Me thinks one doth watch too much Zeitgiest. I If what they claim in that movie is true, why do people use banks? Why has this never been exposed? Why bother having customers if banks can "print" free money? Why are countless banks and multi-nationals going down the plug hole? I would like to see some real evidence before i consider these "accusations" as cold hard fact. Im talking about primary sources here.... not just myths and hearsay. Fact is credit card companys give consumers 100% chance to pay their balances off each month but the fact is most people think they can get a good deal and pay minimum payments (which we all know barely covers interest charged and will COST MORE and TAKE LONGER to clear the balance than if they just bought the stuff outright with cash, but consumers dont see it like that they have the impression that what they are getting is something for free or something at a reduced price.Im rambling now but bottom line is if you want to pay the balance off and therefore not have to pay interest do it... set up a DD, s/o, pay it with your cashcard and then you WILL NOT have to pay ANY interest. obviously banks hate customers who do this every month because the balance doesnt revolve and the bank makes diddly squat on that account. Its simply not worth us keeping the account going. People who pay the minimum as they think they are being clever and cheating the bank (alot in my experience) really have no idea that they are EXACTLY the kind of customer the bank wants.... make minumum payments miss a few then bring it up to date by paying the minimum payment. Ergo pay more interest and charges and make the bank more profit.... RANT OVER TBC.....

Im no expert but i would stay on your payment plan, if theres no problem with your creditors yet then why borrow more money to pay off the balances? have you considered consolidating these debts? if you on payment plan they will be interest free though am i right? Just out of interest who are your credit cards with (i understand if you would rather not say) but i work for one of the big lenders so may be able to offer some insight. tbc ...

always send your letters recorded delivery that way they cant say they never recieved them. tbc...

Right, first off get on to your bank and get them to investigate. If it was eversheds i would try ringing the actual company i.e ge money and quote your account no. Ask the agent to search the system using the card number you paid it with. tbc

You have just about hit the nail on the head there mate. its actually quite frustrating at times when i speak to people who are going through a tough patch and all i can say is send us a letter. I wish it was me who makes the rules but sadly it aint

Unfortunetly a signed and enforcable credit agreement is, at the present time, the be all and end all. How can you possibly argue against it in court?

I've got my tin hat on but i have read these forums for a few years and now when i am at work i am dying to tell people about this site but i need to work and as you can imagine that would be a big no no for my bosses

Surely if its legal for them to send you a document with your details on but no signature i could be a millionaire by now... They know they cant enforce it but are trying to fob you off and assuming you are not aware of the law - basic practice

Hi there im new to the forums, Just have a quick query really. In august 2008 i took out a 12 month buy now pay later agreement on a samsung tv from comet. The basics of the agreement are that i have 12 months in which to pay the total off interest free, no due dates or monthly payments but basicly at my own leisure, but it needs to be paid off before august this year otherwise interest gets front loaded and i must pay nearly double the amount of the tv on top... But the problem i have is that in the fine print of the contract it states that HFC Bank will charge £20.00 handling fee per payment... this sounds rather dubious to me is this just their way of making up for the lost interest if i pay it off in time. If it is i am just going to have to save up the money and pay it in one lump sum... Now is this legal for them to charge that much to take a payment??? or is it just an underhand way of making money on an interest free agreement? Anyone with experience dealing with HFC or just anyone who is clued up help would be muchmuch appriciated. TBC....

How did you make the payment?? I work for them.

Good look mate, If all else fails then you can always go underground

Hi there Sorry to hear about your financial problems the loss of your loved ones.... I couldn't say i know what your going through right now but believe me its not the end of the world and you CAN solve these problems.... Have you considered getting an appointment with the citizens adivce bereau or the Consumer credit councelling service? These are two charity orginisations i know help people in your predicament? If you need the numbers i can find the nearest CAB to you... I work for a credit card company, in the collections department, and i happen to know that if you specifically request we remove your number, we must do so by law. So i suggest if you do speak to them again you request they remove your number and corresspond with you in writing. Perfectly reasonable request and also they are obliged to do this... if you want any help from an insider just PM me or something i would be happy to give you some help.... TBC.......

nice tactics Fortunetly i am yet to have to deal with a DCA, i imagine it could be rather amusing from certain posts on this board. Obviously it could also be rather depressing... depends how you look at it. TBC

I will never forget my most stressful and traumatising call so far, which was because the customer was a lawyer.. She actually enjoyed reading the law to me, listening to me squirm as i had to explain i am not a lawyer or financial expert and i did not know what section x was of this act and how MY personal actions were contravining this act. She knew i didn't have a clue what she was on about. Safe to say i had to go outside for a few cigs after that call.... my god

The difference in my case being that i no longer work for the agency as the company the agency put me with took me on a permanent contract but the agency continued paying me. They cant deduct money from my wages because i no longer work for them. in effect i was being paid twice once by the agency and then by my employer. Also they kept paying my after my contract with them had expired, they knew when this would happen so why continue to pay me? It was most definetly not a rolling contract.

Sounds like the place i work currently, although from my experience we are nowhere near as bad. Barclaycard have just taken one of our clients away from us too - BAD NEWS BHS CUSTOMERS The process is almost identical, system generated letters, Job files and the like, your absoultely right about it being scare tactics. The fact is if someone doesnt want to pay, they wont pay and there isnt much the card company can except call call call and send hundreds of letters. One shady tactic that is been introduced very recently is the sending of a NOTICE OF DEFAULT SUMS or NODS which quite obviously shocks many people into thinking they have a default notice when infact its just worded similarly to make the customer think "oh ****, better pay this now" This letter i believe is actually written by OFT and is now part of the CCA as of october 2008. By and large though we do give our customers every opportunity to get back on track, the only exception being when they are still spending on their cards but asking to reduce payments. We also have an in house DCA which is another scare tactic, its exactly the same company, in fact many people in the company take calls on the "normal" side and straight after the DCA "side" only difference being they can be more stern with customers and Say a different company name at the beginning of calls. Shadyy

I had this problem last year, interesting also with an Agency... They only overpaid me £780 in total. Without any warning got a call from a woman in their office threatening me with Debt collection agencys and bailiffs if i didnt pay it back. This happened because the company i was at throught he agency decided to offer me perm contract, they told the agency this 3 times twice on the phone and finally in a letter. basicly the agency did not take any notice and continued paying me (but not sending payslips) so i didnt realise i was being paid £145 a week as i dint pay much attention to my bank statements back then. So they had made a mistake i understood i had to pay it back as it wasnt mine but my HR manager told me they could not deduct money from my wages without my written consent, also she told me they could not force me to pay any amounts back a month as long as i was paying something towards it, so that is what i did just paid money to them when they get irate and start sending letters and that keeps them quiet. After all its not your fault they overpaid you and you could say you thought they were good will payments. they cant argue with you as it is them who made the mistake..... Anyone know if i have this about right or am i completely wrong

Hi, Just signed up to the site as i want to get my viewpoint across on a couple of issues. I do work for a bank, would rather not say which one as the vultures in IT probably read these forums and I could get into trouble for posting.... BUT... I can never fathom how it costs the bank for NOT paying a DD!?! As someone pointed out before thats like me Going to give someone some money, them rejecting my money so i charge them extra for them not taking my money... it really is scandalous and i belive something should be done about it. Another thing which stood out is this new "unauthorised overdraft" facilty my barclays account just recently had added to it. Basicly i can go up to £250.00 into the red on my current account but if i do barclays will charge me £25 a week (!?!?!) until im out of it. Now i must admit barclays did advise me of this by means of a scrappy bit of paper bundled in with one of my statements, but it looked like marketing junk or a credit card promos so naturally i didnt read it... it could be argued i should have read it i understand this but that doesnt mean the charges are fair. Anyway to cut long story short i had a few pounds left in the account a few days before payday (get paid on last friday of the month) just so happens this month my gym decided to take DD a day early ergo not enough funds in the account. Charge for returned DD goes on. This took me into UNAUTH overdraft and bam £25 whacked on, I have found once you enter this overdraft it is extremely difficult to get out of the vicious circle, you pay it off one week and then another charge goes on so in effect the bank are getting free money. Surely if your bank knows you have insufficient funds in your account but still allow you to buy something they are in effect authorising this overdraft??? Its completely baffling. Plus the fact they wrote to me to tell me i have an overdraft limit of £250.00 is them authorising me to use it!!!! it i beyond belief what the banks get away with. Also another poster mentioned banks refusing DD when there are plenty of funds in the account - I come accross this EVERY DAY in my role. You would not believe how many people trust their banks with what they tell their customers and take it as word of law. I always try to explain to these people that just because the bank is telling you one thing (I.E my company has gone for it too early ETC, does in no circumstances mean what they are telling you is the truth! They want your money and dont care how they get it.... I must finally make clear i am not describing the company i work for here but using my experience from working for a major financial institution and dealing with high street banks on a day to day basis. Thankyooooo Edit - I also want to say i find the OP comments both disturbing and extremely patronising, taking into account the experience and intelligence of the majority of the posters on this forum i feel you are a little naive that you believe "you know best" because you have worked for these companies. Lets hope you never have a sudden berevement, loss of earnings, unexpected redundancy because when that happens you will realise how childish and foolhardy your original post is. I myself work in a call centre on the front line dealing with customers every day, I enjoy my work and the most rewarding part of my job is helping our customers when they find themselves in this type of situation, I have customers who have a usual income of 15k (a week) these are people who have well paid jobs, houses and a family to care for and when something happens they could never have predicted in a million years for instance their company going bankrupt, the last thing they want to hear is a spotty faced teenager in a call center lecturing them on how they "should have read the t &c's" "why get credit when you have such a good job" beleive me i have heard this all before in my call centre and it really makes me angry when i hear people spouting this rubbish. if you really believe what you originally said is sensible and endearing to the many people who post on this forum i believe you are delusional. That is my opinion of you. You my friend are the stereotype in our industry and are the kind of person who gives the rest of us a bad name. i thankyou and goodnight /rant