If they've gone quiet then in my humble opinion I'd leave it at that. You, quite reasonably, want some compensation but also recognise that you still owe £540. You might be best just letting the matter drop. My personal opinion, nothing more. But kudos for taking them on in the first place!

If you send it to their registered address you should be fine. Send it Recorded in case of any dispute

Have you got proof (from your bank or whatever) that the payments were made? And do you have it in writing from Fiat that they'd agreed to the lower payments? My suggestion: Write to their Data Controller saying that they are processing incorrect data and should correct it, and contact any third parties to who they have supplied this information. Put this in the form of a Data Subject Notice and they have a statutory 21 days either to comply or to let you know their objections to complying. If that doesn't sort it you can send a LBA then commence Court proceedings for non-compliance with the Data Protection Act. PS: if you don't have proof of their agreement, it might be worth making a Subject Access Request. It'll cost £10, but hopefully will show up on your records that you'd made this arrangement.

I spoke to Trading Standards about my Scotcall complaint today. When I told the guy what was in the Cabot letter he laughed. A lot. Once they default, I'll be adding them to the complaint.

I got stopped in my local shopping centre at lunchtime by a woman trying to sign me up to an MBNA credit card. "No thanks, I'm currently building a case to take them to court," I told her. "Ahh. Oh. I see," she replied. "Did you want to take a leaflet anyway?" :o You've got to admire her sales skills, I suppose!

Here's a copy of the one I sent about Scotcall, feel free to adapt and use as necessary: Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to make a complaint about Scotcall Debt Collecting Services, who contacted me claiming that they had a debt placed with them which I should pay immediately. Upon seeking advice from the Consumer Action Group website I sent Scotcall a request (copy enclosed) for a copy of my agreement under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, along with the statutory fee. This was sent recorded delivery and, as you can see from the enclosed printout, signed for on February 16th. As I’m sure you are aware, Section 78 of the Act states: (6) If the creditor under an agreement fails to comply with subsection (1)— (a) he is not entitled, while the default continues, to enforce the agreement; and (b) if the default continues for one month he commits an offence. As I have no communication whatsoever from Scotcall and they have had more than the statutory time period they are now committing and offence which I would like to draw to your attention. I believe that their flagrant disregard for the Act calls into question their suitability to hold a Consumer Credit Licence, and would be most interested in your comments. Should you require any further information regarding this complaint, please do not hesitate to contact me. I understand that you may need to pass this onto Glasgow Trading Standards, and I give my consent for you to do so. Yours faithfully TS have been very helpful so far, good luck with your complaint

1st Credit really need to brush up on the Act. When they default, report them to Trading Standards and to the OFT. Their ignorance of an Act so central to their business calls into question their suitability to hold a Consumer Credit Licence - in my opinion of course

You're right that they cannot take collection action or apply a default while the account is in dispute. I'd send them an LBA stating that they have acted unlawfully under the CCA; and also under the DPA by processing incorrect data and sharing it with a third party. Give them 14 days to recall the information from CRAs, call off 1st Credit and to cancel the default, otherwise you'll commence proceedings in the County Court for breach of the CCA and DPA.

Equally there's no point letting the court give out incorrect information, when the next person they fob off probably won't be a CAG member and not as well aware of their rights. No point getting angry with the court staff, they're doubtless following instructions in good faith, but they need to be corrected.

Aw, see, they're trying to be nice

Sadly it'll be in the T&Cs of your credit card / loan that the company can pass your details on if you default. Of course, if that agreement turns out to be invalid in the first place: can... open... worms everywhere! Keep the Recorded Delivery slips safe - they might turn out to be some of the best £1.04s you've ever spent!

I'll confess ignorance when it comes to your court papers, and I'd rather give you no advice than duff advice. DCAs are one thing - they've got as much legal power as the kid who shoves takeaway menus through your letterbox - but once you start dealing with Courts and baliffs it's essential you get accurate advice. What I'd suggest is start a seperate thread about Black Horse, as people skimming the forum will think this one's just about IVAs. Copy 'n' paste what you've already put about BH, and a link to this thread, and you'll probably get far better advice than I could give.

Not sure in this case, but we're in MPS and both routinely tick the "no junk" boxes.

Is there an up-to-date 234x60 banner available? My website gets >10,000 unique visitors per month and I'd like to help. For obvious reasons I'm not going to name the site here, as it would destroy my anonimity, but if Admin or Mods need to know more please feel free to PM.

Glad we're being some help! One step at a time, and let's start with Black Horse because you say they've sent you Court papers. This is really important: did Black Horse send them, or were they sent from the Court? It's a very big no-no for a bank to pretend to have legal power or to misrepresent themself. If they were from the Court, what are they asking? I might be a bit out of my depth on this one, but the more information you can give, the more helpful we can be. Moving to the debt collection agencies, a CCA is a request under the Consumer Credit Act for a copy of the executed agreement. In the templates library there's letter N, make sure you include I do not acknowledge any debt to your company. You'll need to send a £1 cheque or PO, make it known that this is not to be set aside any alleged debt. Send one to each DCA, by Recorded Delivery (£1.04 each). This will, at worst, buy you some time. The creditor has 12 working days from receipt to respond, after which time the debt is legally in dispute and they cannot enforce it. After a further 30 calendar days they are committing an offence. You'll get one of several outcomes: Nothing. This is good, as they cannot enforce the debt while it's in dispute. A delaying letter, possibly asking for more information. Tough, the deadline is laid down in the Act and is their problem, not yours. An agreement. If you receive anything, please post as many details here as you can. Even better, scan it (deleting all personal details) and post it on Photobucket or similar. It may well be unenforceable. The worst that could happen is that you get sent a totally valid Agreement, and the DCA is perfectly entitled to collect the debt. Again, no real panic because they CANNOT get blood from a stone, no matter what they may think. If this happens, send them a budget planner which shows your income and expenditure. We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it, but remember that if you can genuinely only afford a token amount, that's what they'll have to accept. Hopefully you're already realising the situation is nowhere near as bad as you though a couple of days ago. With a few letters, you're well on the road to getting this sorted without getting dragged into an IVA or paying any rediculous fees!

I'm helping my other half reclaim her charges from Capital One, and also asking them to consider temporarily lowering her repayments for a while. To their credit, they're actually being reasonable, but that's another story. What's strange is that we've not had any kind of junk mail for years, and yet since we started dealing with Cap One she's had mailshots from Yes Loans and (today) Debt Reducers. I can't find anything which links them with each other, nor with Cap One, but it just seems very odd that the moment we start tackling her finances we start getting junk mail from these parasites. Now of course I'm not making any allegations (!) but would be interested in people's comments.

Have a re-read of my post #62. You don't necessarily have to write anything - they're in default and probably know it. If you do anything, I'd wait until the 12wd+30 day period is up, by which time they'll be comitting an offence. At this point I'd report them to Trading Standards. I had a nice conversation with TS this morning and they are very keen to hear of these cases, especially where DCAs and card companies try to pull the wool over people's eyes with application forms or unenforcable agreements. It may be worth sending a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) as detailed in my PM, just to give you that extra peace of mind that they won't suddenly magic a valid agreement out of a hat. But that's your call, it's another tenner which you may prefer to spend on a nice bottle of wine to celebrate Cap One's stupidity! PS: don't worry about Hillesden, it sounds like they're bluffing. If they had an agreement they'd have sent it by now. Wait and see what, if anything, they come up with and go from there.

There's some good advice in the above post (I can't vouch for the breastfeeding bit though.... ) My advice echoes some of that: 1) Put everything from now on in writing, never deal with these companies on the phone. Some are better than others, but it's not unknown for companies to conveniently "forget" about arrangements or promises; and they may trick you into admitting debt you don't owe. There are some excellent template letters, I'd suggest you familiarise yourself with them. 2) Start reclaiming all your bank / credit card charges. It sounds daunting, little old you taking on a multi-billion pound institution, but I'll tell you that Barclays offered me £1650 just for sending three letters! Have a browse through the Bank Action Group subforums, and don't be afraid to ask questions. 3) The debts which have been assigned to DCAs: can you elaborate? Chances are we can help. You should be putting these into dispute by making a CCA request. You need to establish the DCA's legal right to collect these debts. You wouldn't give ME money just because I wrote you a crappy letter, would you? 4) It is important to remember, above all, that debt collection agencies have to work within the law. They can posture and threaten all they like, but they cannot send baliffs round, they cannot force entry, they cannot lawfully harrass you. The Consumer Credit Act is there for your protection just as much as it's there to enforce legitimate debts. And most importantly they cannot demand more than you can genuinely afford. Assuming they can prove their right to collect, if you can only afford £1 per month then that's their problem, not yours. Please take some time to search out threads from people with similar debts to yours, and read the practical advice they've been given. Remember: the law is on your side and CAG is on your side. Your health and wellbeing are so important at any time, never more so than when you're pregnant. Stressing about debt is the last thing that you or your lump need, especially when I'll wager than everything can be sorted out with some care and patience. Please please please ask for help on specific debts. They won't be stupid questions, nobody will judge you, and you'll be amazed how much help CAG will be.

Morning, Just a heads up: I spoke to the Information Commissioner's Office yesterday about a complaint I submitted at the end of March, and they told me that they're so snowed under that the team allocated to my complaint is currently dealing with matters from late January. So if you're expecting a quick outcome, you'll probably be disappointed. However it is still important to report all breaches of the Act, even if you've managed to sort them out yourselves or with the help of the excellent advice on this forum. The Information Commissioners Office needs to be able to build up a profile of rogue firms, and only by notifying them of every breach can we hope to get some action taken against some of the cretins we have to deal with.

Found it! It relates to Equifax, not Experian, but I'm sure the same would apply. Worth reading: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/59830-equifax-r-subject-access.html

Somebody started an excellent thread just recently detailing the value of sending Experian a full SAR. Ok it costs £8 more, but apparently revealed a lot of information which a simple credit report wouldn't.

61? Are any of them valid?

Personally I'd give them NO phone number and keep everything in writing

Oh happy days indeed! I see there's a few of us in that position with Massive Bunch of Numpty Americans, how did they ever think they'd make that stand up in court? Question now is, as they've sold the debt to Link Financial without any valid agreement, can I claim back the (admittedly small amount of) money I've paid to Link?

If you've not acknowledged it in the last six years (5 if you're in Scotland), nor made any payments, then I'd agree it sounds Stature Barred. Be very careful what you write, but you won't go far wrong with the standard letters from this site. I'd guess they're just trying it on.