Hi, can anyone help with this? Im sure I read somewhere on here that the banks are required to send original copies of the credit agreements if I specifically request them as part of my SAR request. At the moment neither the bank or the collection agency is willing to provide documents other than the bank statements themselves but these do not reflect the amount that they claim I owe. Also there is no details of the payments I have made to pay off the balance and indeed the outstanding figure they claim is owed. Do I need to send a CCA request as well as the original SAR?

Thanks. I have written Wescot the template SAR non compliance letter to request the missing information. They sent me a few screen prints but that was all....no evidnece of me owing them money, no evidence of what the balance was for or what made it up. I also sent a non-compliance letter to Vodafone as they have so far failed to send anything

I had a phone contract with singlepoint 4u back in 2003/4, the phone they supplied was not as described and had clearly been used and probably returned as faulty. I wrote letter after letter of complaint but never got a reply, the phone stopped working completely after a few months. I bought a replacement phone from ebay and continued pursuing singlepoint (by then I think they had been bought by vodafone). My letters were still ignored, my phonecalls were always left at "somebody is looking into it and will call you back on X date" Eventually after about 10 months of the contract I wrote and said that I would not be paying anymore unless they accepted that the handset was faulty and agreed to replace. They never did, but they passed the debt to Wescot who then passed the debt to frederickson to collect. When frederickson wrote to me with threatening letters I was foolish and kept paying them monthly as they were threatening court etc. I told them a number of times also that the account was still in dispute and said I would continue paying but at some later date would be claiming it back. The debt then was about £130. I paid a few installments and cleared the balance. I know now that I should have gone through trading standards etc to dispute the goods etc but did not know at the time. I paid off the debt for a few months and ust gave up on the dispute as it was stressing me out too much and I had other stuff on my plate. It was only when I was reviewing my credit files a couple of months back that I noticed a default placed by Wescot for £180 and showing an outstanding balance of £50 and it was dated in 2005 at an old address - an address which incidentally I did not move into until at least 6 months after the default date. I wrote to them with a SAR request and they sent me back a few screen prints showing a beginning balance of £180 which was passed to frederickson and payments bringing it back to £50 at which point it went back to Wescot. I called Wescot and said that I didnt understand how there was an amount outstanding as the debt had been paid in full to frederickson. They said it hadn't and I still owed £50. I asked for a statement showing what the £180 was made up of, but they said they bought the debt off Singlepoint and didn't know what it was made up from and they insisted they didnt need to prove anything or dupply the deeds of assingment etc. They also said that as vodafone had sold the debt to them, then legally vodafone would not be able to hold any records and would have destroyed them as soon as they passed the debt on to them. I sent a SAR to vodafone at the same time as wescot and they have not replied (over 40 days). I emailed them and they couldn't find details of my account without the account number. The only records they found were for an aco**** settled in 2003 (which I believe was an old phone). Unfortunately I do not have any of my old letters from frederickson as I have moved house twice since then and lost a lot of paperwork along the way. How do I proceed? I want to get the debt and all references removed from my credit file. I would pay the debt if it would mean them leaving me alone, but then they say the default would stay but show as settled. I know thats a tall order from reading other posts on here, but Im sure there are irregularities on their data somewhere, but they again insist they do not have to prove anything. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi, I finally received the statements last week after 50 days. They sent them to my old address which luckily was my mums house. Today they sent a letter to my Mums saying that as my address had changed and they couldn't verify my signature that I would have to go into a branch with some ID. Seems a bit weird as the letter came after the statements that they weren't going to send out?? The account closed in 2003 with a £1800 overdraft (£700 limit) and £1800 managed loan. The charges for 2001-2003 (when it closed) came to £1208.75 and £144.81 overdraft interest on charges. I had to shut the account because I was that far over my overdraft limit that even when I got paid it only just bought me back below it. My entire overlimit overdraft amount was more than made up from charges. So I switched my salary to another bank account and asked HSBC to arrange a payment plan to pay the loan and start paying off the overdraft. HSBC closed the account straight away as they said the loan payments had to be taken from this account and could not be paid externally. They sent it out to their own debt collectors who then passed it on to Heatons. They said that I owed them £4997 When I sent my DPA request I requested specifically details of manual interventions etc and also the signed original copies of the credit agreemeents etc as I have always disputed the amount that they said I owed them. They sent my statements but not the credit agreements etc or even a statement of account. Equifax shows a balance owing to them for over £2000 but by my calculations I have repaid more than the original amount. Equifax also shows a default notice, which was a suprise as I never received a notice or even a letter suggesting that they were sending one. HSBC has not provided this information and Heatons has not even replied to my SAR or CCA request. I sent my prelim letter last friday for the charges and also included a paragraph saying that I was disputing the balance of the account and challenging them to prove otherwise. I also told them that I would still require the rest of the details within 7 days or I would add that to my court case when the time came (failure to supply the dpa and cca information). Does anyone know what other information I am entitled to under the DPA/CCA? I read that it was the original signed default notice and original signed credit agreement? Would I have signed a credit agrement for the overdraft or just for the loan. To be honest I don't remember signing anything

Prelim sent off today. Total charges and interest on charges £372 New total as of todays date including contractual interest at 29.9% compound = £2016 14 days - time is ticking

Hi Lindylou, I have been reading loads of threads on Cap One and it seems that they have started making less and less partial offers and now just ignore the claim until the court stages. Its nothing to worry about, they are probably just so busy dealing with claims that they can't waste time sending out these offers if they are going to be rejected anyway. Whereas before a lot of people were grateful to receive anything and jumped at them when they made offers. Now that sites like CAG are offering great advice to people when claiming the claimants are becoming more confident and less likely to accept silly offers and instead hold out for the full amount they are entitled to. By the way, which address did you send your Prelim letter to? I can't decide between the Data protection address or the address for serving court orders. I don't want to give them any excuse to delay!

Thanks for the reply. I havent got a letter from the debt collector anymore as it was a few years ago. The data reported by Cap One to equifax confirms that the account was satisfied by a partial payment in full and final settlement. I'll try and track down the debt collection agency and ask them to send a letter to confirm. Are they likely to send me this again or will they try and be difficult?

Thanks for the advice on this one. Think I'll just play it safe and stick with the charges only without contractual then, want to keep them sweet to see if I can get the default removed as well as part of the claim

Hi Statements received today from Capital One. total penalties including interest paid on fees is £372 and fees date back to 2001/2002 I ran it through the compound contractual interest sheet and total including compound contractual interest comes to £1657 I used the rate at which I used to pay on the card which was 29.9% The interest is very high which is why I wanted to make sure that the claim was reasonable. Does this look ok or will a juge laugh at me?! The tricky bit though is that the debt went into default in late 2002 with balance of £507 and after a few weeks of letters from the collector they rang and said if I paid today they would accept £250 in full and final settlement. I did so paid the £250 and heard no more. My credit report shows the default at £507 and shows as satisfied "A partial settlement has been accepted in ful and final settlement" Therefore I saved paying £257 so will they insist on taking this off the amount of the charges or am I ok to claim the full amount seeing as the account was payment was accepted as 'full and final settlement'? Thanks again for the great help of the CAG and its members!

I had an account with HSBC which closed in May 2002 and was passed to debt collectors with a balance of approx £5000, this was made up of an overdraft and a managed loan which they merged. It got to the point that I was getting paid and was already at the edge of the agreed overdraft and the wages were getting swallowed up. I started getting my wages paid into a Halifax account and straight away hsbc called in the debts and a couple of months later passed them to MCS who then passed to Heatons solicitors. I have been paying £85 a month to Heatons since 2002 and no interest has been added since the account defaulted. I sent SAR off last month and got statements today, there was £1350 in charges and £120 in overdraft interest (using the CAG sheet). If I claim for contractual interest at HSBC overdraft rate of 15.9% the total claim goes up about £500 Does anybody know if I can claim contractual interest even though technically I havent paid them interest on the debt since 2002 (Although the loan that made up the debt included all the interest)? I'd really like to claim this as this would be enough to clear the debt but don't want to risk fighting a losing battle. Any experts willing to help??

Thanks for your help. I did read that thread before and thats what got me thinking. The trouble is it is based on the assumption that the claimant has their statements. Unfortunately I haven't got any older statements and I know that as soon as the limitation act and 6 year rule etc started to get questioned, the banks including HSBC will have been heating up the furnaces to burn those old statements. Presumably I wouldnt have a legal leg to stand on if I made a claim for the information I have got (i.e. 2 years worth of charges) and then estimated a similar level of charges for the previous couple of years before that. To be honest I'd really like to just get enough to close off the outstanding balance which is about £1500 (2001-2 charges equal about £1200). but more importantly I'd really like to get the default removed so that I am not paying extortionate interest rates in the future.

Hi, I had an old Midland bank account that was opened back in 1990. When I began working in 1996 ish, I used to be going overdrawn frequently and getting charged loads in penalty charges, to pay them I used to have to increase my overdraft and it was getting bigger and bigger every month because of the charges (ok some was charges and some was spending), but it was a vicious circle. When the overdraft got over a £1000 I was getting worried and went to the bank who gave me a loan to cover it. This was ok for a while until the same cycle began happening again and I was getting more and more charges and going overdrawn and a couple more times they added the overdraft into the loan which was getting bigger. All of a sudden, I lost my job and didnt pay the loan one month and ended up with more and more fees, to the point where I was getting paid and not even clearing the overdraft. I decided the only option was to change accounts and opened an account with barclays in 2002. Straight away HSBC said that as I was no longer getting paid into their account they would call in the overdraft etc. in the end they added the overdraft balance and the loan balance and got their collections team MCS to start chasing the debt as one amount (about £4000) but I dont know what this is made up of. After a while they passed the debt on to Heatons LLP. the debt has inflated since going out to debt collectors but I have never seen a statement or balance since the account was closed so dont know how much is owed and what extra fees the collectors added. I have been paying Heatons a standing order of £85 a month since 2003. I wanted to reclaim the HSBC charges but sent off the SAR and they just delivered statements dating to April 2001. I know that the majority of the fees I have paid (estimated £2000+) were unfortunately before this and I would like to push on with a case because the fees have made my life hell trying to get other loans etc becasue of the default they registered in August 2002. default value said (£5007) so approx £1000 has gone on since it closed. Where do I stand legally with regards to 'estimating' a pre 6 years claim? How do I go about getting details of the collectors fees? heatons say they have not added anything but I think a couple of other companies were chasing it intermitently (MCS, DG Solicitors etc). Thanks to whoever can assist

Hi, I have read confilicting reports on here at to whether you can file on MCOL or not as it is not a moneyclaim. Some people are getting round it by adding a small amount of money for damages. The fee is £150 for a non monetary claim but if there is a monetary amount the fee can be much lower. There is some templates for what to put in yout N1 particulars of claim in the bank templates section. I think a lot of people are moving straight on with step 2 of their claim using an estimate of charges, then it is up to the company to 'prove you wrong' which they can only do by providing the SAR information.

Hi, Sorry to hijack the thread but do you know the phone number for Heatons. I have been paying a debt to them for years by standing order and want to get them to update my address. Thanks

Im guessing that your problem is the delinquant balance from Littlewoods. Have they registered a default on the account? How did you close the account even though there was a balance still on it? Did you make a partial payment to satisfy?

Hi, Halifax 'Acknowledge' all claims and say that they intend to defend all of the claim. They will either make you an offer or just not respond for 28 days, at which point you can get a judgement by default. I started the claim through MCOL and called them after a couple of weeks to make sure they had received the schedule of charges and to remind them that time was ticking. I spoke to legal services who had lost the details of my claim and had not matched it up with the court papers. They said they would write to me in a few days and 'would a cheque be ok?' I didnt hear back so called again the following week and they apologised for forgetting to write to me. They again said that they would organise payment and write to me. Still nothing after another week. The 28 days eventually run out so I went for judgement by default, which was granted. Halifax have no promised to pay into my bank within 3 days. If they don't the bailiffs are going in soon! I think they (like all the other banks) are flooded with claims and are struggling to keep track of them all so its probably worth a phone call to chase them up - phone customer relations on 01383 743354 and they should be able to put you through to whoever in legal svcs is dealing with your case once you give them the details and court reference number. Hope this helps!

Hi, I had exactly the same problem when I checked my credit file, a default from Littlewoods. I too had a catalogue with them years ago but the account was closed but never in debt and I was never aware of the default until I saw it on the report. I was advised by forum members to send them a SAR letter with standard £10 cheque and ask for all the information they hold on you, all your statements and occasions where they manually intervened in your account. Also ask for original copies of the credit agreement you signed and the default notice (original signed). If they cannot supply these originally documents then you can refuse to acknowledge any debt. Send letters to their head office at: Littlewoods Shop Direct Group Kershaw Avenue Crosby Liverpool, L72 0LG And give them your name and address and also the address which the default shows up against. I also sent them a photocopy of my drivers licence as proof of ID. I am still waiting for the documents from them but it is coming to the end of 40 days so hopefully they will arrive soon. I did get a letter to acknowledge my request and confirm that they found my account details. When I get the statements I will make a reclaim of any late payment charges they have applied and also make it a specific of the claim that the default too is removed. I hope this helps...

Thanks for the help. I'll write and remind them that I am not prepared to wait more than 40 days. And sorry, but I read on anohther thread that after 40 days if they had not been received I should send them a LBA threating court action if they were not received within the7 days? SHould I write to the ICO instead after 40 days then? Thanks again!

Hi, I sent a SAR letter to Littlewoods back on 11th April. I got a reply today saying that 'due to high number of requests for SAR' they would be unable to send me the details requested until at least the end of June. Shall I just carry on as normal and sent LBA after 40 days? or wait for them to send it through in a couple of months? I wouldn't have bothered at all as the account was closed a couple of years ago, but I checked my credit file and noticed a default registered by them in April 2004. I never received a notice and still amunaware of any outstanding balance. The default balance was £30 I know for a fact that i paid a few late payment fees and bounced cheque fees which were for a lot higher value than the £30 Shall I push on, or does anybody have a better route to take with them? Thanks again for all you help.

Ha ha! That does sound very cynical, but what a set up that could be, the banks club together and pay somebody to 'lose' a case against them and suddenly the whole bank charges reclaim phenomenon comes to an end. Saving the bank potentially hundreds of millions! Not even the banks would drop that low, or would they?!

Hi, Would this be a possibility if the claim was entered through moneyclaim, then the defendant 'Acknowledged' but then didn't even bother to defend the claim and thus allowing me to request judgement by default after 28 days? Wasted loads of time and money writing letters, mailing them and on the phone in all. Has anybody else claimed for wasted costs, and how much is a 'reasonable amount'? Cheers

Hi, I have been paying Heatons LLP for a debt allegedly owing to HSBC from some years ago. I set up a standing order years ago and it goes out every month. I moved house a few months ago and have lost the old letters I used to get from them and no longer have their address. The debt includes massive amounts of penalty charges which I have sent a SAR to hSBC for and awaiting reply. I now want to send a CCA letter to Heatons but have no address for them. Does anyone know it please?

Halifax CC are terrible for replying and keep breaking even their own deadlines. I issued MCOL on 26 March and called aweek later to make sure they'd got the breakdown of charges. Eventually got through to the legal department who said they had got the papers and would write in a couple of days with an offer. I've been calling the every few days since and they even remembers my name when I call but can never remember why they haven't written to me yet. last time they asked if a cheque was ok for settlement and I said that was fine or if they wanted they could pay it into my bank account (halifax as well) direct. They said either way it would be in the next 3 days. That was last week. Still didnt hear more so called again yesterday and he said the same thing. I went on MCOL today as it had been 28 days and issued judgement. They didnt defend so they should be paying up in next 5 days. I almost hope they don't just so that I can send the bailiffs in next week!

I get the same kind of phone calls from some indian call centre trying to sell me 3 phones. They are very aggressive and won't take no for an answer. I told them I had just taken out a new O2 contract and they said they'd send me a three phone out anyway to try. After repeatedly saying no I eventually slammed down the phone. only for them to call back and continue the onslaught! Its like every night that they called, until I changed my number when I got rid of NTL. Funny thing was I never gave out my home phone number to anybody and I made sure I was on all the opt out lists, but yet they knew my name when they rang (or at least know my as MR First name)

Hi, Dont worry the 'We'll look at it and get back to you in 8 weeks' is just the standard BS they give. Stick to your original 14 days and send the LBA.