It's likely to be nonsense, kett-mark. There's a big difference between £27.50 and over £1000 - I suspect they are fishing. Check out endless posts on here about the age of alleged debts, and whether or not they are statute-barred. On no account telephone them!

Hear, hear, Bazooka! I've filled out the online form with ICO, ready to send off. I noted that on the Experian report it says that these numerous searches are not released to potential lenders, but I'm not convinced, I'm afraid. It doesn't excuse Lowell's behaviour, either. Clearly, the staff at Lowell have nothing better to do with their time! I wonder, too, if they do it just to be downright nosy - a former colleague used to go into the allegedly confidential personnel records and look up things about people when she was bored!! No one liked her, funnily enough......

Since my last note, I've re-read my report, and it's actually FOURTEEN searches they've made since February!! They're going to have to really impress me with a reason for that little lot! Thanks for the link, Bazooka, I'll have a good look.

Just to continue with my outrage at Lowell - I just printed out my credit report again, and it is in fact 14 times that Lowell have searched my record!!!!! Twice a month for the last seven months. ICO advise writing to these scumbags to ask for an explanation, but I'm a bit hesitant because of their penchant for making people's lives a misery, for no particular reason. Does anyone have an alternative suggestion, or should I bite the bullet and write a doozey of a letter of complaint?

Thanks for that, Bazooka Boo - this has really made me angry, and I wonder how many other people they do this to? I'm going to go on the ICO website right away.

Outrageous!! I will report them - my credit report should have been clear of problems, but it wasn't, and I wonder if this is why? Ten searches does seem just a tad over the top!!

Hello! To continue the Lowells theme - can anyone explain to me why they would have searched my credit history at least TEN times in the past five months? The latest was 23 July (I had need to look at my credit report with Experian). Lowells have never sent me anything in writing, so clearly they haven't found what they think they're looking for. It's like they are lying in wait, ready to pounce! Is this quite a normal practice for this bunch of sleazeballs?

Hello! I am having real hassle at the moment with an application for a bank loan. I've never, ever had any problems before with getting one of these, or credit of any kind, and the response from my bank suggests that something has happened since December 09, when I easily obtained credit to buy some furniture. All the adviser at my bank can tell me is that a "default" is showing up. Now, I know that these checks are carried out on an address, and my sister has suggested to me that what is showing up is my partner's recent arrangement with his car finance company to reduce his payments for a short period of time. This arrangement was made quite properly, it is clearly on his record with the company, yet it is the only thing I can think of that might be popping up. I have certainly not defaulted on anything, and technically, neither has he, as it was agreed with the finance company. He did this because his work can fluctuate, and he'd had a rather lean month in March this year. Rather than completely miss payments, he quite rightly contacted the company to make this arrangement, and they were very helpful. This is the first time in nearly four years that he has had to do anything like this - he's never, ever missed a payment. We have received a stack of "stock" letters from the finance company, endlessly telling him that his account is in arrears by however much, blah blah, but then we get another letter confirming his arrangement to pay half for however many months! Getting this bank loan would seriously help us out in more ways than one, and I want to get this sorted. I'm waiting on two further credit checks, having done one with Equifax (used by my bank), on which zilch showed up. I am also incensed that no one has the decency to tell me exactly what is causing this problem (the car finance is only a guess), when they know what it is, and I have to waste time and effort finding out for myself. Would my partner's reduced payment arrangement be a likely cause of this sudden crash in my previously-good credit rating? If so, how can I tackle this , and reinstate my rating? Why would a properly-arranged agreement to pay less for a specified period of time cause such a huge problem? Sorry to ramble on, but it's seriously worrying me.

Hello, Silverbreak, thank you for your reply. I appreciate they don't have to lend anything to me if they ultimately don't want to, but really, when they come back to you, having declined your application for "certain things" and don't tell you what those are, it is really worrying. I was imagining all sorts of terrible things that even I didn't know about cropping up on the credit report. Yes, I have an overdraft, but I've had one for years, and it's not even a very large one. I have my mortgage with them, again, not a very large one (which is quite nice, these days!), and my furniture was not purchased using a loan from the bank, and I paid a large deposit for it, leaving, yet again, a relatively small amount outstanding. I want to update my kitchen and bathroom, as well as pay off these minor debts, so I would see this loan as being an investment, as it would enhance the value of my property, and therefore their interest in it (my mortgage). I applied for a Home Improvement loan from my local council to try and get these works done, but was told I earn £400 a year too much!!! The council actually condemned my bathroom (eek!), so you'll see that I'm becoming just a little bit desperate now! My house is up for sale, in any case, but people take one look at my poor bath, swiftly followed by my not-so-fitted kitchen, and run a mile. I have no savings to fund the necessary work, since I divorced, all I am asking for is a little monetary assistance, and really, the bank can't lose in this case.

Bizarre, isn't it, Cirian75, when they're all making immense profits yet again. No doubt on the back of my overdraft!! I'm still waiting to hear what has come of Customer Adviser Man having a look at my credit report.....

Hello! This week, I applied for a personal loan from Natwest to consolidate a few debts, and make my monthly outgoings a bit less, and therefore a bit more manageable. Yesterday, my application was declined, and I was told it was because "certain things" had cropped up on my credit search, and that there had been a represented direct debit. This last matter occurred three weeks ago, and was found to be the bank's fault, and they acknowledged this and refunded me the admin charge that the recipient of the DD had levied on me. I was then very worried about what my credit check might be showing, as I could think of absolutely nothing. I was advised to run my own check on Equifax, which is who Natwest use to do credit checks. I did so, and I was right - there is absolutely nothing on there, and certainly nothing which should mean my loan application was declined. I have read that sometimes, if the bank doesn't think you'll make it any money, it will reject you for that reason alone. I have my mortgage with Natwest, I've taken out loans in the past with no problem, and recently bought some furniture on finance, which clearly wasn't rejected, so I am mystified. The report had not been seen by the adviser at my branch, and my partner has delivered it to him this morning so he can inspect it. He said that if all was well (and I can't for the life of me see why it shouldn't be, in light of my investigations), then he'd submit the application again. I made this application after a great deal of thought, not just on a whim, and I'm now bothered that it would be declined again, there having been a couple of recent searches on my credit record (apparently that can cause your application to be declined, too!!). Can anyone reassure/advise me, in case I go into a permanent decline??!!

Dear MTW - makes sense - it was one of those magazine type offers, and they're normally done by the big mail order boys. Funnily enough, we've heard no more from the obnoxious Joe! I think my man has only got a couple more payments anyway, so we'll soon be totally shot of it all. It still gets me how quick they are to hand these things over to a DCA before you've even had a reasonable chance to resolve it, especially when it was through no fault of your own, like in our case. The payment wasn't even a week overdue!

I don't think there are any penalty charges,but I'll mention it to him this evening. Thank you all for your advice - I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for that, Elsa - we're happy that we know that there is nothing owing, so just find Joe an annoyance, but undoubtedly he will persist, so I shall be drafting a letter this afternoon. I just find it infuriating that no one seems willing to give you a few days' grace to sort out something like this - it's not like he'd ever missed a payment before, and it wasn't even his fault that this one was missed. We had no letter or phone call from the mail order people, either - that strikes me as a bit off. And all for just £30.....

Hello, Elsa - it's up to date - my partner realised very quickly why the payment had been missed (his wages were paid in two days later than usual, which caused the upset), and phoned the mail order company right away, so his account is now as it should be.

Hello! My partner inadvertently missed a payment (of only £30) for a watch he bought via mail order last year. He realised right away, and phoned the mail order company right away to make the payment, and did so. However, they'd been frighteningly quick to pass it on to EOS. Since then, we've been telephoned regularly by some jumped up little twit (he doesn't appear to have a surname). And has been told that the matter has been dealt with, and to speak to the mail order company, but he obviously doesn't understand plain English. How long does a debt have to be outstanding before these companies hand them over to DCAs? It seems like one or two days, which is the maximum that my partner's payment was late! I had the misfortune to get Joe on the phone last night, and he told me how important it was that my partner called them, and read out the phone number, which I had no intention of writing down. Then he said I had to repeat it to him!!!! Even though I knew why he was calling, I asked him several times to tell me why he wanted to speak to my partner, and was told it was "a personal matter", and that for reasons of data protection (!!) he couldn't tell me. I suspect he is about 16! I don't even know how they got my telephone number.

Excellent, 180!

Patrickq1 - I agree totally, and I have done precisely this on at least three occasions now. Once was because of Ruthbridge sending a letter addressed to "The Occupier" at my address, another because they then tried it on with my partner, and a third time with LCS, who have tried to get money out of the wife of a former colleague in respect of a house owned by my employers. In neither case did any of us owe anything to anyone, and we all knew it. So, except in the LCS case, where I handed it over to my employers' legal section, I ignored the letters, and reported it all to Trading Standards, who advised me further, and maintained I was quite right to ignore the letters. I'm not saying "do nothing", just don't do anything to contact the DCA involved. Take advice first. My experience with 3, and DCA they set on me, made me resolve never to react by panicking again, and paying up because I didn't want someone banging on my door (which is what they threatened). I KNEW I owed nothing, and was also pretty certain that 3 owed me (they did), but the DCAs horrible letter just freaked me. So I do understand why people are so desperate to tell the DCAs that it's all a big mistake. This seems to be the start of all their problems, though, doesn't it? Life becomes a misery as you face this brick wall that is the DCA, whose employees clearly don't give a s**t about anything other than their own bonuses, and just heap on more and more pressure that makes it look, eventually, as though life will only go back to what it was if you pay up and get them off your back. My employer (a local authority) gets endless nonsense from DCAs, letters saying that someone will call on Saturday to collect the alleged debt, or they're going to make us bankrupt in seven days. Yeah, right! I think this proves that the DCA just churns out "stock" letters, having done no research whatsoever into whom the letters are going to. That's it, rant over!

It seems to me that the best policy in an awful lot of these cases, where you know you owe whoever it is absolutely zero, is to either ignore the stupid letters from Roxburghe, HFO or any other DCA, or send them back marked "Return to Sender" and then get on with life - a few of you seem to be getting very worked up about what's right and what's wrong in the way of the law and other procedures, and I've seen that some rather abusive "correspondence" has materialised.....you're all so helpful and knowledgeable that to me, this is rather a shame. I think we're all of the same mindset, i.e. that these DCAs are outrageous in more ways than one, and need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. Unity!

He didn't, which was the plan! We got about three days' respite, but then something else set him off - the cat probably meowed too loudly or something, I can't remember. I recall hating the fact that he made ME feel like doing childish things, and that he was totally ruining our enjoyment of our own home (we'd lived there nine years when he turned up). What made it worse was that his landlady believed all the rubbish he kept telling her about us - he said we had parties every Saturday night, we deliberately woke him up by playing loud music at any time of the day or night, we deliberately slammed doors, and walked heavily just to upset him, we deliberately crunched on the gravel to annoy him (!!!). Not that she could do anything, anyway, which unfortunately enraged him even more. Bearing in mind that this was a one-bed flat with four rooms, and we both worked full-time, I'm not sure when we had time or space to do all this!!

Sorry, me again! I just had to add this - one Friday evening, my hubby and I had had just about enough of Mr Angry, as he'd been banging his ceiling since we got home from work. We'd planned on going shopping anyway, but before we left, we positioned a large ghetto-blaster on the stairs (it was a converted house), put on my husband's favourite Sex Pistols Greatest Hits CD, set it to Repeat, and put the volume up to Full, and then went to Tesco's. And we made sure he saw us go out!!

Yes, I think my experience was somewhat extreme, but I fully understand the misery and frustration you're experiencing at the moment, Sickofparkingtickets. He has no more right to the on-street parking than anyone else, and I share your annoyance of people not using their driveways when they've got them. I would be tempted to block his drive a couple of times, so he's forced to come and ask for your car to be moved - I know this might seem petty to some people, but frankly, what else are you supposed to do when none of the so-called authorities are prepared to back you up? Isn't it worrying that someone who's had such a brilliant job as a fireman can get so much pleasure out of annoying his neighbours totally unnecessarily? I would so much want to ask him if he couldn't find something more constructive to do with his enforced spare time, rather than making other people's lives a misery. From what you've said, you've done nothing at all to ruin his enjoyment of his own property, you parking your car on the road prior to his wife getting a car obviously didn't affect him until that point, so why does it bother him so much now? My erstwhile downstairs neighbour used to get cross about the time my husband and I went to bed (about 10.30), about the time we got up again (about 6.15), and about us "crunching" across the gravel drive (a shared one, with him) to get to our door. He once even moaned because he said I chopped vegetables too loudly, and he could hear my hairdrier going!! When I eventually dobbed him in to the rozzers, they couldn't believe he was only in his twenties, they'd thought I was talking about some old age pensioner!

He's clearly got too much time on his hands! You often find this with people who endlessly moan about anything and everything. I suffered for over a year with a downstairs neighbour, who was only in his 20s - after he lost his job, he was even worse, and even tiptoeing along our passageway in our own flat made him hammer on his ceiling. We found ourselves talking in whispers, having the TV turned down to the minimum, we didn't play any music for six months, and hardly dared walk from our car to our front door, as it was a gravel driveway! What really enraged him was that we were owner/occupiers, and he hadn't realised that - he thought that his landlady was also our landlady, and when he found out the truth, he became utterly unbearable. I called the police out eventually, when I couldn't even pee on my own toilet without him hammering on his ceiling - yes, really!!

Minimeg - ignore the swine. Do not acknowledge any debt whatsoever in any case, as chances are you are quite correct, and it is now statute barred. You might have read my own post about 3 - their customer service was appalling, and it took me writing a letter of complaint to their UK director to get my case resolved. Because of 3's useless accounts department and customer services, I ended up paying them nearly £100 more than I had to, simply because none of them would acknowledge the letter I'd received from them (yes, their own letter to me!) confirming that my contract would end on 6th January 2007. After Roxburghe sent me their letter telling me that if I didn't cough up £17.60 instantly, they'd send someone round to collect it, and I did go and pay it, and then had a statement from 3 telling me my account was in credit to the tune of £17.60, I vowed never to be so intimidated again, especially as I knew I was in the right, and didn't owe them anything - I'd queried the bill for £17.60, and been told it was a mistake (funny that!), and that my account was clear. Frankly, Roxburghe will try anything to get anyone to pay up, and should not be humoured in any way. You stick to your guns.

Good for you, Weebles75! Don't give them anything at all, ever! Makes you wonder who gave them your private number though, doesn't it?