Ack! OK you need to check what amount they are refinancing for you and what it is made up of. However you do need to realise that £297 over 48 months was already £14,256! This figure should have been given to you on any loan - total amount repaid - altho they are always scary. What interest rate and APR did they quote you? Check on the original paperwork. Also is this another 50 months or a total of 50 of which you have already completed 24? I am pretty sure that it's legal whatever the answers, sadly it seems that no-one thinks there should be a ceiling on interest rates (except I think I heard something about new laws to limit doorstep lending rates - which are the highest as they generally go to the poorest and least able to access mainstream finance) so unless anyone knows differently I think your best bet is to get out and refinance at a better rate if you can do that. Oh and if you do, read the small print carefully.

Oops, meant to say... thank you to the person who PMd me to offer advice too - your help is very much appreciated.

Thanks for that Lookinforinfo, much appreciated. Yeah, you are right about coming up with questions at the end but some of this stuff wasn't happening when I started and I fled the country for a while last year. No matter, it's all good and the letters and info got my so called outstanding balance from IF chopped in half. One letter and they didn't even bother to reply - just credited the account. I swiftly added the other half and wrote to say 'thank you' LOL Reckon they could hear me grinning in every line. Anyway, OK, I follow on the DCA thing now but don't think it really applies in my case. On the credit record I undertand what you say but still feel that to accept such wildly inaccurate stuff is wrong. I shall get it put right - it could mean clearing six months earlier than otherwise. Not much in 6 years I suppose but ... all helps surely? I shall check for any fully closed accounts to get rid of bad history and see where that leaves me. Egg, I am at a bit of a loss with their latest demand. A PM advisor also suggested a senior level letter with the offer one more time. I guess I will try as you suggest but this one is seriously stressing me out not being able to sort it for so damn long. I shall also check and challenge the last statement for interest since July - just in case they have added any cos I am blowed if I should have to pay while they sod around. I am seriously considering not making any more payments and seeing if they send it back to Direct Legal as they threatened before - they might settle quicker and for less. What do you think? Or perhaps I should let it go to court and see what they think of all this messing about. It's not like a judge is going to take every last penny off me so leaving me unable to live or work is it? ... deep breaths... ANY ideas welcomed... this one is driving me nuts and stopping me from finally getting on with a new life.

Hmmm... new tactic from Egg that I would appreciate some thoughts on. They want ALL my financial details before they will consider any F&F proposal. I am looking at a request for full inc & exp, assets and liabilities, mortgage/rent statements, bank statements, utility bills and details and evidence of how the funds are being raised. They already have information on the house sale and a full breakdown of where it's all gone to repay debts plus the info that I am not working and am living rent free etc at the moment til I get back on my feet. I am not inclined to share all this with them - particularly as they could have had their money seven months ago!!! Arrrrrgh! I wonder if they keep refusing hoping that I get back to work, settle with my new partner etc so they can insist on 100%. Proportionate settlement my @*$*!

Hmmm... I doubt I should start this as I am likely to blow a fuse if I start thinking about this too much. I will only say that I -had- a Clio, my third in fact, and I you'd have to -pay- me to drive a Renault again! Do not rely on their goodwill - they have none. I was a loyal customer, loved my little diesel Clio, and for the first time did not replace it at the 3 year point. Guess what? That's right - very bad move on my part. The main bearing cap sheared in two (yep, a machined part simply fractured in two) loosing the con-rod to smash engine, gearbox and practically everything else to tiny pieces. Luckily I had come off the motorway, but it left me stranded in the pitch black on Christmas day, in a country lane. Four years old, 40K on the clock... Renault's answer?... not our problem... that will be £5k for a new engine and gearbox and £800 labour! My reply? I will let you guess. Even when I found out that Renault had had a second level recall (supposedly not a safety issue - altho I would still not like to think what would have happened if this 'accident' had occurred five minutes earlier on the Motorway) on other models for precisely this risk - but they insisted it was not relevant to my Clio. QED clearly holds no sway with them. I was forced to settle for a paltry cash sum to let me go away and get it fixed without Renault because I simply could not afford to do it any other way. Like I say, goodwill is not a word they understand. Phew... breathe... LOL. Just want to share the story and recommend another car ... any other car you like... just not a Renault. PS. Global warming is a fact. Now acknowledged by most of the scientific community and even... heaven help us... our friends over the pond. If I can bend a quote to breaking point... all that it takes for bad stuff to happen is that good people do nothing... at least do your wee bit and it will help in the end. The point about technology to replace the combustion engine is that without support for it, it will not happen. Therefore alternatives are good - for all their weaknesses. Just an opinion.

Hello everybody... first posting here... (oooh errrr )... but here goes. The story is a long one. Very bad couple of years and huge debts. Divorce, lost business and forced to sell home (question on ERPs when forced to sell posting on the mortgage board soon). The good bit is that most of the debts are settled now. Got advice in the first place from CAB and then when I heard about the then Banking Action Group, read here and used the letters to add to mine when arguing a case for return of charges and reduced settlements. (With some success - thank you CAG!!! ) Anyway, as I say mostly settled but I have a couple of questions... Firstly can someone explain this business with passing debts to CCAs and its validity? If I read it rightly - but I cannot find the original explanation - there are situations where that is not being done legally and it means that the debt is not validly claimed by them? I am anxious about this one, having paid a few this way and thinking I had done the right thing in getting discounted amounts. Second, on the matter of credit records. I managed to avoid CCJs (damned heroic considering the mess we were in! even if I do say so myself ) but I do have a couple of issues. One is that many of the companies have recorded wildly inaccurate information which is probably going to take me many months to sort out. Just as a for instance Cap One has me 6 months late when the account was still in full operating order for the first few (they even upped my limit in that time!) and I missed just 2 payments before setting up an interim token payment anyway! The other star one is Future Mortgages who have recorded my mortgage as cleared 5 months later than is actually true! What can you do eh? I shall shortly be sending off my complaints and notices of correction of course. Any advice gratefully accepted though. I have defaults and short settlements which I think will stay with me the full 6 years. Am I right on that? Can you clear old stuff off your records any way? Thanks. And third and last question here... I have one debt outstanding. I have been offering to pay off an Egg loan since last July. First they ignored me, then they said make us an offer and rejected it saying they would require more for a F&F settlement, new offer got same result. When I got blunt about their lack of helpfulness on this point they said it was because my debts were not settled in strict proportion (I have paid between 50% and 85% depending on what they would accept and including the return of penalty charges by one bank.) They even argued I had paid in full one debt and that made it unfair but even they had trouble saying they were seriously arguing over a £230 debt in £50K settled!!! I asked them just how much time they thought I should have spent negotiating on that one if I divided my time proportionately and they appear to have given it up. However I am no closer to settling. I owe £21k and have offered £17k cleared funds - ready and waiting since last July - but it appears they would rather have £1 a month and keep on demanding more and more info from me. Are they waiting for me to get a job and for my situation to improve so that they can take more from me? Sorry it's a long one, full of questions, and thank you for listening if you got this fa. I just want this settled so I can get on with my life. Send my ex his share and know what I have to live on until I can get myself straight again. Any ideas? C

Hi everyone, First of all, thanks for all the wonderful resources here which have already helped me reclaim a whole bunch of charges from banks and credit card companies. I do however have a question. I have just redeemed two mortgages after being forced to sell my house due to major financial problems. In the interim I was in arrears and struggling, and both companies have helped themselves to huge amounts in charges, penalties and legal costs. Anyone had a go at mortgage charges? Seems it should to me but does anyone know if the DTI ruling will apply to them too? Thanks in advance for any help. Claire