They told us over the phone what they are offering Ims and it is a joke. We put in a 4 figure claim and they offer a lower 2 figure payment. This is going all the way.

He has credited some charges onto both accounts and I have it in writing too.

Yes, send the prove it, but do not sign your name, just print it. Let us knoe what they send you back. And Welcome

Hi and Welcome, Sorry to hear of your problem. I personally would be ringing them back tomorrow and asking to speak to a supervisor. Explain about your call today - it should be logged, but who knows! I agree that it would be wise to ask them at the very least to come and check your meter. I would also be getting an energy monitor to see what is using your energy (I would also note any spikes in usage when your neighbour is in). Have you had a look at your meter to see if there are any strange wires that look as if they don't belong there? Also, until you get to the bottom of this, I personally would not be setting up another direct debit. Is it possible to ring them once a month to make a card payment? I would try to contact your bank to claim indemnity, it can't do any harm. If you have telephone banking, give them a ring and see what they say. Good Luck HB

They have now refunded charges on both accounts for the past 2 months. We are still over our overdraft limits, but the guy is going to ring us back on Thursday to see if they can help us any further. To be honest, the guy who is dealing with it is really good and is trying to help - I am shocked, I expected them to be really nasty and insist on us paying all the charges. We don't have a problem paying what we owe so long as it is at a rate that we can afford, we just need them to not put any more charges on and we are happy.

Received these this morning. Any ideas on my next move?

Hi and welcome. From the letter they have sent you, it reads as though they wont be bothering you again until a CCA is provided. Regards the Stat Barred issue, I had a DCA tell me that a debt wasn't Stat Barred as I had failed to notify the OC of a change of address. this was nonsense. I wrote a letter (template in the library) telling them that the debt was Stat Barred and they sent me a letter confirming the fact. Before you tell them it is Stat Barred you need to find out what date the last action on the account was. Is it on your credit file?

I think SAR is your best option. I don't think you can really CCA them without knowing what agreement you are looking for.

Have you spoken to Orange? My hubby had a huge bill when we went to Bulgaria, we are with Voda and they have what they call a vodafone passport. He had rang them to activate it, but they had not done it. He got onto them when he got the bill and there was no record of him calling, he told them he had recorded the call and they scrapped his bill lol

I don't know if it helps, but our daughter is looking to rent through an agent, both her and her husband are working, but both on a low wage. The agent they are going through has told them that although a lot of landlords don't accept housing benefit claimants, they are having to be dragged kicking and screaming into the real world because even people who are working are entitled to tax credits and help with their rent and council tax. The days of being over selective are gone. This particular agent is willing to sign the form on behalf of the landlord as she knows the situation and as rent cheques now go to the claimant instead of the landlord she doesn't see why landlords are being so biased.

Have a look at this http://www.consumerwiki.co.uk/index.php/Interest_Tutorial somewhere near the bottom is a spreadsheet where you input your charges and the interest rate at the time of the charge. If I were you, I would reclaim the charges from the OC and then, if you feel you should, offer the DCA a full and final out of your payment. DO NOT FORGET, if a DCA buys a debt, they pay peanuts for it, I believe (although I may be wrong and somebody please correct me if I am) that they pay about 15p per £1 owing which is why they send out the letters offering massive reductions if you ignore their first attempts at bully boy tactics.

I am not 100% sure about this, but if you had not turned off your data roaming, then if you have google maps etc on your phone it may have been accessing the internet most of the time!

Thank You

You will be fine. They will see that you rectified the mistake as soon as you were made aware of it. Good Luck and enjoy your maternity leave.

I would ring them and play the blonde card (it often works). Tell them you were shocked to receive their letter, but when you had had time to think about it, you had probably got confused, and thought that they had wanted your predicted earnings for this year. They might not buy it, but we all make mistakes!

as for your SAR template, it is around here somewhere but I am damned if I can find the flaming thing, as soon as I do I will post the link

Your circumstances have not changed letter is one that you can just pen yourself. Something along the lines of: Thank you for your letter dated ....... The contents of which have been duly noted. Please be advised that I intend to carry on making a token payment of £1 a month in respect of Acc No. ................ You have been quite happy to accept this arrangement for the past .............. months. If anything, my financial situation is worse now than it was when I started making token payments. Please do not try to intimidate me with further threats of legal action. Yours Sincerely PRINT YOUR NAME - DO NOT SIGN IT.

How much do they claim that you owe them? What was your original credit limit? They can't make you bankrupt without going to court and if you are paying what you can afford the court will probably laugh them straight back out of the door. Get that SAR sent off as soon as you can. With it being a catalogue, can you not log in to your account online and either print off or screen print your statements? If you can then you don't need to waste £10 on the SAR.

If they have bought it, they will probably fob it off to another DCA soon

You say you are disputing the amount. Is this charges they have added for late payment fees and letters sent etc? If they have been lumping charges on, have you claimed them back yet with interest?

Yes, they have to put the account on hold until they can legally prove that they are entitled to collect. It is now up to you what you do with regards payment. What will probably happen now is if the OC cannot provide your CCA to Lowells, Lowelles will pass the account back and the OC will pass it on to another DCA. Keep all your letters and if it does get passed onto another DCA just send them a copy of your account in dispute letter along with a copy of that letter from Lowells. Basically, until the catalogue company can come up with the goods there is nothing any DCA can do and you are free to pay whatever you want whenever you want without them chasing you for more.

Received this yesterday. Now it is nice that they are looking in to it, but we gave them 14 days and they are saying 4 weeks!!!!

If you contact your local social services, they will put you in touch with the Occ Therapist. (or that is how I contacted them for Hubby!)

Hi, we are currently being supplied by Ebico for both gas and electric. I have been onto various comparison sites and EDF seem to be the cheapest around at the moment. We have pre-payment meters at the moment that we requested. I have spoken to EDF online chat an they have said that they will remove the meters free of charge after 28 days and them we can pay by direct debit. Is this correct (or do they try to wriggle out of it?) Does anybody know any cheaper suppliers?