No, I don't believe there was a contract about this, it was a supposedly overpayment of money for when I fostered children for the council/borough,, I don't understand all these charges and I'm not sure this is justifiable. Can I go back to court to ask for them to be taken off? Is that something I could do?

All done,,,,,will get myself off to the post office first thing tomorrow.... I feel like I've had a very productive day today x

Oh, probably not too significant or relevant, but I'm a 'she', not a he,

Hi, Yes I will send by registered not special delivery. Thanks for your response:-) and advice,

Me again:-) I think I will phone the court tomorrow and ask just how much is the charge, its worth a try eh? I believe the 'oral exam', ld have been when I phoned Steeles trying to work out how much I can pay, but it was eventually agreed by a man from the court that I could pay £10 a month because I was so so poor at the time and in lots of debt, (although no ccj's, this was my first and only one, that's what makes it so upsetting)....also although it was agreed that I could pay only £10 at the time I have been paying 4 times that much month, sometimes more, so the debt has reduced quickly, much, much quicker than the agreed payment plan/time. I just don't feel that this is fair or just, or am I just being too hopeful?

Awwwww, I thought maybe there was some hope,,,,,never mind, I just wished I'd gone to the court as on reflection I feel sure the judge would have been sympathetic given the circumstances of this debt,,,just a shame its on my credit file:( ,,,,,well at least I've learned a lesson, although a tough one eh? Thanks to both of you for your honest advice.

Hello again, Yes, there was definately a court hearing, have a court case no. and on my credit file ccj against my name for this. I don't understand though how Steels (Mount St, Diss, Norfolk), can ask for all this extra money, totalling £539.71, when the debt was only £823.90,,,,,,can I dispute this? I accept there will be charges but it seems a bit steep, doesn't it?

Thank you Martin, very much obliged:-)

Hi, I desperately need the address for T Mobile to send a registered letter regarding a dispute over a huuuuuuuge bill. can anybody help plz

Right,,,,,,just gotta get the T Mobile address to send the letter to,,,only got the po box one and want to send registered post, I'll see if its on the forum for phones/broadband.....I'll be back:D

Hi Thank you for responding to me. Its really strange you should say that about steeles as I do not pay them directly, I pay the council and when I called the council dept the debt is owed to, ages ago to see how much left I had to pay them it did tally with that original amount £109x - £2xxx already paid off, they had asked,,,,,not all this added stuff from Steeles, and I only owe the council now about £40 from the debt and feel uneasy about all this extra money put on by Steeles..........does that make sense?

Hello again, I have typed up the latest letter, should I include the bit about 'I enclose a cheque for £1' and should I cc a copy to Westcott......? Apart from that its all set to go, feel so much better about this:) ,,,,,,cant tell you how the support of this site has helped me, what on earth would I have done????

Hi ladybird......have copied my word document but having problems finding the edit in this window,,,,,,,,,can you tell me exactly where it is? March 2007 Dear T Mobile Re: Account No: xxxxxxxx Invoice: xxxxxxxxx I am in receipt of your final bill dated March 2007 for the sum of £1388.96. Following a letter from your debt collecting agents, Westcott, some weeks ago, I provided them with a breakdown of my income and expenditure, and it was agreed the I could commence paying Westcott £10 per month in order to clear the then balance of £512.24. I have just received a further bill from yourselves, T Mobile, which shows an outstanding balance of £1388.96 and demanding full payment, so I now consider that I am dealing with yourselves, and not Westcott, for the full amount. I had spoke to yourselves, more than once, months before the final bill stage, in an effort to continue as a lengthy reliable customer and continue my contract and pay my direct debit as usual to yourselves for my phones with a additional payment over 3 months to clear the excess monies incurred unwittingly, as I was not advised about the high call charges that would be incurred on my account in the interim before the new tariff had started, but you refused and I believe this to be unreasonable. I am currently only receiving state sickness benefit in the way of income. I thus find your demands impossible to undertake, unrealistic, and to be quite frank, bullying. My GP has advised that I have been suffering with my illness since October, so my ability to communicate and make a sound and clear decision at the stage I made the agreement for the new tariff is questionable. Please supply me with a full breakdown of these costs. I am at a loss to understand how these charges have suddenly appeared on my account, given that the phone is disconnected. If you say these charges are penalty charges, please provide a breakdown of each charge separately, together with evidence of any manual intervention. Please take note that in no way do I accept these charges, and as of the date of this letter, this account is in dispute. Further, please supply me with a copy of the originally executed agreement. I enclose a cheque in the amount of £1 which is to be used for this purpose only. I would also ask that you remove, to amend would not be acceptable, any default intended or put on due to this account. Yours faithfully, Mr……………….. found it!!! had to try and remember the key commands from the old days, ha

Hi, Thank you for answering, Do you know,,,,,I'm not sure that the interest was put on by the council and I will phone the court Monday morning to find out,,,,will they be able to give me a breakdown of the charge? I know I'm paying a monthly amount to the council, at their local rent office/customer service office. Although I think the council have just asked for the basic amount so would Steeles be able to add on this much and it all be included in the CCJ? I will also phone the council about the procedure for an overpayment and if lawful to include interest. If anyone can shed any more light onto this I would be very grateful. Thank you.

Hi, Can anyone tell me how to copy and past onto here from word? thank you

Hi, Was just looking at some threads on this site and wondered if anyone here could advise me? I had 'apparently', been overpaid by local borough for fostering,(yes, for trying to put something back into my community and help someone),,,,so to try to summarise this, the local borough took me to court for this overpayment, I was silly enough not to attend and defend myself, (scared stiff of a court), so they got a CCJ against me and the debt was handed over to a debt collection agency. This overpayment/debt was originally £1098.90, as what I can make out of the paperwork, finally ended up in the court at £823.90, (as far as I can remember had paid some off to the borough, but asked the debt collection agency (Steels debt recovery) for an itemised bill as this had been finalised at £1115.00:confused: This is what I received from Steeles debt recovery. Original debt £823.90 Claim form interest £267.67 Claim fee £115.00 Claim form costs £80.00 Judgement interest £22.00 Judgement costs £15.04 Oral exam fee £40.00 Total £1363.61 Less money paid -£248.61 Total outstanding £1115.00 Is this lawful and correct. I know I should have defended myself considering what it was for but I honestly was too scared to go to court. Any advice, anyone:-)

Hi, I've just got some great news this morning, my son's PPI has paid out for his bank loan,,,,,oh my, what a enormous relief:-) I'm so pleased something good has happened. I must admit I'd gone under a bit over the last few days, my head felt like cotton wool and was not able to cope with it all lately, but now I feel so much better because of this small but for us a great triumph. I feel I have the energy now to push on with the T Mobile/Westcott matter and I have tried to adapt the letter ladybird very kindly drafted for me and will post to both T Mobile and cc to Westcott by registered post first thing monday morning. I've been trying to get dates from my son when he signed for the new contract, it was before he lost his job and got ill but its all a bit vague and confusing but I do know he was shocked at the first bill he got, £5xx.xx and he called them to query it and was told that it was so high because even though he had a signed for a new tariff it didn't start straight away and so his calls were charged at a high rate????? He accepted this at the time but told them he couldn't pay all the bill at once and asked could he pay his new tariff by direct debit as usual and pay £100 a month off of the excess, they said "no way, pay it all or we cut you off", and he tried this more than once, called them and tried to plead with them to accept his offer so he could keep his phone and not get in any bad credit, he had always paid his bills,,,,,but they would not agree this at all and disconnected his phone. Then, he got ill,,,,,T Mobile sent bill after bill and I believe they have defaulted him to give him bad credit just to add insult to injury:mad: Westocott sent letters and so this is the situation up till today. I'm sorry to ramble on but it feels better to be able to express how frustrating and disappointing it all is no matter how hard he has tried to cope these rotton T Mobile are trying to blacken his name....I know that sounds daft but I really feel he doesn't deserve this. A big thank you to Ladybird, Pondfish, Gizmo, Peed'orf and everyone who has took the time to read my thread. x

Hi, I have just called Westcott and they assured me they can only take this payment today of £10, no other unauthorised payments to be taken from my debit card details, took the girls name, that done, took me ages to get myself together and calm, have to rush off to work now.....will sit tomorrow when I get home from work and do the letters to t mobile/westcott,.....thanks again, I feel so much better now I've done something to help him. regards

Hi, Yes I can pay the £10 today on my debit card, but I'm scared to,,,,would that then mean I've entered into an agreement with them and not T Mobile? Oh my, and somebody told me if I pay on my debit card they (Westcott), can then just take what they agreed with my son out of my account (and wages), on the payment dates using my debit card details, is that right? Apologies if I'm rambling but I'm so anxious and worried. Thank you.

Good morning ladybird and thank you so much for your reply, I have been looking on the internet/mobile forums but I'm panicking and cant seem to take anything in:( I (my son) is , supposed to pay Westcott the first £10 by todays date but feel confused as to whom I should be paying, I would rather deal with T Mobile as it seems they are chasing the complete account still, including the payment supposedly to be made to Westcott by today, I will call Westcott this morning and advise them I am now 'in dispute' over the bill and will fax them a letter I am sending to T mobile with a cc on the bottom for them which will include the paragraph from your letter stating that they know my son in only recieving state benefits ......its so confusing and stress doesn't help much. Your letter was great and I will type that up this morning and address it to T Mobile and send recorded delivery this morning, with a copy and relevant paragraph to Westcott by fax by lunchtime today. I am very grateful for your help nd hope the letter will give me some time to get in a good frame of mind to deal with them. Can I ask, do you know if Westcott can send the baliffs if we don't pay the £10 today or will the letter stop the constant 'chasing and bullying' of my son. Kind regards

Good morning and thank you everyone for your replies and kind support, I certainly need it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I'm now sitting here with a huge bill from T Mobile,,oh god. They , (Westcott debt collectors on T Mobile behalf), had previously sent my son a letter dated 24 January 2007, asking for payment of £512.54 and for his financial breakdown of his income,,,,(zero all but sickness benefits) which was sent back to their debt collector dept, Westcott, and agreed he could pay £10 per month, but still got a bill from T Mobile dated January, asking for the full amount of £456.31, then another dated February for the full amount, £512.54 I got home from work late last night to find another letter from T Mobile, well a bill actually, dated March, for £1,388.96, which lists an outstanding balance of £510.90, plus new charges this month outside plan of £899.49. It also says at the bottom 'This confirms we have closed your account. You may receive a final revised bill with late charges! My son is absolutely floored by this and I'm actually physically shaking trying to read over it. How can the bill be that much when they have disconnected him months ago? Does he have to pay this? We cant afford it at all, can anyone please advise me what I can do. T Mobile have absolutely refused to speak to me because its my sons account and I'm sinking fast. Any advice would be very welcomed.

Thank you Pondfish for your kind words of support. It is tough, I'm finding it overwhelming so I know my son would not be able to cope with all this but I will press on although I am a bit worried because I did a mish mash of a prelim letter,,,,,,I don't know what was happening in my head but I just hope its effective enough. On reflection I know it wasn't my best day or brightest moment but was under pressure and dealing with too many things at once I think, and dealing my with own bank and the charges which amount to almost £3,000,,,,,,I honestly am truly grateful for this site and would not have been able to do this alone, that much I'm sure of. But hey, I do read through a lot of the threads and it does give me hope:) Thank you again and for everybody that has posted for me.x

I know your right, kdfh/Barty.....was just really upset at what is going on with my son,,,,,,even the insurance people are giving him a hard time,,,,very stroppy and quite rude in fact,,,,,was very polite when he signed up for insurance, he has been paying it for 2 1/2 years and never claimed until now he is ill and they are putting obstacles in his way,,,,,,I feel so bad for him,,,,,,I feel like he has been taken advantage of, has always worked and paid everything and now he needs to use the insurance they are still trying to put him through the mill,,,,,,,what with that and the bank 'demoting' him and have charged him all this money (nearly £1,000), then have the nerve to threaten a default against him.....aghhhhh:x ,,,,sorry, mothers rage. But, yes, I will follow the correct procedure and send the lba at the end of the 14 days. Thank you both for your advice..... Have pm'd a site helper (I think) but not been moved to the Natwest site.....any idea how I can do that?

Had enough of this lot, been looking at my sons charges today and got very, very angry,,,,,,to make matters worse they have 'demoted' him down from a Gold Account to basic because of financial problems....well,,,,,IF IT WASN'T FOR YOUR OUTRAGEOUS CHARGES HE WOULDN'T BE OVER HIS OVERDRAFT!!! Watch out NATWEST......I'M COMING FOR MY BOY!! Right,,,that's it done! Handed in my sons prelim letter today,,,and they won't get a lba, just going straight to court, fed up with this lot p.s. Can anybody tell me how to get this thread into NATWEST and out of LTSB , plz.

Hello again ladybird,,,,,no, please don't feel bad, I truly am very grateful for any honest advice,,,,,feel like I'm walking on quick sand at the moment trying to get his matters sorted out so advice, good or bad news, is very much appreciated. At least I know what's coming and can try and prepare things. Thank you. Hey, does anyone know how I can get this thread into the NatWest one?