Hi, In June this year my wife and I visited a relative and parked between two vehicles outside her house. There was ample space and I reversed into the gap in a single move. I moved up a foot towards the car in front to let my dog out of the boot of our car and went inside the house. We left 2 hours later, moving back a foot or so and departed going forward in one movement. Later that evening we had a phonecall from the owner of the car parked behind us saying we had hit his car as we departed. Neither my wife or I was aware of any impact and said as much. We drove over to see the other persons damage for ourselves and were told that it was the very evident scratches to the front nearside of their vehicle on the bumper going down to the bottom of the bodywork. The ''incident'' was apparently witnessed by the owners mother and a neighbour both of whom were standing at their respective bedroom windows as we departed. I should explain that the vehicles cannot be seen from the downstairs windows because of a wall which runs along the pavement at that point. I was informed later that a third neighbour had also witnessed it from her window across the street. How convenient that they were all at their respective windows at 3 minutes past 2 on a Wednesday afternoon to witness this. The scratches were a variety of about 15 ''glancing'' marks which started under the headlight and around the side of the vehicle to the wheelarch ie on the corner of the car. There are also similar scratches in the same area on the offside of their vehicle but they are not blaming me for those ........ yet. The first thing that struck me was that as my vehicle is a large 4x4 and the other vehicle is a small hatchback. The bumper on my car starts vertically where the other vehicles damage ends. I measured the damaged area on the other vehicle and there is only a 2cm overlap where contact could have been made with my car in relation to the damage which was 14cms deep overall. Also because of the curved profile of both car's bumpers it would be very difficult to damage only the left corner from a position where I was parked directly in front of their car. I denied any knowledge of this incident but I then got a letter from their insurance saying I had caused a collision whilst parking. I rang my insurance and they sent an engineer to examine my car. The only marks on my bumper were 4 spots where I had touched a stone wall 2 years ago. The engineer agreed these were consistent with my explanation and that these were static as opposed to glancing scratches on the other vehicle. The engineers report has just arrived along with a letter from my insurance stating that the only area where I could be responsible is a small section at the top of the damage area. They go on to say that I would have had to angle my car in relation to the road when exiting the parking space in order to cause the damage on the corner of the other vehicle. My insurance have stated that if the other party wishes to continue to press for the claim they will pay them in full for all the damage as it would be too expensive to fight the case. Even though the engineers report shows I couldn't have caused 90% of the damage being claimed, and the other 10% is very dubious. Meanwhile they have more than doubled my premium from £500 to £1100 pa. They have admitted that the cost of repairs will be £300 to the other party's car. Yet I will have to pay an extra premium for years to come for something I didn't do and which I could not physically have done. I have written to my insurers saying I do not accept their decision and that there seems to be a financial incentive for them to pay the claim even though I am innocent. Many years of increased premiums for an outlay of £300 = additional profit. I don't know what to do next if they insist on paying the claim. Any advice would be most welcome, failing that lots of sympathy would help.

Hello, A number of years ago we had a business. In 2004 we found a buyer for the business and informed our bank (Barclays) to this effect. We were then informed that our overdraft facility of £10000 was to be removed. Our business manager said we would have to take out a loan to cover the outstanding o/d. We did this but then when the business was sold 3 months later we found we were liable for additional charges for paying off the loan early. This would not have applied had we been able to continue our o/d to the sale of the business. After selling the business we started to examine the charges we had been paying over the previous 7 years. We asked for copies of all bank charges for the period but were stalled at each attempt. We issued a letter of intent that we would be challenging the account charges, the over-priced critical illness cover we had been forced into taking out, and we stated that the loan to cover the overdraft was now in dispute and that repayments would be suspended. There followed a period of letters and phonecalls from ourselves and denials by Barclays that any of this had ever been received. In the meantime we were harrassed from other departments for repayment of the (o/d) loan. Eventually Barclays sent a letter saying that they now considered the loan in default and that unless we repaid the full amount immediately it would be put into the hands of a debt collection agency. We were so fed-up with the whole thing we sent a cheque for the full amount and just wanted nothing to do with Barclays ever again. Now we find there is a default notice on our credit record in relation to the loan. It states that the loan is ''satisfied'' but it blights our chances of ever obtaining credit. I intend writing to Barclays as I feel this is beyond unfair. Any comments or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the reply, Track record: There are a couple of points I probably didn't explain clearly. I am now employed, in fact my position regarding potential earnings has improved. As far as ''the court case'' is concerned there wasn't one. The investigation in these circumstances is carried out by the local authority and the child protection service. Only if there is a case to answer would it go to court. Unlike the legal system, in cases like this you are presumed guilty from the onset and third parties undertake the investigation to determine whether there is a case to answer. This is a very protracted process which takes, on average, 12 months. During which time you have zero earnings. You have no right of reply and cannot claim for any loss of earnings. This has caused hardship and even though I have been working for the last 9 months, catching up with the huge loss of income takes time. The bank don't see it that way unfortunately. It may sound strange but we accept the circumstances surrounding the allegation (it's the nature of the beast. What we find hard to accept is our banks attitude. Customer loyalty of 20 years stands for nothing at all.

I am currently having some serious financial problems. I work as a fee paid professional in the very precarious field of childcare. I work with some of the most damaged children in society and the risk of an allegation is very high. I was the subject of an allegation in 2007 and although the subsequent enquiry found there was no case to answer my family suffered emotionally and also financially. During the legislative proceedure that followed I was prevented from working for a period of 15 months. This meant we used up all of our savings and when they were gone we used our overdrafts on 2 accounts and maxed our 2 credit cards. We have for the past 12 months been repaying missed payments on our mortgage and a loan, plus paying as much as possible off out credit cards. Our credit rating has crashed, we have paid over £200 a month in charges on our overdraft. When this first occured I went to my local HSBC branch and explained the situation within a week of the allegation. I explained to the bank (we have banked wth them for 20 years) what was likely to transpire and the expected timescale. I asked what help, if any they could offer. The bank representative then spent 40 minutes trying to get me to change my household insurance to them in order to save £42 a year. We faced a loss of income of £45,000 pa and that was the best they could offer. I have now received a letter saying that our overdraft facility is to be removed, yesterday. The date given for the o/d to expire was the day before the date of the letter. Following the investigation I was offered a new contract which has resulted in a 20% increase in salary and so we had made some progress financially but now we have to find £7000 from somewhere in the next week.