A result - made my second appeal and received a letter saying that after careful consideration the penalty fare was correctly charged but that in the particular circumstances of this case, payment of the penalty will be waived. No further actiion will be required on your part. Apologies for the inconvenience caused to me. Not sure what this is all about... But a good result for me. However, how do I get my £40 back. I have written to the appeals administrator informing them that I have already paid £40 and could it be refunded. But I know many of you have said I will have difficulty getting it back. Wish I hadn't paid but then knowing my luck my second appeal would have failed and I would have to cough up £80. Another person from TFL contacted me by email to ask details about the ticket inspector and whether I wanted to make a formal complaint which I did. Any suggestions about how to recoup my £40 would be much appreciated. I am paranoid when I get on the bus now just in case there is something wrong with my card.

Thanks Wazir - Good grief I dont stand much chance, looks like Boris isn't going to be interested either. I am now going to write my appeal. I am gutted that I have had to pay £40 when I am innocent and it looks as if I will not get it back. As it doesnt look as if Boris won't reply I have decided to write to my MP who happens to be Boris's brother - I wonder if he will reply.

Thanks - it is helpful to know that the driver can print off your last 10 transactions. Thanks for the contact numbers as well. Often when I get on the bus and there is an automatic top up for some reason I get a double bleep so I just touch in again. I saw a green light while touching in but perhaps it was just the top up. I am not usually on the 507 but when it arrives I never seem to be near the entrance with the driver - always in the middle. This particular morning - people had been waiting ages for a bus when I arrived and I had to fight to get on the bus. I would never have been able to have moved to the front of the bus to speak to the driver and the general mood of the bus crowd was not good - I think it would have been impossible to get to the driver. I am going to do my second appeal over the bank holiday - I won't be out and about but trapped in front of my computer appealing. What angers me most is that I am a professional person (I know that some professional people are fare dodgers and liars and worse still murderers) but for myself I always try to be honest and decent when dealing with the public. What is worse than the penalty ticket for not touching in is the fact that the inspector said he was "watching me" and I quickly got on and sauntered to the back of the bus and sat down and never touched in. Well I did touch in I must have to get the autotop up but it seems as if he is believed and not me. How do I go about getting TFL to release CCTV pictures of me that day is that possible?

Update - I have just paid the £40 penalty fare online but will continue to make another appeal - I am still waiting for a reply from Boris Johnson!

thanks to all for your words of support Urbanite - every time previously when I have boarded a bus and there has been an automatic top up to my card. Immediately after my fare has been deducted. I touched in in good faith and saw a green light and heard a double beep so i touched in again. Are you saying that it is possible for me to touch in and just have the £20 top up but not have my card validated because I didnt know that could happen. I must have done something to my oyster card to make it operate the auto top up. On another note, I have the problem of the ticket inspector who said he was watching me and I boarded the bus didn't touch in but went straight to the back of the bus. When two witnesses said they had seen me touch in - he said they were lying. what can I do about that? I am intrigued though how I could manage to get an automatic top up on my card of £20 which clearly shows at 9:10 but not be charged for the 1:35 bus fare. How did that happen no one is able to tell me? Thank you for your reply it was informative.

Have received the result of my appeal. It has failed. I can now make a second appeal at a different address. They have ignored the fact that I must have touched in as an automatic top up of £20 appeared on my statement on the time that I was on the 507 bus - they never referred to that. part of the reply was: "When travelling by busy, you must touch your Oyster card flat on the card reader........It is your responsibilty to touch in correctly and to check for the green light and single beep to esnure that your card has been vaidated. Failure to touch in correctly may result in the issue of a Penalty Fare" I just don't know why they have not taken the fact that I had touched to get an automatic top up into account. I assume they believe the ticket inspector who said I crept on and went immediately to the back of the bus. I will appeal again but am not hopeful - I did send them the names of my witnesses and the oyster card statement but they are obviously not interested in that.

Thanks Transient for your support - I will let you know how I get on. I am finding it all very worrying though even though I am innocent. It makes me think about how people are jailed for crimes for years that they didn't commit. It has made me think about how I judge other people.

thanks. I have sent letters off protesting my innocence and enclosing copies of my oyster card statement which clearly shows I touched in and an automatic top up was done; unfortunately no fare taken from my account.

thanks Transient. He maintained I didn't touch in - he checked my card twice on his machine. Is a bendy bus the one where you can get in the middle of the bus which I did - there are a couple of card readers there. I wish I had got on the front of the bus because then the driver might have said something to me because I can't understand why it only topped up my card with the £20 and the £1.35 wasn't taken - that is odd isnt it. I always assumed fare dodgers hadn't got any money. He was a really nasty piece of work and it was fate as I don't usually go to work via Waterloo I just went that way because most of Whitehall was closed I usually use Charing X mainline statio. He shouted to everyone on the bus - this person just pretended to touch in! I am going to contest it using my oyster card statement as evidence and the two people's details who offered to be witnesses and I am reporting him. I received something through the post today which said if i don't pay the fine I will be prosecuted but do you think my oyster statement and my witnesses will be enough because although I topped up on the bus I didn't pay the fare. I didn't realise you could do an automatic top up on the bus and not pay the fare.

To cut a long story short - I hope - I have a payasyougo Oyster card with an automatic top up of £20 if amount goes below £8. Got on 507 at Waterloo Statiion approx 09:10 and touched in on yellow card reader - made funny double beeps which I think is when it is topping up so did it again and then went to back of bus. Really nasty ticket inspector approached and asked to see my card - I showed it to him and he said that I hadn't touched in and was illegally travelling on the bus - two witnesses gave me their names and phone numbers as they saw me touch in. He said I was lying that he had been watching me and I crept on the bus without touching in (I am respectable and do not try to dodge fares). He was trying to frame me, When I kept saying I had touched in. He threw me off the bus (along with a genuine fare dodger) and accused me of trying to take his photo with my phone - I wasn't I was trying to get a signal at 9:18 issued me with an £80 penalty ticket. When I asked him how much was on my oyster card he said £27 but that wasn't the point! The next day I checked my oyster card statement and it showed that I had touched in at 09:10 and there was an automatic top up fo £20. However, for some reason it did not deduct the £1.35 fare which it usually does directly after a top up. I do not intend paying this penalty charge as I had touched in. Even though the hateful inspector said I had not. The proof is in my Oyster card statement - it's just unfortunate that it failed to take my £1.35. Even having an automatic top up attached to the Oyster card is no guarantee that you won't get a penalty ticket. Where do I stand because I am most certainly not paying this fine (£40 if paid within 21 days). I really feel this inspector is trying to frame me for whatever reason. Advice appreciated please.

I read about this and was overjoyed when I found out that this man's debt had been written off by the High Court judge because of the shameful way that MBNA and its henchman Link Financial had behaved. I am heavily in debt and to be truthful MBNA was the start of my problem. I always paid them, never missed a month but the interest they put on my account was crippling, it was disgusting. I wrote to them and asked if I could have lower interest rates applied and they would always respond by upping the rate. I did a couple of balance transfers to get rid of them- now have loads of debt elsewhere because of this. I reported them to the Financial Ombudsman but got no joy. Now I am very pleased with this result. So pleased that I have penned a letter to MBNA, telling them what I think and how delighted I am of the outcome. Childish I know but it made me feel so good.

Thank you very much - looks like I had better move elsewhere

Please can you help. I have a Halifax current account and debt with a Lloyds bank credit card. Have been paying a reduced amount monthly with lower interest. Now they are harassing me all the time by phone and when I read my latest credit card statement it said that I hadn't made my monthly payment. I had but it was for the lower amount which they had agreed previously. Also on the statement was something like - Our terms allow us to transfer any available funds from your LTSB account to offset any outstanding arrears - do they mean from my Halifax Account or are they not yet able to do this. I would hate to see what money I have eaten up by Lloyds credit card. Please can you let me know what is the current state of play. Apologies if this is the wrong part of the forum, please can you move it for me if it is.

Thanks to everyone you have all been so helpful - Pinky well done on getting dosh back. Although Egg passed the account to DLC and DLC keep telling me that they owe the debt I can still access the details online on the Egg website, which is the only way I can check my debt is going down which I think is strange. I think I do have the old card with "Approved" but as I've said before I have so many credit cards - I am ashamed to say how many - I already deal with another debt collector as well! So I'm trying to lead a quiet life - I really haven't got the mental strength to do battle at the moment. I find it really saps my energy having to deal with debt collectors and credit card companies. Anyhow, you'll be pleased to know, that for now I appear to have sorted DLC out, I am continuing paying the regular amount and I have gathered the names of all the twits I have been dealing with there and I have said that for now, I'm not reporting them to various places, but if they play up again I will do. They have "thanked" me for this and have apologised for their behaviour. But I am ready to have another go if needed - because I suspect my peace won't last long. But they are the pits - I really don't know where they get the people they employ - they lack sense, empathy, compassion and intelligence. But they are all seem the same - awful! You would have thought that with the state of the country at the moment they could get some top people to work for them - I suppose they don't pay much though.

Pinky69 - thanks for this but I can't believe that they go around faking emails surely they shouldn't be allowed to behave like this. I think the agreement probably isn't okay but I owe so much to so many creditors that bar one or two and now DLC again I have had a harmonious life these last few months paying them regular sums and for the main part not being charged interest or charges I'm too ashamed to say how much I owe but let's just say I will be dead before it's all paid off. So because of all this I don't at this stage want to go down the enforeceable agreement route. Christmas 2008 I was in such a dreadful state with my debts. Every day I had to go to at least five cash points to try and draw out money from credit cards to pay other cards with and this has been going on for years. In May 2009 I faced up to my debt and admitted it to myself and wrote to all my creditors. Now I have just enough money to get through each month but Christmas 2009 I slept easily in my bed. At the moment, I am okay, I am fortunate enough to be in employment and so can afford to pay my utility bills but not my credit cards and I have loads of them. My creditors don't seem to like the fact that I can pay my utility bills and my mortgage and not them though! I know that my situation could change any minute but for the time being I don't want to upset the applecart too much. I have got a lot of help from this website, I now know I'm not alone and it is good to chat to people in the same situation as yourself. I do think that DLC shouldn't be allowed to fake emails though. There is all this talk about agreements not being enforceable but I haven't read anywhere that anyone has been successful going down this route and had their debt written off because of it - or am I wrong. I was trying to get £800 bank charges back from First Direct and now it looks as if it never will! Thanks everyone for your help -when I have received another reply from DLC I will let you know. If I have the wrong idea about the unenforceable agreement and the fact no one has seemed to get very far with this, then please let me know.

Thanks to all who replied - great help - there is no ppi on this and I got my CCA from Egg which appears okay. However, now something else has happened. I emailed them saying that I was not giving them any copies of my payslips and that I didn't understand why they were asking me to set up a payment plan when I had already set one up and they get £65 by standing order. However they replied and said that this arrangement was for 3 months only and that they sent me an email to set this out and that I replied that I agreed to this. They enclosed a copy of these emails which were cut and paste jobs. My email was originally dated 14 Oct and I was saying thank you for them accepting my payment plan. However they changed the date to 16 October and sent their reply to my email only theirs was dated 14 October before I had even written my so called email on the 16 October! Their email - which I have never seen before went on and on and said they were bending over backwards to help me and putting their job on the line to help me and it would be better for me to give them a several thousand pound settlement. The email went on to say that I was to pay £65 for three months Oct, Nov, and Dec. Well I have never seen this email before it had no proper date on just 16 Oct no time or anything. And the one I sent was made up it was my wording but in reply to another of their emails - my one was written on 16 Oct but with no proper date or time (it was really written by me on 14 Oct). Is this fraud - I don't know what to think - but I am going to reply saying that both emails are fakes. I am going to scan them the proper emails into a pdf. They have really got a cheek and what's more their fake email to me which I have never received before today was illiterate.

I have a credit card debt with Egg (among many others!) and the debt was passed to DLC who I think are part of Egg because when I log into my Egg account it shows that I have made a monthly payment to Egg. However after a lot of battles with them I set up a regular payment of £65 per month - less than they wanted but I manage my dmp myself and that was all I could afford as I want to be fair to my other creditors. However they have now recently informed me that this payment plan was for three months only and they want to see my last three payslips. In the past I have declined to show my payslips to my creditors. Can I still do this - I really don't want them to see them, and I'm sure I'm not obliged to show them. As far as I was concerned the plan was until the debt had been repaid and I have an email more or less stating this. Any advice please?

thanks will do. thanks for all yr help

Thanks for your help it was much appreciated, unfortunately, at the moment I don't have many charges as I have always paid my monthly payment on time - so I never accrued any charges to claim for. It has only since I defaulted a paid a smaller amount that a few charges have been added - and the interest is getting more and more. I never took out ppi either. Fired off a letter to them last night and today received two more from them - one was a "caring" letter saying they want to help me and could I phone their office. the other one was mentioning they wanted to set up an arrangement for the amount I have been offering all the time - although they dont mention whether they are actually accepting my pro rata offer - I am just writing to them again. Actually I now have 4 different people contacting me all the time which is weary. I wish they would go away - I would like to wake up tomorrow morning to find I have won the lottery or written a best selling novel!!

Sorry to all who have helped me but I have been away but am now back and need more advice. Wrote to Egg complaining about their treatment of me and have also lodged complaint with Financial Ombudsman. Egg replied to my letter - the only one, they normally ignore me. Part of it mentioned "unfortunately, although the notes on your account relfect post being recieved: this was not passed to the egg collection team for review. As no arrangement was in place, even though you were making payments of £xx.xx each month towards your debt your accont was frozen on XXXXXX and referred to Dierect Legal & Collections Limited." Letter goes on to say "in view of the status of your account and the amount you can afford to pay - the decision to pass your account to Direct Legal & Collections Limited remains. Direct legal & collectionsLimited will be preapared to discuss a payment arrangement with you...." However, DLC is not prepared to discuss anything with me. They have informed me by email (I can't understand what they are saying on my answerphone but don't intend to speak to them anyway) they are not prepared to accept my offer but need to speak to me urgently as they need to take a payment immediately and then set up a direct debit" Could anyone now help me as I feel a bad run with them coming on. I have been paying Egg a regular amount each month (although not what they want). I am intending paying the same amount to DLC each month and I can also set up a standing order (most definitely not a direct debit) each month and propose writing to them to this effect? What does anyone think? From reading forum Egg and their DCAs appear to be the worst and I am terrified of getting a charging order on my property my mortgage is in my name and my elderly father's and I don't know what I would do if these awful people took my home. Advice as usual please.

Hello I have been trying to self manage my DMP plan since earlier on in the year - I have big big debts! and here is what I have found. Do creditors accept self-managed DMP's? Yes they do I owe loads all on credit cards. Worked out my own plan with the help of national debtline and CCCS. It has been an awful lot of work though for me - I spend hours scanning all my documents and keep them on on my computer then shred the paper ones. CCCS are great when I have a problem and respond quickly. I would like to say that I have not threatened anyone with unenforceable CCAs though and perhaps that is why I am successful. (Well only MBNA but only because I don't owe them anything now so I decided to get even with them from the past!). I pay a pro rata amount monthly to various, and at the moment have found most of them okay as they know I do want to pay. I pay a regular amount each month. Is there any real difference between self-managing vs managed DMPs? I think you can stay in control more. Because sometimes the managed DMPs say don't pay etc but I don't like to get behind with payments - even small pro rata ones. Are there any templates anywhere that will help me in creating communications with creditors for self managed DMPs? Yes. On this Forum and all the other useful ones national debtline; CCCS and Martin Lewis. Will DMP related direct communications with my existing creditors jeopardise suspending future payments to creditors for unenforceable CCA's? Possibly I think - but I am not very experienced about this. As most of them (for the moment) have been okay with me I don't want to rock the boat because I have now got to the stage after a good few months of most of them freezing all interest and charges. Most of this will be for 6 months though and who knows what will happen after then. I am usually nice to them but am firm with them at the same time. Although i must admit I do get frightened sometimes. Ones who I have found good but others may beg to differ: Capital One, more or less froze interest and charges as soon as I admitted financial difficulty; Natwest - sympathetic - interest frozen after three months; Lloyds - I though would be difficult but has been okay not much correspondence with them but interest is not frozen but low - a third what it was. Tesco - same as Natwest. Marks and Spencer - allow a reduced payment for a couple of months but dont freeze interest but then you have to renegotiate which I'm doing now. My bank HSBC was horrible and aggressive, refused to refund bank charges and passed my debt to a debt collector who was agressive to begin with but then I wrote to their head office and financial ombudsman and copied them all in, then the debt collector accepted my pro rata payment and informed me that provided I kept up regular payment there would be no interested charged or anything until the debt has been paid (which will be a long time - so not sure I believe that or not) But the worst of the lot is EGG they are awful refuse to reply to my letters and have put me in the hands of their awful debt collectors who phone all the time. I'm sticking to my guns but they frighten me sometimes. Because the thing that worries me is those awful charging orders - I havent been threatened with those yet but if I do I'm not sure how I would feel. Managing your own plan is good ecause it toughens you up and if you have problems the forums are very good for support and you can always email CCCS for help although they always try to get you to sign up with them. I hope this helps but if you want to know anything else please ask - I am not an expert though and others will no doubt disagree with some of the stuff I have said but I'm just saying what works for me.

Thanks I will post the CCA as I said it appears to look okay although I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Also, I am not sure the best way/how to post the CCA - scan or something. I have had a few calls today from them but they have stopped asking me to contact them urgently instead they just hang up. I had a bit of banter with them via email but they keep addressing me as someone else - are they doing it deliberately or do they muddle up everyone!

Reply. thank you very much I will see how I get on. Although I have taken advice from CCCS and they have advised writing to the debt collectors with the information they require as they think they seem reasonable. I'm not sure what anyone else thinks about this. I will transfer this to the egg forum though.

Thanks very much -it is DLC sorry I cant type straight now. They have said that tey are acting on behalf of Egg with the intention of recovering the balance which has been defaulted. I can't send them a CCA request because I already did that with Egg and although they claimed I hadn't sent a £1 I showed them a copy of my Egg statement which showed it had been cashed so they sent it but it all looked okay - enforecable - not that I really know what Im looking for but someone else I showed it to said it looked okay. Is there anything else I can do?

Please can you help. I have a debt with Egg credit card of over £6000. I have offered them a pro rata payment which I have been paying for several months now. They often send the normal documents about not paying the full amount and that they are going to default me. I have written to them on numerous occasions asking them to accept my offer and freeze interest and other charges but they have always ignored my letters, I spoke to someone who said my offer was not enough. So I have carried on writing but they have not replied. Last week they sent me a default notice and mentioned that they had put my account in the hand of a debt collector. The debt collector, DCL, phoned several times saying it was DCL, and needed to contact me urgently and when I phoned back to quote a reference number. Then they sent an email via Egg, so I replied asking them not to phone me and they could email me. They sent a financial statement for me to complete (I had already completed one with Egg). I asked them to obtain the information from Egg. They have asked for full settlement of my account. They have then sent me another email contents below and are calling me by another name - "Egg have no legal obligation to accept anything below the minimum instalment and if they do they will not accept it for more than 6 months. I would assume that is why your letters were unanswered and the account was then passed to us.Please refer to the terms and conditions of your contract that confirm Egg have the right to forward your account to a 3rd party.Moving forward, we would happily take into consideration your circumstances and offer; we just require the income and expenditure sheet to be sent to us as Egg have not forwarded that information to us. Also with that please forward pro rata percentages and creditor balances so we can justify your offer." Could you please give me some guidance on how to reply to them - do I have to send them all these details again as I have already supplied them to Egg? What do I do about them calling me by another name - that isn't very professional? Your help would as always be much appreciated.