Thanks pin1onu! Yes, I realised that there might be some rights granted to them by the rail act, but they were so completely disorganised that once I sent in the permit I never heard any more. In fact, they never, ever, replied - not a peep. Not even a "thanks, your ticket is cancelled". I would suggest that they boil their heads, but it seems that has been done already... They must lose a fortune because of their incompetence. Good.

Thanks very much for your reply. I read your article and I have to say that not enough people challenge these tickets. Once I had written to the head office I actually got a reply from the local office. They clearly had no idea what was in the first letter and requested evidence of my permit. As I keep them all. I duly sent a copy and heard no more. My further research revealed what you have said - these tickets are covered by contract law. As such, I am amazed that there has not been a rebellion on the same scale as the bank charges becuase the same law applies. The only factor here is that the rail law I quoted gives the railway company the right to something over and above the rights that APCOA have. Aside from that, some of the people they employ are the most appalling and rude morons you could ever meet. I had to apply for a permit by phone every month and frequently got the same lazy, incompetent, rude, arrogant, useless woman in their Chippenham office (you know who you are Cheryl, if you ever read this). She once answered the phone to me at 10 to 5, when the office closed at 5. She told me that everyone in that department had gone home. I said that I recognised her voice and that I bought a ticket from her every month. She hung up. When I phoned back, she had put on the answering machine saying that the office was closed. I would get fired for that sort of behaviour, where I work! I know that's a small thing, but I could reel off a whole list of small things that went to make up an appalling disregard for their customers. Having said that, some of the younger guys in that office were helpful and polite when I rarely got to speak to them. Finally, just to show that I'm not that petty, the station where I parked every day for a year did not have marked bays, only a large graveled space. They once gave a ticket to a woman I used to speak to at the station because she was not parked in a "Designated Parking Bay" - there were non! She was 7 months pregnant at the time and wrote to complain that there were no marked bays and that she could not walk far in any case. The letter they wrote back was so badly written and garbled that it was difficult to make any sense of it, so she paid the fine. I was so annoyed I offered to take the whole thing on and start a campaign but she had already paid it. So, for all that, I hope they go under!

...and I have been burned with PPI in the past, so the FP PPI sounded ludicrous, so I'm glad to say I didn't go for it, at least that's a good thing! There's a thread on this forum with people who have had some FP experiences, mostly with PPI if that helps you, it's on Moneysupermarket.com

Thanks, that would be great. Something that people miss, I think, is that if their rate is really connected to the FHBR, it has gone up by 2% over the past 2 years, so they could legitimately have increased someone's interest rate by 2%. What I am wondering about now is if they have put ours up because we used a credit card that we had previously paid off, so they now believe that we are more risky. I'm not sure, basically, if this is something they are doing legitimately, or if they lure you in, then push the payments up. I am going to write and ask them why they have done it - I don't expect to be told. I am also going to use a SAR to get a copy of the discussions we had on the phone and look over that, because they certainly implied that the rate was variable, but fairly stable...after that, I might wait 3 months and if it goes up again, start an FSA complaint.

Firstly, sorry if this is the wrong forum, please bump this to somewhere more suitable if it exists... The reason I am posting is because I am interested in getting information from anyone who has taken out a FirstPlus loan and had their rate increased for no apparent reason. We took out a debt consolidation loan for more than 50K a few months ago. I looked around on the net and spoke to a few people and it was the best course of action for us. Indeed, we are paying £200 less a month and that has made a huge difference. Of course, the total cost of the debt will be huge, but we don't expect to see the loan to full term, for various reasons. I have a relatively good grasp of financial services - but probably not as good as some of you lot! Because of this I spent some time looking into the FirstPlus loan. It is variable rate, but they presented it pretty much as a "tracker". FirstPlus use the Finance House Base Rate (FHBR)(Finance House Base Rates) as their base rate. I looked around and a few people have posted to various forums saying "we took out a first plus loan 2 years ago and the rate has gone up by 2%" and this sort of thing. Fact is, that didn't worry me because the FHBR has gone up by 2%. If anything, I thought this wasn't a bad time to get a variable rate loan because the FHBR was probably going to come down - and indeed it has. In October, it was 7%, it's now 6.5%. So imagine my surprise when I got a letter from FirstPlus telling me that my rate was going up from 7.6% to 7.9%...I was absolutely livid, to put it politely. Now, I strongly suspect that in the same way they tried (but failed) to sell me very, very dodgy PPI, they have talked down the "variable" rate and the fact that it is "linked to the FHBR". Their terms state: "We may from time to time vary our interest rate. We may increase or reduce our interest rate to reflect a change which has occurred, or which we reasonably expect to occur in interest rates generally or to ensure that our business is carried on prudently, efficiently and competitively" (terms here: product small print ) What I would like to know from as many people as possible is: 1) Has anyone else experienced this? The FHBR has steadily been going UP since 2006, but has anyone experience of their FirstPlus rate going down? If not recently, what about prior to 2006? 2) Has anyone had experience of them increasing the rate every 3 months by 0.3%? There seems to be some evidence for this. 3) Does anyone have experience of them taking you on with a low rate and then steadily increasing it, by more than the FHBR, or increasing it when the FHBR goes down? 4) Depending on how they fund their loans, the current problems with high-cost inter-bank lending might be a factor. Does anyone know if that is the case? 5) Since we paid off all our other debts, we put some money on a credit card ( the only one we kept, with a very low limit) over Christmas. We had previously paid off that card using part of the FirstPlus loan. I wonder if that has affected their view of us as a 'risk' and caused them to increase our rate? Anyone have any thoughts? What I am actually trying to determine is if I have been suckered. Will the rate just go up and up by 0.3% every 3 months until all the cash we freed up every month has been swallowed and we are back, or even worse off than when we started? Surely there must be some FSA protection against this sort of thing? You see, I cannot believe that they could be so stupid, or that they would be permitted by the FSA, to 'entrap' you with a low rate, then just bump it up every few months. Eventually, lots of people would default and they would surely start having all kinds of haslle trying to get their money. I did see someone who had posted to a forum saying that they had a FirstPlus loan and the rate had "fluctuated" over 3 years, so it seems that it does go down sometimes too. Finally, I am sure that some people will read this and think "ha ha" or "what do you expect" or have some thoughts about what FirstPlus might be up to, but what I am really interested in - and, indeed, what would be useful for others planning on using them to consolidate - is what they are actually up to. So the real experiences of anyone who has dealt with them would be greatly appreciated! It would help if you could say how much your loan was for and how much your rates had changed and when...(or at least the latter of the two!)

Excellent, thanks!

Hi - I have a question, we have made 3 claims against LTSB. 2 personal accounts (me and my wife) and our joint account. Both personal accounts were settled out of court, but the joint has just been ignored. At one point LTSB paid some money into the joint account. We wrote accepting it as part settlement and warned them not to remove it from the account without notifying us. They then removed it without notifying us! I suspect that it was money for my personal account settlement that they paid into the wrong account. Anyway, since then I have spoken to [problem] who told me that they had overlooked the joint account claim and would get back to me. They didn't. Nor did they reply to letters asking for an explanation of the payment and the reclaimed money. [problem] did file a defence for this case but have been ignoring it since then. I wondered if there was anything about it that is different. For example, I am the claimant, but it is a joint account. I have now asked my wife to sign a letter giving me authority to act on it, though, and will send that to the court. In the mean time, I had asked the court to adjourn which they have done. I am now writing to restore the case. Firstly, is a letter from me explaining that I cannot reach a settlement and asking to restore enough to restore? Secondly, I have submitted a bundle, etc. Should I just now let it go to court?

I parked in my local station car park this morning, and put my valid, monthly parking permit on the dashboard. When I got back, I had been given a ticket and the permit was on the floor. The rail Byelaws made under Section 219 of the Transport Act 2000 state that: "(3) No person in charge of any motor vehicle, bicycle or other conveyance shall park it on any part of the railway where charges are made for parking by an Operator or an authorised person without paying the appropriate charge at the appropriate time in accordance with instructions given by an Operator or an authorised person at that place." I will be writing to them tomorrow to find out what they will do, but I have a feeling that they will say that I have to pay the fine. However, as they can verify that I have already paid the appropriate charge, there does not seem to be any provision for them to issue me with a ticket. As I have paid a charge and the parking provider (APCOA) has a record of it, are they obliged to cancel the ticket? Any help appreciated!