I was told by a Director DCA 'friend' - ( I have some strange friends!) that Cabot never sue! Now, never say never but telling them to sod off might be the right thing to do! I just got a letter from them telling me they MAY sue for an old Citi Finance credit card most of which has been made up of late payment charges etc. I might tell them to sod off too.... I was also told they rarely get the information regarding any defaults which have been registered on the debt therefore giving them no hope of suing you anyway. What fun!

If a company is wound up it is either by creditors or the DTI - Department of Trade & Industry regarding insolvant companies. Invariably the company has no money, but in liquidation the liquidator / administrator will have a duty to pay the employees out of anything they recover or make them redundant. Phone the DTI and ask them the procedures for claiming your money as there is a scheme which will reimburse you.

I'd read the Sale of Goods Act in the Library. Your product has a manufacturers guarantee and after you bought it they have a responsibility to fix it or replace it under that warranty. However, under the sale of goods Act you have cover for faulty goods which are not fit for a ' reasonable period of time' for the purpose they were sold for up to six years. That's why these extended warranty insurance covers are often described as rip off's because you are covered by law anyway. There's a thread on them on this site.

Reasonable period of time means that for example if you used your washing machine in a luanderette it's life span would only be reasonable for a year or so if you're lucky, but for normal domestic use one would not expect it to go wrong for four or five years. So whilst manufacturers warranties for 1 or 2 years are provided you can claim against the supplier for much longer if the goods were unfit for the purpose. The warranty, I believe is not renewed after each fault is repaired for a further one year as it covers all parts. I may stand corrected on that. Hope that helps.

A usueful exercise is to get your credit reference file from the Credit reference agency Equifax or Experian and have a look at what is actually registered against you. It only costs £2 and at least you'll know what been said about you to other lenders like the mortgage etc which have casued you to pay higher rates of interest. Bad credit ratings for whatever reason are a gift to these institutions to charge you higher interest and it may be for something stupid like these charges you refer to. You might have cause to claim this differential from the bank who registered the defaults -but you'll need proper legal advice on that.

In my business -recruitment and employment, when there are changes in law that have consequences on our customers, it is in my interest and my staff to make sure they know exactly how to handle questions relating to it. I cannot believe Banks such as Abbey in our case, have not familiarised their managers at least on how to tackle the question and explain the law that might be confronting them. This action by the banks IS unlawful, and they are aiding and abetting and being deceiptful in not abiding by the law. This is gross misconduct trying to fight everyone off when they know and have known for so many years that this is unlawful. As someone pointed out in another thread, these banks have a possie of lawyers climbing all over their paper work every day. To say they don't know what they are doing is crass to say the least. Imagine in my business as an agency if I told my staff not to employ black people or women - can you imagine how long I'd stay in business? I'd be in court and probably in prison for uttering such instructions ( and rightly so ) in this day and age the laws protect customers and the public from such proposterous outdated and sick attitudes of individuals and institutions with prejudiced thoughts, well the banks are doing the same here and it's about time someone put a stop to it. The people behind this site and all contributing to it are bringing it out into the open, but I know many people who wouldn't do what so many are doing here despite being charged in the past purely because it's not what they are used to and wouldn't be seen doing it, couldn't even consider it they just take it as being ' that's what happens if you go overdrawn' - They are the poor innocents who the banks are relying upon to keep their profits. If the banks were legally MADE to pay everyone back no matter whether they had the guts to take the banks on or not no one would have to be going through all this. If drug dealers have thier assets seized for their crimes why shouldn't the banks - they are no different.

I'd better get off here because I'm in one of those moods this morning - we shouldn't HAVE to fight this the police should be in there. Have a nice day!!!!

I do not find this response from you local branch manager unusual weeman. I was speaking to the manager of our local branch of Abbey yesterday, its a small branch but the manager was taken aback when I asked about unlawful charges. We were talking about something totally unconnected but I asked what he would say to a customer who came into the branch and asked them to refund the charges because they were unlawful. I got the T & C's answer almost like your response from your manager, but I got the impression that the manager had no idea of what I was talking about. So I filled him in with a few realities and I gave the name of this site. I genuinly beleive they're being kept in the dark.

There seems to be inconsistancy at the very least from Abbey. I asked for records under the DPA and recieved them in 3 formats. One was the ordinary statement format, one from a printer which printed sideways and the other looked like a photocopy of microfiche. All 6 yrs all from Sheena Small.

Please remove this thread I messed up on posting. I coloured coded words which when copied from PC didn't come out in colour - sorry.

There are a number of threads about debt collection agencies and those who buy debt. Cabot particularly are a firm a number of people have posted about. I too am awaiting DPA disclosure from Cabot. It ran out today and still I received nothing. Cabot pay between 7 and 10% for the debt from the card or bank. Their charges are no different from a banks, automated and unlawful. Cabot will not sue you - or it's highly unlikely, they rarely have any default information which they must have to sue. If you leave them long enough they'll go away! However, if you want to settle with them, use the % above as a guide, build in a % for their profit ( they are a business and have to make a profit) and you'll invariably get a deal. Don't be intimidated by them. Search the debt collection agency and Cabot threads there's some useful info here.

Cut to the chase - well done!

MrsK, If Nemo advise you when you call that the calls are recorded for training and security, under the Data Protection Act you can ask for copies and trasnscripts of your calls. If they actually told you NO it will be recorded and you can use that as evidence. Worth a try.

Eduin - do you know something I dont about these debt purchases? between 7 and 12% was the figure I was given and that was for the likes of Cabot buying old credit card debt. for the debt to be sold for so little it would have to be pretty old and well passed around the market place surely? I can't imagine MarianG's debt being that old from what she says. She'll get a flat refusal in those kind of figures. Still we learn something everytime someone comes into the forum with experiences and I'm still learning! Thanks.

With all due respect Dowie £1m t/o these days is considered small. However, the FSB go a lot higher than that. Good luck anyway.

Hey Lueeze

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply about FSB, i'll have a look into that but i believe that they are already in discussions with another bank.

 

Thanks

It's still worth mentioning as free banking is free banking and with your charges you could do very much better. If you go over limits as I say you get charged £10 a day which I have challeneged but this FSB deal is a good one.

Checked it out and it looks good, thanks for the info Andrew, are you a member?

 

Lou

Yes Lou I am. It's only for Self employed and businesses I have a Limited Company but it's the person who is the member. It also covers family and employees too so it's the best £70 I've ever spent and you don't have to go through a credit check to become a member either! The legal helpline is brilliant. I've spent hours talking to them on some issues and it costs you zilch! I do all my banking online and they have a reasonably good site.

I have read on a couple of threads that transfer of DD's & St/Orders etc have been a little shakey from one bank to Co-op but i have never had trouble with them. They are a good bank all be it not the most glamorous when it comes to branches but they get things done and seem a cheerful bunch. I've banked in business since 1980 and have tried most of them, Co-op I like.

That information is worth far more than 2p! - thanks.

I noticed that new t & c's too but haven't seen what it is yet perhaps we can get that through the Abbey thread once they put it into our new statements. As for Business Accounts, I have written to my bank ( Ltd Co a\c) and used the basics of the letter on the library but I don't want to faff up my relationship with them quite yet. It's easy enough to change banks with personal accounts I think but business is a different thing - people do it all the time but we had an active account with lots of staff ( temp agency) and changing banks is a nightmare. However, back to the point, I wrote telling them what I was doing in claiming my charges back, and asked them, as we have a good working relationship that I don't want that relationship tarnished, but if they had taken charges unlawfully they ought to do the honourable thing and give them back. Mine was just the automatic £10 per day racking up for going over the nil balance overdraft limit. Doesn't sound much but when money doesn't come for two weeks thats £140 quid! First response was from Customer services - naff off! So I have written back again in a little more precise wording telling them that whilst I understand the charges are unlawful if they want to do it the hard way I have the support of 18000 people and some pretty convincing back-up and I'll take them all the way if I have to so please reconsider your position and save us all a lot of time!

I haven't heard yet but I'll come back and let you know.

Having tried the softly softly approach - 'why fight when we can talk' if it doesn't work then I'll take the formal line and start using the letter of the law and the library letters and changes thereto above. I won't give up, this site and the lads behind it have fired me and 17999 others up!.

Want FREE BANKING? - This is not an advert just a recommendation. Why not join the FSB Federation of Small Business? It costs about £70 a year. You get free 24 hour legal help line on any matter at all. Cover against tax and vat investigations AND as a member of the FSB you get FREE BANKING from the Co-operative bank. No cheque charges, no DD charges nothing. All you pay are £10 per day over the limint charges ( which I am claiming back! ) and any lending you have. But the FSB deal is a damn good deal. http://www.fsb.co.uk you'll never look back!

They may have sold the debt as Alan implies but they ( the collection agency) should write to tell you this. Make sure you read all their paperwork thoroughly before taking them on - you may as well get it right from the start. Ask the agency if they now own the debt they will have to tell you and as Alan says the price they pay for it is about 10- 15% which gives you a much stronger negotiating position. They won't settle for 10 or 15% but anything over that is a bonus so take stock if that's the case and come back here for advice. However, if this has recently been with solicitors I would have thought it unlikely they have sold it quite yet. Anyway the advice above is good -don't worry - there's plent of support here.

Unlawful I think - not illegal? The difference being it is not a criminal offence but an offence at common law.

Good luck Whizkid!

We had an issue with a Tefal Iron - it overheated. I refused to have a repair at the 'out of warranty' repair service as it would cost £80+ to have done. The iron cost £169.00. it was 2 years old and we had it replaced using the Sales of Goods Act and got £50 to boot! The issue I had was basically a design fault, after being recompensed I stripped the old iron down to see what had happened and the fluff from the fabrics being ironed had accumilated on the heat control switch inside the iron. I raised this as a technical issue with Tefal and they say.... the design team have been advised. However, if you have an iron ( who hasn't?!!) in veiw of what I found try using the hose from your vacuum cleaner and run it around the edge of the hotplate of the iron periodically (when it's cold of course) and also on the heat control slide which on Tefal at least runs under the handle and you can see where the fluff gets in. This will draw the fluff out and the contact breakers inside wont get clogged up. My wife burnt her fingers on the old one and it melted all the plastic - a real health hazzard if the iron had been left unattended and on.

Sheena Small - 01908 344061 direct - be gentle on her she's actually quite nice!

My apologies to all - no telling off intended and I was beginning to realise the thread was wondering.

It's a bit late now but £200 for an extended warranty on a sofa? I'd have a serious word with your good lady wife on what these warranties actually offer against the Sales of goods act protection and take her out for a few meals of the savings!

Seriously though you should be protected from faulty workmanship. Good luck

It's astonishing what this forum - the whole forum does for ones confidence. I'd never have thought of something like this interest going over to the end of the month [problem] - but it stimulates you into looking at what has gone before and checking it hasn't happened to you. I think this whole bl...dy website is a wonder and a goldmine of tactics to fight those con artists who put theselves forward as respectable intstitutions and citizens. It's like people who call themselves friends until you find them talking behind your back. Dave, BF, Seminole Al from Derby all of you .. you are (edited) amazing! Thank you you should be called motivators not moderators!!!