I was replying to this thread explaining to the OP what i have did in a similar situation after reading many threads on here, I was not hi-jacking the thread. I have been on here long enough to know i need to open my open thread if i need help and advice.

Nadia this seems to be a common story now your description of events is almost exactly identical to my mothers. I am now reading up as many posts as i can and researching into this to try and help my mother get out of the catch 22 she has found herself in with this account. My mother is on a state pension and disability allowance so the first thing i have did for her is send in a notice of appropriation letter you can find the template on this very forum. Next step is try for a hardship claim to try and get the charges back. I have also got her to move away from the Halifax and open a co-operative bank cashminder account which her pension is now paid in to, The Cashminder Account is one that should not have any overdraft, so it's one that should not go into the red at all so no more bank charges it has on-line banking so easy to check balance each day. Hopefully what little i have put can help out in some way.

Hi Rebel11 Thanks for the quick reply, will update and let you all know how this goes as i don't expect it all to be plain sailing.

Hi, Ok i will keep this short as possible and to the point, I recently discovered my mother has got a couple of items from these folks, So i was going through her credit agreement which indecently is blank (no signatures or amount owed) so on asking my mum a few questions on what she pays to them i discovered about this OSC & DLC which really hikes up her repayments. Apparently she was told she HAD to take both she was not told the OSC was optional. So after much reading of posts here i have sent off a recorded letter asking for the OSC to be cancelled also she will take a copy of the letter in to the branch manager. Once this is done could someone advise how she goes about claiming back her money for the OSC (I have looked and searched but cant see anything on this) as far as i can tell this was mis-sold as she did say she did not want it but was told she had to take it out which is obviously not the case. RnS

OMG.... i thought i would never be surprised what what a dca would say or do to collect but that has left me speechless.

subbing

Subbing... good thread picked up some good info.. took ages to read through it all

Your letter in post #34 is identical to the one i received last week, only the barstewards have only given me 7 days i don't think they like me. I have just sent them a reply saying from now they are on ignore, If they want to try and go to court i am up for it.. Cabot are very very slow in the uptake.

Is anyone going to post said letter... ??

Although i don't post much i have been on here a while now and it would be sad to see you go CCM as i personally have gained a lot from your posts. There is still a good fight to be fought and us caggers need our best foot soldiers for the job so i do hope you stay.

Thanks twofoot.. this is basically what i am planning to do after this final letter, i am just going to file anything from them under ignore unless it's anything to do with court as they have said they are now going to escalate the account in there collections process whatever that means. I assume that means they are going to step up the harassment or pass it to one of the smaller fish in the dca cesspool. I will post up the application that they are claiming is my original cca later as i need to pop out just now.

Finally got a response from those idiots at crapbot towers.. Just to recap i sent them a letter stating that They have not sent me the CCA i requested but a simple mailer application form which did not have the prescribed terms. To be honest i expected the reply i got back from the fools, they are basically saying i have been misinformed in relation to the arguments i continue to raise and i have no grounds for my continued dispute they are further stating that the terms of an agreement can be set out in another document and are quoting CCA 1974 section 60(1) for this. They go on further saying that they will not enter in to any further correspondence regarding the matter as it is evident i am delaying repayment of the account - That made me chuckle. Looking around the board there seems to be have been a spate of this activity from Cabot where they are sending out a copy of the original application form and a copy of some terms and conditions in a separate document and are claiming this is legally accurate and are trying to enforce the debt .... What i am planning on doing is as follows.. forward all material on to trading standards, forward on my complaint to OFT about breaching of there guidelines etc, I am then sending one last letter to cabot stating that I consider this account to be in SERIOUS DISPUTE. And as they are aware while my Consumer Credit Act request remains in default enforcement action is NOT permitted, under s127 and this constitutes a complete defence at law., as they continue to ignore my dispute and attempt enforcement. I am of the opinion that there continued pursuit is in violation of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 section 40 as well as breaching a number of the OFT Collection Guidelines so i have filed reports with the appropriate authorities, including, but not limited to, Trading Standards, Office of Fair Trading, Information Commissioners Office, Financial Ombudsman Service and initiate possible legal action. Any opinions would be gratefully received.

All it will be is threats, If they want to go to court let them for as far as i understand it a court is precluded from enforcing any such agreement by s127 (3) CCA1974 as it would be improperly executed under s61 CCA 74 and the consequences of an improper execution are set out in section 65 CCA 1974 and s65 which sets out that only a court can enforce an improperly executed agreement subject to certain qualifications, one of those is that the document is signed and contains all the prescribed terms. Now any document that does not contain all the prescribed terms s127 (3) CCA 1974 would strictly prevent the court from enforcing this agreement. I'm no expert and i am picking things slowly up again but i believe i am correct in the above. I'm sure someone will correct me if i am wrong

Cool.. I will complain to everyone then, going to be a busy weekend... lol

Would it be worthwhile complaining to The Consumer Credit Services Association & The Consumer Credit Trade Association as well.. been a while since i have done all this so trying to get myself up too speed which any changes since i was last involved. I should have killed this off when they said they could not provide the CCA but i got complacent this time i am going for the throat.

Good too see the CFC roaring again.. I was one of the ones who disappeared when the crabot forum got closed. These people disgust me in the way they do there business, 2 years and not a peep out of them now they pop up and say ohh here is the caa you asked for 2 years ago when in fact it's an application form.

Hi, I got my reply back from crapbot.. a whole 2 pages of guff, i can see them trying to push this to the end but my resolve is greater than there's basically they are saying the following... All of which is total rubbish Vanquis have sent them a copy of a mailer application form which does not have all the prescribed terms and with it being an application form and not a copy of the actual signed credit agreement it is obviously not signed by both the lender and borrower which i believe is has too. I have just sent another letter pointing out the flaws in there comments and pointing out what should be contained in a CCA and requested they zero the debt. I don't want to be playing ping pong with letters.. If they come back insisting they will not be dropping the debt and will be continuing to try and enforce the unenforceable what are my next steps who do i complain too?

Cheers folks... will let you know if they reply back. Most likely they will try to defend what they have done.

A little over 2 years ago i requested a CCA on a Vanquis debt that cabot where now saying was there's, in the end they could not provide me with the CCA so i got the usual letter saying "They where still waiting on the requested info from the original lender" and they would freeze my account until they have the info requested (how kind of them ehh). So as i said that was two years ago, so imagine my surprise when i get an A4 sized envelope with what they claim is the CAA. What they have actually sent is a copy of the original application form, it's one of those really old forms which you moisten to seal and is actually written in my handwriting. It is barely legible, but you can see the signature clearly. There are no prescribed terms, no account number, credit limits or interest rates on the form, is this enforceable? They say in the letter "copy of your Application Credit Card Agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974". What kind of shenanigans are they trying to pull here as it is clearly not a copy of the CCA but a copy of an Application. I am pretty sure this is not enforceable.

Ok taking everything that's been posted... Am i right in saying my main points will be That it appears to breach the Working Time Regulations which state that a worker must be allowed a 'week's leave', with a week being defined as a normal working period during a seven day period. In the terms of the contract there is no 'at the employer's convenience' type clause attached to the booking of leave infact it's a pretty vague paragraph they have in place - Since there has been no restrictions on what days holiday's could be taken in the previous 4 years under the custom and practice argument it would now be part of my T&C's. Obviously before i go wading in there i will speaking to Acas and my Union Rep. (out of over 200 employee's i am the only one who is a union member)

Thanks sidewinder some of that is very interesting... The below quote is everything pertaining to holidays in my contract.. There is nothing in there about when you can or can't take holiday's the only thing relevent is "the needs of the buisness may have to take precedence" part, but us not being allowed to book weekends has nothing to do with the needs of the buisness. I was planning on approaching a manager for an unoffical talk and explain why this is not workable and try and sort it in a friendly way.. but failing that i can only see this being resolved by going through the grievence procedure so obviously i want to be sure of the facts.

Ok previously there was no restrictions on when you could take a holiday you could book any day you where on rota as a holiday. and we had a holiday cover rota that covered shifts when people booked holidays. Apparently some people where secretly moaning about covering other people's holidays, so our supervisor decided he was ****ed off getting moaned at that he would change the system and introduce a restriction on people booking weekends off so now you can not book a Saturday or sundry off as a holiday they want us to arrange a shift swap instead with another member of staff or you take the days as unpaid leave. The problem with this is if anyone covered your shift they would end up doing between 60-72 for that week and the same would happen to you once you cover there shift also if you where to take it as unpaid leave they would have to get someone to cover it anyway. Surely it's down to them to cover your shifts not you My main question was are they not changing my T&C's as there was no restrictions in place for the previous 3 years before this also we have had no official notice that this change would be taking effect. from my understanding from the info on acas, direct gov & cab any restricions should be written into my contract also any changes taking effect they have one month to notify you. My supervisor deciding to make his life easier does not come under the needs of the company.. At the moment we work 3 weekends in 7 so it's pretty hard to book a full week off and you would have no chance booking 2 weeks off under the present system.

This has been simmering away now since last month. Just to recap we have been told we are not allowed to take weekends as holiday's we can take any week day or night we are on rota has a holiday but no weekends are allowed. The reason given is "Last year there were a number of complaints from people who were being forced to work extra weekends to cover other peoples holidays. so it was decided by our supervisor (not management) that the only way to allow people to take holiday weekends , while on rota , was to make them arrange a swap with one of the other Noc Technicians." Surely this does not come under the needs of the company? he has basically decided he is getting grief so he will change it as he can't be arsed with arranging the cover. Surely it's up to your employer to arrange holiday cover not you the employee. Then there is the catch 22 it is not possible to swap as it would put you over the working time regulations as you would both end up working 60 hrs for the swapped shifts Previously there was no restrictions on my contract, i could take any working day i wanted so if they are wanting to add this restriction would it not be classed as a change to my T&C's?

This is copied direct from my contract of employment it's the only thing about holidays that i can see in there.. As to your point one.. There is nothing to say how and when they have to be taken, Also as i mentioned for the last 14 months we had in place a Holiday cover rota But 1 person in the team was continually moaning about covering shifts for other peoples holidays, Because of this the cover rota has been withdrawn and the reason given for this was our supervisor was fed up of the hassle. So am i understanding this correctly you are saying because we have been following this Cover Rota for some time it could now be viewed as part of our T&C's so he (our supervisor) does not have the right to stop it. or have i misunderstood.

Hi, I am after some advice and clarification on how to approach a situation at my work in regards to days we can take holidays. I work in a small group of 6 and we work 12hr shifts on a 6 week rotation, in total we work 19 shifts within the 6 weeks. The shifts we cover are 12 days and 7 nights which makes up the 19 shifts in total, the day shifts are double cover (i,e there are 2 people on) night shifts and weekends are single cover. Last year we made up a holiday cover rota to cover the night & weekend shifts but it turns out someone was secretly not happy about covering shifts, So this year my supervisor has said You can only take holidays on day shift where there is double cover. No weekends unless by swap. No night shifts unless by swap. The reasoning being given to not being able to take weekends or nights is there is no cover because we are understaffed, Now swapping is all fine and dandy if you can get someone too swap plus this does not help with the fact you have have swapped and not used holidays which end up building up as you are not using them so you lose them. Now i understand that they can refuse a holiday request if it affects the nature and demands of there business/organisational need, But as far as i can see this is not the case so in me eyes we are being refused holidays because we are understaffed and that's not really my problem it's there's So can they do this? i want to have my facts correct first before i go charging in there plus i would rather send a polite email to management pointing out any contract breaches before i go the grievance route.