Hi Spotnot, I cannot confirm all the things that you ask as I am just about to do the same and have just learned about it on this site. I would though like to up your resistance to this debt a little by saying that you were drawn into this agreement, assuming it is one with charges like a credit card or bank account, with an illegal contract. This is wrong. If you went into Woolworths and stole a purse you would not just have to give it back you would be punished. Paying back the money is not enough, the banks should be held to account for their illegal actions. It is normal to want to pay back what is owed but these guys were prepared to steal money from you illegally and that is quite different from falling on hard times (current financial situation in the world is the banks fault, you do not sound like the kind of person who would take money for nothing, like them) and my opinion is that they should pay for it and give honest, hardworking people like ourselves a break. Hopefully, someone will bring them to account. Rock on.

Just received a letter from Allied International Credit at an address that we use in France telling us that they are preparing the account (LloydsTSB Credit Card) for transfer to their Legal representatives in our country and in order to prevent this we need to ring them immediately. Of course we do not ring debt collectors, only ever deal in writing. The debt is below £5,000 and it is difficult to believe that it would be worthwhile to do this or that they can. We have written to LloydsTSB repeatedly since 2005 about illegal contracts asking them for details of how their charges are calculated, addresses of auditors etc so that we can take action against them in court for the illegal contract. Of course they never replied although they did give back the charges plus interest saying that they would take it off the debt. We did not agree to this and have heard nothing since until ALC contacted us. We have always made fairly regular, small monthly repayments but as these got smaller as times got harder Lloyds passed the debt on (without telling us). Got some very good information on this thread and will be sending a request to AIC for the credit agreement with a £1 cheque. I shall also be including that this debt is in dispute and Lloyds have failed to fully answer our questions along with questions about when and how this debt was passed to them and who has access to our personal details.