After my hubby blew their heads off over the phone and told them in no uncertain terms where to get off, they have never contacted us again. They don't like the threat of legal action against them. That was enough to send them scurrying back under the stone they crawled out of

Methinks you could be right. My friend came down here for a couple of days a few weeks ago and we run off the CCA templates from here and she sent them off by Recorded Delivery. What she got back was just an offer of a mortgage. No signed documents or anything like it. The CCA went to DLC who dropped it like a hot potato, telling her to write to Southern Pacific (who own Capstones. Worth mentioning that Southern Pacific have a very dodgy past. Think there's a thread about them elsewhere on here). The letter she got back came from Hillesden. I'll copy that too and put it up. I haven't been able to do much about it today as I've been very busy at work so will try and get the info up over the next day or two. Deb T. Good point. Not sure if she has a final statement from the lender or not but will find out. Will contact her later this evening. I also think they've racked up fees/charges too. It is also bad that her (almost) ex is getting away with not paying a penny and she's having to do all this herself I suppose the only thing to be grateful for is all her family are grown up so no kids involved.

Yes Deb T. This has been ongoing for some time. Friend has now got off the phone so I can fill you in with more details as best I can. Either she's been extremely naive or has stuck her head firmly in the sand. Here's the cruncher. She also sent me copies of her bank statements relating to the house They got the mortgage in the November of 2006. They were late with the first payment of just under £600. Without going and getting the paperwork she sent me, to save time I'll just be approximate. She was only a few days late with the payment, something about either her or her hubby's pay not going in the bank on time. Going back to her previous house, before she moved from Wiltshire to Co Durham, she had a mortgage in her own name on that, sold the house for a tidy profit, at least £70,000 - and all that money's gone. They took out a mortgage for the house in Co Durham with the same bank she had the original mortgage from but for some reason, after a couple of months (fell into arrears perhaps?) switched to Capstones. I think they remortgaged with Capstones because his debt had started to come to light. He had a gambling addiction and was in debt with loan sharks - the type who barge into your house and slap you around. I told her to go to the police at the time but she didn't. I think she didn't want to believe her hubby had taken her for a ride. When they still lived in Wiltshire, she phoned me up one night in a panic saying she thought her bank card had been cloned as there was £5000 missing out of her account. I told her to look closer to home but she wouldn't hear of it. She admits now I was probably right and he'd helped himself, which, of course, he had. Anyway, I digress. They then got whacked for interest, late payment fees (which I think were OTT) etc., so the money they had put in the bank to cover the mortgage was swallowed up with these charges. That started a downward spiral or robbing Peter to pay Paul and looking at the statements, all they ended up paying was interest charges and fees. She also discovered that her hubby had been convicted of fraud some years ago long before she met him and had spent time in prison. This came out when he lost his job for stealing. Frankly, if it had been my hubby done that, I would have kicked him out! So, to the best of my knowledge (and I feel she's still not telling me everything), in effect they never paid the mortgage at all, only being able to pay Capstone's late payment fees, interest charges, bank charges for unpaid direct debits and got into one serious financial mess. The upshot of course was they lost the house and finally split up. She rented a private flat and got housed by the local housing association last year. He is nowhere to be seen. She did hear recently that he'd been seen down here in Wiltshire by one of her friends that lives here. Seemingly he has a sister who lives not too far from me but I'm not sure exactly where and I don't really want to get that personally involved. My friend lives in Co Durham. Just before she went off the phone, she clarified (!) one point. The £29,000 it would seem is the interest accrued over the past 4 years. It is a very complicated thing and, to be honest, I'm totally confused myself and wish she'd sort things out for herself and not rely on me but she's been a good friend to me for many years so I'm trying my best. She can't afford to put in internet access or get a computer. I told her to go to her local library as there are computers you can use there and come on here herself but she can't or won't do that. She has been to Citizen's Advice but they weren't very helpful. Anyway, from the copies she sent me from Capstones/DLC/Hillendens, I can't see anything remotely looking like a proper mortgage agreement with signatures, witnesses etc. on it. Also she is convinced they were sold a repayment mortgage and not an interest only (which I would have thought would have been the same as an endowment mortgage - correct me if I'm wrong) so wonder if she would have grounds against Capstones for mis-selling. He's b*ggered off and left her to pay everything, which as it was a joint mortgage, they're obviously chasing her. If it were me, I'd be pulling out all the stops to find him and get him to pay his share. I've told her to get a good divorce solicitor but she says she can't afford one. I've told her to apply for Legal Aid but that seems to fall on deaf ears. To be honest, I'm getting fed up with it myself. She gets a threatening letter in (and she has more debt than this - the usual debt collectors letters most of us are familiar with), she'll ring me up in a panic, sometimes as late as 2 in the morning. In fact, it would be fair to say that at times she drive me nuts but we've been friends for many, many years and I don't like to see her getting in a state. I was once, many years ago, in a very similar position but I came out fighting and won the day in the end so I do have a lot of sympathy for her but just wish she would take onboard what I try to tell her and get things sorted out. What I'll do is get the document's she sent me scanned and put on the forum. I did this once before but it came out so small it was almost impossible to read so if anyone can tell me how to do this so it's readable I'd be very grateful. I'll take the documents into work tomorrow, photocopy them and blank out her personal details. Sorry if I'm confusing everyone - I'm confused myself with it all and thank you all for your patience

There is much more to it but having her on the phone is making it very difficult to think and type. Back shortly

As my friend's still on the phone and I need to type up a lot more than there is here, give me an hour or so and I'll post again with more info.

Postggj. That's what I would have thought but it seems this "indemnity insurance" is over and above that. It's quite difficult for me to get to grips with this as I'm basically being the messenger. At the moment my friend is paying £60 a month for this "indemnity" thing as that's all she can afford so they are now trying to get her to pay the whole £29,000 in one hit or they are going to take her to Court. They stopped her Direct Debit so she's been paying by Postal Order £60 per month. DebT. It's Capstones that are charging her this amount every month. Think I'm probably going to have to scan the documents she sent me minus her personal details so you can see what she's dealing with as I'll probably get it all wrong. She now lives in a housing association flat.

My friend's on the phone right now. Mortgage was for £94,000 and taken out 2006.

The ongoing saga with my friend, Southern Pacific, DLC and Hillendens continues. She had her house repossessed last year and they are charging her £29000 for an "indemnity" insurance - even though the sale of the house cleared the mortgage. She sent a CCA to DLC asking for the CCA relating to her remortgage (this is the friend who has lost everything). They promptly dumped it onto Hillendens. She has sent me copies of what they sent to her. In the whole thing, I cannot see anywhere that has a signature on it. It looks more to me like an offer of a mortgage rather than the agreement itself. They are still taking an extortionate amount of money off her every month which she cannot afford. She was also under the impression that this mortgage was a repayment mortgage, i.e. the type you pay off the interest, then the capital sum. I pointed out to her, that, according to the paperwork, it very much looks like it was an endowment type of policy. I'm wondering if she has been mis-sold (I'm using "she" rather than "them" as she and her gambling addicted husband who's done a runner are soon to be divorced). I'm wondering what her next move should be. She doesn't have internet access so I'm helping her out as best I can with this. The company the mortgage was with is Capstones which belongs to Southern Pacific. She's certainly been left in the lurch with a huge amount of debt to try and clear on a not very big wage. She really is struggling and I don't see why he should get off without paying anything. She has no idea where he's gone. If anyone can help me to help her, I know she would be very grateful.

Heh-heh. I wasn't born yesterday. I won't give anyone any information over the phone, not even my name. To many unsavoury characters trying to get personal details for nefarious activities these days Anyway, it would seem that our phone is ex-directory. I tried getting the number through one of the directory enquiry lines to be told politely that they could not give the number as it was ex-directory. As it happens, the morons phoned back again (harrassment starting?) Thursday morning but hubby was in and answered the call. Gave them a load of bullsh*t and told them never to phone this number again. No calls yesterday or today but I bet someone tries their luck next week. Showed hubby the True Call system and he's impressed by it so I think we will buy one sometime next week - with the call recording facility on it. Very useful I think. Love the idea that we can choose who to speak to Another one we keep getting a lot of and I know it is a [problem]/con is the recorded message saying "Please do not hang up. This is a government initiative...blah...blah...blah". I hang up. I've had at least 10 of these calls in the past few weeks - usually when I'm in the middle of doing something - like baking or cooking True Call will put their gas at a peep too

Don't forget most e-mail services such as Incredimail have "block sender" and boomerang facilities where you can bounce the e-mail back to the sender so they think that e-mail address no longer exists. Very useful for getting rid of the 1001 different people trying to flog you this, that and the next thing:)

Very few people have my new number - because it is so new. My bank's got my mobile number only so they wouldn't have got it there. Don't have any other creditors. I have just had a horrible thought though - and I'll find out shortly. I'm wondering if the phone company's made an error and listed us instead of putting us ex-directory. A quick phone call from another phone to one of the directory enquiry lines should find that out. If so, I should think someone is going to get a rocket stuck up their behind! I'm not particularly worried about iQuor/Preston because the "debt" is very small - less than £100 and it's in dispute anyway with eBay/PayPal. Now looking at getting TrueCall I haven't had anything via post either come to think of it.

I had a phonecall from a rather snotty, aggressive young man who demanded to know who I was. I refused to say who I was and demanded to know who he was, to which he mumbled something and I caught the word "Preston". Eventually, I got fed up with him and told him to go away in the time honoured tradition of two words. Foxtrot Oscar! Less than two minutes later, the phone rings again. This time a nice young lady. She also got told to Foxtrot Oscar and told, in no uncertain terms, that if her company phoned my number I would do them for harrassment. Today, I was out and my hubby took a call from this same outfit. He warned them not to phone this number again or he would report them to the OFT and also the police for making harrassing phone calls and demanded personal information. It seems, for some reason, they are after me. Possibly because I have an account in dispute just now with eBay/PayPal and I believe iQor/Preston are dealing with eBay/PayPal. What is concerning me more is where they got our phone number from. We recently changed internet and phone providers and have had our new number only a few weeks - and it is ex-directory. What on earth is the point of having ex-directory when anyone can get access to it. Incidentally, neither eBay nor PayPal were given my new number. As far as I'm concerned, Iqor/Preston can go away in short, sharp, jerky movements but I would like to know how they got my number:evil: Ah well. Just have to have my trusty whistle at the ready

Both my German Shepherds sleep in our bedroom. They have their own beds next to ours. Ours were older when we got them (both rescues). Our first, the day after we brought him home from the rescue kennels, I will never forget the look of wonderment as he woke up and realised he wasn't in a kennels but in a house as part of a family. He looked all round the room then jumped up on our bed wagging his tail furiously and giving us a bath before we'd even got up. Last year we adopted another Shep. This one was younger, little more than a pup. He just wanted to sleep on our bed with us and it was about a week before he got the message that he had his own bed. Sundays are fun. Hubby goes off to work, sees to the dogs first, then puts them back up with me (long lie). Both jump on the bed and cuddle up. Wouldn't have it any other way LOL. Dogs are pack animals and you are part of the pack (or family). Dogs seek human company so will seek to sleep as close to you as possible. Your dog is still very young. You don't say how old he was when you got him. Sometimes pups are taken away from their mothers at too young an age and they feel very insecure. As a few others have said, if you are adamant that you will not have him in your bedroom, try putting a ticky clock beside him and a well wrapped hot water bottle beside him. The clock will mimic a heartbeat and the hot water bottle the cosiness of his mother and siblings. Of course, don't make the bottle so hot that if he were to chew it he would get burned but warm enough to make him feel more settled. Hope this helps.

Haven't had any more phonecalls from these people. I'm not the only one who's had them. A couple of my colleagues have had them too. Checking them out on the internet it would seem that they've been [causing problems] for some time. On that number they have been a book company, then an advertising company now a "debt/financial" company quoting the (old) government "initiative" for paying off debts (at a price). People who have been daft enough to talk with them usually find they get a whacking great invoice for goods/services they've never ordered. As for the Provident/Lowells thing, at the moment that's gone quiet and I've been busy so haven't been able to do much yet.

Just a little update folks. Due to not getting home early enough, I haven't, as yet, contacted the OFT. However, my Provi lady is not long away. She did bring up the subject. It would seem she knew about it last Thursday (she visited me socially and I knew there was something bothering her). We got the letter on Friday. I told her it was an unenforceable debt as it was something from years ago (in fact, I think it may actually be time barred or not far short of it, hence Lowlife's getting desperate). As soon as I said that she didn't want to know anything more about it. She said she really hates the fact that Provident are buying debts (for as little as £1) as she's not a debt collector in that respect. She also told me that in no way would that letter stop us from getting loans with Provident as and when we want them (we've got a first class payment record with them anyway). In many ways, I feel sorry for the agents because it's them who are being put on the sharp end of the wedge. I did tell her that I would be putting (or at least my husband will) the matter in the hands of the OFT. Time Lowlifes were put out of business. I know this is off topic, but have we got a forum for nuisance phone calls? We've had two from this number: 0161 236 2400 Recorded message blabbing on about debt consolidation. I put the phone down. Ironically, we're ex-directory and have only had this number for 3 weeks. Doing a bit of research on this number, it would seem it is a [problem]. If these people phone me again, I have my trusty whistle sitting by the phone...bet they won't phone back... :twisted: