A donation has been made with gratitude to Martin for all his hard work. In their grief I hope his family can be comforted to know how much Martin has helped countless people he has never met, and thereby changed their lives. Not many of us can say that. That is his legacy.

Hi Sorry to jump in but my son is currently battling a similar problem with the AA while trying to claim through his AA breakdown repair insurance. There have been a number of rude, unhelpful and conflicting conversations with the AA over the past couple of days and I now despair of getting any support from them. My understanding of the insurance was that it paid up to £500 per claim for a maximum of 5 times per year (unlike the AA warranty) but the AA are doing all they can to avoid paying and are proving difficult to reason with. Has anyone else had problems with them under this cover please? I am rather worn down by it today and cannot see why we paid for this insurance in the first instance (from November 2008) if they treat us so poorly when we try to claim for the first time. Thanks

Hi Slick Many thanks for your reply. I said they 'increased my overdraft' as the overdraft balance in my current account immediately prior to them taking the payment would have been increased by them taking the money, eg 200 OD became 300.06 OD. I accept that they had already taken the funds from my savings account without my permission and placed them into the current account, but that still left the balance immediately after the sum was taken as greater than prior to it being taken. More serious is their statement that the set off sum was taken from a credit balance which it was not. When they finally took the payment after transferring my money it was taken from an account which had a debit balance. I have now removed all remaining funds from the savings account and closed the account but am furious that they can ignore all contact from me but plundered the account as they did. If they are able to do this I do not understand why they did not do it before handing the account to Mercers and indeed, if they can legally do this, they can then simply ignore all requests for documentation via the CCA and SAR route and so I simply have no redress or rights to obtain information about my account and identify the sum that I genuinely and rightfully owe them which is what I have been trying to do. I am so frustrated. Thanks, rant over.

Hi Sorry if this is in the wrong place but this is my first post and my problem bears some relevance to this thread so please bear with me. Some years ago I had a Barclaycard account but in October 2003 we suffered a devastating house fire and literally lost everything we owned - just left with the clothes we were wearing. The insurance claim was only finally settled this year and as a consequence we have run into serious debt. Barclaycard were very unhelpful during the period after the fire and added penalty charges, late fees etc and the account was eventually defaulted as I could not afford to pay the sums demanded. Eventually the account was passed to Mercers and they supposedly froze the interest, stating they would take payments of £22 monthly. The account was defaulted in late 2004/early 2005. I sent a CCA and SAR request to Mercers which they totally ignored and after chasing them about this and receiving no acknowledgement to any letters I eventually stopped paying them in total frustration, hoping they would then respond to my requests. They did not and I heard very little more from them. I have had a couple of threatening contacts since then, once from a DCA (cannot recall the name) but I ignored them and heard nothing more. Out of the blue on Saturday 10th October I received a letter from Barclaycard as follows: Dear.. Set off amount £100.06 We are writing to advise you that we have carried out our legal right to set off part of the outstanding balance owing on your Barclaycard account against the credit balance in your Barclays account. Barclaycard is the trading name of the credit card business of Barclays Bank plc. As your other account is also held with Barclays Bank plc we are able to apply funds from this account to repay the debt owed on your Barclaycard. However, there is still a balance outstanding on your account and we request that you contact us as soon as possible to discuss repayment. Once the debt is paid in full we will update the records held by the Credit Reference Agencies to reflect this. However, my Barclays current account is always overdrawn, ie has a debit balance but the letter clearly states they took the payment of £100.06 from a credit balance. I also have a Barclays savings account which had a credit balance of £200 (saving for a boiler as no heating at present). On checking I have found that Barclaycard took £100.06 from my savings account on 5th October and put it into my current account which still left the current account with an overdrawn balance. They then took £100.06 from the current account (ie increased my overdraft) on the same day. Therefore their letter stating they took funds from my credit balance is incorrect, as they took it from a debit balance and increased my overdraft balance. Can Barclaycard take set off payments from a debit balance, particularly since their letter states they took it from a credit balance? Can they take payments at all when an account is in dispute? If they take a payment in this way do they not have to state why they took the figure they did? The last payment agreed was for £22 monthly. I am very angry that when an account is in serious dispute Barclaycard can simply ignore that dispute and plunder my accounts, particularly by increasing my overdraft. It makes a mockery of requesting documents through the CCA and SAR process if they can just take my money anyway. Any advice would be very gratefully received. Many thanks

I have had a terrible experience with Dell and have tried every way to get hold of someone who will listen and help. Please can someone let me have these email addresses. Thanks

Hi Citizen B I have just started a new thread - thanks for your reply. Deb

Hi I have just joined and this is my first post so hope I am in the right place - if not sorry! I have a number of debts for credit cards and loans dating from 2003 (major house fire, lost everything, lost the plot for a while, same old story and know it was my fault that I let it all go) and these have been defaulted by the companies concerned (one is a CCJ) and passed down from them to different DCAs. My understanding is these debts won't become statute barred (correct me if I am wrong) for a long time as I have been in communication with all of them at some point since they defaulted in 2003 and had been trying to make some form of payment as and when I could. This has not been possible for some months now and the debts have been passed on again. Companies that are now contacting me are the likes of Robinson Way, Moorcroft and Westcot and the letters are becoming increasingly unpleasant and threatening. I have also received a letter from Nelson Guest and Partners in behalf of Westcot threatening court proceedings. To be honest I have lost touch with what the balances on all of these are as they have been passed from one DCA to another so often. I am also unsure if the monies being demanded include any charges etc. Is it possible for me to make a CCA request from each of the DCAs or will the fact that I have made some form of payment over the years mean they will just state that I know the debt exists as I have made some payment towards it? Also one of the debts that always used to come just in my name has suddently started being sent to the joint names of my husband and I - this has never happened before and I cannot recall if his income and details were asked for on the application form (loan with Halifax). This is really getting me confused and distressed so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Deb

Hi I have just joined and this is my first post so hope I am in the right place - if not sorry! I have a number of debts for credit cards and loans dating from 2003 (major house fire, lost everything, lost the plot for a while, same old story and know it was my fault that I let it all go) and these have been defaulted by the companies concerned (one is a CCJ) and passed down from them to different DCAs. My understanding is these debts won't become statute barred (correct me if I am wrong) for a long time as I have been in communication with all of them at some point since they defaulted in 2003 and had been trying to make some form of payment as and when I could. This has not been possible for some months now and the debts have been passed on again. Companies that are now contacting me are the likes of Robinson Way, Moorcroft and Westcot and the letters are becoming increasingly unpleasant and threatening. I have also received a letter from Nelson Guest and Partners in behalf of Westcot threatening court proceedings. To be honest I have lost touch with what the balances on all of these are as they have been passed from one DCA to another so often. I am also unsure if the monies being demanded include any charges etc. Is it possible for me to make a CCA request from each of the DCAs or will the fact that I have made some form of payment over the years mean they will just state that I know the debt exists as I have made some payment towards it? Also one of the debts that always used to come just in my name has suddently started being sent to the joint names of my husband and I - this has never happened before and I cannot recall if his income and details were asked for on the application form (loan with Halifax). This is really getting me confused and distressed so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Deb