I have an unsecured loan with Welcome Finance. I haven't had a great record of keeping my monthly payments.

I ttok the loan out in September 2006. £1500 over 36 months - 80.44 a month repayments. Have probably made about half of them. Tried in August to make a one-off payment of £2000, which I had then. The bill due to added interest, charges, interest on charges, letter fees, and all the usual, was £2800, and they refused my offer.

Have paid £85 in Aug and Sept, missed October. They sent someone to my front door today and left a letter as I was out.

They seem to persist in calling to people's homes.

What are my rights to legally warn them off from calling at my home, and can I demand that they only contact me by letter?

Any help would be great, thanks.

Folks, many thanks; will send this letter to Halicraps, and update you on any reply from them, and have already contacted the FOS, who are sending me out the complaint pack to return to them.

Will update you all on any developments as they happen, but probably take a while for anything to happen now, as FOS say they can take 2-3 months at the minute, but I've got a chunk of the money already so will happily wait for any further monies.

Has anyone else had the a/c closure etc.?

Thanks,

D

Thanks for the reply, have amended one of the rejection letters as below, can you give me your thoughts on thw wording.

I have already contacted the FOS, and explained situation regarding the partial payment, and the a/c closure, and they seemed very keen to get their hands on this complaint. They are sending me out the paperwork to fill in ands send back to them. I know they can take 2 months plus, but I don't mind waiting for this time.

Rejection letter as follows:

Date

BANK NAME

Address

Address

Postcode

Re: Account number XXXXXXXX

Response to settlement offer.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your letter dated 29th June.

I respectfully decline your offer of Full and Final settlement and request, once again, that you return to me the remainder of the charges imposed on this account, totalling £xxxx plus the Statutory interest of 8%, now totaling £xxxx.

My original claim was for £XXXX.00 of charges and 8% interest of £xxxx, which has now increased to £xxxx, through the time taken for you to handle this issue.

I accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, through the relevant authorities, or with a Court claim if necessary.

Through this process, I have been patient and allowed you the full 8 week time period to investigate this complaint, as per the FOS guidelines. However, at the end of this period, there has only been a partial resolution, and therefore not to my satisfaction.

My (Request for Repayment letter) (Letter Before Action) dated xx/xx/xx indicates that you have until xx/xx/xx to respond before I proceed to the next stage of my request (before I commence legal action). My deadline remains the same.

For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to stress that I do not accept your offer under the terms stated in your letter.

I trust this clarifies my position.

Yours faithfully

[signature]

[print name]

Any thoughts or advice always greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

D

Folks,

any advice greatly appreciated; have sent second letter to A&L; 2 weeks now more or less up; claim originally for £143.00, but need to add 2 further charges of £59.00 to it. got a reply from them yesterday stating £12 CC fee, OFT report, usual Blah... offering the difference, not sure how they worked this out, but offered £110, F&F settlement of complaint, but as long as I abide by T&C's going forward and accept future charges, along with veiled threat that we won't close your a/c as long as you accept all this.

Don't want to go Court route, but no probs with FOS.

Has anyone any suggestions or action that anyone else in this situation has taken?

Thanks,

D

Thanks for the reply Dusary, but couple of queries;

I have lodged the cheques already sent, ( need the money), so cannot send money back?

Not planning on Court, but refer them to FOS for balnce plus interest @ 8%, and a complaint about them closing my a/c with no notification?

Should I amend the Refusal letter to allow for these points?

Letters read really well, and appreciate your help on this, bt don't want to send reply wrongly worded?

Thanks,

D

Guys, many thanks for your replies;

Dusary, I'll get onto the FO straight away; do you think I'll be able to get the remainder of charges plus interest? Also what about them closing my account without notice?

Ref Negotiation: I was in a situation whereby Court was too much time, as money needed sooner, so allowed them their 8 weeks;

Timescales as follows:

End April 1st Claim £4500 plus interest

Reply 8 weeks aloowed to investigate

End June Sorry, charges are fair

Next Day Phoned Halifax, told them not happy with

response they 'escalated' complaint

Few days later Rec'd insult offer of £2200

End June Phone Halifax and told them not happy with offer

they immediately went to £3700, still not happy, final offer of

£4000; still not happy, and asked them to split the difference;

got offer approx £4200

Their letters with Cheques ( they couldn't pay into my a/c as they had closed it) stated F&F settlement. DO I need to send a reply stating that I have accepted this as a partial payment.

Any further advice greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

D

Folks,

can anyone adivse on my options:

Started claim 28th April

Allowed Halifax 8 weeks as per FOS

Rejection Letter 20th June

Escalated Claim 21st June

Partial Offer and further negotiation end June

2 Cheques sent to me in the last week

Original Claim £4555 plus 8%

Negotiated £4200 - paid by cheque - awaiting clearance

Their letter states F&F Settlement but I did not agree to this.

I plan to write them thanking them for the cheques, as a partial payment,

but waiting for cheques to clear.

I transferred my salary payments to para account end of April, but kept Halifax open. This a/c ended up £78 o/drawn due to 2 bounced charges.

They hassled me at the starts with threatening phone calls daily, but I spoke to them about this as the a/c was in dispute, and they backed off.

I have found out that they closed my a/c on the 20th June, with no letter or communication from them whatsoever.

This has really p***ed me off. I allowed them the full time period for my claim, was patient and polite throughout, and they do this to me.

Shouldn't really expect any better.

I would like to go to the FO and seek the balance of my charges and the interest as well as a complaint about my a/c closure, which is in breach of the Banking Code, I believe, for which they should be made to pay a fine and/or compensation?

Has anyone any advice or thoughts on this matter, please?

Thanks,

D

Hello folks,

I ha a mortgage with Preferred from 2002 to 2006, when I re-mortgaged, and left them.

Got £25.00 back from a MEAF charge, and used this correspondance to request a Statement for the account.

Sent first request for rpayment of Unpaid DD/Arrears Management/Default Fees 18th June with a 14 day deadline.

They have not as yet, responded to this; I phoned them on Friday 6th July, and they explained that the charges were fair, and when I asked why they had sent no response as yet, and that they had 5 days to acknowledge my letter under FOS guidelines, the lady apologised and said that they had marked the letter as a query, but would now treat as a complaint, and I would receive a response in the next few days.

Sent 2nd letter on 6th July giving a further 14 days for repayment.

Is it better for me to refer this to the FOS, and give them time to deal with it, as I don't really want to go to Court?

Am I likely to get any of these charges back?

Have a feeling that Preferred will be messier than most?

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks,

D

Hello all,

been reading many of the posts; great work and keep at 'em; they've got our money.

Can anyone offer advice on this one: I had an Abbey account in the mid-to-late 90's; due to financial diffs, it got into a bit of a mess, and was passed to a collection agency about '98/'99, which I eventually got cleared.

I had an overdraft on the a/c, but it escalated quite a lot due to charges etc..

Can I go after this account to reclaim the charges, given the problems of the account being closed over 6 years ago, being passed to collections etc.?

I think there qould be a huge amount of charges to be claimed, if possible?

Also, can I even get details of the account from the Abbey using a SAR?

Any advice greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

D

Folks,

maybe someone can give me a steer on this one;

I have a claim into Halifax for over £4k;

sent 1st letter end of April,

got standard 8weeks allowed to investigate;

changed bank accounts;

2 charges applied to Halifax a/c - leaving it £78 unauth overdrawn

used different bank account since April

decided to wait 8 weeks, as couldn't afford court claim

got letter yesterday - standard - charges are fair

checked a/c on-line yesterday - still £78 o/drawn

Phoned today and asked for claim to be re-evaluated/escalated

told this could take up to 28 days - asked for sooner if possible

checked on-line today - a/c balance is Zero and CLOSED

I have had no letter or communication about this from the Halifax

about the Current A/C, unless letter lands today, not sure.

Surely this is not allowed?

Could I use this to express annoyance at how they have treated me to push for settlement?

Any advice greatly appreciated?

D

Folks,

maybe someone can offer me some advice; I had a Mortgage with Preferred, now seetled since last year; got a statement from them at the weekend, I missed some payments, where the DD bounced and the Halifax charged me £39.00 for, this is now being claimed back from the Halicraps;

But Preferred also charged me £30.00 "Unpaid Direct Debit Fee" and also a few £45.00 "Arrears Fee". This is how it appears on the statements.

Simple question, can I also claim either or both of these charges back?

Is there any issue about them classifying them as 'Fee' instead of 'Charge'?

Any advice greatly appreciated?

D

SJ,

many thanks for your reply, will check out your link.

What stage are you at with the Horror-fax, as your figures seem quite similar to mine;

I have sent 3 letters so far: 1st request 27/4/7

2nd 14/5/7

Final 4/6/7

In the final, I have mentioned Court Action via a Civil Bill with my solicitor.

Would love to sort pre-Court due to worry over costs, but will go there if need be.

Any thoughts?

Hi all,

new to site, but have been following a lot recently;

I have sent 3 letters as of now to the Halifax claiming just under £5k, plus over £1k in interest if it goes to Court; the system in NI only allows Small Claims up to £2k, so Court Service has advised me to get a Solicitor to start a 'Civil Claim'.

Has anyone else been in this posotion, or can anyone offer some advice?

Any respone greatly appreciated?

Thanks,

D

Hello everyone,

just new to this site, so any help appreciated;

have sent 3 letters to Halifax requesting pay-back of $4866, plus £1035 Stat Interest. They are giving me the usual 8 weeks to investigate our complaint run around. About 3 weeks to go.

I expect them to say at end of 8 weeks that charges were fair as per T&C's etc, blah.

I can't use Small Claims, as in N.Ireland, and limit is £2000; told by Court Service to get a Solicitor and claim via a Civil Claim.

Has anyone else been through this, or have any insight or advice?

Thanks