It is hard to find a specialist solicitor to help you on these matters. I was with a well knwon CMC who did not do anything even though the agreements are very obviously unenforceable. The solicitor they sent me to knew very little about consumer credit. They are currently denying not doing anything with my cases and the only reason I am letting them is because I am preparing two long complaints to regulatory authorities and I do not want them in my feet while I do that. This is the only place where people can turn to for help. At the moment this is very much a DIY thing.

Ok got ya, No part 8 cause it would open the way for huge costs. So should he tick on the box "Under statutory provisions" and write "s.127(3) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974" then? Would that keep it to small claims? I think we need a step by step guide for injunctions in the forum.

From what I have been reading, the bank have made the mistake of filing a wrong credit agreement and have admitted that this what they have, i.e. have admitted that they do not hold the correct credit agreement. This is what I would consider doing. I am not legally trained. I would send them a detailed claim letter explaining why and asking them to recognise that under these circumstances, they will be unable to enforce this agreement and ask them to 1)stop requesting repayments 2)not pass the account to third parties and 3)stop passing information about this account to CRA's. You need to give them a reasonable time to respond. Mention that otherwise you will apply for a court injunction. If they do not respond or respond negatively, send them a final reminder re-iterating why they will be unable to enforce. Give them a reasonable time to respond. If they do not or respond negatively, then apply for an injunction. If you give them a chance to resolve this without the injunction, then you have taken reasonable steps to avoid court action and you can ask for your costs (application fee). Mention that you are claiming costs in the claim form (N1) I am not 100% sure how this will be done for this matter. I have helped a friend with the paperwork for an ex parte injunction that was decided immediately for a completely different issue. In this case you will need a scheduled hearing. You need to fill in and submit at your county court: N1 claim form with particulars of claim, Statement of truth, N16A general form for injunctions, attach exhibits on N1 form (3 copies of all documents are needed). You also need to indicate in N1 that you making this application under part 8 of CPR. The fee was £75 if I remember well. I think (more knowledgeable CAGers please correct) in the N16A form you need to tick the box that you are seeking an injunction under part 8 of CPR. Part 8 of CPR says "8.1 (1) The Part 8 procedure is the procedure set out in this Part. (2) A claimant may use the Part 8 procedure where – (a) he seeks the court’s decision on a question which is unlikely to involve a substantial dispute of fact; or (b) paragraph (6) applies." You will be relying on paragraph 2, the bank does not have the agreement and it is unlikely to be a substantial dispute of this fact for the purposes of enforcing the agreement. In Part 8 of CPR there is info on what to include in the claim form. You can find this by searching. I would ask for an order: Until the bank can produce a legible credit agreement in its original, unaltered form bearing the signature of the debtor for this account they should refrain from: a)seeking repayment and b) seeking enforcement in court and c)passing the account to third parties and d)maintaining and updating account information with all CRA's. This should stop them from bothering you for payment/threatening with CCJ, passing on to DCA and will effectively force them to remove data from CRA. Best of luck

This is the OFT document (OFT1002) that you could not find Conumer Credit Act 1974: Post contract information requirements Subbing with interest. oft1002.pdf

s.127(3) of CCA 1974: without a document containing the prescribed terms and your signature, the court cannot order enforcement. How will they enforce without such an agreement/document? Eventually ,after threatening and passing to DCA's etc (and perhaps taking it to court, which you can defend) they would have to write it off for tax relief. If you have financial problems you will most probably get defaulted if you go on a reduced payment plan. Since they will default you anyway, why would you pay them the little money that you have for a non existent credit agreement? I would not.

I have had a bad experience with a big CMC. When I was looking to do this, all CMC's promised a lot. Some were asking for a lot of money upfront and after. I also found 3 legal firms that promised to do it. I heard that two of them were not proceeding with their cases after the case management conference in Chester County Court. This is a tricky one. I suggest you do a lot of research on the internet. Ask them about success court cases they had and ask for their contracts to read. Apparently there are some decent places, but in my own personal experience I would avoid too large companies that cannot deal with the volumes of cases they have and too small legal firms (e.g. one solicitor only), they will be unable to find a barrister to help them with the court case. I would also look for someone that specialises in consumer credit and not just any legal firm who is trying to stick their nose in one of the few legal things that go these days just because conveyancing work has dried up because of the credit crunch. Look and read carefully and do not make quick decisions.

I have had a credit card for years. The bank never provided info about the account to any CRA. This is what got me suspicious ang got digging for the CCA. The bank admitted not having one. I remember applying for a current account in the branch. Towards the end of the form there was a tick box of whether I wanted the full package which included a credit card. I did not tick it, but when I got home I got a phonecall from the branch staff who offered to tick it for me so I could get the full package. I suppose they have targets to sell so much every month. I said yes. I am pretty sure there were no terms in the application form. I am pretty sure this is why the agrrement/appilication form has now disappeared and the account activity never reported to CRA. The account is not defaulted but I am sure it will be when I place the account in dispute and stop making payments. From my experience: lack of an account marker means => CCA problem

Maatja 32 you have sent me a rude private message out of the clear blue sky. You are cyber-bullying me just because you do not like what I say. Keep your personal opinions about individuals to yourself!

Don't be rude and offensive to me. Also stop sending me rude private messages just because you do not like what I say. Ratio money did nothing for me. They merely collected the upfront fee and messed me about for months on end. I do not care how long they stay around. It simply does not do as it says on the tin! Just as long they stay away from me and return my fee back. If you say you are that good, prove it with your work and leave consumer forums where everyday people get honest advice when messed about by banks, CMC's, solicitors, utility companies, government etc etc etc. alone. What I said is my own and my friends' personal experiences. Just because we are not legally trained it does not mean we are also stupid and you can mess us about!

Thanks for sharing this unacceptable behaviour with HSBC. I am in a similar situation with them, they admitted they do not hold the original credit agreement. This seems to be happening a lot with HSBC (and most probably for a reason, I seem to remember the application form had no terms). So they are making the agreements disappear it would seem. I also had a current account too with zero balance and no overdraft. Having read your post, I popped in the local brach first thing in the morning and closed the current account so they do not do the same to me. I am banking with another "thief" at the moment. Let's see what other tricks they will come up with.

The bank has the write to off set with cleared funds. They forced you to get an unauthorised overdraft. When we claim back charges for bounced cheques, the banks claim that we issued the cheques ourselves and made informal requests for an overdraft. Sometimes they authorise the payments and sometimes they reject them even if the amounts are very small. In all cases though they charge a fee of £20-38 for the service of considering the informal overdraft request. In your case you did not give instruction or made an indirect request for payment from your current account by cheque, direct debit or in any other forms. Someone from the bank decided to make a request for an informal overdraft request on your behalf without your authorisation, knowledge and permission. How did they authorise an informal overdraft (lending) request when: 1) you made no direct or indirect request for it? 2) the amount is so high? on what lending criteria? did they credit score you? In my opinion this is a clear case of financial fraud by abuse of position. See the Fraud Act 2006.

Did the account have an overdraft facility in place or did they force the account to become overdrawn without authorisation?

I have been a customer of Ratio Money for a long time. This is how they treated me: -Copies of CCA Agreements: They serve banks with s77/78 requests and as a result, in most cases, they get back copies of leaflets. -Original CCA Agreements: they never pursue to obtain original signed credit agreements. Without them you cannot be sure whether you have a case or not! -Auditing of CCA Agreements: they sent the agreements (even copies of leaflets) to a legal firm in the north (I cannot discose their name) who complile a report. They say the audit is done manually. When auditing the leaflets, the legal firm often audits the wrong interest rates. They make a lot of mistakes that even I could spot with my limited legal knowledge. They also take months to compile the reports. -Allocation of case to legal firms: Then Ratio Money allocates your case to a legal firm for a commission in order to challenge it. This takes months on end because Ratio Money struggles to find good legal firms who will take the case on a no win no fee basis and pay ratio the commission they ask for. Some of the legal firms are very questionable for their competence and tend to specialise in injury claims and not consumer credit. They do not all have the retained services of a barrister and do not pursue with court claims. So the comments that Ratio has the retained services of a QC barrister are misleading. The legal firms they allocate the cases to actually do not necessarily have access even to a barrister. They keep writing around to barristers and take months on end to find one to work on a no win no fee basis (if they ever do). -Customer Services: Atrocious! They never respond in writing. The principle when you speak to them on the phone is to try to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. They always make up excuses and always ask to call you back. They never do. you weill never get an straight answres or resolutions to complaints. They simply ignore you and hope you will give up complaining. Most settlement ratio money claims to have are actually done outside court but there is no proof of whatever they claim. The only case that hit the press was the one in Leeds, wher the bank actually sued and they had to defend the client. By then of course it was too late. The client was already defaulted and dragged to court. If you also read the case Ratio Money did not remove the default from the client's credit file. I have had no joy with they services and the services of their allocated solicitor. They have done nothing. No debt was ever written off for me. On the contrary, my banks put all my interest rates up since ratio took the cases. I recommended two friend to Ratio at the beginning when it all sounded too good. The report no progress in their claims and express similar opinions and experiences. They now blame me for recommending this company. In my opinion, if you want to pay £295 for nothing, this is who to pay it to.