I will try and upload a copy of the letter soon once I am near a scanner

Thanks for the info DX. I had a feeling Computeach and other such companies operated in a purely money making sense. But at the moment I'm not overly concerned about how to deal with them, I'm more expecting how to deal with any court action. In my case it may be doing me a favour I guess; no car; everything rented; spend more on a child than myself; on Income Support; working voluntarily. The upset could be if I switched from unpaid to paid or NHS Ambulance Support Crew. If I actually got taken to court tomorrow I'd only have to wait a year before I could do paid fulltime work if what I hear about bankruptcy is correct. But I could be wrong.

Sorry if this is vague but to be honest I haven't ever had any real dealings with loans or credit cards. There is only 2 times I've ever taken out credit in my life and they've both been for distance learning and I've regretted both decisions. Otherwise if I don't have the money I live without. Distance learning courses seem so attractive to me with little to no skills at that time.

It just says Barclays on the letterhead. Career Development Loans on the address. Barclays Bank Plc on the footer. Not aware of any mention of Barclays Partner Finance anywhere on the letter.

That would be the case I guess. The IC3 is the only thing I got a certificate for. The Comptia and the MCSD I couldn't do at the time.

Just to clarify, the terms of the Career Development Loan are that it didn't have to be paid back for three years and that there was interest free for that period. Sorry if I didn't mention that. Don't know if all CDL's work the same or not.

Zero. The course was cancelled because I couldn't give Computeach the £500 to extend it.

The original loan amount was £4,995. It became £5,145 by the time it defaulted. It is now £5,197. Is that what you are asking?

The date of default is 26/01/2009.

Thanks for the link to Noddle. Looking at my cra now, not quite sure what to make of it but the Barclay's debt is appearing on there. Been default for the last 6 months.

Hi. I've received a demand from Barclays for £5,197.70 for a CDL taken out for a course by Computeach in 2006. I actually asked the tutor/salesman "what would happen if I paid for this course by CDL and didn't complete it, that'd be an awful big debt for nothing?" They replied "well, because the loan is from European funding it would just go back from whence it came and you can go about your business - but you will complete the course, won't you?" **chuckle**. Satisfied with this answer and eager to begin I filled out all the paperwork and sat back contemplating a rewarding future. I was okayed by Barclays and I enrolled for the MCSD course which comprised of the IC3, Comptia A+ and the MCSD in Visual C# = Total cost £4995 or near on. I gained the IC3 quite easily, and began the Comptia and C# pack. Then in 2008 it became very difficult to complete it or even have access to a computer due to spending several months homeless and ending up in sheltered accommodation. I explained this to Computeach and they were at the time quite happy to put the study on hold and give me time for circumstances to improve. However, they didn't and after 6 months I received a letter saying a must pay £500 for an extension otherwise "my student file would be discarded" (I think that was almost the exact wording). The course closed as I didn't have the £500 at hand. Everything seemed fine and dandy. I had a CDL with Barclays which, handily, is the bank I have an account with anyway. And it seemed as though what the tutor/salesman had said was true - the money had happily been passed back to Europe for someone else to use since I didn't need it, no cost to me No demands, no nothing, for years. Now 2012 - bang! Every week or two a demand from Barclays. I largely ignored them, seeing them as a computer or administrative error. Yesterday I rang their number just to clarify that the course was cancelled. After an initially happy conversation with a Barclays advisor on the phone; and after saying that since circumstances have changed (I live in rented accommodation as a single father with a 21 month old son who is on Income Support) I could not afford not even a £5 token payment, or any payment at all to this debt I do not feel I owe - they are going to apparently going to pass on my details to the DCA who will be making far less happy conversations. Anyone have any advice? Personally, given the option of paying maybe £10 a month to a DCA to pay a £5000 loan is going to take me years (since I know saying I was in my view misold a course but have no way of proving it, which is not going to get me far in a court of law or in terms of a refund from Computeach for a course that finished 4 years ago to all intents) I was considering just tearing each letter up in future and just allowing them to make me bankrupt. At the end of the day I can only volunteer as a Red Cross First Aider for the foreseeable future; it is just me and my son in a one bedroom flat as that is all the council deem to view as necessary for us both; I've got very few material items apart from my childs which the court bailiffs cannot touch. Really, what have I got to lose apart from the ability to gain credit for 6 years? Am I being naïve on this issue though? Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks for the advice. I'll ride this one out and see what happens over the next couple of months. Motormile Finance has bought the debt and AccountControl are handling it, don't know much about them and don't know how much of their threats to take seriously but we'll see how it pans out. In the end whatever happens it may all be over soon and I'm glad

I took out a Home Learning College course in Computer Repair in Oct 2006, mostly due to A) youthful naivety believing the Course Advisors/Salesmans pitch about "having a recognised qualification most people in PC World Repair Department don't even have" and B) desperation from spending almost 15 years working life going from job to job and not getting anywhere due to learning difficulties giving me sucky grades and jobs prospects, apart from basic manual labour and machine operation. Now, all was well and good until after further research into the course itself I discovered that it was a total waste of time, giving me at the end a sheet of paper that looks impressive to someone walking in my shop (should I have owned one) but would leave even the junior members of the PC Worlds Repair Department rolling around on the floor with laughter. But I bought HLC's crap thinking at the end of the day at least I'll have a grounding in something I can turn from hobby to job at some point maybe. But the problems started in Dec 2006 when I couldn't make the 3rd monthly payment of £133 after being laid off from an agency contract. After going backwards and forwards for a few weeks discussing repayments of £10 per month while on JSA it finally came to the crunch and my health visitor on my behalf sent a letter asking to cancel the course. Didn't happen. We got a letter back saying the course is cancellable but the payments are non-cancellable even on the grounds of pregnancy, unemployment, illness or death(????!!!!???). As it stand over the last few years I've received the occasional demand from one agency and another here and there for the last few place I've rented, mostly just threatening action that never happened. I've heard nothing about this since moving to my current address of 2 years until 2 weeks ago. Now they're asking for the full £1290. So I'm told, previously a debt of under £2000 for an unsecured debt of this nature (Aequs went bust a couple of years ago, so it was hardly worth their while to chase up) the new owner of the debt has nothing to lose since the debt will be statute barred in Dec 2012. Now my circumstances have changed and 1) I don't have £1290 to give even if I wanted but also 2) I'd like to avoid a CCJ if at all possible now I have a child to support. Wouldn't they have taken me to court if they could have already? I've heard a lot about DCA's making claims for money they can't enforce through the courts, so I'd like to avoid paying this (not in a malicious sense, I do take responsibility for my debts and have always done so, but more out of the fact that 2007 til today has sometimes been almost unbearable when dealing with HLC and this debt) Any advice would be great. Sorry if that went on a bit, or if the info was to sparse. I can elaborate on points if you need me to.