That will come in very very handy. Many thanks.

I'll try and keep this as brief as possible. I've been using Baines & Ernst to pay off my debts for the past 4 years. As of July this year my payment plan was completed and my account closed with all debts finally repaid. Now, here's where the fun really starts. Baines & Ernst highlighted to me that they had actually been making payments to Wescot Credit Services on a Co-Operative Bank Account that was fraudulently opened in my name using details of a previous address of mine. It seems that back in 2001 when the account was opened Wescot sent me a demand for full repayment for over £1000 on this account, this demand ended up being sent to Baines & Ernst amongst a pile of other correspondence and they treated it as a bad debt and began to make regular repayments on my behalf. I know it was a schoolboy error and i should have checked more thoroughly. Anyway, the upshot of the whole saga is that the Co-op agreed that it was a fraudulent account and Wescot shouldn't have been pursuing me for any money whatsoever and therefore Wescot owed me a refund of £1751.00. I waited 3 months while Wescot & Baines & Ernst argued between themselves about the total amount due to me and when a cheque would be drawn up and sent to me. Anyway after waiting patiently and getting nowhere my patience finally snapped and i demanded that Wescot do a BACS transfer into my account for the full amount.................which eventually they did last Wednesday. So where's the problem now you ask? Well, running alongside this fraudulent debt was a monthly repayment made on my behalf for a Goldfish Credit Card which was mine. This account was as usual 'bought' from Goldfish / HSBC by Wescot but ended being passed backwards and forwards between them and Lewis Debt Services over a period of time. Anyway, Baines & Ernst were (and still are) satisfied that this debt has now been paid in full so as i explained they have closed my account and refunded my set-up fee. Unfortunately Wescot do not seem to accept this and have been harassing me since last Wednesday for repayment (ironic they choose the same day that they actually paid ME £1751.00!) and are threatening further action. Their whole telephone manner and way of working needs to be addressed in some way. The woman i spoke to last week was very aggressive and actually shouted down the phone at me demanding "look just pay up!!"...............when i told her to contact Baines & Ernst and that her records were some 9 months out of date she just continued the same "pay it!!" mantra..........when i demanded her name so i could speak to her superior i had the phone uncerimoniously slammed down on me! After speaking to Baines & Ernst for what seems like the umpteenth time over the last few months they acknowledged that this is no surprise to them and that it's "Wescot's style" to wrongly harass people this way. They have also have confirmed to me that the debt is paid in full and any further correspondence form Wescot should be forwarded to them immediately and any further phone calls should be met with my Baines & Ernst reference number and a request to contact them direct and to no longer contact me regarding it. I have written to Baines & Ernst requesting a full payment breakdown for the entire history of the payment plan to Wescot and i have also written to Wescot to inform them that they are in breach of Section 40 of The Administration of Justice Act, the OFT Debt Collection Guidelines & possibly the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 which states "it is a criminal act for any person to pursue a course of action which they know, or ought to know, amounts to harassment of another person". I have also reported Wescot to the OFT, The Fair Trading Officer at Kingston-upon-Hull Council (who are currently assigning an officer to the case) and my own local London Borough of Hillingdon Trading Standards office. This whole debacle is not only extremely frustrating but is also delaying any further steps i want to take regarding tidying up my credit rating. Any advice on the next course of action would be gratefully received. Cheers in advance. Rob

Came across this site whilst searching for info on Wescot Credit Services with whom i'm currently having problems with (seems like i'm not the only one either) regarding their harrassment tactics. Once i've gathered enough info i'll post the full story in the relevant forum. Nice site by the way and keep up the sterling work!