Opps sorry - I didn't know that I could - will go to branch and cancel Monday

In answer to your questions, I submitted (over the phone) a budget to the FOS, not to Barclays as I went through the FOS. Barclays already knew of my hardship as my only income was benefits; Income Support, DLA (child) Child Benefit. Barclays would also freeze my account when my benefits came in, ensuring that I could not withdraw the money until they had taken off their charges - which could be up 'till a week later! My grip with them is this: The charges are being taken straight from my benefit - leaving me with nothing to live off. The 'fees' I have paid for a £150 reserve i.e. £1400 is far more than any doorstep lender!

Hi, hope someone can help me here. In Jan '08 I was made redundant and had to claim benefits- things were really tough as I had a lot of financial commitments so when Barclays offered me an overdraft in May '08 I jumped at the chance, they game me a couple of hundred through their on-line banking but as soon as I had used this the overdraft limit kept going up until it eventually reached £1400! I kept using it as I was due to start work in June that year but unfortunately the job fell through and I relied more heavily on the overdraft, then in August '08 I was sent a letter regarding a 'Reserve' of £150. I didn't understand what it was and just ignored it. I went overdrawn and started getting charged £22 every five days, it was impossible to get out of it because as soon as I paid off the 'reserve' I was soon back into it to due to the 'fees' they charged! All it took was 9 months to rack up 'fees' of over £1400 which Barclays took from my State Benefits. I still owe them the original overdraft plus they are still billing fees to my account of £96 per month! I now have another bank account and have my money paid in there, I also wrote to the bank complaining of the charges but they were not interested. I got the Financial Ombudsman involved and they put in a claim for charges under 'financial hardship' and I received £60 from Barclays (which just came off my overdraft so I did not actually receive the money). I have threatened court action but the bank just laugh at me!! - where do I go from here? Is there anything I can do?

Hi, hope someone can help me here. In Jan '08 I was made redundant and had to claim benefits- things were really tough as I had a lot of financial commitments so when Barclays offered me an overdraft in May '08 I jumped at the chance, they game me a couple of hundred through their on-line banking but as soon as I had used this the overdraft limit kept going up until it eventually reached £1400! I kept using it as I was due to start work in June that year but unfortunately the job fell through and I relied more heavily on the overdraft, then in August '08 I was sent a letter regarding a 'Reserve' of £150. I didn't understand what it was and just ignored it. I went overdrawn and started getting charged £22 every five days, it was impossible to get out of it because as soon as I paid off the 'reserve' I was soon back into it to due to the 'fees' they charged! All it took was 9 months to rack up 'fees' of over £1400 which Barclays took from my State Benefits. I still owe them the original overdraft plus they are still billing fees to my account of £96 per month! I now have another bank account and have my money paid in there, I also wrote to the bank complaining of the charges but they were not interested. I got the Financial Ombudsman involved and they put in a claim for charges under 'financial hardship' and I received £60 from Barclays (which just came off my overdraft so I did not actually receive the money). I have threatened court action but the bank just laugh at me!! - where do I go from here? Is there anything I can do?

Hi - sorry I haven't responded but just to let you know that I got my car back - no thanks to CAB or VOSA ot Trading Standards!! I went up and paid them the money they wanted, couldn't be without car any longer. the car did not get half the work done to it as they claimed and charged for (go another garage to check their work) have not done anything else about it as I can't be bothered banging my head off a brick wall.

sorry guys - but have been ill and therefore unable to respond. I sent them two letters; 1) the letter of harrassement and 2) a letter about the charges and my mother's ability to pay. I received a letter about the claim of harrassment and they said they did not feel that calling my mother every day amounts to harrassment but have not had a reply about my letter regarding the charges. I guess the next step would be to get the financial Authority involved and trading standards.

Hi - hope someone can help. My elderly and disabled 76 year old mother is having trouble with Capital One. She took out a credit card with them in 2000 with a credit limit of £200. She went over the credit limit in May by £2 and now has £76 in charges! She payed the minimum amount each month (£6), so can't get to the bottom of why she was £2 over limit. The other problem she has is that they are calling her every ten minutes of the day!! and I am not exagerating as I have asked her to keep a record of the calls. She is now not answering the calls and is scared. I wrote to Capital One's Executive office to complain about the charges and the harrassment and got a letter back yesterday saying they want her to pay the £76 to bring her account into credit and that they will continue to call her until she answers the phone and speak to one of the advisors - they feel that this is acceptable and is not harrassment. In my letter to them I said that they have only to contact her by post! Where do I go from here?

Contacted VOSA and they said they couldn't help as the onus was on me to get the car check over once it comes out the garage and if the garage has not carried out the faults then it was a civil matter and nothing to do with them! I also contacted Trading Standards and they say without written proof - there was nothing I could do about it! The CAB said the garage was in breach of contract and perhaps also breach of law by carrying out work which was not called for. However they also put me back to trading standards who just said their orginal advice still stands - so have got nowhere!

Hi - thougth I would let you know how I got on, well received a letter from Npower who say they can't find the account number I quoted and gave me a form to fill out; name, address, account numbers, meter serial numbers, gas serial numbers etc and finally, If it shows that I am not a client of Npower and I would like to have them as my service provider then please call blah blah blah, in the meantime I am still getting threatning letters from Westcot. I have received no reply from Capital 1 but their debt collector wrote again thanking me for my letter and insisting i deal with them on this matter. I have decide to ignore the lot of them as I am sick of wasting my time on this bunch of incompetants. Thanks again for all your help.

Hi, hope someone can help me. My car failed its MOT (last Friday) on numerous things, the garage who carried out the MOT told me it would be £255 to fix the items and award me an MOT certificate:- horns offside front track rod end offside rear brake pipe nearside windscreen wiper offside screen wiper exhaust emits excessive level of metered smoke service brake efficiency below requirements parking brake below efficiency I took the car home and returned it to the garage yesterday, only to be told that there had been a mistake and it needed more to the track rod end the originally thought and the bill would now be £300. I could not get the car back monday night as promised because they said the wrong part had been sent and that it would be today. I called four times only to be told that the wrong part was sent again. I finally got a call at 4:45pm to say the car is ready. The bill was £421.80. The bill was 2 brake pipes £150, the track rod end £144.50 and the horn £65 + VAT, no mention of the other items being fixed but an MOT awarded. I refused to pay and they have kept my vehicle. The things that are bothering me is this: The track rod end is for the front of the car but I had the track rod end replaced in april by a qualified garage and have seen the proof of this. They replaced two brake pipes even though they said only one was leaking (wasn't leaking before it went into the garage) they have not did anything with the other faults They put VAT on the invoice, when I refused to pay, I asked for a copy of the invoice. The mechanic wrote it out again minus the VAT, when I queried this he said I could count it for myself! There is no VAT registration number on their invoice and by the shifty way they were acting, my guess is they are not VAT registered. I don't trust them and could pay up and leave the garage with a dangerous car. What can I do about this ?

Hi all – thanks to all, it’s made me feel that I am not going insane! Xxorlsxx, I will take your advice and write to Cap1. Forgottonone, I’m sorry things are going bad for you but try and see the bigger picture. Debt is something everyone has and IMHO is not worth making yourself ill over. I know easier said than done x

thanks for all your comments, looked at the money thread and it sounds like the same one but as I said before, capital one are not doing that same card anymore! Got another letter in today from Capquest offering to settle the debt to £276 payable inthree monthly installments - a generious offer - if I owed the money

I had the card when in flat and used it to make four payments to AOL Broadband. I cancelled the card prior to moving to new flat. The new flat was all cable with no BT phone line, so called AOL and cancelled broadband as they could not supply it. I did not hear from either Capone or AOL again and did not even think about it again until last week when I received letter from CapQuest. the card expired July last year but they have still been allowing AOL to take payments until april this year! So I am guessing, 1) they did not cancel the card, 2) they have been adding on AOL payments to account, 3) they have been adding charges and interest and 4) they renewed the card on July last year. Both flats are rented out and I have had someone take all my tesco vouchers (40 quid worth) that was sent to the first flat - so someone was opening my mail. All a bit of a mess:evil:

Thanks Rory - it was a card Capital One were doing for people wanting to help with credit rating. All I can remember of it was a card that was only able to have a limit of £200 and when signing up for it was asked to deposit the £200 first and was only allowed to spend the £200. I had a statement every month that showed my balance and I had to pay £4 per month fee and £1 insurance. I have checked their web site and the card/deal is no longer advertised. I will write to the solicitor today regarding Npower.

I have two problems that I hope someone can help me with 1) Capital One I took out one of their credit cards in 2006, it had a limited of £200 and I had to put the £200 in first so therefore just able to use the money I had deposited. My bank offered me an upgrade on my account complete with overdraft and so decided to cancel my card with Capital One as I felt it was useless to me (March 2007). I had spent £196 of the £200 and told them to keep the change:p However imagine my shock when I got a letter last Friday from a debt collector saying I owed Capital One £596 - I have written to them to ask for details but in the meantime (just by chance) my internet provider AOL suspended my account for non-payment, when I called them today I found out they had been taking payments from the Capital One card (up until April this year) I don't understand this (apart from the fact that I do not have broadband and would not be subscribing to AOL for that service) I don't understand how Capital One can make payments on a card that was cancelled, transactions that would take me over the £200 limit and a card that would have expired last year anyway. Does anyone have any advice or had this problem before? Second Problem Npower This will be short. Rented out a flat, at end of lease notified Npower giving final readings. Last payment came out by direct debit with 'final payment' printed on statement. Two months later receive letter from landlord enclosing Gas and Elec bill for period AFTER I left flat. Sent back to landlord to inform them to pay it as its their bill (although still in my name). Got in touch with Npower to notify them, they in turn sent it to debt collecters, sent debt collecters proof that I did not owe the money giving full details of landlord to them, got letter from debt collectors thanking me and said full investigation is underway and I will not hear from them again, got letter in this week from firm of solicitors who are taking me to court for outstanding amounts! .. Help!

I have two problems that I hope someone can help me with 1) Capital One I took out one of their credit cards in 2006, it had a limited of £200 and I had to put the £200 in first so therefore just able to use the money I had deposited. My bank offered me an upgrade on my account complete with overdraft and so decided to cancel my card with Capital One as I felt it was useless to me (March 2007). I had spent £196 of the £200 and told them to keep the change:p However imagine my shock when I got a letter last Friday from a debt collector saying I owed Capital One £596 - I have written to them to ask for details but in the meantime (just by chance) my internet provider AOL suspended my account for non-payment, when I called them today I found out they had been taking payments from the Capital One card (up until April this year) I don't understand this (apart from the fact that I do not have broadband and would not be subscribing to AOL for that service) I don't understand how Capital One can make payments on a card that was cancelled, transactions that would take me over the £200 limit and a card that would have expired last year anyway. Does anyone have any advice or had this problem before? Second Problem Npower This will be short. Rented out a flat, at end of lease notified Npower giving final readings. Last payment came out by direct debit with 'final payment' printed on statement. Two months later receive letter from landlord enclosing Gas and Elec bill for period AFTER I left flat. Sent back to landlord to inform them to pay it as its their bill (although still in my name). Got in touch with Npower to notify them, they in turn sent it to debt collecters, sent debt collecters proof that I did not owe the money giving full details of landlord to them, got letter from debt collectors thanking me and said full investigation is underway and I will not hear from them again, got letter in this week from firm of solicitors who are taking me to court for outstanding amounts! .. Help!