I was thinking of it to be honest, but it will ruin their machine. And I don't care in so much as I know they are ..., but I do care in that do I not have to take reasonable care of their goods whilst in my possession? And, on 2 occasions when we have had bookings my son, who is 13, could have been at home for them to collect (keep in mind that all they are doing is collecting it from the hallway - it is disconnected etc) but they need someone at home over the age of 18 to sign?!

Hi all, Advice please on PH. I ordered a cooker from them on 11th December. Our one went bang and I couldn't really afford right on top of Christmas to buy one outright. They delivered an installed the cooker on 13th December. However, my wife didn't like it. Literally that day my circumstances changed for the better in that I sold a house so we decided to withdraw from the agreement with PH and buy one outright, which we did. I put the withdraw from agreement in writing to PH on the Friday evening (13th). They responded on the Monday (16th) stating that I was within my 14 days so they would arrange for someone to phone me to collect the cooker. All good so far. However, the cooker now still sits in my hallway. I have tried numerous times to get them to collect. Both the wife and I work full time so I can understand that it can be fairly difficult to arrange dates and times for collection. The issue I have is that the courier company PH use will not give me a time slot until the day before collection. For instance I booked collection for today, Wednesday 8th, and told them I have to leave for work at 1pm. They send me a timeslot last night of 2.20pm-4.20pm. I phoned them to tell them I wouldn't be in and need to re-arrange, which I have done for Monday. I am not home until 4pm Monday so the chance are I will miss it again. This collection has been booked now 7 times and re-arranged. They will not collect on a weekend as PH won't pay them to do so. A few questions, where do I go with this now? Are PH likely to try and charge me for having it all this time, are they allowed to? What would people do now? Thanks, Dave.

Hi Andy, No the judgements are not secured against anything. We don't own our house, we rent from the local housing association. Just my debts, wife doesn't owe anything. Thanks.

I know what you mean about it not making any sense. I guess I would just feel happier being debt free, knowing that no matter what may happen in the future I don't owe anyone anything. With regards to the car - again you are correct. The car I wrote off I had for 4 years nearly and it cost me £350 when I bought it, never needed anything other than tyres and a battery. Being honest again though I am a petrol head and love my cars and bikes. However, for the last 7 or 8 years I have not been able to afford to buy what I would have liked. Neither the wife nor I had good paying jobs and raising our children and giving them what they needed was far more important. We have both worked hard, especially my wife who went to night school, to improve ourselves and now find ourselves in a better financial position. Knowing that the house sale was imminent and needing to get the car I took the plunge and took finance out knowing that I would pay it off within 6 months. So, can I just check. Even if the CCJ isn't fully paid off within 5 years (which they won't), they are still removed from my credit file? Thanks for the advice.

Ah okay, yes I see now. It is okay to do this then? I need to make sure that if they accept anything that the CCJ gets marked as paid? As I said I have no real issue with continuing to pay each month but it does feel like a noose around my neck and if I can get rid of them then I will be much happier, just I know I can't afford to pay the full amounts. I will come back here if they do agree to anything to find out what I should do next. Thanks.

Hi, I admitted the debts as I took out the money/credit. They were both for credit cards that I used that I stopped paying. To be honest I knew I couldn't afford to pay them back when I took the money but felt I had no choice due to circumstances at the time. When the debt collectors letters from Lowell came through I ignored them all hoping they would go away. I had more pressing matters at the time with my mother, and buried my head in the sand. So when the claim from the court came through I filled it in honestly. The other 'debts' are for car finance that I took out in October. I wrote my car off (the car was bought and paid for in cash so no outstanding finance) and needed to get another. With the amount of travelling I do I needed a reliable car so took out £7500 in finance. Obviously up to date with it and got the settlement figure from them. They will settle for £7200, which is a no brainer for me as the total cost of finance if I pay for the full 5 years is £14,800 so I save a lot of money by repaying this early. My only other 'debt' is to my step-mother and my father. My Mum lived in Spain and she became very ill very quickly and I needed to get her home, was hoping to get her treated in the UK but her condition was too far gone. However, none of the airlines would fly her due to her condition so I had to get her a private medical plane to re-patriate her. The money I needed for this I borrowed from my Step-Mum. They get paid back before anyone else. Not sure what you mean by a DCA? Thanks.

Hi all, I have 2 separate CCJ's with Lowell. I have had these now for 1.5 years and 6 months respectively. I admitted to the debts when the claim form from the court came through and filled in an income and expenditure form for both claims. Made and offer of £20 per month for the first debt and then £5 for the second debt. Both of these were accepted and I have been paying them via direct debit without missing a payment. Unfortunately my mother passed away a year ago and we have now sold her house. I am now in a position to pay off some debts. I would like if possible to pay these 2 debts off. Before I contact Lowell though does anyone have any experience or knowledge regarding reaching a settlement figure for CCJ's? Is it possible? Is it likely? I would like to pay them off, but if they want the full amount I won't be able to afford it. With what I owe for both debts I will be paying them for the next 12 years or so. Any knowledge or help that anyone can give would be much appreciated.

Hi all, After some advice after receiving a Civil Parking Charge notice for Lidl in Cambridge Street St Neots. 1 Date of the infringement 02/12/18 2 Date on the NTK [this must have been received within 14 days from the 'offence' date] 04/12/18 3 Date received 06/12/18 4 Does the NTK mention schedule 4 of The Protections of Freedoms Act 2012? [y/n?] No, not as far as I can see. 5 Is there any photographic evidence of the event? Yes 6 Have you appealed? {y/n?] post up your appeal] No, only recieved today Have you had a response? [Y/N?] post it up 7 Who is the parking company? Athena 8. Where exactly [carpark name and town] Lidl St Neots, Cambridge Street (there are 2 x Lidl's in St Neots) They operate under IPC. So, as above. I got into the car park at 10.46am on Sunday 2nd December and left at 12.29pm on the same day. Total stay of 1hr 42 mins. Free parking is limited to 1hr 30 mins. I went into Lidl to grab some breakfast before I went to the gym which is right next to Lidl and then went to the gym and then grabbed a bottle of water from Lidl after the gym. Not disputing that I was there that long, I honestly didn't realise I had been there that long. I have no receipts for Lidl. Any advice please would be appreciated.

Evening, Thanks for the reply DX. I will upload the file tomorrow evening. I have it saved as a PDF file on my pc, but am unable to edit it to remove personal details. Will do it when I am at work tomorrow from my work PC.

No. No GAP or PPI. Only thing we 'bought' was an insurance policy which covered mechanical breakdowns and repairs - that was £400, which we were not aware of until we got home with the final paperwork.

This is exactly what went off to Advantage:

Thanks for the reply DX. We have VT by letter, it was sent off recorded delivery on 28th September, and they received it on 29th September. The letter was very similar to the last one you posted. This is where all the rubbish about the collection fee started. They wanted us to take the vehicle somewhere that would have resulted in approx 120 mile round trip. My wife said that was not a reasonable distance and that she wanted someone to come out and collect. They said they would send someone out but it would cost £80. The woman at Advantage insisted they could charge it etc etc. So, in your opinion do we sign the paperwork when he comes to collect or not. Or does it even matter? It is just that I have this feeling Advantage are going to try and con us by claiming they need to repair this and that, and whack on a bill for collection etc. I will take photo's, I have already taken some, but will do more. Thanks again for your advice.

Evening all, I could do with a bit of advice please. In January 2016 the wife and I took finance out on a car with Advantage finance. Unfortunately our circumstances have changed dramatically in that time and we can no longer afford to run the vehicle. We have been in contact with StepChange debt charity and they have gone through our finances and the only logical way forward for us out of a bit of a mess is to Voluntarily terminate the agreement and give the car back. We will still owe money on the vehicle as we haven't paid half the finance agreement, but StepChange have said we will deal with that once Advantage have got the car back. The advice I need is on the collection of the vehicle. The vehicle has no major damage to it - no dents or rust etc. There is a little scratch in the door which was there when we bought the car. Advantage have been really pushy on the phone to my wife already - to the point of bullying. I can understand from their point of view, in that they lent the money in good faith, but we are not burying our heads in the sand here, we are trying to do the best thing. On the phone they said any any marks or damage to the car would be charged. It is a 10 year old car, so of course it has the odd blemish here and there and, as I said, a scratch. What constitutes 'fair wear and tear'? Can I argue it at all if I don't agree with their assessment? What should I do if the person that comes to collect the car puts on his inspection sheet that it has a scratch etc? I am tempted not to sign it, or sign it as I am accepting they are taking the car but not accepting there is any 'damage' to it. As I said the car is in as good, if not better, condition than when we got it. The other thing is they are coming to collect the car Friday. They have said they are going to charge £80 to collect the vehicle. Now, StepChange have said they are not legally allowed to charge to collect the vehicle. I have read online that they are not allowed to charge. Does anyone have a definate answer as to if they can or can not charge to collect this car. In the grand scheme of things £80 is a drop in the ocean to be honest, but it is more a point of principle. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Hi, Yes the claim form was issued and we responded the very same day we got it, that was on June 4th 2015. Name of the Claimant ? Cabot Date of issue – top right hand corner of the claim form – this in order to establish the time line you need to adhere to. June 2nd 2015 Date of issue XX + 19 days ( 5 day for service + 14 days to acknowledge) = XX + 14 days to submit defence = XX (33 days in total) - ^^^^^ NOTE : WHEN CALCULATING THE TIMELINE - PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE DATE OF THE CLAIM IS DAY 1 [example: Issue date 01.03.2014 + 19 days (5 days for service + 14 days to acknowledge) = 19.03.2014 + 14 days to submit defence = 02.04.2014] = 33 days in total What is the claim for – the reason they have issued the claim? Please type out their particulars of claim (verbatim) less any identifiable data and round the amounts up/down. What is the value of the claim? £472.67 Is the claim for a current account (Overdraft) or credit/loan account or mobile phone account? Vanquis Credit Card When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? After, it states on or around 22nd April 2010 Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Debt Purchaser we presume Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? No Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? No Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? No Why did you cease payments? What was the date of your last payment? Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt managementicon plan? For all of those last 4 questions really, my wife can not remember ever having taken out a credit card with Vanquis. It was on or around the time she split with her ex. So, no payments were ever made. Yes, the correspondance from the court and the DCA is the claim is now stayed and today we got an email asking her to make an offer to settle.

Hi all, I have looked through a few other threads, as there are quite a few regarding Cabot/Restons, but can't find anything like my situation, so hopefully someone can help. This is my other halfs issue really, but am trying to help her out as much as I can. Back in November 2014 we got a few letters from a debt collection agency about a Vanquis credit card debt it said my wife owed. She did not recognise the debt, so we wrote to them asking for a CCA and statement. We have kept a photocopy of this. We didn't hear anything back, and I will be honest and say we just left it. In June my wife got a letter from Northampton CC saying that Restons had taken her to court for £472.67 on behalf of Vanquis bank for a debt that was taken out on or around 22nd April 2010. We went online immediately and disputed it. I told the court we had never had any correspondence from Restons regarding this matter, but we did have another debt collector and we had already requested a full statement and CCA, which we never recieved. We asked again, through the court for a CCA. The court stayed the judgement. As I said this was back in June. Restons have said they have asked for the information from the original creditor, but they said (their words) that this can be a lengthy process. We told them as far as we were concerned they had 12 days to produce the relevant information. We got another letter today stating that they are sorry for the delay and they are still awaiting the information from their client. The invite my wife to put forward an amicable settlement proposal. Now, I realise we/I have probably done a lot of things wrong here, but where do we go from here? My wife has said (this was before me) she may have taken the CC out, she was with an ex at the time, but she honestly can't remember and she has no paperwork at all for a Vanquis CC (she keeps everything, so I find it unusual she wouldn't have something). So what should we do now? Many Thanks.