Cheers again guys! *stands down from brown alert*

Not that i've seen no. I get letters from Barclays, Barclaycard, and Egg, but that's about it. It really sucks because if I could just get things sorted with Barclays then i'd be able to pay off both the credit cards and still have enough spending money aside to go on holiday!! Thanks for all your replies guys. In the heat of the moment I find myself getting rather worried and depressed about the whole situation, and the tactics these people use really play on those insecurities. Like using the name Power To Contact Ltd (makes me think someone's gonna turn up at the house!). So I should just ignore them then...I went through a phase of answering the phone calls I get too, just to explain that I can't pay off my debts because i'm unemployed and Barclays have taken all my money, but nothing works, and i don't particularly like the idea of burying my head in the sand but ignoring seems the best course of action...

This morning I received a little postcard through the letterbox from a company called Power 2 Contact Ltd. It is signed with the name 'J. White' and says 'I confirm I will be calling to discuss the recent communication from CSL on Wednesday between 9am and 9pm'. My situation is that I have two accounts with Barclays and am awaiting the result of the test case because i'm owed around £1800 in unfair charges. Unfortunately I am now currently unemployed and thus am languishing in debt which has rolled on to both my Egg card and Barclaycard. Does this little card mean they'll be calling me on the phone, or calling at my house, and what should I do in the event? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Afternoon all. I'm on a £35pcm + Gold Level insurance with o2. Back in May I upgraded my handset to an Xda Orbit. Recently that handset was stolen by a friend of a friend (long story). Luckily my simcard was not in the handset at the time so i'm back using my trusty old Nokia. My friend tells me the bloke who stole it has taken it to Australia with him and is using the handset. My question is, if I contact o2 to get a replacement handset through my insurance, is the old handset going to be blocked, or is the guy gonna get a knock on the door from the police? Let me know what you guys think.

Hi all, Some of you may know me from my posts regarding ongoing claims against Barclays. At the moment both my claims are on hold due to the OFT test case going to court. Basically I have two accounts with Barlcays. Acc1 has been over the overdraft limit since I first started the claim procedure a couple of months ago, and they were charging £30 every day. The amount of money owed because of the unfair charges was ridiculous and only grew as the days went by, so I left it expecting my claim to go through and sort everything. Now I find out that the £450 I had in Acc2 has been taken and moved to Acc1 without my permission. I'm now left with two accounts. Acc1 is still £99 over the limit and Acc2 is £8 over the limit. I've just had two £30 charges this morning. Is there anything I can do about getting that £450 back that was my money and was taken without my permission?! thank you all for your time.

Afternoon all, I couldn't find this information elsewhere, so thought i'd post it and see what response I get from the great intellects that inhabit these forums. I've two accounts with Barclays and have been through the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) stages and sent the letter last week laying out how much Barclays owe to me and they are to pay etc etc. This morning I recieved a letter... 'Dear Mr Rowe, We acknowledge receipt of your complaint about bank charges. We believe your complain concerns the level, fairness, or lawfulness of the charges. If it concerns something else, such as an administrative error, please let us know. We believe the charges are legal, fair and transparent. However, Barclays (along with a number of other banks) has now become involved in legal proceedings with the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") in relation to bank charges which we believe will resolve the legal issues regarding the fairness and legality of your bank charges. It would be our normal approach to resolve your complaint through our internal complaints process as quickly as possible. However, until the determination of the legal issues in the above proceedings, we have asked the Financial Services Authority ("FSA") to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with bank charges complaints, and the FSA has agreed to this request subject to conditions that protect your rights. We can assure you we have registered and stored your complaint. Please retain your bank records, as this will make it easier for you to support your complaint on resolution of the test case. Once the legal proceedings between the OFT and the banks finish, we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. We are sorry that we have not been able to respond in full to your complaint now, but we (together with the FSA and OFT) think that it is necessary to resolve the key legal issues before we decide how we should respond to your complaint. Obviously exactly what will happen next will depend on the courts. We do not know how long the case will take - we have promised to proceed as quickly as possible but inevitably given the importance of the issues being considered this may take many months to finally resolve. But we can assure you that once the legal proceedings are completed we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. If at that stage you do not agree with our conclusions you will of course be able to refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service ("FOS") (or to the courts). Given this court case we have asked both the FOS and the courts not to proceed with any other case they are hearing until the test case is resolved. FOS has indicated that as a general proposition it will indeed not proceed with cases which rely on the legal issues being considered in the test case. Similarly, you should be aware that if you choose to issue a claim in the County Courts, Barclays will immediately apply to the court for an order to stay your action until resolution of the bank's proceedings with the OFT. We will keep you updated appropriately about the proceedings with the OFT. You can also check the latest position on our website. The FSA requires us to ensure that your complaint will not be adversely affected by the delay in dealing with it. If you have a complaint regarding a matter other than the legality of bank charges then these will continue to be dealt with in line with our normal complaint process detailed in the enclosed leaflet. If you require any further explanation with regard to this letter please refer in the first instance to the Questions and Answers provided on our website under the "Help and Information" section. If you do not have access to our website you may call 0845 300 5857. Yours sincerely Elaine Shillito Customer Relations Advisor' There are another two pages addressing 'questions' but they relate to (and are answered) by the letter above. So i'm thinking that the best course of action is to take it to the County Court, but can anyone confirm that whether the case is 'stayed' or not is purely down to the presiding magistrate? Personally, I think that all cases where Barlcays have received the letter outlining the amount of charges to be claimed back by the consumer should be settled regardless of the test case. I also think that a judge would agree that the test case is simply a mechanism to put the issue of unfair charges to rest in terms of how much the banks should be charging but in the meantime the charges remain unfair, unlawful, and unacceptable, so should be resolved as the banks have been doing. I look forward to hearing from you all. Splatrowe

It's clear that the point was that in 'Jase1982's opinion, it would be morally questionable to defend the dropping of a cigarette-end on a public street by citing a single letter mistake in the street name, or an unticked box. In this particular situation regarding your response, I would like to point out that based upon your suggestion of totally immoral policing, Fred and Rose West could've gotten off had their address been taken down as Cramwell Road, instead of Cromwell Road. Granted, that example is somewhat extreme, but the moral of the story is that this land is policed by people just like us who choose to enforce the law in a manner that is found acceptable by public and government standards. All this means is that it is not just black and white out there and in conclusion, although it's caused some discussion on this board, the law (and its enforcement) has worked exactly the way it should do because I would bet on 'Jase1982's life that 'The Analyst' won't be dropping his fag butts on the street again soon.

I've just written a letter of complaint over something similar to First Bus. I can totally understand your point of view. Not fun being treated badly when all you want to do is get from A - B. I saw a bus driver a while back do the same thing, pull off with someone half on the bus.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm sure everyone will be ecstatic to hear that the new job is going swimmingly and I got paid today! (only 3/4 of normal though) Not that it makes much difference now since Satan's Bankers have squeezed almost FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS out of my account in three weeks! Suffice to say that getting paid monthly royally screws you over and i'll be waiting yet another month until I can remotely say that i'm ok again with my finances. I've decided i'm going to go for it and make them rue the day they ever charged me. Oh yes, there's going to be maximum rueage. I'll keep everyone updated... PS - am I right in saying that there's a limit of 5k on claims? and if so is it 5k in total or for each account - i've got an additions account, a connect card account and a barclaycard...

Hi all, this is my first post so i'll keep it short and sweet. Basically, i was recently made unemployed. I was luckily only out of work for a fortnight and have now got a new job and i'm waiting for my first paycheck to come in next week. Unfortunately while I was out of work my barclays account went overdrawn then middle of the week before last a direct debit sent it over the overdraft limit. I've now been charged over £300 in less than two weeks. Is there any other way to reclaim this money other than the well publicised (yet lengthy) actions on this website? I look forward to some good advice! Many thanks. PS - Isn't disgusting that they do it regardless of the fact they know they're unlawful charges?!