Well, it's only taken 15 months but Welcome Finance AKA Progressive Finance (whatever) have finally deleted my account from my Equifax report. I paid off a £2K loan early in November 08, along with a loan from Lloyds TSB and other debts, and instead of just updating my credit report to show 'settled', they marked my account as 1 month in arrears for the last 7 months before I settled it, and wrote a comment to say "account partially setlled, payment received as full & final was not enough to clear the balance". Tossers! I wrote to them with a copy of their settlement figure letter, cc'd Equifax who then wrote to me last April saying that Welcome had agreed to remove the data. When I ended up checking last month it was still there! So I raised another query with Equifax and that seems to have done the job. Thank god for that, there is now no visible trace of that god awful company

I wouldn't worry too much, I moved address last year and Experian seemed to be listing all my accounts twice (even though addresses were the same) This eventuallly sorted itself out. although annoying none the less

This is correct, it's part of the 2006 syllabus for the CIMA Business Law module, which I studied last year.

another update: The Declaration was accepted, the court told me the case would go back to the CPS who would decide what action to take. I immediately telephoned Marstons and spoke to some stroppy operator, she said predictably they would continue with their action until told otherwise, to which I said your bailiffs will be wasting their time as I have just left court with a copy of the Stat. Dec. in my hand. After asking which court I attended she then implied I had gone to the wrong one because the fine was issued elsewhere, I explained it made no difference and that the issuing court told me the declaration can be made at any Magistrates (which, after having just successfully made it, proved to be correct). I also contacted the court who issued the fine, who said they will request a copy of the declaration and send it to Marstons. I expect this to take time, and expect a visit from the bailiff regardless in the next few days, and I will drop him a copy of the declaration from an upstairs window!

just another update, I now have an appointment at 09.20 tomorrow at my local magistrates court to file a stat declaration. will post an update tomorrow

an update: I have today received a letter from Marston Group saying that they will send a bailiff if i don't pay £515 in 7 days. It says "Your residence at the above address has been confirmed by our tracings unit....as you have failed to deal with this fine or respond to letters delivered to this and/or your previous addresses, we must inform you blah blah" i didn't receive any of their letters. i will ring the court tomorrow and advise of their response. They did not pick up the phone when i tried last week but i now have their direct line and not the 0845 one.

thanks for the info! i will ring the court back and see what they say

thanks for the help, i just tried calling them but no one picked up. incidentally, i just this second received a phone call from a woman claiming to be from a "third party mail forwarding company" saying she had mail for me, and asked for confirmation that i lived at this address. I wonder if that is actually the tracing agency that the bailiff mentioned in his last phone call? He said the court would use these and the costs added to the fine.

Hi Will Smith here, new to the site (be gentle) hoping to find some advice on a specific situation, thanks in advance I received a speeding fine last January, and was unable to accept the fixed penalty because i had no driving license to send in (it was lost in the post to DVLA when returned for an address change some time before) I then moved address in March 09 having not dealt with the fine. In November 09 I received a phone call from a bailiff explaining he was at my old address to collect the fine which was now over £300. He wouldn't accept installments and told me to ring Milton Keynes Magistrates and that the warrant he had expired in two days. I am now about to call them but wanted to know as much as possible first, such as do I have a leg to stand on if I did not receive the court notices having moved address? Or the fact i could not send in my license because the DVLA lost it? I know that the fine will be a fair few hundred now and expect to pay a lot but could any of the above help me to have it reduced? many thanks for any help given will smith