno how these people sleep at night.
I spoke to the guy who's dealing with my account at Restons today (am i allowed to name names?) as i needed to set up a standing order to pay the court judgement to them. I asked him weeks ago for their bank details and he said he would send it out, i still have not received them, so his response was, 'not my problem i'm not the post office' - he eventually gave me the details on the phone but how do i ensure that these payments are received, documented and receipted?
This is the same guy that pressured me to sign a consent order for £11,000(approx) by threatening me with court and not helping me in the slightest by conivingly saying this was the only way i could solve the problem and help myself, not giving me any other option and doing all this with an abrupt arrogant attitude on top of it all.
I sincerely believe they would encourage that you default on payments to them, just so that they can get a further order from the courts, such as an Attachment of Earnings DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE.
I would like to ask again if anybody knows if there is a way at getting back at these crooks. Is there any way that a 'customer' treated wrongly or unfairly as i mentioned in previous posts can take them to court or at least have the default notice and CCJ removed, as the way in which they came about getting it was unfair, i have not mentioned all the details but i can assure you i feel as though these people have ruined me.
i work full time (long hours) along with my girlfriend and as things stand now we cannot get a house together because of this situation and we were trying to start a family.
There must be a way to reverse this......is there?

[moneyworries]

Blimey - they're buggers aren't they?

In answer to responses from you all - my CCJ was just installments. Luckily the judge said that the amount of money I was paying was fine so they didn't get any more money each month than they had before. Re the CO situation, I know they aren't meant to get CO's placed if the CCJ has been kept to but they don't seem to mind trying this lot - Payplan said they have had several cases where HFC have been successful in getting CO's where there has been no breach. They seem to do this to people like me who they dislike because I write letters about them to HFC. I do this because my equity is only £30k and my debt to HFC £28k - I am hoping on on an overall debt of £77k where Lloyds are actually my majority creditor that a judge would decree a CO unfair to others and so I will persist with my letters to them.

I too worry about their underhanded conduct, primarily because of this one event. Luckily, the people at HFC are angry about this and so I have made an official complaint about them:

Following my CCJ, my I&E changed as mortgage and council tax increased. Also, my old job came with a fully expensed car whereas now I am paying for my own fuel. In order to avoid having to reduce my payments, my partner and I decided to remortgage for an extra £40k to offer as settlement of the debts (none of these debts are his by the way). This meant HFC would get about £16k back on their £28k debt (about £3k of which is charges but that's another issue).

Restons did indeed offer this to HFC who said it was too low. Restons came back and told me to just carry on making payments as normal. Then however HFC called me direct asking why I didn't want to accept their counteroffer which was a settlement of £21k. I of course had no idea about this as Restons hadn't told me. I told HFC that I was under the impression that Restons had a separate agenda here (CO's) and that I felt this to be unethical and unlawful for them to withold information of this nature. HFC have asked me to make an official complaint which I am currently gathering information for.

I also plan to contest charges under CCA just to further muddy the water - any further action Restons plan will surely have to be put on hold if the debt is in any way in dispute. The CCJ came about before all the charge refunds started getting going so the county court advisor said I could apply for a "variation order" on the debt. There'll be a hearing etc but I doubt Restons/HFC have their side well enough in order to cope...

...best of luck. I'll keep you informed as to my progress

[Russjo]

I can really sympathise with you guys. My husband had a Flexible Loan Account and when we got into money troubles back in 2000, we went to Baines & Ernst debt management. Every other creditor agreed to the payments offered by Baines & Ernst on our behalf, except for HFC. They took our payments of £32 per month for two years, whilst slapping a £15 admin fee every single month until finally they agreed to shut down that account and take out a new loan with a payment of £32. Even then, they took more in admin charges then they should have and then didn't administer our transactions properly. They've got until Tuesday and then I'm filing Hopeless

[erdus]

Perhaps we should all travel to Restons head office in Warrington with placards and march up and down in silence outside to raise awareness of their underhanded tactics with the local community and also inform the local myor and press. We could also do the same at HFC Head Office. Anyone interested?

[hellhasnofury]

Hello,

Subscribing

I am also up against they bullies HFC/Restons GGGggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[nino1]

I'm another that's being taken to the cleaners by HFC Restons. They've already got one CO on me and are tryuing for another on a second loan that I was talked into taking out to sort out the first debt.
Requested CCA from Restons and they've produced, did a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) on both accounts at HFC and have got stuff from 1st account, but nothing on the second as yet, about 25 days gone. The 1st bunch of stuff is a right mess about 7 pages of codes to decipher their sheets and still hard to make any sense from it. Also said that they didn't keep records of automatically generated letters??? and I seem to have taken out unemployment protection on the account, which surely must have been actioned when I lost my job(I did tell them)? Any ideas how to check this out?