I'm also having issues with Halifax (Intelligent Finance...intelligent, i think not!?!) Called 4 times between sunday morning and monday evening. I have now started to anwser their calls and confirm it is halifax, before hanging up. Hopefully this will register the calls on their systems and raise a £10 charge as proof of the call.

I obtained a barclaycard a towards the end of last year to try and balance transfer to a lower rate. Anyway didn't use it for a while and then after transfering to my limit missed the first months payments - yeah not so clever really I know. They were super agressive trying to get me to make a payment and called over and over again, home phone, mobile the works. Fortunately I managed to draw cash on another card to make minimum payments on others and then balance transfered barclaycard back to a few others. I have now closed their account - the stupid buggers even asked me why! Guess what - I told them exactly why. If only I could have seen the look on the other end of the phone, he certainly didn't know what to say...speechless...I say priceless!!!

Is it not possible to combine the CCA request using both s78 and CPR legislation into one letter ensuring that if they have the document they should supply it?

Good morning, just thought I would post the letter here first to make sure you thought it looked ok. I have adapted it a little to focus on our own circumstances. Anything I should change? Thanks -anger- Dear Sirs REF LOAN AGREEMENT: XXXXXXX We are writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that we have received from your company, which we deem to be personally harassing. During our current financial difficulties we have always maintained good communication with you and have agreed a repayment of £50 per month. This agreement is still in place and the last cheque sent was cleared on 26th February. We feel we have been open and honest with you and made every effort to keep the channels of communication with you open Further to this, the way the telephone calls are implemented causes further harassment. When calling the operative always asks for my Wife – Mrs Bleackley and when I say I can deal with the matter they hang up without further explanation. This is quite obviously extremely rude and unhelpful and has occurred on many occasions. As this is a joint account I am perfectly entitled to discuss the account over the phone on behalf of my wife. We feel that the person responsible for the rude calls should be investigated for their poor conduct and disciplinary action taken. We would be grateful if you could advise me of the action you taken in this matter As your company seems unable to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner over the telephone we now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only. We are of the view that your continued harassment of us by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. If you continue to harass us by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and we will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine. Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded As you are obviously keen to contact us at the moment I would also be grateful if you could write and inform us of the current problem you are trying to resolve and also acknowledge our current £50 monthly agreement in writing. It would be helpful if you were also to provide a paying in book to allow us to make future payments more easily. We have a Halifax building society in our local town where we can make payment. I would suggest that a further 6 months payment slips should be supplied and the current agreement can be reviewed at the end of August. Our financial position has not changed since our last conversation and I have enclosed a financial statement to show our current position. Yours sincerely etc

Thank you again for your comments Clemma. I have read around the forum quite considerably and the more I read the more confused I become. I understand the principle that if there is no valid CCA the debt becomes unenforceable and I am not duty bound to pay any further. Whilst unenforceable the creditor may not take further action against me or the debt and may not sell/transfer it to another party. However I don't really understand what happens to the debt. It is still there, I still owe the money - I fully appreciate the moral obligation as I have borrowed the money and spent it. The information must be readily available to view on my credit file and as such would show the missed/late payments and defaults added (a few have added these already). Unfortunately the largest of the debts - First Direct unsecured loan was only taken out in January 2008 and the agreement I have looks pretty tight. I have not signed my own copy but have obviously signed and returned one to the bank. Both my copies show bank signatures and look like they contain most of the required information. This would obviously mean that we should be keeping up payments to this account...more info will be posted regarding this arrangement later. The other unsecured loan was taken out in march 2005 and again I have an agreement that is signed by the bank - although I did not sign the copy I kept. It looks ok to me and would probably be enforceable. I did not take any payment protection with these loans as my job provided excellent sickness pay and the chance or redundancy was almost non-existant. The policies would of course not have paid out in my dismissal anyway. Our credit cards range in length of account quite considerably. I would imagine capital one (£11600) and Mints (£8600 + £2000) are pre-2002 whilst Marks and Spencer may just about be pre-2007. Both virgin card (MBNA) are quite new and I doubt are before 2007. My major concern with this is that whilst applying for bankruptcy now would have major implication on my role as an accountant in the Audit Commission graduate trainee scheme, there is still a chance that I would be kept on as likley to be discharged bankrupt way before I complete the course and obtain professional status. Where as if I try and bury some of these debts through CCA disagreements, try and find the money to keep up repayments schemes with those I can't and then later have to file for bankruptcy the professional body may not be so understanding and will simply remove my status and bar me from practicing. So I suppose the question is should I annoy anyone by requesting the CCA copies in this instance or just let things be and file for the bankruptcy order asap. The time scale to collect the CCA's seems pretty long really for some cases. still confused -anger-

Thanks for your comments. I will send the letter to them tomorrow and hope that this will put an end to their rude telephone calls. I can not believe the nerve of some of these places calling even though a payment plan is in place and being maintained.

Thanks for your comments, I have a few questions regarding the CCA requests and will post more tomorrow.

Good evening all, I have had 3 phone calls in the past two days from Intelligent (really ???) Finance. We have an unsecured loan with them and are currently in arrears. I have been in regular contact both over the phone and in writing with them and have a reduced payment plan in place at the moment paying £50 per month instead of £195. I have stuck to this agreement totally. When they call (8:03 this morning and 8:05 yesterday morning) they always ask to speak to my wife. The loan is in joint names. When I say I am her husband can I help the rude buggers just hang up . As I have an agreement in place can this be considered harrassment? I presume they only want to speak to my wife so that she will cave in quicker than me and increase the payments. Is there anything I can do to stop the calls or at least get them to be a little more polite about it? Many thanks -anger-

Hi all, This is a great resource and has already helped me in the past. I hope you don't mind me returning for a little more assistance. Last June I was dismissed from my job for being stupid. Entirely my fault hold my hands up high and admit it. I was paid about £36,000. My long suffering Wife only works part time and following a firm wide reduction in salary (works as a secretary in conveyancing solicitors) now only brings home about £500 per month. When I lost my job we were already neck high in Debt but were managing to keep our head mostly above the waterline and were surviving. Since I lost my job I have been unemployed and since Christmas not entitled to any governement benefits. The buggers also messed up our working tax credit and ended up overpaying us so now we are not getting any of that either. We have a 10 year old daughter. Since losing my job we have of course remained positive that a job will pop up and that everything will be ok, continuing in the mean time to live off the never never. I have now managed to secure a graduate training position with the Audit Commission to start in September but can not see any way of surviving until then. We owe: £25000 - First Direct (Unsecured), now defaulted and passed to Metroplitan Collection Services £3700 - Intelligent Finance, seem ok at the moment with reduced payments of £50 £4500 - M&S Credit Card £11600 - Captial One Credit Card (1 Month Arrears) £8000 - Virgin Credit Card £2800 - Virgin Credit Card £8400 - Mint Credit Card (1 Month Arrears) £2000 - Mint Credit Card We are mortgaged for £136,000 on a house valued at £150,000 with a £30,000 secured loan with Nemo. Both of these are currently 3x 1/2 payment in arrears. Our only real asset is our car - perhaps worth £5000 and needed for the 50 mile a day trip to take daughter to best school in area and Wife to work. We visited the CAB who simply advised us to file for bankruptcy and walk away. The trouble is this has pretty severe implications for my future with the Audit Commission and training to be an Accountant. Any suggestions on how to proceed would be hugely appreciated. With thanks -anger-

Oh the wait seems endless...Abbey did not return the requested documents to the court on time - now there is a surprise ! Should I ring them before I start to finalise my court bundle...or wait??? They have made no contact with me at all. I am really nervous now, can they possibly have something over me after all this? Suggestions very, very welcome with regards as usual.

Bump Bump!!

Further to previosu quote...used the template AQ with draft orders! Looks like it may have worked a treat...well thats the way I read it anyway. Cheers

Is this the answer I am looking for? Filled out AQ as requested and have waited with baited breath for the last few weeks for Abbeys response. Recieved Notice of Hearing yesterday. District Judge Rutherford has considered the statements of the case and allocation questionnaires filled and allocated the claim to the small claims track. The hearing will take place at 14:00 on 2nd May at Trowbridge County Court and should take no longer than 15 minutes. [WOW! IS THIS GOOD OR BAD???] Each party shall deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents (including any experts' report) on which he intends to rely at the hearing no later than 14days before the hearing. The original documents shall be brought to the hearing. The defendant do by 4pm on 2nd April 2007 file and serve: 1. An itemised statement showing how each and every item charged is calcul\ated. 2. A copy of the contract of the customer. 3. Skeleton legal arguements if points of law are to be argued relating to punitive damages and/or unfair contract terms. Dated: 23rd March 2007. Does this ask Abbey to show how they calculate my charges? Is this the end of my wait and if so why have Abbey still not made contact with me?

THanks, will remove comments as suggested

Hello All, I am just about to file my AQ, recieved it today and want to post it back for Monday to show I mean business. I have taken on board info in this thread and have asked for the draft directions to be followed. However I have slightly ammended the directions to link to my own case and to further ask that information be provided as to whether each charge was raised manually or by computer. Could anyone let me know if it looks ok or if I need to taken anything out. Draft Order for Directions 1) The Claimant shall within 14 days of service of this order send to the Defendant and to the Court: a) A schedule setting out each charge repayment of which is sought, showing the date, amount, and reason given (if any) for that charge being made. Additional information regarding the account balance before and after the transaction as well as the value of each transaction for which charges have been incurred will also be included for reference; b) Copies of any statement or other document relied upon as showing that each and every charge has been made; c) A statement of evidence of all matters relied upon as tending to show that the charges are irrecoverable as penalties or otherwise; d) Copies of decided cases and other legal materials to be relied upon. If the Claimant fails to comply with this order, the claim will be struck out without further order. 2. The Defendant shall within 14 days thereafter file and serve a response to the Claimant's schedule, stating in respect of each item claimed; a) Pursuant to what contractual provision such charge was made, producing a copy of the contractual document relied upon; b) Whether such charge is accepted to be a penalty, and if not why not; c) Whether such charge was raised automatically through the banks computing system or was raised manually, providing detailed information of personnel involved with the raising of said charge along with time taken, salary of personnel and any other details relating to such works as required. d) If such charge is alleged to be a pre-estimate of the Defendant's loss incurred by the Claimant's actions [as section 8 of Defendant’s filed defence] (whether or not such action is treated as a breach of contract between the parties), all facts and matters intended to be relied upon as showing that such was a proper estimate of such loss, and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to what the true cost of dealing with the matter was [as section 9 of Defendant’s filed defence]; e) If such charge is not alleged to be a pre-estimate of the Defendant's loss incurred by the Claimant's actions then facts and matters intended to be relied upon showing the basis upon which the charge was calculated and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to show that the charge was fair and reasonable. f) Any witness statements. g) Copies of decided cases and other legal materials to be relied upon. If the Defendant fails to comply with this order, the Defence will be struck out without further order. I have also asked that my work as a techer be taken into account when arranging court hearings, do you think this is ok or a bit cheeky and should be removed? The claimant works as a teacher in a secondary school with four current exam groups; as the summer examination series approaches, disruption to these classes caused by absence to attend court would be extremely unfair on the pupils, it is with respectfully asked therefore that any court appearances be requested for late afternoon, after classes have finished. This link is to my own thread with further details... http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/post-479775.html Thanks in advance as always

Just comment that they have failed to respond in a satisfactory manner to your previous letter... Feel free to check out my letter - it may help... http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/post-479882.html

Its standard stuff delboy, just another way of delaying the inevitable repayment of charges stolen from your account. Stick to the schedule the guys here state and you will get your rewards - I am just about to return the last but one set of papers to the court so hope to be getting a cheque from abbey in the near future.

Thanks 121, No offer as yet unfortunately - had thought of writing to the bank in light of recent publicity and offer the chance for them to settle one last time, including a bit more detail about the support I have researched for my case and a little extra work I have done on the schedule of charges showing account balance and actual transaction details against each charge; this in itself makes quite interesting reading.

Abbey have now entered their defence - I have until 19th Match to file Allocation Questionnaire. Defence is quoted below - does it look like the usual format? Anything I should worry about? 1) Save as is specifically admitted in this defence, the defendant denies each and every allegation set out i the particulars of claim. 2) It is admitted that the claimant has a bank account with the defendant, account number to be particularised ("account") 3) At all times the Account has been subject to the applicable terms and conditions ("conditions"), which for part of the contract between the claimant and the defendant and to which the claimant agreed when he opened the account. The defendant will refer at trial to the full conditions, but for the purposes of this defence will refer to the following extracts: 1) You can apply for an overdraft on your account. If we give you an overdraft we will tell you your limit and the interest rate applicable. 2) An unauthorised overdraft occurs if without our agreement you overdraw your account or exceed the limit of an overdraft which we have agreed. 3) If you have an unauthorised overdraft, you will be charged fees as set out in our tariff of charges or specified to you and these may include fees for transactions we are unable to process due to lack of available funds in your account. 4) Throughout the period that he has had the account, the claimant recieved a number of copies of the conditions and of the said tariff of charges as they were ammended and updated (though there has been no material amendment to the conditions extracted in paragraphs 3(1), 3(2) and 3(3) above). 5) Any overdraft facility ob the account was (and is) subject to the conditions. 6) The claimant has overdrawn or exceeded authorised overdraft limits on the account on a number of separate occassions, full details of which will be provided on disclosure. Therefore by virtue of the conditions referred to in paragraph 3 above such overdrawing was unauthorised and in breach of contract and the claimant bacame liable to pay fees to the defendant in accordance with its tariff of charges applicable at the time of review. In accordance with the conditins, such fees were debited to the account. 7) In view of the facts and matters referred to in paragraphs 3,4 and 5 above, the defendant denies that the amount of £1938.50 or any other amount was unlawfully debited to the account and the claimants claim for the repayment of that amount is therefore denied. 8) The claimants contention that the said fees are unenforceable and/or are "penalty charges" is denied. The fees reflect and are proportionate to the defendants administration expenses incurred due to the claimant's breach of contract and are a genuine pre-estimate of the damage suffered by the defendant. 9) Further or in the alternative, even if said fees are not proportionate to the defendants administration expenses incurred (which is denied), the claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate and the claimaint is not entitled to claim the repayment of the full amount of each charge made to the account. 10) the defenant denies that the claimant is entitled to claim interest in the sum of £316.96, or any other amount. 11) No admissions are made as to the amounts claimed by the claimant and the claimant is put to strict proof of the same. I think it all looks like standard stuff but am a little concerned about statements 8 and 9 as being ways to ensure that I either will have my claim thrown out or still have to make some payments...any thoughts? Thanks

Hello again everyone, CASE NOS: 7TW00143 in TROWBRIDGE COUNTY COURT Have now recieved confirmation of Serice being filed, stating the defendant has responded to the claim indicating to defend all of the claim. Says they now have 28 days to file the defence. Guess all I can do is wait now. Problem is this came through really quickly, most others mentioned here seem to have Abbey using the full 14days to respond - they responded to mine in less than a week! I am really concerned that they have something over me that I have no idea about and that in reality I don't stand a chance against them. I have spent a bit more time working on my schedule of charges and have now added to this coloumns to show the transaction value and final account balance for every transaction - it shows many charges for visa payments of less than £5 and for final balances just over the limit, I hope this will fall in my favour. Abbey have also failed to reply to letters I have sent them requesting copies of correspondance relating to the case. Can they just blank me like this? What is the process now? Abbey file a defense and then we both have to fill in AQ's. Is there anything I can do to help prepare for this. I would like to be able to go for a really quick turn around on the documents and let abbey know I am ready for them. I have already printed copies of supporting legislation and recorded some case numbers, copied my statements and highlighted every charge where it appears the month before and then is taken from the account linking this to the schedule of charges too. Feel like a bit of a spare part at the moment! As usual thank to you all for the help and support you have gieven me. Hope to update you all again soon.

Thanks Nick, you are a star. This will help no end, have had a bit of slack over the past few days so spent some time preparing evidence for the court bundle already - hopefully a total waste of time as Abbey will pay up before it gets that far but better to be safe than sorry. Cheers

Great news Stephen, any chance you can post your case details so that we can quote you as another now fully satisfied customer? Thanks in advance

Sorry to be a pain Nick, Do you have any links to some of the documents you have mentioned? Thanks

Thanks Nick, that is some really useful advice there. What you all in aspin about Kia? Anything I can help with? Cheers Guys

Well done to the both of you for hanging in there and putting up with all the garbage from abbey. It must have been so rewarding to finally get your dues. I have just sent my N1 to the court and am awaiting confirmation. I would be really grateful if you could let me have some case details that I coudl quote if I needed too. Yours would be an especially good case as it is of such high value, surely they would have done their very best to defend it if they had anything they could use and hence paying up out of court was really their only hope. I must act as a pretty good sign to all who look. Thanks in advance