Speak to the Council's own Trading Standards Dept - they are often willing to contact creditors and the like and advise them of the circumstances of the person in question. If the Council's own TS team write to the Council Tax people, surely that counts for something.

Nothing back from this lot as yet. I'm presuming the abacus they use to add up my charges doesn't have enough balls on it to reach my total. Fortunately I have more than enough balss to follow through with my claim!!!

I did, but with Screenselect. Told them Trading Standards would be advised by the end of the week unless they acknowledged the cancellation. Funnily enough, they did just that!

Perhapss you have one a foreign holiday which is too good to be true. You'll only have to pay £375 in admin fees and get a 2 night stay in Skegness for it.

Contact the public relations team for Network Rail in your area (PM me if you need to find out who these are). Advise them of the problem and your concerns. If you get no joy from them, use the emails shown in the format first name.last [email protected] They will probably just push you into the PR team for your area anyway, but it will be given a greater priority than if you contact them direct. In large organisations like this, the best way to deal with these is to use your local MP or Councillor. I know it sounds like overkill, but a complaint from the Genereal Public is on a fairly low priority while a VIP letter is treated with the utmost urgency - usually a difference in timescale of 14 days. So, don't be afraid to mention it to other local officials if need be. They'll simply be relaying their constituents concerns which is what they are there for! I would be surprised if they do not think this an issue. In H & S terms, only Sentinel Card holders (a Sentinel Card being that which certifies that rail staff have been trained to go lineside and have the right to be there) can be lineside and that includes an area 3m to the side of the railway line. And from a PR point of view, they are p*ssing off a neighbour. And the last thing NWR needs is more bad publicity, albeit at a local level. ;-)

I'm still waiting for my response although I'm glad to hear they responded realtively quickly to you just to confirm that it was safely received. I hope you get a quick resolution to your problems with them.

I've got exactly the saem situation with the Royal Bank!!! I have a big credit card bill with them, and mortgage. That is the only thing that has prevented me from taking action against them.

Not heard anything yet. I think your SAR went just a few days before mine too. Oooooh, I wonder if this is the offer to settle at about 50%?

About three years ago, my own utility company (as opposed to to someone with a similar name) repeatedly failed to fix my blown fuse. In fairness they did a cracking job when I made the 'help, I've not got power' call, but thereafter followed a 2 years palaver to get them to fix it. The night of the call out, the engineer got my electricity back up and running, but the digital display of the fuse had stopped working, so needed a new meter. We arranged on something like 9 seperate occasions for this replacement to take place. First time the guy that turned up thought he was putting in a power card meter, and so it couldn't be fixed. We arranged another visit for the repair and the guy never turned up. And rearranged, then he never turned up again, nor the time after that, or the next time. I missed out on a small fortune in wages - I was on a contract at the time - and still no readable meter. Then a nasty letter telling me that I was getting a meter reading the following day and it was non-negotiable. So, another 3 or 4 hours worth of pay lost. I did phone and tell them that the meter was not working, but they insisted someone had to come out and see that it wasn't working!!!! Total costs to me? About £60 in lost pay!!! After this palaver, I then started getting bills in the names of people who have never lived in my property! "Dick Williams, Claire Toon, etc, etc" When I asked for a bill in my name, they said, "We have no record of you having lived there". That being the place I'd been living for 3 years and paying bills prior to that!!! They had also lost all records of me paying bills and wanted to backdate them for the 3 years I had been living there. Sick fed up of this, I tried changing to a different supplier. However, the meter number on my bills was 'not recognised' by my supplier, therefore, I couldn't change. I then wrote to them telling them of all the problems I had with them, and I got a letter back telling me what my meter number was. ...........except when I passed it to their 'change' department, they didn't recognise it!!! ARGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! Eventually they acknowledged poor performance over all of this and gave me £50 towards my next bill. I was actually about £500 worse off due to lost pay. Numpties.

Good luck with it - I'll be shortly on the heels of you against MBNA too!

Excellent! Wonder if Style will follow the RBoS route to settling these?

I just want a moan! Received loads of letters and calls from a debt collection agency about a gas bill for a flat where the gas was unpaid in 2003. Fine. Except I have never lived in a property where there is gas!!! The link between me and the person they are chasing? Well, he is Mr N M****, and I am Miss N M**** so same first initial and surname. I did try explaining that to the diddy on the end of this DCA phone line. "But you are chasing a guy who happens to have the same first initial and surname as me. I have never lived with him, have no connection with him, have never heard of this guy or the address that the debt was accrued until your letter arrived today. You are not chasing me. He is a guy, I am not" "Can you prove it?" "Umm, yes, but not over the phone. Check the electoral register and you will see who I am and that I live alone and not with a Mr N M****". "It's only £67, will you pay it anyway". "No I bloody well will not". "Well, we'll send around someone to your property to collect the money as you are the only N M**** in the phone book in that town" "But I've never had gas, I've never lived at his address and I'm not a bloody bloke". "There's no need to lose your temper now". Seriously? No need to lose my friggin' temper???!!! Anyhow, called Scottish Gas direct who - after 57 mins on the hold - finally agreed that this bill had nothing to do with me, that at no point had they ever suggested it did have anything to do with me, and that there was clearly an error in their DCA's search techniques. Within 2 weeks I had the biggest bunch of flowers I have ever seen delivered to my home with an apology from the Gas company. I was pretty chuffed and thought, "Fair enough". (Easily bought or what?) Five minutes later, the post arrived and a recorded delivery letter from the DCA telling me someone was calling to my house in 5 days to collect the £65 by which point I will incur collection fees!!! ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH! How many times??! I am not a bloody bloke, I have never had gas, I have never lived at the address he lives at, I have never heard of him before, the DCA's clients were happy that it all had nothing to do with me, yet they were going to turn up at my door to collect goods to the value of 65 quid!!! I've told them, "Fine". Turn up. They'll look bloody stupid when they realise I was born with breasts and couldn't possibly be the bloke they are looking for. Idiots, numbskulls and sharks. Rant over! Quite therapeutic this site

Oh, I did have one of these! My first adventure into the world of credit was with a small Style account with a £200 limit. I did actually consider pursuing this one as I'm sure they owe me at least enough for a tank of petrol and some groceries. Tell me, was it the Guild Hall, Glasgow address you have used for correspodence?

Cheeky beggars! I have reached something of a settlement with them, but have got my parachute account ready and in the process of moving d/d and S/o so that I can eventually close this account. It has been nothing but a nuisance from day one. They sold me on the 'transfer your account to us and you won't have to do a thing'. Hmmm. Apart from cancel the direct debits! I took the 'we'll do everything' at it's word, and ended up with £400 on my former current account as my d/d companies tried to take the d/d from that account. In fairness to Nationwide, they did reimburse the costs of these charges, however, not before the Halifax had served a default notice against me. Not happy at all about it. Still, hopefully my new bank will give me something to 'smile' about.

I am thinking about claiming against Sainsburys for a number of things. I have had a card with them for a while - usual thing, everything fine until family death, costs of funeral, etc - and a period of unemployment thereafter made it difficult to meet some of the costs. They registered a default against me earlier this year, but I'm ready to take action against them on this matter, as well as the charges which they have been applying to my account. Has anyone else taken action against them? If not, I'm happy to go where others fear to tread, get my bloody money back, and get rid of that nasty default!!!!

Hell, I'm getting so addicted to this reclaiming thing, that I've been in the loft all weekend looking for all statements to get account numbers and the like looking for details of charges and the like! Anyhow, the DPA letter for this account (which is now closed) went on Friday via recorded delivery. Will have to wait and see if the charges that were applied to his. In fairness, I don't think it's a lot, but if it's enough to pay for my new fridge, then that'll do! How has everyone else found IKANO to deal with?

Funnily enough the Halifax are next on my list! I have had a current account with them since my days as a student, but I'm concerned that if I take action against them with that, they'll do something to the (very large) sum owing on my credit card account. I'm sure they must owe me thousands on my current account in charges though. Will wait and see what happens with MBNA first!

My DPA letter was sent recorded yesterday with a copy of my driving licence and the required cheque. It's great that other people have been through this and we can share info about these companies and the tactics they appear to follow. I'm half expecting them to return the cheque and make a wee offer to settle going by some of the things other members are saying about them. Still, I'm in it for the long haul. They have my money unlawfully, I want it back. On another point, I have also been pursued by MBNA and their collection people in the past, so can sympathise with those who are getting the hourly calls - usually starting at 8.01 am and continuing through to 9 at night. My home phone is still off the hook trying to escape from them, but by next pay day (after 3 months out of unemployment), I'll be back on an even keel and I'll be waiting for their offer to settle!!!!

Good to hear that you're getting these things resolved. Hoopefully they'll be as good when I start on them!

Hi - I've just this thread and it sounds so familiar with my own experiences of dealing with MBNA and Global Vantage. I had the calls at 8 am, 8.13 am, 8.45 am on a Saturday morning the day after my father died. I had them on the day of his funeral, and every hour of the day for weeks after. Eventually I just got unplugged my home phone as the hourly phone calls were becoming too much. That at a time when I really needed to be in touch with people and they with me. Some of the tactics that some of the agencies use really is beyond the pale and a disgrace. Certainly on one occasion I did answer I told them a cheque had been sent in some 3 or 4 days before their call. Their response? "We get stories like this from people all the time - we need to see some money". I was livid. "Stories? F'ing stories!!!!!!??????? How bloody dare you suggest I am lying!!!!" I went mad at them. The sleepless nights worrying about the early morning wake up calls were not pleasant and even more stressful than losing my father. We knew he would not survive his illness and knew what the outcome would be, but with these sharks they constantly try and get at you day by day, hour by hour. If any individual phoned you 20 or so times a day, sometimes hanging up after 2 or 3 rings, you would be able to get an injunction against them, so why is this practice allowed to continue by these people? Rant over!!! Well done, Sev. It's a shame you had to go through this stress, and great that you managed to get some of recognition from them that they were in the wrong.

Well, here goes nothing. What a god send this website has been. I have 3 MBNA cards, which had been relatively well managed until I gave up work a year ago to look after my father when he was ill. One of the cards is now closed and the balance of this never went over £1000, the second one is at £1200 (I think at one point it was up at £4000), and the final one has a balance of around £300 (being at one point around £6000). There were regularly late charges applied to the account, until I got so fed up of it and decided to just rearrange my finances (using a wonky endowment which I had already pulled out of) to clear large parts of these. I'm convinced that there must be about £1500 worth of charges on these accounts over the years and have started the process of seeking to obtain a statement of charges from them. I'll probably find out there's a hell of a lot more, but hey, it's my money and I'm not resting until I get every penny of it back. Let battle commence.

Here goes with another wee campaign! I used to have a Capital One credit card, and had quite a few charges on it over the years. I eventually managed to pay it off and close it, but I'm aware that there were a number of charges incurred which legally cannot be justified. I guess I'll ask for the statement of charges under the DPA and take it from there! There may be enough for a new fridge freezer at least! ;-)

Tazz, interested to hear what you have to say about getting round the Scottish court rules ;-)

The Nationwide certainly have been busy recently! I received a letter coming in on Saturday advising me that they are taking £738 worth of charges out of my account for unpaid direct debits for July and August!!!!! Fine. I'll take them for that with interest and costs thanks very much. The only reason I have these problems is that my father died earlier this year, which resulted in me having to give up my job, thereafter having £3k worth of funeral costs to find from any savings I had. If the Nationwide really want the bad publicity of me having to explain that in court and be seen to be profiting on the back of a customers fathers death, fine. Instead of encourgaing me to get back on my feet now that I'm earning again (but with the drawback of having all arrears on everything to pay back really quickly!) they seem to view this vulnerability of a chance to make a wad of cash and boost their already obscene profits. Can you guess I'm raging????!!!!

It's great (well, it isn't, but you know what I mean!) that other people are in this situation and able to share advice like this. I received a response to my first letter from the Nationwide today, and I know now what can be achieved if I stick to it. Their,"......Financial Ombudsman" letter came in today, alongside a letter telling me of a charge incurred for a £2.99 cheque which they bounced! Thanks for letting me know the best way ahead. They will not win.