As they use the information on your credit file anyway, I fail to see the point of their statement !

If you look at my posts on gets for several years ago, you will see how I got these idiots at Low Life to wrote of a £10K supposed claim against!! It's easy when you use all the library templates on here. After I won, I made a donation to CAG

Hi Broughton and welcome to CAG

 

I'd be inclined to ignore the demands for now.

 

If they decide to litigate, you can contest it on the grounds of the debt being SB'd, as well as the issue of whether the phone cover was needed/legitimate.

 

Lowell's are an easy touch if you know what to do. I wrote of 10K of credit card debt from MBNAand and also successfully claimed back PPI on the card, about 800 pounds .

There are now calls in the Daily Mail article, submitted above, for a police investigation.

Is there a petition we can sign, or some other way of pressing for police investigation and possible criminal charges being brought about?

Got all my PPI back: you can e the details if you follow my name on here. It was like pulling teeth, but I got there in the end.

The worst person I dealt with was at CapQuest, a DCA, who lied to me and cheated me out of money; again, look up my posts on here.

Back specifically to these two banks.

What they are doing, and have done, is immoral. If you have been ripped off by them, please claim your money back.

According to one media report, one department was responsible for cooking the books; senior management "apparently" didn't know, so they claim.

Really?

And junior staff got no benefit themselves, so were e presumably doing this out of the goodness of their hearts to help the bank?

Got'em!

This is the relevant term and condition of "Priority Pass":

15.In the event of the cardholder cancelling

or not renewing their (i) Priority Pass

membership or (ii) payment card with the

card issuer, the Priority Pass card shall

be invalid effective from the cancellation

date of their (i) Priority Pass membership

or (ii) payment card. Any lounge visits

made by a cardholder using an invalid

card, including any guests, shall be

charged to the cardholder.

The specific term is here: In the event of the cardholder cancelling

or not renewing their (i) Priority Pass

membership or (ii) payment card

The credit card was renewed by Smile; all credit and debit cards have expiry dates and are renewed automatically by banks. So Smile did not tell "Priority Pass" about the new card.

This is a real [problem], since it means that if I turned up at an airport lounge, I would be refused access because they did not have an up to date payment card, even though for a single traveler it is free, it would show up as an unauthorized account.

Consequently, Smile bank sell a packaged policy, include benefits such as free airport lounge passes, then put in a trap that means that when you get to the airport you are declined entry to the lounge.

In simple terms, Smile sells the package for a monthly fee, then the so-called benefits are not applicable. Nice cosy little earner for Smile in cahoots with Priority Pass.

They've been rumbled.

Well, it was missold if they didn't explicitly tell me that I had to notify a third party of changes that the bank already know about. The bank issues the new credit card from time to time, so why is it my responsibility to tell their 3rd party vendor, " Priority Pass"? That was not explicit in the advertising blurb that I posted above. It was not mentioned. It said quite impliclty, if you get the Smilemore Account, which I did, then these were the benefits.

The Smile website says. for my "Smilemore Account" (this is the Smile current account with the paid monthly package): Airport Lounge Passes

Four airport lounge passes per year, per account, for the account holder(s) only to enjoy. If you wish to take guests with you, additional passes can be purchased at £15 per person, per visit. (Subject to terms and conditions)

Registration to activate the policy is required. You can do this online at co-operativebank.co.uk/benefits or by calling 0845 602 5783.

I am looking for the terms and conditions, but it clearly says registration is with the Co_op bank (the owner of Smile Bank).

It does not clearly state that any changes in address or the issuing of a new credit card (by Smile) have to be notified to "Priority Pass".

Thanks dx100UK for the Daily Mail article: actually, I had not noticed it before.

An airport lounge pass is OK, I fly quite a lot, but I feel that I have been cheated.

The bank gives the package as part of my current account, but does not tell the vendor, "Priority Pass", any changes that I have notified the bank with, such a new address; nor do they tell them when a new credit card is issued, with, of course, a new expiry date.

I smell a rat here.

I think that the system is rigged so that I cannot male a claim, that is to say that my "Priority Pass" card would be invalid if I, NOT THE BANK, did not notify them of these changes. But my contract is with the bank, surely?

Otherwise, the bank would have to say, your monthly fee for the packaged account is dependent upon your (i.e. me, the customer) doing all the admin. work, not the bank

Hi

I am with Smile Bank and have a bundled account with them: that is to say I pay a monthly fee and get various "benefits".

One of them is for an airport lounge pass. You get a small number of free passes each year and can pay a small fee to take a guest in with you.

I recently found out that if your information changes, for example, your credit card expires and you are issued with a new one, of course with a new expiry date, or if you change address, this is not notified by Smile to the company offering the lounge service, called Priority Pass".

If the bundled account is with the bank, albeit it supplied by various external companies for the different services in the bundled account, are Smile not supposed to supply them with information about updates? For example, Smile know when they have issued a new card, and they are also aware of address changes.

Or is this a sneaky way of making more money by not honoring bundled services?

At CapQuest, always ask for Anne Mcshane ; you can see my threads on here how I ran circles around her for several months before CapQuest canceled out my "account". always end up shooting herself in the foot.

Wow, perfect explanation. I always found that when I was hassled by debt collectors, I copied some library letters from this site and won every single claim against me i.e. I won. See my threads on here!

You say they have written to you saying :

"We are unable to accept your recent payment offer as it is unrealistic in comparison to the balance outstanding."

Actually, they are not supposed to say this. The repayments are based on your ability to pay, not on what they would like to receive. Look at a suitable template letter to reply.

OK, I hear what you say, but it's a bit rich for them to collect from me on a set aside CCJ, because at that time I did not know the law.

It was not at all pleasant being accused of fraudulently having letters and cheques signed on my behalf in the UK.

But if the law allows collection agencies to ask for money against a set aside CCJ and if the law allows them to accuse me, falsely, of having people sign cheques and letters for me in the UK, then I suppose I was naive.

I do apologise for my earlier posts questioning this behaviour, I thought I was in the right.

Strangely, they wrote off the debt. Isn't this a bit strange if I was the wrong and they were in the right?

Actually, I wrote off all my debts to 5 banks, also received full refunds of PPI, accounting to around 15K pounds. About 20 years ago, I also managed to write off about 35K pounds of similar debt.

My credit file is now 100% clean.

Was I right, or were they right?

You decide.

If the account is in dispute with the OC, then it should never be chased by a DCA, as it is against the law to do so. This is how I got CapQuest (see my thread on here).

I did not know this rule initially and forked out 105 quid to CapQuest before realising that I didn't need to pay them anything.

They had a "collections manager" called Anne MySpace who was desperate to collect from me. She even put in writing that I was fraudulently having letters and cheques signed in the UK by another person when I was abroad. She then wrote saying I was in the UK. I was actually writing from Taiwan, where I have lived for 7 years.

Even today they have refused to refund my 105 quid despite being forced to close the account once I pointed out the prior dispute with the DCA. The dispute, by the way, was that I had the CCJ from the OC set aside. And Anne McShane is typical of the sort of low life these companies employ.

As far as Lowells are concerned, see my thread on here. They wrote of over 10 grand they claimed I owed then because they could not produce any paperwork to support their claim.

My experience with DCA s is give them enough type and they will hang themselves.

I wrote of ten thousand quid these jokers asked for - see my thread on here. Biggest bunch of idiots I have dealt with. They had no paperwork to back up their claim.

Do they have valid paperwork for the claim against you?

It is up to them to prove you owe, not for you to prove you don't.

If somebody turned up to your door, dressed badly, smelling of fish, looking like they sleep on the street, you would tell them to take a running jump, why would you take the same person seriously if they wrote to you on nicely prepared company headed paper?

Yes, really generous of them!

There is an increasing amount of publicity about these contracts this week. I get the feeling that this may be the calm before the storm; the employment contract version of ppi.

These zero-hours contracts seem to be popping up everywhere. See this link in the Independent today about McDonald's :

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/they-wont-be-lovin-it-mcdonalds-admits-90-of-employees-are-on-zerohours-contracts-without-guaranteed-work-or-a-stable-income-8747986.html

So after the SAR, would you send a notice before action, to try and get them to pay up, or would you suggest going straight for a county court claim? I realise wages prior to 6 years ago are statute barred, but many debt collection agencies am for them to be paid. So it friend could always do the same trick and ask for refunds all the way back. Of course, if a notice before action is sent, a quick mention of writing to the local MP, etc. may twist their arm.

How long back do they legally have to keep records? This goes back to 2001.

Hi steam powered, great information, that's what I was asking for. Next step, if or friend is unsure of hours worked, how would a county court claim be started; I mean, it must be difficult to claim if there is no records of hours worked. Or does the Council have to keep records? If so, how can our friend obtain that information to instigate a claim?

Tnx

Apologies again for typos, but I am in a mobile device, but I guess you know what I meant.

Good reply. So it seems possible that having accepted this for the last 12 years, it implies that the terms and conditions were accepted. That seems to be the drift.

However, 3 years ago I successfully got a refund from Scabby Abbey (Abbey National) for ppi mis selling dating back prior to 2000. I was told that I could not claim as I was outside the FDA dates, but I claimed anyway. There's found in my favour and I got a full refund plus a percentage as per County Court percentages, plus compensation.

So are we 100% sure that our friend accepted his short working hours compared to what was posted on the teems and conditions? Or, could it be like me, albeit with a different kind of claim, namely ppi, that our friend could have a claim backdated and fully refunded with interest and with compensation? Take a look at my Abbey National thread to see where I'm coming from... .