So the latest I have is a letter from LCS saying 'Notice of further action' and demanding ~£1000 It's not a letter before action, just a 'we might do something further if you don't pay up. As I understand it I just ignore the letters from LCS. Will HMRC take further action, and can I get the debt cancelled with them?

I was claiming tax credits, and due to not filling in their update form as required, they stopped the tax credits, and are sending me threatening letters to pay it back. they said it's too late and I just have to pay. this dates from around last july. to be clear, I should not be paying them anything according to my income, in fact they would owe me things, but obviously this depends on the claim being valid etc. is there any option besides just paying them?

£25 for the hearing, plus they need to send someone to my local court which must cost them well north of £100?

They have come back with £220, I said 'I don't think they are taking the commercial realities of this very seriously, if they go ahead they have costs to go to court and they can't claim any more from the court. I will offer £60 in the same spirit but they should understand that it's free money and if they go forward with this is going to cost them with little prospect of return." Their response was 'sorry £220 is our final offer' Not really sure what planet they are on, how much will it actually cost them to go to court, process my document requests, etc., and even then they've only got a limited chance of success. Perhaps it's a policy pour encourager les autres rather than a commercial assessment of the claim value....

The mediator just call me, I explained that I don't recognise the validity of the original charges and then I don't see that there's a valid default or assignment for Lowell to claim under so while I am willing to settle it won't be for much. [slight fly in the ointment, I may be out of the country when proceedings take place - though I didn't mention that!] Mediator said solicitors they haven't received documents from BT. They offered £230 to settle. I said £50.

I normally ignore such correspondence, I just assumed being 5pm on a Friday with mediation on a Monday that they wanted to say something about the documents I had requested. Evidently not.

I checked online at o2.co.uk and it seems they have refunded me for the airtime charges (but not actually attempted to give the money back), so might not need to take them to court. Ombudsman have got back to me, slightly duff wording (they said I had been charged a 'late penalty'), so I have asked them to correct that before movign forwards.

Just got an SMS from lowell 'please call us urgently, ref xyz'. So I did, it turned out it was a different matter entirely, one which they had actually marked on their own ****ty systems as paid off.

I called to move the mediation on the basis of not having received the documents but basically they said there is no point as they can't reschedule so I can just offer them £1 or whatever if I can't be bothered with it.

well if they got a CCJ I'd just pay but that's a long way away at the moment.

I don't mind settling tbh, but not for anything like what they are claiming. The default I guess at worst case is gone from my credit record sometime this year?

the mediation service called to arrange the mediation, they said are you ready I said yes, they said do you need any information, I said no. The actual mediation is scheduled for Monday. N180 is quite barebones, nothing about evidence/documents on there? I just put ok to allocate to small claims, no expert witnesses, witness is me.

No I haven't sent anything, I just filed a defence online when I received the claim - a defence which I now realise may have been going down the wrong track. The default date on my credit record seems to be nonsense; my last correspondence from BT was August and the default date October, so I don't know where that came from. I have sent the CPR31:14 to their solicitors by email (no need to post I take it?). I guess that gives them 7 + 1 days to reply. "Request for Documents in accordance with CPR 31.14 Reference the claim in the CCBC, number XYZ, I hereby request under CPR 31.14 the following documents mentioned in your Particulars of Claim: 1. The agreement. In accordance with Practice Direction 7.3, any general conditions incorporated in the contract should also be attached. 2. Notice of Assignment. 3. The Default Notice As this claim has not yet been allocated to a specific track, the provisions of CPR27(2) are not in effect. In accordance with CPR 31.15, you must provide the required documents within 7 days of receipt of this email. " Do I have any specific remedy if they don't comply, given that I've already filed my own (dodgy) defence? Should I also send CCA request, given that I have requested copy of agreement in CPR request?

Sorry. "The claimant's claim is for the sum of £194 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a Telecom agreement regulated by CCA 1974 between defendant and BT under account ref xyz and assigned to Claimant on 20 March 2016, notice of which has been given to the defendant. The defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with. The claim also includes statutory interest of [...] £9 " I don't seem to have a 'default notice' from anyone. Who should it be from?

no, it's stayed. So I can just email them?

Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd Issue Date 28 Oct 2016 DQ filed by both parties Defence already filed by me Claim value £203 + £25 + £50 Credit report shows: Account type Telecommunications Supplier Account start date September 2007 Opening balance £ 194 Repayment frequency Monthly Date of default October 2011 Default balance £ 194 However I checked at the time that this happened and they definitely weren't on there - Lowell have created the credit account in June 2016. I have a saved credit report from 2013 on my PC and there's nothing there from BT either. Not sure if I can work on that??? I received a variety of threatening letters variously from BT, SC Gray Solicitors, CCS, and finally Past Due Credit Solutions. The last letter was on April 2012. There was no further correspondence till June 2016, from Lowell. The last letter from BT (August 2011) read: "Debt Recovery Unit You still owe us £ 194. If you've paid us since we sent this letter, thanks, and you don't need to do anything else. If not, you need to pay us in the next ten days. If you have a query about these charges you can contact us via http://www.bt.com/mybt or by calling 0800 800 150. How to pay Go to http://www.bt.com/mybt or call us on 0800 443311 with your account number to hand. Or you could send a cheque made out to 'British Telecommunications pic' to: BT Payment Centre Durham DH98 1BT (Please write the account number on the back.) If you don't pay straight away We'll hand your case over to a debt collection agency, you will need to pay additional costs and they might take legal action. Your credit rating may also be damaged."

it looks like I had two accounts (bb and phone) - last payments made April & June 2011 respectively.

ok well they have accepted my offer. How do I notify the court?

advise away?

Well I have filed with the Ombudsman. I'm quite tempted to fill a small claim also, but might way for the Ombudsman first.

They have replied: I'm really sorry you feel that way but i'm unable to amend your credit file. I will send you my final position so that you can approach the Ombudsman. As we have a legal obligation to notify our credit agencies with a true reading of your payment history, the Ombudsman Service wouldn’t be able to take any further action. your emails will be documented but won't be responded to.

I have sent them an email: I contacted you by live chat and you refused to accept payment. I contacted you by phone three times and you were unable on all three occasions to take payment as a result of your systems' failings. I contacted you by email (prior to the account being marked as late) and you personally told me my account had "been paid in full". You were the one that falsified information by telling me I had paid off my account. That is false information which I was entitled to rely on as it was sent to your official complaints email. Now you are telling me that it's falsifying information to remove the late payment. This is nonsense. Here's what's going to happen now. (a) Either you remove the late payment record Or (b) I file proceedings in the small claims court against you vis a vis airtime charges and also for secondary remedy of removing the late payment notices.

I took out an O2 Refresh contract in July. The SIM was never used. I was out of the country in a remote part of the world (I am now back in the UK). I tried to cancel and pay off the contract over the internet/live chat, but this was refused and they told me I had to call them. I called them on three occasions to do this (which was quite problematic due to my location), the outcome was instance 1 my card was declined and then they told me they couldn't retry the payment with a different card because their systems only allow a payment attempt by ANY card once per day instance 2 their systems were not working and they told me to call back instance 3 ditto So I cancelled the direct debits. I emailed them on 23rd October advising of the situation and asking how to pay. They replied in November saying I had already paid off my account. (It appears they used the wrong account (I had a previous contract), even though I included their reference in the email). Subsequently my credit record shows late payments for November and December on both the airtime and device accounts. Having asked them to remove this following paying off their bill, they have said "We have a legal obligation to notify our credit agencies with a true reading of your payment history. We are unable to request that this be amended as this could be seen as falsifying information. "

BT said debt was from 5.5 years before the date of the action.

it seems it might not be out of time. So if I want to negotiate with them, how should I proceed? Can I make removing the default part of the deal? Or how is the best way to get rid of that?