hi , one of my lenders london and scottish has gone into administration ...i was wondering wether to pay ?the doorstep collector called to take payment and told us they had gone into administration we havent seen him since ....also can anyone tell us the status of cygnet finance and wether they are still operating as i have heard nothing for weeks from them ??? many thanks

hi all, I need advice asap re my accounts with this company ... i have an account for an escort which I owe £255 in total as a final payment then i have an account for an astra owing thousands .... i am up to date with the astra although it has been very hard to keep up with both accounts and we have struggled to pay the monthly payments and our circumstances have changed since taking out the loan our final payment is substantually more than our agreed monthly payment and we were struggling then so you can imagine how difficult it is to find the final ammount ..... we have religiously paid the larger account even though at some points we have had virtually no income due to benefit changes after we got married ...we have told cygnet about our circumstances ...getting married and having no income etc and thought they were being quite resonable as it was only £255 left on the account they seemed to be acting pretty patient ...until today...I had a phone call saying that they would no longer be waiting for payment and when we pay the money for the astra they will take whatever was left on the escort from that placing the astra in arrears and if it stays in arrears the will reposess it ( knowing full well they cant reposess the escort ) I told him that surely this wasnt allowed due to it being 2 different accounts to which he said it was ...I then asked him to send a letter to inform me he was going to do this ....he refused saying as I couldnt be bothered to pay my account he couldnt be bothered ....(its not I cant be bothered its I cant financially afford to and I cant physically do it just had a c - section and sterilisation 2 weeks ago and im still recovering )!!! I explained this to the person on the phone and he just responded with the answer im still gonna take payment from the other account which is due tuesday .....I then asked him where in my contracts it stated that if we have multiple accounts they can deduct money from a different account to add to another in arrears ??? he refused to say adding that its not his place to show me.....Im just wondering if they are able to do it ....if not what to say to them.....any help will be appreciated as obviously I dont want to get into difficulty on the second car ..........sorry if I have waffled on i think it helps to give as much info as possible .....many thanks in advance for any help ...lesley

my partner and i were both claiming income support as single parents he was getting tax credits for 2 children i was getting IS for myself and 5 children , one of whom is disabled , we moved in together on 27 th aug after getting married , the problem is we had to claim IS togethewr which has been sorted out . not much I/S being paid due to careres allowence...we have phoned child tax people and they have only just put us on the computers ( after being informed by phone 27/08 ) it took ages for the forms to be sent /then 2 weeks to be entred onto the system they still havent sorted the claim ...everyone i speak to cant tell me when i am having the money back dated to or if i am .... also cant give me any indicators as to when it 'll be sorted ....I was told once on the system to ask for a hardship payment but apparently these dont exsist .....I am being told so many things that im now completely confused ....sso was wondering if any one could answer a few questions for me .... 1) How long should it take ? 2) How far can I claim backpayment my partner and myself were paid in arrears by benefits ...if all money was stopped on a certain date surely someone owes us some money backdated? 3)How do we go about working out who needs to pay us backdated money? 4) does hardship payments from child tax exsist?I know crisis loan exsist but was told by benefits hardship[ payments also exsisit Any help would be appreciated as I personally feel like we are being ripped off as one person I spoke to said the claim wont start til we are on the system another said from when we started the claim/sent form.....It is no wonder people dont notify them of changes as they are a complete nightmare to deal with and can be very rude!!!! !

hi s it possible to obtain an independant assesment of my sons s.e.n im having to appeal against a refusal to assess him but was wondering if there was anyone who assesss him who isnt necassarily to do with the L.E.A or school as I personally feel we are told one thing yet evidence contridicts this and an outside body would have nothing to gain or loose by what they say or suggest... we dont mind having to pay for this but would prefer it to be free ...lesley

He was turned down on the grounds that he gets the help he needs on school action /plus funding and has shown some progress!!although as time passes it becomes more and more apparent that although he gets help it isnt consistant or a level he should get this was by the l.e.a ( im in somerset and apparently it very hard to get a statement )...altough I agree he is making progress the gap between him and his peers is ever increasing and if it continues in this trend it will be vast by the end of primary school .....his difficulties are communication predominately ,plus global delay , and behavioural problems .... i feel personally we are told one thing by the school ( he has a school home book to write how things are at either place) as he cant communicate as to what he does ...we have got other children at school who tell us what he has been up to......and they tell us things like good day instead of good day but he did clown around in assembley etc...we were told he had got lgdd2 funding ...altough later we were told they didnt apply for it even though the school phsychology liason person recommended they apply ....the s.e.n.c.o decided against it .....lesley

Hi, My 6 year old son was recently turned down for a statement ....Firstly I want to see if others agree that he needs one ...secondly to find out the beat way of appealing... My son who is 6 began at mainstream school with them being aware he had a few problems and he was transfered there from a mainstream pre-school plus a special needs one that he attended part time. I had been nagging my health visitor that something wasn't quite right from when he was about 2 years old , although he had been quick to learn he had not started speaking properly ...she refered him to a speech therapist and sent someone from our local surestart centre to look at his behaviour ....and she gave advice and that was it .... So that was it so we thought not knowing what we could do we left it at that.... so a couple of years later a few months before he was about to start school we returned home from a shopping trip " this was to grab a pen " before we to pick our two sons up ...the son mentioned above plus his brother who is a year younger.....when we arrived we found our son in the arms of a rather annoyed looking policeman who was about to break in to see if something had happened to us....Im guessing he thought we had left him alone ....So I jumped out of the car asking why my son was there as he was left at playschool ...and I was informed that the postman had found him playing in the front garden and he had asked where we were and him having speech problems couldnt tell him where we were and he knew he wasnt normally outside so had called the police when he was still there after he had finished delivering the road ..... So we went to the playschool as they still had our youinger son I was too upset to go in to collect as buzzing through my head was how my son had crossed several roads one which the traffic doesnt travel exactly slow and walked up a country lane which is used frequently by traffic and thankfully nothing had happened to him on the way home ...My partner went in and asked the head of the playschool where exactly our eldest son was and she said oooh he is sat over on the carpet ...so he said no he wasnt because he was in the car he had previuosly been at the house with two police officers ....so they obviously werent aware of it and we took them straight out of playschool ......and it took this experience for our health visitor to decide that he did have more issues than she thought and he was promptly referred to a peadritician plus she found a safe playschool plus the special needs playschool.... He is now in receipt of d.l.a plus he attends mainstream school but I fel that he isnt getting the help needed and that the curriculum is not being addapted as we were told it would be ....e.g we voiced concerns over his spellings which were things like saturday etc and he struggles to even say it and do simple c.v.c words we were assured that he only had to do the first letter right but we now know this isnt the case as we have had his school books home and they have crosses next to wrong words even though he has done the first letter....we were also told that he was lgdd2 as they couldnt guarentee level 1 funding but have since been told he is level 1 plus school action plus....whenever we ask what help he is getting they skip around our question and dont ever say how much time he has so we asked for a statement as we thought it would be beneficial to start a plan of action as it may be that he would benefit from being in a special school and our peadritrician has agreed that at some point it may be best ....so we were somewhat dissappointed to find that they thought the school were doing everything ok and a statement wasnt needed as he had made progress ...( although to be honest we are talking about a child who is in year 2 now and still cannot sound all the letters in the alphabet ) and is struggling with everything beyond gross motor skills ....appologies for going on a bit but i though it beat to provide all information ......so now my questions are does he need a statement and haow is the best way to appeal ....many thanks lesley

wasnt a bailiff so will be writing a letter to complain he is a doorstep collector and prehaps the emphasis should be on the "door step"

no door wasnt locked but was shut

hi , On Thursday I returned home from the shops ( I had left my teenage children at home takng the younger ones) upon my return my eldest daughter said the bill man (collector from morses ) had opened the door from the outside and called into the living room asking if I was home ...which she told him I was not and he said tell mum I shall call later ....I was really annoyed that he had practically let himself into my home and think it is a disgrace ...I was just wondering if there was any legallities stating this was not allowed if so what and also what is the best way to complain .... My kids have been told not to answer the door when I am out so were just doing as told by ignoring it ....and frankly if I were home I could of been doing anything !!!!!:eek:.....I have also paid him every week and am what I consider to be a good customer ...,.any advice given would be appreciated . Lesley

ok will do thanks

sent them the right of appropriation letter as suggested but today they took the charges any way ...was wondering what to do next I will be trying to claim any charges back ...... but was wondering how to approach them taking my money dispite being sent the right of appropriation letter many thanks

Hi, My son is LGDD2 and SA+ funded at the moment and we are needing to apply directly to county hall for statementing ( apparently in somerset schools wont do them! ) but we have been searching for a template on line with no sucess its so I can get my point accross adequately as Im not the best letter writer ....we are also having him assessed for special school instead of the main stream he attend as we feel they are struggling to meet his needs at present so they will undoubtedly struggle more if the gap between him and his peers widen ( this has been the case so far) so if anyone knows anywhere I can get a template it would be appreciated ...thanks Lesley

hi, I did speak to the manageress when I called to ask why I had been charged , the thing I struggle to understand is they charged me for being overdrawn on the 31 st but my statement clearly shows i was in credit .....and the manageress was completely un helpful and wouldnt even give me the address to head office to complain and insisted I write to her to complain ....I was overdrawn last year and they didnt charge me interest on there charges then?.....so does this mean they can choose some random date and charge me??.....i also feel it is somewhat of a coincidence that the week before they refunded me a charge of £30 (which was charged for about 30p this was becuase I was still struggling with the £60 charge for the previous month )and then asked for £20 back for interest on previous charges ....I am going to swap banks because I have had about enough to be honest......simon

hi , my circumstances are that i recieve benefit for my disabled son for whom i am the main carer ..... i have told them countless times that i am on benefit although i only been charged 3 times and that is because of an error caused by benefits who are in the process of deciding wether or not to refund me .....I just about manage with my income as do most people on low income ....its just £20 is only £10 less than i actually recieve ....simon

hiya, on the 27 th and 28 th of march i had two direct debits that were returned subsequently i was charged for these (£60 in total for both ) which was taken on the 19 th of may which although i wasnt happy about it i accepted it ....once they had taken it this resulted in me being overdrawn by £50.....which was shown on my mays statement no letter of charges etc .....today in the post i had junes statement dated the 21 st june (obviously they used pidgeon post )...which still was showing me as overdrawn by £19 from the previous statement( nothing more had come out in between these dates )along with was an unautherised overdraft fee dated the 31 st of may the ammount was £20.08 including interest....(on the 31st of may there was £31.35 credit in my account which had been in there for the 3 days previous)......I was obviously somewhat confused and annoyed so rang them up to see what these were actually for!! the lady i origionally spoke to didnt have the foggiest what these were for and couldnt sort it out without talking to the manager , she did and the manager phoned me back ....she told me she couldnt take the charges off as it was my fault I had not kept the money in for there charges ( needless to say they didnt return there charges unpaid) i argued that surely they couldnt charge me on charges taken to which they basically said they could !!! I thought this was an illegal practice though Im not certain ...any advice and directions to letters to send this would be greatly appreciated the only money I get put in this account are state benefits paid for caring for a disabled child and feel they are being unfair as they are aware if this fact....many thanks simon I have posted this on the nationwide site but was posting it here too so I can work out if theses charges on charges are allowed ...

hiya, on the 27 th and 28 th of march i had two direct debits that were returned subsequently i was charged for these (£60 in total for both ) which was taken on the 19 th of may which although i wasnt happy about it i accepted it ....once they had taken it this resulted in me being overdrawn by £50.....which was shown on my mays statement no letter of charges etc .....today in the post i had junes statement dated the 21 st june (obviously they used pidgeon post )...which still was showing me as overdrawn by £19 from the previous statement( nothing more had come out in between these dates )along with was an unautherised overdraft fee dated the 31 st of may the ammount was £20.08 including interest....(on the 31st of may there was £31.35 credit in my account which had been in there for the 3 days previous)......I was obviously somewhat confused and annoyed so rang them up to see what these were actually for!! the lady i origionally spoke to didnt have the foggiest what these were for and couldnt sort it out without talking to the manager , she did and the manager phoned me back ....she told me she couldnt take the charges off as it was my fault I had not kept the money in for there charges ( needless to say they didnt return there charges unpaid) i argued that surely they couldnt charge me on charges taken to which they basically said they could !!! I thought this was an illegal practice though Im not certain ...any advice and directions to letters to send this would be greatly appreciated the only money I get put in this account are state benefits paid for caring for a disabled child and feel they are being unfair as they are aware if this fact....many thanks simon

same here was told was for the motor trade etc.....was going to ring up dvla to check if it was still registered to me ....i have tried contating the guy through ebay to no avail ......if car is registered to me what is the best method of sorting it out???

I did nt send my part the guy said he had bought for someone else and couldnt sign...like a numpty i said ok ...I did however contact dvla giving the details of the person that i could as soon as i got a letter .......is there anything i can do ???

Hi , I sold a car on ebay with around four months tax , the guy i sold it to paid and left ...about 6 months or so after i recieved a letter saying i had failed to tax it ...i phoned saying it had been sold etc etc but was told to wriute ....i then got a letter earlier this week saying thank you for my letter and as i hadnt paid my case had been refered to a debt collection agency ........my question is i am obviously not prepared to pay a debt which is not mine so how do i get this sorted out in the best way possible ...the company that have been passed the case are Phillips collection services, thanks for any help ...lesley

O.K will send .....hopefully they will see some sense but I wont be holding my breath .....Thanks for reply

Hi , Don't know if this is the best place to post this but I've just been on the phone to abbey and told them that I cant afford to pay charges as I'm on benefit ( income support and D.L.A ) and they said their policy is to do only one refund per year per account ....I said that I thought there was a social security act 1992 that stated that if a person is on benefits and this is their only source of income banks were legally not able to take charges ....can any one tell me if this true and if so where I can get a print off of the part of the act where this is stated so I can go in and show the bank proof ....I'm also going to start the process of reclaiming charges etc altough there isn't many of them.... thanks lesley

had a result with these guys thought i d share .......told the comliance officer/supervisor on the phone wasnt happy at how i was treated ....i also wanted all details of conversations ,tapes , computer notes etc as i was certain i d cancelled my ppi insurances within the stated 10 days ....he said there was no record of it , i explained that as that was the case as I d paid over a third I would consult my solicitor further and it would probably go to court ....No more than 24 hours later got a call saying as a "good will gesture " they would take off the total ammount of insurances paid to date reduce my monthly payments so they didnt include the insurance charges and my account was in credit ......shows sometimes it is worth perservering

i got a letter today saying that cygnet were to agree to take reduced payments and that i have to sign and send one back saying I ,my name , agree to the modification of my account, to the conditions details and also to rescind the content of my two letters dated 25 th may 2007...........so is this them trying to attempt to sweeten me up to stop defeat?????they also offered to remove the accrued letter charges ......generous eh?

I ve sent several letters and e mails to approved ..yet to receive anything back also wating for DCA /CCA still nothing .....Im just querying a contract I have myself and my partner have signed it and it is dated 4/7/07 date of cygnets signature 12/7/07.......does this in any way affect the contract? the witness signature is just that has got a space for name and discription but not filled in.....Also upon reading it there was nothing paid for the car we took in as a deposit , plus no cash back which we were told we had ......all went towards the deposit (didnt though) a relative was present when this was all discussed so could sign a sworn statement if need be ........any new advice would be greatly appreciated ........

Ok thanks again ......And thanks to your partner too.......and hopefully I wont need any help tomorrow ......Ive got kids too (7 in fact) and seeing them grow up is an amazing experiance ......Enjoy the days when they re young (my eldest is a moody 13 yr old) .......thanks again mate .....