aaaah, THAT 'search'! cheers

Hi Diddydicky 1.) , but in my browser this appears to be a general web search engine (powered by Yahoo) rather than a site specific one? Is it necessary to look from the 'outside' before you can look back in? My first go produced many results including various other consumer forums, but not the subject lines I was looking for on this site. 2.) I notice above, that "if it is the CCJ they are trying to enforce it does not become statute barred". Does this mean that if a DCA has obtained a CCJ within the last six years, even if it might be unlikely that they would bother, that technically they could go on bothering me forever? 3.) is the advice not to approach the CRAs online to do with the risk of exposing one's ID through that of the computer you are using? 4.) Speaking of discretion, I would like to make a donation. Is it safe to use my own debit or credit card? I have not learned how to use PayPal yet, and do not know if it is any more anon. Thanks again MereCat

I have probably overlooked something, but please could someone advise me how to search these forums by key words, in order to locate particular threads? For example a certain mobile phone network company appears to have been systematically and deliberately overcharging us over a long period of time. I would like to assess how widespread the practice is, and to see if someone has already started a thread on Orange? Cheers.

Thanks alot DiddyDicky. I think I might have got confused between CCJ and bankruptcy. Of course they would have had to have engaged with me in person to have done the latter, but I imagine that CCJs can be obtained 'in absentia'? It is just a suspicion at the moment, but the highly illegitimate and irregular fashion with which I got tossed between Halifax Insurance Ireland and Halifax the 'bank', like sharks playing catch with a half dead seal, might have marked my file as "complicated to pursue" or some such. Anyway thanks as ever. I shall be sitting tight. Oh, and I did find one sole leaflet about the insurance policy, and it seemed only to excluse absence from earning through pregnancy, and I certainly wasn't pregnant at the time!

Diddydicky You offered the heartening advice on 12/2/10 that “given that you are so close to where you want to be I would suggest letting sleeping dogs lie until JUNE”. It is becoming increasingly clear from reading these threads what SB is all about. However I realise I could be anxiously holding my peace till June, only to find that Halifax or one of its agents could have made me bankrupt without my even knowing about it, at some point before the “clock” reached the six year mark. If such an unfortunate thing had happened, then where do I look for advice on un-bankrupting myself? This does not appear to be a problem being dealt with on this particular thread? Whilst I have to accept that this is physically possible, but not having seen anything at all to suggest it could have happened, is it a common practice? Or are the costs time and authentic officialdom involved with CCJ action, a sufficient dis-incentive to your usual bottom feeder DCA to bother? Especially when there easier pickings to be had through harassment and intimidation. As mentioned in my first posting, I have had difficulties accessing any CRA info about myself online, and am aware that disclosing anything current about myself to them would be highly inadvisable. What if I were to do a credit check on myself as if I had never left that last address – would that reveal a picture? Is it possible to get someone else to do one for you? Thanks as ever for all the terrific work you folks are doing.

Thanks very much for the advice Diddydicky and Patrickq1. I will mine down into the dusty old filing box, where I might find further details of HII's claims about the service they were supposed to be delivering back then. MereCat

Not as yet. Meanwhile I have been unable to locate a ‘post new thread button’, and this is closest match I can find so far I'm afraid. Hello Dear Caggers, My reason for being here, and I am new to this most excellent forum, is to try and establish whether it is safe to come out yet. This is a reduced cover of the story, but with plenty of supporting correspondence and contemporaneous accounts should they ever be needed again. Just over eight years ago I incurred a £12k unsecured personal loan with the Halifax. Sixteen months into a five year term, a debilitating illness prevented me from earning a living. I also had a modest overdraft on my Halifax current account, some outstanding with Halifax Visa credit card, and no other creditors. I had loan repayment insurance from Halifax Insurance Ireland, which the salesman in the bank had told me was compulsory – IE that I would not be granted the loan unless I took out their policy. Later on I learned that I was being charged premiums at 3X the current going rate, and that technically loan repayment insurance was optional, but hey. The Visa account was also insured but the overdraft was not. When it became clear that I would not be fit enough to work for the then foreseeable future, I felt hugely relieved that I appeared to have proper insurance cover, even if it was not the best deal. However this insurer tried every conceivable trick and manoeuvre to evade its commitments, leaving me financially exposed for months at a time, my only income at the time being Incapacity Benefit. The Halifax Bank, "a totally different company from Halifax Insurance Ireland" they insisted, proceeded to ignore my attempts at constructive engagement with them, and instead bombarded me with letters before action and bullying phone calls. This was counterproductive, since the overdraft would have been manageable if they had agreed to hold it over with small token reductions till I was back on my feet again, and because I qualified entirely for the repayment insurance claims to be met every month by their partner organisation Halifax Insurance Ireland. The ongoing struggle to prove my eligibility against the insurers’ catalogue of excuses, and the sporadic settlements that trickled through as a result, took their toll and ended up putting me into a financial ditch that I couldn't get out of, physically or mentally – a situation that many correspondents here will be familiar with. By January 2004 the loan insurance payments stopped altogether, because by now, part of the symptoms of my illness as expressed on my doctor's notes, included clinical depression, and Halifax Insurance Ireland don't do depression.. I walked away, because I simply could not cope with anything anymore, and for a couple of years had an itinerant life, felt much happier, and gradually healed up. There was enough burning rage and cussedness left in me though, to enable me to monitor the progress of the debt collection process through clenched teeth, because I could still collect my post discretely, and I kept a PAYG phone going. Between June 03 and Nov 05 the three Halifax debts were each pursued by about four different Debt Collection Agencies. Every time an automated sequence of threatening DCA letters turned from 'pretend solicitor' white, to apoplectic bullying red, they just sort of petered out and would be followed by a similar performance by the next DCA to buy the debt and have a go. I also got a large volume of nuisance calls. As you can imagine my attitude has shifted, from a perfectly normal intent to pay Halifax back, to one where I now feel very strongly that any indebtedness to them, is entirely extinguished by a moral counterclaim for the suffering they imposed upon me. IE they can go hang, if indeed ‘they’ are still lurking out there waiting for me after all this time. I have done my best to study the threads, so as to avoid asking questions that have already been dealt with, and my apologies in advance for almost certainly being about to do so! My first big question is, are these debts or any percentage of them still collectable? Needless to say I dare not ask any of them in person. I have attempted to credit check myself against my old addresses via Experian and Equifax etc, but have repeatedly run into the “incomplete information” block. I hesitate to reveal any current coordinates to one of these agencies. Is there any way I can check up on myself whilst protecting my identity? I have also managed to lead a normal life without the need to apply for credit. Noting the whole thing about debts being Statute Barred after six years: My last contact in writing to the Halifax bank was in the summer of 2003, when I certainly acknowledged the debt whilst still mistakenly presuming there was intelligent life in there I could deal with, and I continued to send doctor’s MED4 forms to Halifax Insurance Ireland right up till Feb 2004. My last and final exasperated phone call, again only to Halifax Insurance Ireland, was in May 04. Should I therefore presume that my having maintained contact with the insurer of the outstanding amounts, constitutes an ‘acknowledgement of a debt’, and that I might be able to see myself as a free person again in about three months time, according to the Statute Barred definitions? Quote [/color] This creates an odd situation, because either there was a collectable defaulted debt, or there was an outstanding amount being covered by insurance payments, and I think that these two positions should be mutually exclusive? My second big question, derived from my current inability to view my own credit state – is it possible that Halifax or one of its agents could have made me bankrupt without my even knowing about it? I would have thought that any petitions or CCJs in my name, would have made it impossible to open a new bank account, and there has been no trouble that I know of in that direction? Thank you for reading. Sorry its a long one. Looking forward very much to your feedback. MereCat