I was rather surprised to receive a letter through the post from a debt management officer informing me I owed £3315.10. The last and only time I claimed tax credits was around SIX YEARS ago when my children lived with me for a couple of years. Thankfully there are websites like this one where people can share their frustrations. I know for a fact I don't owe it so won't be paying a penny.

I can't really answer your question as I'm new here too but I just thought I'd reply as I had a CCJ against me a few years ago due to a Burton's storecard. I only ever bought £70's worth of clothes with it but kept missing my repayment deadlines. I paid a lot more than £70 back in total but they still took me to court and I ended up being billed over £300. I still have the CCJ against me but refused to pay it. The company threatened me with a return to court several times but I ignored the letters and haven't heard anything for over a year. I know I'll have to pay it one day but just thought if there had been a site like this back when I has having problems with Burtons I'd probably have been able to avoid a judgement. If I'd spent £300 on clothes I wouldn't have had any arguments but to be charged that after having only bought £70 worth of goods and then having paid that back (mainly in admin fees) it was a little hard to take. Good luck anyway!

I found this site after cruising the net looking for information regarding bank charges. I'd seen the OFT recently say that £12 charges should be the maximum and had heard that there was recently a programme with Trevor McDonald investigating the bank charges and stumbled across the Bank Action Group. Its great to see sites like these dedicated to helping the consumers and we need all the help we can against the Fat Cat Banks who are a law unto themselves. I'm getting sick of the amount of charges i'm getting. I have a lot of DD's going through my bank account and most go out early in the month but sometimes problems occur and I get charged the following month and then I'm over my overdraft again because of the Bank Charge and am then charged again. Its a vicious circle. I look forward to seeing some of the stories on this forum! I'll definately be looking at the Bank charges as that seems pretty straight forward but not sure where I stand (if anywhere) on my Credit Cards. I have three (yea I know durr but I learned the hard way). One is a Halfiax Card which I owe about £10k on, one is a Capital One Card which I owe about a Grand on and the other is a Beneficial which I owe about £140. I'm paying them all back at the moment by either DD or Standing order. The Halifax and Cap One card at about £50/month each and the Beneficial at £15/month. The two main ones are frozen but the Beneficial is still being charged interest as I never defaulted on that one (though I destroyed it some time ago). Only thing I'm not sure about in regard to Credit cards is what I can claim for if anything. Obviously I can't get my interest back but am not sure what charges outside of interest I incurred as the balances have been outstanding for almost 2 yrs. I'll have a search around the forums and see what I can find out.