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Hello, Hope this is the right place. I rented a 1 bed appartment for 4 months and the energy (Elec only) was supplied by scottish power. They estimated my bill would be based on £40 per month, so I set that up as a direct debit to them. When I moved out of the property and gave the final meter reading, it generated an EXTRA bill of £600 on top - ???? I complained and said for a one bed flat, with one occupant that £600 for 4 months on top of what I had been paying for my DD was just ridiculous. That I used to live in a 3 bed house and that was the annual bill and then some. They said that based on the reading I had given them, that was the cost and that's that. I said then the meter must be faulty - please could they come and check it? They said sure, no problem, they'll come back to me with the results. I then got a call from an engineer asking me to let him in to the property - I told him I'd moved out and it wasn't my property to let them into. Everything went quiet for a number of weeks -then suddenly I find a debt company chasing me. Probably relatively unsuprising since I didn't chase anything up... why should I? I was waiting for them to contact the landlord and get the meter checked. SO Buchanan Clark & Wells contacted me and after a VERY lengthy conversation with them, where they told me I had no right to raise any query on the account and just had to pay it, they eventually agreed to contact scottish power and query the account. THey've now come back to me and told me Scottish Power are not responsible for the meter, that the landlord will have to get whoever installed it to check if it's faulty, but that they won't place a hold on the account to enable me to do that. Is this right ref scottish power not being responsible and/or legal regarding refusing to put a hold on whilst I make some enquiries? The guys at Buchanan, CLark and Wells are simply horrid and pushy and don't let you get a word in edgeways. I don't really know what to do. I can afford to pay the money but genuinely beleive I do not owe it. I work full time, and this was a one bed flat... that I lived in on my own. It's making me stressed out and I have no idea what to do next. Any advice greatfully received as the guy is going to call me back after work I expect. Thanks in Advance. Loopylu4848

Hi All, Having a huge :o problem with Powergen, they have been underestimating my bill for years, and when I have called them with a meter reading they are now saying that I owe them £8,500... I can't afford this... I understand that I probably should have called them with a meter reading earlier, but I didn't and now there is this debt... is there a maximum time they can leave it for without reading it, can I force them to enter into a repayment scheme with me, and do they not have some liability to make sure that I don't end up in this position? It is also a small house that has not been hugely occupied over the few years, I just don't understand how it is this much. Whenever I bring this up with Powergen they keep saying that it was all based on an estimate blah blah blah, is there anyway I can dispute this?? Thank you for your help in advance. Lucy

HI. . . # Have sent my letter before action about 3 weeks ago - I have already received £600 of my £1,800 claim - I am now in the process of using the money claim website - I have got a couple of questions though that I could use some help with 1) RBS is based in scotland so I cannot use the head office address to submit my claim as moneyclaim does not cover scotland - Can I use my brach address to do this, as is in England? Or do I have to use another method to submit my claim? 2) I now add the interest to the claim, I am a little confused as to where I add it - I have already had £600 back so can I claim interest on that or do I have to remove the interest for that £600 as I have already received it? 3) if I do not caim the interest for that £600 (as I would assume is the case) then when I am itemising my charges do I just remove £600 pounds worth? Maybe I am just confusing myself by making it too complicated. If anyone could shed some light i'd appreciate it. Thank you - Loopylu

Rooster, Thanks for your comments but it was just a joke - I wouldn't bother going in to gloat at them because they aren't worth my time to gloat at. I have far more exciting things to do with my time. What I actually did was to lodge an official complaint against the customer advisor who was exceptionally rude to me and leave it at that. She doesn't even know I had my charges refunded by tele banking service, I was simply tring to make a bit of light hearted reading for other people going through the claims process - stressful times! I understand the could-be consequences of this little project fully, but the more money they take off thousands of innocent victims each day, the more I want to help those people out. Perhaps a laugh once in a while wouldn't go amiss? Cheers. Loopylu

Hi guys, have not posted on this forum before- I am claiming with Barclays - Initially they were good, sending me my statements through promptly. I sent my preliminary request for repayment letters 2 weeks ago - Deadline was today. So I thought I'd call them up and harass them a bit... get things moving. My Branch manager tried to tell me that I had not sent a letter, and if I had they'd not received it. I told her to look again as I sent 1 recorded delivery and one first class. They tehn miracuously found it. After they realised I wasn't messing around they were helpful, checking that my complaint had been lodged with head office etc. They have apparantly sent me a letter saying they will investigate the matter and get back to me. I am sending off tomorrow my letters before action, recorded delivery, to their head office, to my branch and a copy first class. Hopefully they won't plead ignorance for this - but if they do I'm ready to go for it! You guys have helped me a lot. Thank you! Also - had a funny moment when I went in the bank the other day - I was charged because they allowed me to top up my mobile phone in the uk while I was abroad - charged me because I couldn't check my balance and didn't realise I was overdrawn - the woman i asked about it sat me down and refused to refund it. I said didn't she think that the charges were unfair penalties for the amount I had actually cost them - she got very angry. We had a little arguement in the corner for a while. It got pretty close to pulling the "your mum" insults out. She pretty much told me "you've not got a hope in hell." SO I walked out of the bank, called the phone banking line where they refunded me £90 worth of charges within 4 minutes of me being on the phone. The look on her face when I went back in to tell her. Priceless. Her mum. thank you all, you are an inspiration. We await the results.

Did not sign anything. Sent them a follow up letter saying it's a start but not what I asked for, you must comply fully by the original date . . . which incidentally is today . . . So I called and he hasn't yet rec'd my response so I just putting my letter before action in the envelope now. Thanks to all you who looked for that post, I just couldn't have found it otherwise. . .!

First of all thought I'd let you know got £600 back off rbs today - not the full amount but a third - and now I want the rest! I saw a post on here written by an employee of rbs explaining about what staff have been told to do when they get our letters - but now I can't find it!! Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Hi guys, excuse my ignorance but am getting extremely confused - have rec'd statements and added up charges. However when I've used the calculator to work out insterest etc. and have pulled the template out of the library it says "I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX ." What is the "overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken" ? is it interest for the amount of time they have had my money? Or is it interest because I was over my overdraft limit - if so, is it only applicable to the charges that exceeded my overdraft or is it applicable to the entire balance over the end of my overdraft ...? can you tell I've confused myself? Any help would certainly be appreciated. Thanks guys. Lucy

sent the £10 fee - but wouldn't it be a shame if that cheque had bounced?! (only kidding, it won't have!)

Hello - sent my DPA request to RBS almost 40 days ago and still have heard nothing . . .I also put through a change of address with the bank, will they use this to stall the process? - am feeling pretty confused by it all, I have statements that say I have paid over £2,000 in charges in the last year alone. Should I re-sumbit the DPA letter in case it wasn't rec'd? All this is very confusing to me - all I know is that I want it back and am prepared to do anything for it! Please get back to me with help or ideas! Lucy:?

have charges at £10 a month which comes through as a "maitenence charge" - if your account is a route 21 account then you would have a greed to it at the time you opened the account. Don't know if you can claim it back though - I shouldn't think you can. Good luck!

I have already sent the dpa letter, I do actually have all my satements for the last three years anyway, so don't really need them but would like the details of manual intervention anyway - sent this on tuesday with the correct fee - so I know what I want from them, but thought would send DPA request anyway so they know what I'm planning. - will definately keep you posted - it is cruel how they make millions from the most impoverished people every year.

no, just got the loan sorted and paid it - don't want a criminal record over £3000! just not worth it!

sorry, by fees I mean "card misuse" charges, overdraft interest and referral fees The last paragraph - is it legal for them to apply interest to the account after i've paid the money off and asked them to freeze the interest? I received letters from the bank saying unless full and final payment was made on my account within 7 days then the matter would be passed to the police as they considered it Fraud - I had to get the loan or else face a fraud charge. I think that was a hell of threat for them to give me, I felt threatened by it and had to get a loan.

Hi guys, pretty new to all this but sent my DPA disclosure request off on tuesday . . Just looking for some advice really . . . I had rbs account which I used my cheque book without sufficient funds in my account. I think I had about £700-£800 in total off the bank, but ended up having to get a £3000 loan to pay them off. I asked them if they could freeze the interest on the account while I got the money sorted out to pay them back but they refused. The loan is not with RBS but with LLoyds - I wondered if I can claim the interest back on the loan as I wouldn't have had to get it if RBS hadn't charged me around £2,000 in fees? What do you think is the best angle to approach it from if I do go ahead and claim the interest back? Any ideas/advice out there? - also when I did get the loan sorted and paid them the advisor on the end of the phone asked me "Would you like me to take the interest in this payment that will be applied to your accout next month?" - I said yes as just wanted to get it sorted. They didn't take that money from my account so I withdrew it and paid it in somewhere else so they couldn't get their filthy mits on it. . . but are they allowed to charge me additional interest when I'm paying off the debt to them? (this interest charge was applied to my account about 3 weeks after i withdrew the balance - hence sending me into the red on which I have subsequently been charged . . . you've got to admire their style when they call you and ask why you're overdrawn) Also to say thank you, it is rare to find people who just want to help us get our money back! Cheers guys. Lulu