The consultation is to do with continuous payment authorities which are different from direct debits. Direct debits can be cancelled b ythe bank account holder whereas with CPAs it is the money taker that has all the control.

What they will do is a lot of internal stuff, what they may do is take you to court. They would be stupid to commit to using words like 'will' for court action as most of the time they wont be going to court. The letter you got is probably mass produced with maybe some customisation for your specific purposes. If you are accepting the debt and making an offer to pay, CQ can either accept token payments or just take you to court. what they probably shouldnt be doing is continually sending you threatening letters - they should do one or the other if you are claiming you cannot pay and have amde it clear to them.

Well done I don't think it cancels the debt - but does it mean they are now forced to accept the £10 a month forever? Or can they still change it?

Sounds like what he is asking is if a debt becomes extinguished in Scotland can you ask to have the default removed from your credit file. A default and SD/Extinguished status are 2 distinctly seperate things. Just because a debt is SB doesnt mean the default has to be removed. As I understand it, a default only leaves your credit file because your credit file only goes back 6 years - which obviously is in line with the English/Welsh SB date but 1 year longer than the Scottish date. If you have genuinley defaulted then it should stay there as an accurate record.

No, what I am saying is that you PROBABLY have a long battle that goes nowhere unless the bank or debehams admit fault early on. If HSBC are saying its a fualt in the system whetehr caused by them or debenhams I would have thought they would have cancelled the charges with osme persuasion.

Unless they cast iron guranteed a set time limit then you have no rights. Even if they had, you still wouldnt get very far unless you had it i nwriting and were willing to pursue via court.

I fear there is no clear answer and you will end up going around in circles - as you have found out, Debenhams will blame it on the bank and the Bnak will jsut say its not their fault. I woudl be inclined to write a formal compalint letter to each. If you get no luck consider the financial ombudsman - but bear in mind it could take 6+ months to get an answer and even then they may not rule against the bank.

5 months is too long to have rejected the goods, so they can choose what to offer. if they cannot fix it then they can offer a refund minus a sum for the 5 months use you have had.

HMRC seem to operate a very much oeprated system - so I wouldnt worry about it too much if it looks like their computer has autoatically sent you a letter. recently they gave me some money back for overpaid tax in 2007. I got a letter about 2007. however they also then sent me letters for 08 09 10 and 11 - because my changes in 2007 affected my tax history - although it didnt affect anything for 08 09 10 11.

presumably the law lets them off if it was an 'honest mistake' ?

I shoudl add, that there is probably nothign the UK authorities can do to close them down. Yo ucan probably do a chargebakc as recommended above. presumably you can only do a chargeback if the company have done osmething wrong? not sure they tecnically have here - from a civil poitn of view - all of their terms are freely available on their website, they just take advantage of the fact that no one reads them be interested to hear peoples sucess.

They will be making a fortune out of people who think they can get expensive items for free/cheap. They are probably making a fortune. If they have no UK prescence then there is little the UK authorities can do as far as I can see.

If you have active debts out there and are 'untraceable' then you should probably assume that regular checks will be made to try and trace you. So yes, even after 3 years, if you did something that the DCA noticed they will try and contact you. I am guessing theycan run credit checks pretty easily and regularly.

common issue - peopel signing up but not realising they have signed upto a contract. by the soudns of it they have misled you into signing up. i have read of others who just signe dup without reading the small print report it to trading standards via consumer direct and just take whatever easy way out you can.

Under the Distance Selling Regs you have 7 working days in which to ask for a refund - as that time is passed you have no legal right to a refund therefore you have to rely on their goodwill - so no, there is nothing you can do.

The Panorama program that was on last month - nothing they showed was out an out illegal - there was only one bit that had the potential to be illegal and (from memory) it was ASDA describing items as WOW or something when they were not actually reduced.

perhaps TW forwarded your letter onto them? what did it say and when was it sent?

You do not HAVE to tell them your income but do not be surprised if they do not believe you can only pay £10 and then take you to court.

Just out of interest, is that based on opinion or some legal basis? I do not see why a creditor cannot go to court if a debtor cannot keep up repayments. I think what you are saying is that they shouldn't if the debtor cannot AFFORD anymore. But how would the creditor know that? reliance on an income statement from the debtor (something which is often advised against on this forum).

If you say you have no income they will still want you to pay what you can, even if it is a few quid a week, in 2 years time you might be in a better financial situation and therefore they will probably regularly ask you and prod you into paying more. some people think just because a creditor has accepted an offer £10 a month they are obliged to accept that forever. just bear it in mind

Credit files are the main way - as has been said, most people need to do something sooner or later that requires a credit check - so any update to your credit file will be of use. They can also use any data you gave to creditors, such as phone numbers or employer details, they can then use this data (to a limited extent) to try and track you down by calling up people that may know you. Social media sites like Facebook were recently in the spotlight as well

So have you or will you be reporting it to consumer direct?

That is illegal and would be a relativley easy offence to prove. Going back to this topic, I do not thin kthe Op is suggesting Wilkinsons are misleaidng people by use of the word sale. Merely that a sale was put on after they had bought something. They do not appear to have been misled or ripped off as far as I can see.

tps only deal with sales calls don't they? if the Op is not the eprson the company wants then it will either be a case of mistaken identity or someone has given the Ops number to the company (or they have entered it wrong on their system)

Might be a case of going around in circles. As far as they are concerned you are probably the debtor playign games and unless you give them somehting concrete to go on they wil lkeep calling. How about writing them a letter outlining why they should stop calling you - give it a week or so after delivery and if they keep calling then report it. I daresay, if you are the correct eprosn, then why nto just give your name and say they have the wrong person? Due to Data Protection issues they will be cagey about what they say.