I had a similar experience with moneysupermarket earlier today and ended up being offered something entirely unsuitable, i.e. 15 yr debt consolidation with lenders I have never even heard of. It came with a booklet from FISA which seems to be an organisation with only 10 or so members. Not a site I will dare look at again.

I had a similar letter from the Halifax in connection to the default and the info they sent to the various credit reference agencies advising of this. They letter referred to the DPA and stated that they had correctly applied the default as payments had been withheld. Again, no reference to the Banking Code and the fact that the account was in dispute. I discussed this with the Information Commissioners Office and they said that the Bank was entitled to send info relating to the default to various agencies due to the fact that the dispute over the charges and the fact that I had not made a payment were two seperate issues. Strangely the day after I received that letter from Customer Services in HBoS, I had another from the Chief Exec's Office apologising for their poor service in relation to my account, acknowledgement that they had 'let you down' and a check of my credit file that day revealed that they had indeed retracted all info relating to the default. So, 2 conflicting responses from the same organisation - one saying (effectively) 'get stuffed' and the other 'yes, we're a shambles, we're sorry'. I'd persist with another letter advising them of their responsibilities under the Banking Code.

Managed to get his sorted on Friday afternoon. For anyone in dispute with the Halifax, I'm sure you're all aware that there is next to no communication between Customer Services and the Collections team. Although I had been constantly telling the Collections team that there was a dispute, apparently they never received such a notifcation from the team handling the dispute in Customer Services, hence the default notice being served despite the dispute. Collections served my default, despite something like 20 calls where I ahd told them that there was an ongoing dispute. From speaking to Collections on Friday afternoon, they saud that they would not have served a default had someone within Customer Services told them a dispute was occuring. The end result for me was that the default is going to be corrected with all the third parties that they have communicated this to. But a valuable learning experience for anyone who thinks that dealing with this Bank is straightforward. They think like seperate organisations, not one company, and it may be in customer's interests to ensure that all contact with the Customer Services Team is also relayed to the Collections Dept if they are still chasing for money. I can honestly say that I wish I'd never ever stepped into a Halifax branch before in my life.

Hi - have you had any success with this yet? I'm in a similar position with the Halifax and have been looking for advice without much success.

The latest is that the Glasgow branch phoned a human in customer services (a victory really since I got an automated press 1 for no help, press 2 for less help, press 3 to be insulted, press 4 to go back to the beginning and get even moer agitated............................). They said it related to my credit card. I spoke to the credit card people and they said that it was nothing to do with them! It does relate to the accout that was in dispute, it is not a default but the credit reference agency record it as if it is! Now been given the number of retail bank collections to call and see if I can get through to someone in under half an hour.

I've just managed to find an email address for their Head of Customer Services despite the random call centre person telling me that he couldn't give that info out. Funny how a search of the FSA Register finds it within seconds!! I definitely will keep you posted, but the next hour of will life will be spent finding a solicitor in Edinburgh willing to take this on. If no satisfactory resolution to this by 5pm tonight, my solicitors will be taking this up with them on Monday morning at 9. Basically, if I have a default against me, I lose my career. I certainly don't intend being a 30 yr old who's life is gubbed because of these 'people' (note my use of the word 'people' is to avoid any editing if I used the words I have been calling them for the past hour).

I'm bloody mad as hell. Had a dispute with the Halifax starting in Sept to reclaim my bank charges. As is common to a lot of people doing this, I was continually harassed, chased and hounded to repay my overdraft during that time. In December I was given back over £3000 worth of charges, yet today I received a notification of a change to my credit account. When I looked it up, it transpires that the Halifax have passed notification of a defult served during the dispute to the credit reference agency!!! This despite them being told by myself on numerous occasions that doing so was a breach of the Banking Code and Data Protection Act! In fact, I am still awaiting a response from them to a section 10 notice served on 4th Dec advising them of this!!! I have sent recorded delivery reminders and faxes to them to this effect, but they have never responded and the first I heard was an email alert from Credit Expert to this change on my credit file. To say I am fizzing mad at the moment is an understatement. I've given them until 5pm today to respond to me. If they don't, I'm appointing a solicitor. I wish I'd never been a Halifax 'customer' ever in my life. I guess I can kiss goodbye to that preferential mortgage rate now. I'm not even going to say what I think about them as I know it will only be edited.

Oh yes! My Mum's got a muckle big telly for her Xmas - 32" flat screen, freeview and all the extras. The rest has gone on all important things, um, my car being serviced and taxed, a new matress and generally having a breather from worrying about money. The latter of those things beings priceless!

I'm laughing at the bit about employers! I've had my car loan for 3 years and in that time have had 6 jobs!!! Still, been in the same one now for 6 months, so that must be doing me some good. Anyhoo, over the past few months, I've registered with Credit Expert to keep my eye on any errant credit applications made using either my name or my address (bloody benefits fraudsters live beneath me and a few neighbours have had credit account opened in the names of those two characters - or any of the 9 aliases - but using their addresses). I did actually have someone apply for a £10K Welcome Finance loan using my name and address! With my bank charges having been reclaimed from both the Halifax and the Nationwide, I'm now able to look at an ever increasing credit score. I check it most months, and I have been proactive in contacting a few lenders to ask that they update accurately my credit information. My car loan, for example, still shows £1,400 outstanding on it, but it's actually paid off in January 07 - something that's been confirmed over the phone. The Natinowide have removed notice of late payments while the account was in dispute by the use of the (s) 10 notice, and I've also done the same with the Halifax. In 3 months, I've went from a score of 417, to 455. I'm still in the 'very poor' category, but hope that over the next few monbths now my finances are stabilising, fair or average may be just around the corner!

Hi, when I challenged the Nationwide over the money they had taken from me, they seemed to be short by quite a bit. I'd been using the Notice of Charges on the SAR response they sent and not the actual statements showing where charges had been applied.

Fantastic stuff! Bang the drum people! Sing it loud! I've reclaimed and I'm proud!!!

In honour of the festive seson, I let out a resounding 'booooooooo' when the woman from the British Banker's Assocation came on. "Service fee"????? Service my backside. It is not a service to be the subject of an 'unlawful' act. The brass neck of these people gets right under my skin, and every Xmas card I'm writing at the moment has the CAG stickers on the back to make sure everyone at least knows where the website is. That's the best Xmas present I can think of giving some people. I hope that the people I work with now have the confidence to feel that reclaiming bank charges is not just something that I have been banging on about in my own eccentric way. This isn't a one man show, but it is perfectly justifiable in law to challenge the banks over this unlawful practice. I hope I get asked lots of quesions today about this. Well done to the BBC. It should hopefully give people the confidence and awareness to have a better 2007 by challenging their banks over this. From my point of view, I've still got 2 accounts that I'm going to chase up right now. I have passed details of this website onto someone else who successfully got just under £5K back from the Halifax (before I got mine ) and have turned into a recharges bore. Maybe from now on, people will start to listen and see the opportunities there.

The knees of the banks must be knocking when they realise the amount of people who will be logging onto these websites today and downloading the various templates and the like! Expect loads more questions from colleagues over the next few days as they realise that we are not deranged, we are not nutters fighting a one man battle against our bank, but this is something EVERYONE can do. Think I'll be printing off a few more wee things and leaving them in the staff room today.

Good luck with that. I've sent off a section 10 letter as others have recommended I do with my own case, to try and ensure that the default they served during the course of my dispute is never sent to third parties. And I did phone up the Collections Team at the Halifax to make sure the cheeky beggar that phoned me up the day before I got my settlement letter, and who was quite posisbly the rudest Halifax employee on the planet, knew that I had won. "Show me the money, Jerry!"

Rubbish! I got £2,200 from them earlier a few weeks back - go for it! The are stubborn blighters, but they will give in and you will get your money.

I'm so sorry you have to put up with this guff from them. It's a complete mirror image of everything they did to me. Fortunately my case is now concluded as I have my money (£3.7K party at my house this weekend!), but the damage done by sleepless nights and silent calls will linger for a while. I know it's not a comfort at the moment, but you will win, you will get your money back and in time may learn not to jump every time the phone rings. It's no consolation but I do think you're doing the right thing in noting everything down and asking for everything in right. Make no mistake, these people do not care and the only thing we can do is make them.

They are probably stalling. Stick rigidly to the LBA and timescales you put in place and they will find no opportunity to stll or delay with this. I got the full £3,700 they owed me yesterday and, although it's been frustrating at times, I've got my money! Stick with it. It will come!!!!

I'm sure it will happen soon enough!!! What seems to differ from case to case is the timing of when money comes through in relation to the timings of correspondence or lack of it from the Court. I got my letter confirming that they will pay me, and within a few hours the money was there. My first purchase? A new bed from which I hopefully won't be woken by call centres in India asking me daft questions at 8 am on a Sunday morning about my arrears (oh, that MBNA in fact, and those cards were all closed after being reclaimed in September!). I love CAG.

Got it, Crocodiles. Every penny!!!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A letter from the Helllifax today saying they will pay me what I've asked for!!! All £3.7K of it! Woo hoo!!! And in reference to my post the other day about sleekit wee jobby call centre Collections man, ha! Stick that in yer cheeky wee 'Who said they were unlawful' pipe and smoke it

I think I will have to give them a call. I hvae written to them and advised that they were late serving their defence and asked for a resolution without need to file for a judgement by default. Hopefully the money will just silently appear in my account. The bams!

Well done to both of you!!! Good news that the Halifax are paying up as I'm still bleedin' waiting!

Excellent stuff! Hopefully similar will happen to me by the end of the week too!!!!

Go get 'em!!! Best of luck for tomorrow and I hope you have every success seeking retribution from the Hellifax.

I know exactly how you feel! Your case and my sound exactly the same, even down to the '...........but the OFT statement doesn't apply to bank accounts, only credit cards' discussion I had with one of their call centre Collections guys last night from that 0870 number they use. The communication between their Customer Services and their Collections are abyssmal. From speaking to a fairly helpful woman the other week, she did say that they have two seperate systems they use. One which clearly says 'under dispute' and the Collections one which doesn't record any of that info. And I know what Hillards means about the FBI list!!!! If only they set the Halifax Collections team onto Bin Laden, I'm sure he'd some surrender from his hole the way this lot pester you!