I had a phone call on my landline (ex directory, number only in use in last 3 years, use my mobile for 'delicate' calls as I can ignore it if I have company...) MKRR have sent a couple of vague, generic letters stating I owe £95 RE a 'home shopping' debt, and also left texts on my mobile of a 'please contact...' nature. I answered the telephone this morning, and immediately asked who, what, when, and where, BEFORE confirming the 'security details' they requested. Littlewoods/Janet Frazer, £undisclosed, 1997, previous address. I stated I did not aknowledge the debt, but was still asked to confirm the first line of my address, and postcode- which they had anyway because they have sent letters. The girl then stated "But it's in your name" I replied that I did not recollect EVER having bought anything from a catalogue, and asked her to clarify the date...1997. I asked why any legitimate company owed money by an individual would do nothing for 14 years, and then make contact out of the blue, as the debt would surely be statute barred. The girl said that the debt could still be collected, that they could arrange a doorstep collection agent to demand the full balance (demand away, matey) but that they could not take the debt to court. Round and round we went, with me stating that the debt was not mine, and her saying "But it's in your name" I got bored wasting their time/running up their phone bill and said that I would consider paying the debt if they could prove I was legally responsible for it. I further advised them that, until they provided documented proof that I owed the money, any further telephone calls would be treated as harrassment, and that if she threatened me with doorstep collections again, I would take further action. Just a bit perplexed as to how they found my house number...I do have some debts from a very bad patch 7 years ago, but they are not one of them... I really don't want to get back to the leaving the housephone on silent stage again...

Scotcall...doorstep visit last night, left me a mobile number to call. Asked him who the debt belonged to "not at liberty to say" asked him what his vague threat of "they want to move it to the next stage" meant "not at liberty to say" He kept insisting I make a CREDIT CARD payment over the phone to prevent "further actions" he couldn't explain... I let him tie himself in knots for ten minutes, then emailed his head office stating the account was in dispute. They have bounced it back...

D for default every month since June 2010. 6 for six months arrears for preceeding 6 months (although I don't think the payments were made for those months either) It's still registered on credit file as 'residential second mortgage'- bit odd, since there is nothing for it to be secured on (Spml/Acenden sold house under-value...)

They did, October and March or there-abouts- can't find October's and I fear that the previous ones may have become chicken nest box material...

Thanks, chaps, We realised pretty quickly into the contract with SPML that what they wanted was a fast reposession while there was value in the house... My bugbear is the Lloyds/Black Horse fandango- Lloyds wouldn't consider a loan, but continued to increase the overdraft to a point where I owed over £10000 in my own name, Black Horse didn't give a damn what the loan was for- I used to work for RBS, and the rule was "If you can't pay your bills, how are you going to pay the loan?" I'm continuing to read through OFT guidance on lending etc- just strikes me as odd that, apart from a default notice every six months or so, BH haven't attempted to recover the debt- do they know they were in the wrong?

Advice, please? I feel that LloydsTSB and Black Horse Personal Finance have colluded, and exacerbated a situation entered into with SPML This is going to sound like the intro to an x-factor audition, get your violins ready... 2 years of Prozac-fog ended last November, and I am now lucid, and really quite angry. Feel free to slap me down if I’m just whinging. The Prozac episode followed a very messy repossession and subsequent breakdown. To be honest, if I hadn’t been so blinkered about pre-existing medical conditions and PPI, the Prozac would have happened much sooner. In 2002, Abbey National reached the end of their tether with our sporadic mortgage payments (Husband came out of work, I was working part time...) they went for repossession over arrears of £800. Fair play to them. In stepped the saviours that are Capstone/SPML, and confirmed a remortgage to cover the loan, arrears, court costs etc. Seemed a great idea at the time, hindsight’s a wonderful thing. The honeymoon period was great, the monthly payments were only slightly higher than the Abbey ones (the ones we couldn’t maintain). Honeymoon over, and the introductory rate bounced up, the payments rose from something in the region of £200 to over £400 per month (I don’t have the exact figures, this was pre-prozac, there’s a good chance that the paperwork is stuffed down the side of a sofa somewhere.) LloydsTSB were ever so good, there was a little button on the internet banking screen that said ‘increase overdraft’, so a cycle began of us missing a monthly payment or two, getting a nasty letter from SPML, and increasing the overdraft, paying off the arrears, and starting all over again. I got a bit fed up of forever being in overdraft, and asked Lloyds for a loan to straighten everything up. Now, we didn’t fit the lending criteria for Lloyds....but, Black Horse ‘our sister company’ were happy to accept us. I think this is when it really started to go pear shaped. The first loan with Black Horse was ‘only’ about £3000, and things ran smoothly for a while, we were on the edge of our income, so every time we had a vet bill, a domestic appliance die on us, or any other unexpected expense, we were back in the overdraft. We were both working, so Black Horse had no issues with increasing the loan when we got sick of the overdraft fees. We ended up with an overdraft of £7500 before Lloyds asked what was going on. I was very clear with them that we were struggling to keep up with our outgoings, and they converted the overdraft to a special agreement of a separate loan, £75 a month, which we managed to pay every month because the due date was the same day as my wages. Over this period we had also been increasing the Black Horse loan, as SPML really liked sending out court claims for possession. I was also very clear with Black Horse as to the purpose for the extensions on the loan, I recall them actually speaking to SPML and coming to an agreement that SPML would agree to the loan being secured against the property, as long as their arrears were cleared first, before any other debt was repaid. There was another instance where a family member paid off the arrears on the mortgage pending a further advance from Black Horse being transferred, there was full three way discussion between SPML, Black Horse and the family member at this point. The house was repossessed in November 2008. I was ‘out of it’ to such an extent that I had just assumed that I would be able to ‘sort it out’ again, as had happened over the past 5 years or so. Looking back, it might have been less stressful for everyone involved if Lloyds/Black Horse/SPML had not colluded and allowed us to build up the debts to such unmanageable levels. It seems in bad taste to say so, but if the repossession had taken place earlier, rather than Lloyds allowing further increases on the overdraft, Black Horse allowing further advances on the secured loan when the credit files showed that this was an on-going pattern, and SPML accepting several 11th hour payments, many people would be much healthier and happier today. My question is, do I have a case for irresponsible lending? Irresponsible borrowing, certainly, I hold my hands up to that. We knew every time that we extended our borrowing that it was not a solution, only a stop-gap, but felt that mainstream lenders would reject us on the basis of our credit history. The current situation: Black Horse debt £29000- in default for 18mths, with no legal action to date. SPML (sold the house under-value) £3000 owed due to mortgage shortfall, instalments agreed with Scotcall, but defaulted October 2010. Lloyds closed the account January 2011, £5500 outstanding on the loan, £866 on the overdraft (£3600 at the time of the repossession) First solicitor’s letter received last week, demand for £266 overdraft overlimit.

Advice, please? This is going to sound like the intro to an x-factor audition, get your violins ready... 2 years of Prozac-fog ended last November, and I am now lucid, and really quite angry. Feel free to slap me down if I’m just whinging. The Prozac episode followed a very messy repossession and subsequent breakdown. To be honest, if I hadn’t been so blinkered about pre-existing medical conditions and PPI, the Prozac would have happened much sooner. In 2002, Abbey National reached the end of their tether with our sporadic mortgage payments (Husband came out of work, I was working part time...) they went for repossession over arrears of £800. Fair play to them. In stepped the saviours that are Capstone/SPML, and confirmed a remortgage to cover the loan, arrears, court costs etc. Seemed a great idea at the time, hindsight’s a wonderful thing. The honeymoon period was great, the monthly payments were only slightly higher than the Abbey ones (the ones we couldn’t maintain). Honeymoon over, and the introductory rate bounced up, the payments rose from something in the region of £200 to over £400 per month (I don’t have the exact figures, this was pre-prozac, there’s a good chance that the paperwork is stuffed down the side of a sofa somewhere.) LloydsTSB were ever so good, there was a little button on the internet banking screen that said ‘increase overdraft’, so a cycle began of us missing a monthly payment or two, getting a nasty letter from SPML, and increasing the overdraft, paying off the arrears, and starting all over again. I got a bit fed up of forever being in overdraft, and asked Lloyds for a loan to straighten everything up. Now, we didn’t fit the lending criteria for Lloyds....but, Black Horse ‘our sister company’ were happy to accept us. I think this is when it really started to go pear shaped. The first loan with Black Horse was ‘only’ about £3000, and things ran smoothly for a while, we were on the edge of our income, so every time we had a vet bill, a domestic appliance die on us, or any other unexpected expense, we were back in the overdraft. We were both working, so Black Horse had no issues with increasing the loan when we got sick of the overdraft fees. We ended up with an overdraft of £7500 before Lloyds asked what was going on. I was very clear with them that we were struggling to keep up with our outgoings, and they converted the overdraft to a special agreement of a separate loan, £75 a month, which we managed to pay every month because the due date was the same day as my wages. Over this period we had also been increasing the Black Horse loan, as SPML really liked sending out court claims for possession. I was also very clear with Black Horse as to the purpose for the extensions on the loan, I recall them actually speaking to SPML and coming to an agreement that SPML would agree to the loan being secured against the property, as long as their arrears were cleared first, before any other debt was repaid. There was another instance where a family member paid off the arrears on the mortgage pending a further advance from Black Horse being transferred, there was full three way discussion between SPML, Black Horse and the family member at this point. The house was repossessed in November 2008. I was ‘out of it’ to such an extent that I had just assumed that I would be able to ‘sort it out’ again, as had happened over the past 5 years or so. Looking back, it might have been less stressful for everyone involved if Lloyds/Black Horse/SPML had not colluded and allowed us to build up the debts to such unmanageable levels. It seems in bad taste to say so, but if the repossession had taken place earlier, rather than Lloyds allowing further increases on the overdraft, Black Horse allowing further advances on the secured loan when the credit files showed that this was an on-going pattern, and SPML accepting several 11th hour payments, many people would be much healthier and happier today. My question is, do I have a case for irresponsible lending? Irresponsible borrowing, certainly, I hold my hands up to that. We knew every time that we extended our borrowing that it was not a solution, only a stop-gap, but felt that mainstream lenders would reject us on the basis of our credit history. The current situation: Black Horse debt £29000- in default for 18mths, with no legal action to date. SPML (sold the house under-value) £3000 owed due to mortgage shortfall, instalments agreed with Scotcall, but defaulted October 2010. Lloyds closed the account January 2011, £5500 outstanding on the loan, £866 on the overdraft (£3600 at the time of the repossession) First solicitor’s letter received last week, demand for £266 overdraft overlimit.