I'm in a very similar situation to Skyrocket1 but I haven't yet initiated a claim. Rather than starting a new thread, I thought I'd tag a question onto this one To give a bit of background, in Sept 2003 I purchased around £1000's worth of musical instruments from Sound Control on interest free credit which later became a Clydesdale Financial Services store card. From there, my situation gets complicated. in around 2007 I fell ill, meaning I got into financial difficulty and fell behind with repayments. The balance was around £400 at the time. CFS started whacking me with late payment fees of £22.50 (sometimes as many as three within a single month). I'm ashamed to say that I started ignoring the phonecalls and letters. Eventually they stopped, and this debt disappeared completely from my credit rating. In January of this year I received a letter from Capquest, stating that they owned this debt (I've never received a letter of assignation). The balance is now in excess of £1100. Capquest played their usual dirty tricks which have been well discussed on this forum, including sending out a Statutory Demand via second class post. I ignored them but kept a close eye on things as I was pretty sure that this debt was close to being statute barred - I was happy to just sit it out. (Don't get me wrong, I usually always settle all of my debts but after the disgusting way in which CFS treated me I'd sooner be bankrupted then pay them a penny on principle). Anyway, Capquest have now gone quiet. After doing some research it now appears that I made my last payment to FCS at least as recently as December 2008 - it has much longer to go before it's statute barred than I originally thought. Therefore I've decided that my only option is to fight. On the face of it, it seems that I potentially have the option of claiming around £600 worth of charges back from CFS, plus anything I may be able to get from being mis-sold PPI (I'm almost certain that I had it, despite being a casual worker). If I do this, will I be acknowledging the debt? How would a successful claim affect my situation with Capquest? Would the debt they're claiming be unenforceable? I'd be grateful for any advice as there are quite a few complicated issues to consider. How are you getting on Skyrocket1? P.s. Mods: please let me know if it would be better to start a new thread

Hello all. I have been reading this forum for a while with great interest and gleaned some extremely useful information. I currently have a problem and I would be grateful for some advice. During 2002 bought £950 worth of items from a store on 1 years interest free credit. I didn't pay the balance within a year so it became a storecard with Clydesdale Financial Services (CFS). I kept the account in good order for a while but got into financial difficulty. CFS responded by placing charges on the account of between £20-£35 a time for sending out late payment letters (sometimes three times within the space of a month. Once twice within a week). At one point the balance of the account was down to around £450 but these charges crippled me and the balance skyrocketed. I'm pretty sure this card also came with mis-sold PPI. To cut a long story short I ignored the debt (wrong I know- I was young). By the time unfair bank charges became a topic of conversation this debt had disappeared from my credit report and the calls and letters had stopped. I adopted an attitude of 'quid pro quo'- the balance of the card was entirely made up of charges and I assumed (rightly or wrongly) that the company knew this and were no longer pursuing me for the balance. This assumption was strengthened by the fact that CFS seemed to disappear (I later learned that they were taken over by Barclays Capital Finance. I decided to let it lie and not rock the boat (especially because to do so could risk resetting the 6 year Statute of Limitations clock). In January this year (2012) I got a letter from Capquest stating that they owned this debt and that the balance was £1085. I have never received a notice of assignment. I've read extensively about this company since and decided to ignore them. The last payment was made around May 2007 so it has about a year to go before it becomes statute barred. They sent a number of misleading and threatening letters which I continued to ignore. A few days ago I received a Statutory Demand via first class post (dated May 2nd 2012 but not arriving until May 15th). I'm unsure what course of action to take next. I'm happy to pay my debts but given the history of this account I have no intention of paying Capquest a penny on principle. I am a recent graduate and unemployed with no assets or savings. If Capquest have indeed done their research on me as they claim to have then they will know this. As a result I am almost certain that this is a bluff. However, I'm also an aspiring lawyer so I need to be very careful with my next steps as if I am bankrupted I will not be able to practice. If I were to ignore the statutory demand would I get notification if bankruptcy proceedings were brought against me? Would I have an opportunity to pay the balance before any hearing? If I apply to have the statutory demand set aside is there any potential that this could be seen as an acknowledgment of the debt? If I apply to have the statutory demand set aside, am I right in assuming that my strongest grounds are that: (a) it has been improperly served (i.e. by post, not in person- I live above a shop and the general public have access to my letterbox so I don't have any post sent to my place of residence); (b) Capquest have not demonstrated that they own the alleged debt; © I contest the validity and size of the alleged debt; (d) That the balance of the account is made up of unenforcable penalty charges and PPI charges. I appreciate that point (d) might be difficult as most of the charges were added to the account over 6 years ago. However, as they make up the bulk of the balance, could I argue that they should be used to offset the balance as they are the source of the debt? Furthermore, this debt disappeared from my credit report for years and CFS disappeared. Could I rely on s.32 of the Limitation Act 1980 to argue that six year statutory time frame for challenging some of the later penalty charges should only begin in January this year as this is the earliest that I could have reasonably been expected to have discovered them? What is my position with regards to PPI? The account is over six years old but interest and payments towards PPI will have been made much more recently. Any advice anyone can give me will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hi. I have just been charged £25 as an unarranged overdraft fee plus £25 for returning the item which pushed me over my overdraft limit! Net result- I never breached my overdraft limit once the item was returned. How do they justify this? Surely they cant charge for a service they aren't providing?