Hello all, Hope someone can steer us the right way here. My wife and I have acceptable credit ratings despite having struggled a bit with debt in the past. Unfortunately, my wife's currently got a default registered with her by Next. She browsed Next's website to buy a couple of small items, and tapped in her debit card details to pay. When they asked her to "register for an account" she assumed it was just the same way you sign up for a shopping account with Amazon etc, and it all seemed fine. Turns out they were actually opening a credit account for her. She subsequently didn't notice that the £16 in question wasn't taken from her debit card, and only realised what was going on when a default was registered a few months later. She paid the £16 and had her account closed. She certainly didn't sign anything along the lines of a CCA, and she was never sent anything other than maybe a standard statement, which she threw out assuming it was Next junk mail! She certainly didn't receive a notice of default. As I said, our credit ratings are now pretty good, but things are being ruined by this default over £16. Next have now changed their slightly underhand method of automatically opening credit accounts for anyone who uses their site, thankfully, so that seems to indicate they know it was a bit dodgy. Does anyone have any advice on how we start? She's rung them up and been told to sod off, but we're willing to try either begging for sympathy as this is affecting our attempts to get a mortgage, or try the more rigid route as they never sent her any documentation nor did she sign anything. Sorry to ramble; can anyone help?

Hello all, Stumbled over this site about a year ago and made some tentative steps with IF. Wrote to them at the same time that I was bringing my finances into a bit more order; all my DDs etc now come out at the beginning of the month, and I seem to have managed to stop bouncing two or three things every month or two! They responded to my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request), returning my fee as they have with everyone, and listing charges amounting to £683 on my current account. I wrote to them asking for them back and received the usual offer of 20% which I shelved. I wrote to them again recently, explaining that I didn't want a token offer, I didn't believe they had a legal leg to stand on, and could they please just refund the whole lot like they had done for so many other customers without the necessity of resorting to court action? Received the latest letter from them today, offering a 50% settlement with a form to sign saying I would take no further action with respect to claiming the remainder. It also included the usual veiled threats about closing my account. Not sure what to do now. Still a bit nervous; with the state of mine and my other half's credit rating right now we'd never get another bank account if they closed this one, and obviously I don't want to turn a 100% chance of £341.50 into a 10% chance of £683! Question 1: Any advice? With finances roughly under control, £341.50 would be a big help. Not as big a help as £683, but I'm worried I'll end up appearing in court, losing, and ending up with no bank account and nothing to show for it. Question 2: How do I go about taking the £341.50 as a part payment, but reserve my right to pursue the full amount? Please help; don't want to dive much further blindly without some advice! Is it worth ringing them?