ok quick update, i have spoken briefly with a lawyer and also with the police and have been given the all clear to collect my car. It seems proper procedure has not been followed and the lawyer is busy in court today so is going to ring me back if he has time when he is finished in court, if not he will ring me in the morning. I have a civil case against my insurance company as I can prove the payments have been leaving my bank account and going to their company so I am taking further advice on how to proceed with that through the CAB. Feeling a little less stressed now as I know the situation IS going to be resolved. According to the lawyer i spoke with, i should never have been able to tax my car at the weekend if my insurance wasn't valid and I should also have been issued with either a fixed penalty ticket at the side of the road OR taken to a police station and charged, neither of which happened. So I will update this further when I have more information. AllyG

hya the insurance company state that they cancelled the policy for non payment, I have been through all my bank statements with a fine toothcomb and they took the amended payment for my change of address in January this year and continued to take monthly payments after this, the last one being on 3rd august. When I called them, I spoke to someone who claimed to be a manager, he told me that i had never told them a change of address and that I must not be telling them the truth. I have all the documents from my previous address and they emailed me the new documents, unfortunatly the pc that has that email on isn't working properly, but i am about to try and get into it and see if i can find that email. I did try calling the insurance company back several times to try and resolve the situation and each time I was told i must speak with the manager i spoke to previously and when I asked if I could talk to someone else who would actually listen to my complaint i was told no you have to speak to this person as he has put a "flag" on your account that you are not allowed to speak to anyone else about it!! I also asked to be put through to their customer service complaints dept and was told i would have to wait a minimum of 48 hours and they would then call me back. Obviously I want to get this resolved asap. The company involved is kwik fit. They have also said they would not talk to anyone else due to the data protection act. My main concern at the moment is getting my car back, however I spoke to a friend who's brother is a policeman and was told that if I do go and pay to get my car back i will probably be stopped again and have the car impounded again because my new insurance details won't show up on the database yet. He also told me to seek legal help so I am waiting for a lawyer to call me back at the moment. I am stressed out to hell and back with this, I haven't slept at all last night and my health seems to be taking a kicking due to all the stress and am sitting here in absolute agony scared to take painkillers in case I do have to go and collect my car. I have important hospital appointments in the next few days and am worried about how I am going to get there.

Today I was out shopping and was driving my car home when i was pulled over by the police. I was informed that according to their database i had no valid insurance on my car. To say i was shocked was an understatement. I had a very serious car accident about 8 years ago and have always been fastidious in making sure my car is adequatly insured since then. I have been insured by the same company since 2006 when i purchased the car and have always kept up my payments, (I pay monthly) the last payment having left my bank on 3rd August 2010. I produced the certificate of insurance, v5 and my driver license on the spot to the police who kept insisting that my insurance had been cancelled earlier this year. The officers (one male one female) insisted that my documents were wrong and that according to the national database my car was not insured. So i asked them what could be done to resolve the situation and was told that they were impounding the car and that I would be cautioned for having no insurance and then sent on my way. The female officer didn't really seem to know what she was doing and kept having to ask the male officer what she should do. At this point i asked if my father could come and collect the car as he is insured on his insurance policy to drive my car and was flat out told no i could not, but he was more than welcome to come and pick me up. The officers continued to chat away between themselves and then asked me to leave my car and take any posessions i had in it so that they could arrange for it to be collected. My father turned up at this point and again asked if it was not possible for him to drive my car home so I could sort out whatever mess the insurance company had made and was told in no uncertain terms that he could not be permitted to drive my car. At this point i was read a caution, at no point was i told i was being formally charged with any offence. I was handed a slip of paper with an incident number on and the 2 names of the officers and told to go home and sort it out and once i had a valid insurance certificate to produce it at a police station and only then would they tell me how and where to get my car back. I was informed that it would cost me approx £100 to get my car back, this was the only information i was given. They also said it would be up to the senior officer at their station to decide if it was going to be sent to the procurator fiscal or not but as i had a totally clean record i might "get off with a warning or i might not i might end up being charged". I got home and immediatly phoned my insurance company who claim to have cancelled the policy in March 2010, I have received NO communication from them whatsoever and the premiums have continued to be taken from my bank account. When i informed them of this I was told not to be so stupid, they had no bank account details for me so couldn't take payment, so I asked them then where is my money going every month, i have bank statements to prove they have kept taking payment, the "manager" i spoke to hung up the phone and refused to answer my calls after this. So I called another company and arranged new insurance through them so that I can at least collect my car and try to sort out this whole sorry mess. incidentally i had to telephone DVLA on 29th July as I had not received the reminder for my car tax and I wanted to make sure i could still tax it without this reminder. The gentleman I spoke to at DVLA was most helpful, he pulled up the records for my car and said yes your insurance is ok, your mot is ok just take the V5 along to the post office with your insurance and MOT and they will tax it for you. My car was taxed on saturday 31st July!!! I had a friend take me to the police station (after I collected my insurance docs from the local office in my town) and proceeded to try and sort the whole mess out. The first officer i spoke to informed me that I should have been given a ticket of some kind to say they were impounding my car and that i "may" be charged with having no insurance. (This did not happen) to be sure he went to speak to a senior officer and came back and told me it seems procedure has not been followed correctly, let me go and try and sort things out. He came back a few minutes later and informed me he had been called to an emergency and that another officer would be dealing with me. The 2nd officer would not answer any questions I had saying simply that he could not as there was something not right and he didn't want to be quoted as a "police spokesman" (My friend was witness to this whole situation) The 2nd officer at the police station filled in a vehicle release form as I had satisfied him that I have valid insurance with my new policy and I am supposed to go and collect my car in the morning, the only drawback is it will cost me £150. (not the original £100 i was told previously) which I can't afford as due to my health problems I cannot work. At this point in time i have some serious health problems and rely on my car to get me about on the days that I am well enough to leave the house. This incident has totally stressed me out and has made my health worse, so much so that I am now back on the strong painkillers i had recently been able to stop taking. My question is this however, is there ANYTHING i can do to resolve the situation as I am concerned that I am being unfairly treated as at no point was I informed that I was being formally charged. (I live in Scotland if that helps) My insurance company has continued to take premiums from my bank account and refuses now to talk to me when I call them to try and resolve the situation. The only thing I can think of that may have caused this whole situation is that I moved house in December 2009 but i informed my insurance company of this, My 18 yo daughter remembers me doing this because I complained to her that it had put my insurance premiums up slightly because of the new area we had moved to.

hya i did ask about it and they basically told me that if BG want £80 from each account then that's what they would pay them and also a % to pay off what's owing at present so it would basically leave me with no income support the way the woman explained it to me.

hya they don't have a warrant as yet i got notice this morning they wanted to apply for one but when i spoke to the guy trevor this morning he told me they would be here in 7 days *(which thinking rationally i think he was trying to scare me) i have since spoken to a senior manager who has agreed to set up a payment of £80 a month while i wait for an outcome from the energy trust as I applied for a grant from them today too (having found the information online) and my account has been put on hold until i get a decision, he is also looking for other avenues that I would get help from. As for a prepayment meter, the house i live in is about 500 years old and the heritage trust has stated that they won't allow a prepayment meter fitted so that's a no go area (cos i'd be quite happy for one to be fitted tbh) so i have a little respite which in the meantime i will be going to the CAB etc to see what other help I can get.

hi all, it's been a long while since i had access to these forums but glad to say I have now anyways I am in desperate need of advice regarding British Gas. This could be a long post so get a cuppa and get comfy LOL. In April of this year my direct debits were cancelled by BG the reason stated that my bank account had been closed. this is NOT the case, I am still using and operating said bank account. Letters and phone calls have ensued since then, with BG point blank refusing to reset up the DD's or take ANY payment on my account whatsoever. I have been in contact with one of their consumer complaints officers, who now refuses to return my calls or answer any letters I write to them. This morning I have had 2 letters, one stating they are in the process of gaining a warrant of entry to cut off my gas (*i live in a private rented listed building so they're not allowed to put a prepayment meter in) and also another letter demanding a payment of £315 for my electric. (The gas bill is £151) as a divorced single parent on income support i cannot afford to pay these amounts in full which I have explained to them but CAN afford a joint payment of £80 per month for both accounts, they are refusing to accept this and say i have to pay double that amount. I have spoken to the job center who say they will by all means put me on the fuel direct scheme but they would take out of my benefit whatever BG want me to pay which would basically leave me with a minus figure every month for income support and my income would reduce at such a rate that I would not be able to pay my other bills and be able to feed my 3 children. I do not get child maintenance at present but the CSA is looking into this for me as my ex works full time but hasn't declared it but that's another matter. I have an address for the head of complaints at BG Andy Eley Head of Complaints British Gas P.O. Box 3116 Eastbourne BN21 9JH which I am in the process of writing a letter to and will be sending it recorded delivery in the morning. I have just had another phone call from Trevor Middleton at the customer complaints dept and basically he is REFUSING to let me make any kind of payment on my accounts, I am sat here in tears because they are coming to cut off my gas and electric within the next 7 days and I just don't know what to do I have offered and offered to make payments of £80 a month in total for both accounts but he is just point blank refusing these and I am at my wits end. My health is suffering (i have an underlying health condition and this is just making it 100 times worse and I just don't know what to do about this situation anymore. I desperatly need some good advice as to how to proceed as like I say, all offers I have made have been refused

don't worry Michelle, they didn't reply to my claim deadline either and it was just a case of filling in a form and sending it to the court to issue a judgement by default. They paid up within 2 weeks of the judgement being issued, so my advice would be not to worry, once the judgement is issued they have to answer it. Incidentally a few days after my default was issued I received a phone call from the legal dept telling me they were dealing with my claim as a matter of urgency. Ally x

well done you received all my charges + interest + court costs into my bank account about teatime yesterday and had letter confirming it this morning so I am also a happy bunny today ally

Settled in full by teatime yesterday yippeeeeee

well we issued court papers and had them acknowledged. Bank sent back a form stating they intend to defend then nothing. Hubby phoned the court and we were advised that we could now issue a judgement by default which we have done. Just waiting to see what happens now Ally

That is why there should be an I need Help forum where you can put a link to your original post and a brief explanation of the help you need as I personally (and I've noticed a LOT of other people too) have asked several times for help on the original thread and despite bumping the topic no one's bothered to offer the help until I have "had" to make a seperate post!!!

ok for one I posted because it had NOT been answered and wasn't answered until AFTER I made a seperate post asking for some advice I thought this site was here to help people not have a go whenever anyone asks for help Several times I have asked for help and because there are so many posts being made every day my requests have not been answered until AFTER i have posted seperate threads asking for help. There needs to be a system whereby someone reviews ALL the threads for requests for help as this site is confusing enough without being told off for making a simple request for help. I know i'm not the only one who feels like this and i think it's high time something was said. It would be far better to have a seperate section to the bank forums so people can ask for help as i'm sure the site mods and helpers have enough to do without having thousands of pm's for help every day which clearly isn't working as if someone needs help straight away then they aint gonna get it cos "staff on the site" are just way too busy! At least that way the other members might be able to offer a little advice until a mod or helper has time to look at the posts. It took me almost a month for my order for the small claims pack to be even looked at never mind sent out and when I started asking for help about it I did try and PM the mods but my messages were ignored for DAYS. I really think there needs to be some kind of improvement to the way things are handled, then you wouldn't get people "making multiple posts" (thought that's what a forum was about obviously the 3 i run myself are "wrong")

Hi I posted for advice in my AllyG v Helifax thread but haven't had a reply, really need to get this sorted as I was supposed to file court action this morning but couldn't go due to my 7 year old throwing up all over the place. Would appreciate any feedback thanks This is the Thread

ok have been reading through the threads again LOL, and this is what I have now, is this correct????????? What do you think, will it pass????? Ally

meant to also add that when they offered a settlement amount I wrote back and accepted it in partial settlement, which the bank REFUSED.

Hi guys Just a couple of quick questions I am sat filling in the forms to take to the County Court in the morning and have the following in the POC section of the N1 form..... Is that ok or do I also need to add the amount of interest (at 8%) which takes the full value of the claim to £1942.53? I'd really appreciate any quick replies cheers Ally

those are brilliant thanks loads - I have over 400 members on my main site and I'm sure a few of them will be paying a visit here ally xx

Hi Is it possible to have a button 88x31 please? I've added you to my links section but the current banner looks a bit squashed due to the resizing of it cheers Ally

Hi thanks for the reply, yep will be sending it first thing Monday morning nail biting time now LOL although I must admit this has been a lot easier than I thought it would be thanks to the help received on here Ally

just a quick question.... does this letter sound ok as my acceptance of the offer in partial settlement and also can I make this my LBA letter as well?

Had a letter yesterday to confirm the telephone offer of £376, having read some of the posts with others receiving the same kind of letter I am going to reply stating that we will accept the £376 in a partial settlement and that we intend to pursue the claim for the remaining balance which works out at £1097 without interest added. Ally

Just an update to this, I have today had an offer by telephone from Halifax, it started out at £150 then she raised it to £376 both of which I refused. ally

Had the standard customer service reply back to my prelim letter saying they will reply within 4 weeks etc. Not sure if this is a new name but contact details on the letter are...... Joanne Carmichael Customer Relations Officer Customer Relations Halifax PLC PO Box 548 Leeds LS1 1WU Ally

Have spoken to Halifax this morning, took 4 or 5 phone calls to finally get the statements sent out, depsite them having cashed the cheque for the statement weeks ago, they also didn't sign for the recorded delivery letter at the Trinity Road address (even tho they got it!!) The guy I spoke to this morning said the best address to send any recorded delivery letters is their head office processing dept at the following address Nexus Halifax PLC P.O. Box 548 Leeds LS1 1WU anyway have just been to P.O. and sent my initial request for £1473 of charges back on the joint account, will wait until that is sorted before I start my claim for my single account (which they closed due to their charges!!!) Ally

yep one of the accounts is still open, will email now all in a rush this morning lol just checking my email and stuff before i go off on my holidays ally x