I too am having problems with Equita. An amount of money was owed for council tax. The pension service decided to deduct £3.75 per week in order to pay this back. This morning I had a visit from Equita demanding the whole amount. I told him I am not able to pay the full amount. He said he well call again in two days time. I have since been in touch with the council who tell me that no amounts were received by them, hence them referring it to Equita. Surely I should not be penalised for something out of my control. If they did not take the payments how can I be blamed for that.

I too am being pestered by Vanquis/Impact and their millions of telephone numbers. The trouble is I am getting on a bit and I don't know how to direct the call back to them or whatever it is you do! Please help Chris

In the past I have offered an unusual settlement percentage. Say 4.78% or 9.3%, something like that, it does look like you have thought about it or exactly worked out your I/O!! Anyway it has worked for me.

First of all I should be honest enough to say that I have not been the best in managing my finances over the years. I am 59 and should have mastered the art by now! It reached such a bad situation and I personally became very ill with worry that on the 18th April this year I took a very large overdose with the sole intention of not recovering, obviously I did recover but I spent eight days in hospital and three in intensive care. It was an awful experience and I do not feel proud about what I did, but I have a long standing life insurance policy that would have paid out on suicide. My wife would have received some money, not a fortune but enough to live on. Thankfully my wife and family gave me tremendous support and never looked badly upon me and the action I took. My wife now looks after all the accounts and things are looking a lot better thanks to her. However my reason for posting is because of all the problems I have been having with Cabot and Red/Lowells. The Lowells debt was with a loan taken with Lloyds about 15 years ago and I have not made any contact with them for probably the last 9 of those years. Thanks to this forum I learnt how to deal with Lowells and which letters I should send, when they should be sent and my subsequent reactions to their letters. Lowells kept writing saying they were trying to get a copy of the agreement and would reply within 12 days, needless to say they were not able to do that but still kept persisting in asking for money and a repayment programme. Then a letter arrived to say ‘I made an attempted payment on the 2nd March 2005 for a payment of £5. We trust this clarifies the situation and look forward to receiving your payment proposals’. At no stage did I make a payment – attempted or otherwise and I then sent to them the following: ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE 18 July 2010 Reference No: ********* Dear Ms Peacock Thank you for your letter of the 5th July 2010 regarding the above reference number. I disagree that I made an 'attempted payment' on 2nd March 2005 of £5.00 Please provide the following information: The exact date and time of the payment The method of the alleged attempted payment ie: phone, post or email The form of payment ie credit/debit card If debit/credit card the following details: The bank or building society name The long card number The exact name on the card The expiry date The last three numbers of the CSV The name of the member of your staff who dealt with the alleged attempted payment. You have been unable to comply with my formal request pursuant to s.78(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. However, despite being in default of my request, you have continued to make unlawful demands for payment contrary to s.78(6) of the CCA 1974 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR). I note that the Credit Services Association, in the first paragraph of its Code, state that members must act lawfully at all times. Furthermore, under the CPUTR 2008 failing to comply with a code of conduct to which you have subscribed is unfair trading. In the circumstances, I will not enter into further correspondence with you, and any further unlawful demands or contact will be viewed as harassment and reported to the appropriate enforcement agency. Yours faithfully And then BINGO! Last Saturday 31st July 2010 I received a letter from Lowells dated28th July 2010. The letter read: ‘We write further to recent communications regarding the above account. After reviewing the account, we are prepared to take a commercial view in relation to this matter and as a gesture of goodwill and strictly without any admission of liability, we are prepared to close the account and write-off any outstanding balance. We trust that you will find this satisfactory and that this matter is now closed’. The relief we experienced on Saturday morning was immense as you could probably imagine. The outstanding amount was £10,934, and we were not intending to avoid our debts but this was clearly outside the 6 year allowed period. Since my suicide attempt, my general health has deteriorated rapidly due to my actions and I am now suffering problems I will experience until the day I do pass on, but with my wife’s help I feel we can take anybody on, starting with Cabot. Chris

This is about Cabot again I am sorry to say, but have not found this in any other thread. My wife has been receiving letters about a debt to Capital One of which we know nothing about. However our main concern is this. Whilst my wife was off work for about two weeks Cabot started to phone her work number. How they got her number we do not know. She works at an opticians so as you can imagine the atmosphere there is quite quiet. Cabot asked for her by name, the optician asked who was calling and they replied Cabot - we are a debt collecting company. Surely they cannot disclose this to a third party. Does Data Protection come into this? Any advice would be grateful