heres a quick update. i got tired of sitting around waiting for the next two and a half months to pass just to go to court to fight for the opportunity to take my actual case to court some time in the next decade, so i decided to be more proactive. we contacted the financial ombudsman to say that this case is one of financial hardship, and how do we go about fighting with somebody who has never even answered a letter. we were told that as it is financial hardship we need to write to hsbc themselves and tell them they need to deal with it and not leave it to the solicitors as it shouldnt be covered by the test case. they have told us that if we dont get any joy from hsbc then we should get back in touch and they will take the fight on. i have sent hsbc a letter telling them all this, and given them two weeks to respond. i have recently discovered that once you mention the financial ombudsman, hsbc pull their finger out, so lets see what happens next.

i have received another letter from hsbc today regarding my personal loan, which i cca'd at the same time as my credit card. their response is this: Thank you for your request with regard to information about transactions and charges/fees on your account. We note that the account you are requesting information for, as mentioned above, is a Loan Account. As this will not have incurred charges in the same manner as a current account, we have not provided this information to you. If you require more information, please let us know. uurrrrrr, yes please, the credit agreement i asked for in the first place would be nice!! do these people even know the difference between a cca and an sar?

oh my god! i cannot believe after two years of battling with these clowns they can still surprise me. i know where you're coming from about the stress, there have been times i have dreaded the post coming to discover what their latest screw-up is, because i know i will then be on the phone for the next hour and a half being passed from pillar to post and being given conflictiong advice from every different department. i have never been messed around so much by one company.

i have now received a letter from british gas saying they want to exchange my meter. should i be suspicious? i know this is something they generally do when a meter is getting old, but the timing seems a little coincidental!

quick update. i applied to the british gas energy trust for them to clear the debt, which they have done. this leaves me free to move my account away from british gas, but i have no idea where to move to. i have heard not to rely on u-switch as they receive a commission which varies from company to company, which, in turn, has an impact on the recommendations they provide. what is the best way to make an informed decision?

the way i see it, is, if you had a loan, or credit card, or something along those lines, and decided to make a lump sum payment to clear it, agreed the price with the bank for a full and final payment, made the payment and then accidentally made an additional payment, would the bank refund your mistake? i dont think so! they would take whatever money they could to cover the shortfall of said loan/credit card. this is the same thing, as far as i can see.

isnt it just!!

well isnt that funny. i replied to hsbc saying no credit agreement = unenforcable debt and informing them i had involved the ombudsman, and suddenly a credit agreement has turned up! looks genuine, too.

i thought as much, but i would guess that dgs letters are also standard as conradsfates letter is, in two of the paragraphs, word for word the letter i received. they'll try anything. keep fighting, conradsfate, im rooting for you!

i could be wrong, but i would have thought that if you have proof that you only accepted under the conditions it was a part payment, then that should mean you can continue the claim to court for the remaining amount. just keep a copy of your letter and the proof of delivery slip, and (if possible) a printout of the signature on royal mails track and trace service, and include all of that in your trial bundle. i would also suggest sending a photocopy of all the above mentioned documents to your bank and tell them that this is your plan. if they dont agree they can remove the money back from your account. please feel free to correct me if you dont agree, this is just my opinion and the way i would play it if the circumstances were my own.

in my experience it is not only the council who vary their opinion, it is also the council workers. i was in exactly the same position as the op and also missed a months payment completely. and i phoned up to sort it out only to be told ' it is council policy- you had two warnings, no more. the full year is now to be payable. pay up the full year NOW or we'll see you in court'- well words to that effect. i put the phone down and spent the next week or so feeling sick. one day, though i thought' i'm going to give it one more try. i got somebody different who said as long as it is paid regularly i could split the missed month over the remaining payment period. i did that and all was fine.IMHO i would say as long as you keep up the payments they wont take you to court, because if they did the judge would look at your payment history and see that although you pay late each month, you do actually pay, and this will look bad on your council.

subscribing. i had a similar letter from metropolitan- hsbcs in-house collectors about my credit card, so it appears this is their standard reaction to a CCA request

how daft do i feel?!! i dont know where i got the 6th from. looking forward to seeing DGs bundle. they obviously left it where they felt it belonged. i file a great deal of their clients information pretty much the same way, to be honest!

i dont know about the other banks, but in HSBCs standard offer of settlement letter,they state. 'Thank you for your letter dated****** requesting a refund of your bank charges of******. In circumstances where you would like us to make a payment from your bank account that would, if met by us, lead to your account going overdrawn or over an agreed overdraft limit, we have to consider whether to make this payment. A fee is payable for this service....etc.......... If your claim for a refund proceeded to court, we therefore believe we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees. We are, however, mindful of the management time...etc......For those commercial reasons alone and without any admission of liability whatsoever, we are prepared to make a payment to you for the sum of.......in full and final settlement of this matter.......etc...' i think in the case of HSBC at least, it is clear what the payment is for. Pity, though.

am i right in thinking that today is the day? if so i wish you the very best of look, but the way things are looking with DG and their super tight case you wont need it!

im sorry, i dont think i worded that very well. i understood what you were saying, which is why i explained that that it wasnt directed personally. i know that employees cannot control the way an organisation is run, and i can understand your frustration. i perhaps had better shut up now, as i seem to keep making matters worse. i honestly didnt ask the question to start a row, i was simply looking for answers, and sometimes the keyboard doesnt quite express things the way i want to.

thanks for the advice. i will SAR them and contact energywatch as you say, but the name seems more than simply administrative. is seems suspicious to me that after requesting on so many occasions (and trust me when i say, i have asked them sooo many times), and involving energywatch who also asked them, they still havent discovered a way to remove this name. it isnt even registered anywhere in their system, and yet it always appears on my letters and bills. this is why i sent them a copy of a letter, as they wanted to see it for themselves. what started alarm bells ringing was about a year ago somebody phoned from british gas asking to speak to this person. i said they dont exist, they just keep showing up on my letters. british gas asked who i was, so i told them and they said they didnt have me registered on the account! the only time anybody has ever acknowledged the name and they didnt know who the genuine account holder was. its just wierd!

hi tiglet, there is no meter number for the other person, the name is just grouped in with ours as if we're are all one account holder.

very interesting thread, i hope you dont mind if i barge in with my own little piece of information. i have been trying to get somewhere with my own argument concerning a lack of credit agreement. they made a massive impact:rolleyes: : i phoned the information comissioner yesterday, and they told me that it has nothing to do with them, the office of fair trading are the people who deal with that kind of thing. the office of fair trading told me a credit agreement is required, but not for credit cards. i cannot believe that these are the people we rely on to keep the system running smoothly.

i appreciate that, which is why if you look at my posts, the majority of my rantings were based on orange as a company, rather than any individuals.as i say my arguments really were not personal. they told my oh that it was an 18 month contract.

i would just wait until they reply. you've done your bit, let them do theirs. they will contact you eventually, and you are in the stronger position at the moment, they are in default so cannot chase you until they provide what has been asked of them.

hello can anyone help, a month ago i sent british gas a letter and have not heard a thing back. the letter says this: 'dear sir/madam please find enclosed a letter from yourselves addressed to MR MAKE BELIEVE and Mr and Mrs Lolly371. i would like to inform you that there is not, and never has been a MR MAKE BELIEVE living at this address. i am becoming increasingly concerned that in spite of several requests to remove this name from our account, including a complaint via Energywatch, it still seems to be firmly in place. i have been informned on numerous occasions that this name is not showing up on your system, but that it will be looked into and removed. this never happens. also as you will see, the amount on the letter is £405.78, which is quite a surprise, considering that the statement you sent out on the very same day had the amount of £519.80. this does not feel encouraging as to the reliability of your company. what is most worrying is that in addition to this, i have an excessively high electricity bill, and not much of an explanation for it. i accept that many of my first bills with you were estimates, but i have made regular payments which to my calculations should have covered my electricity consumption. when i first questioned this fact to one of your advisers, i was told that the only reason they could think that this debt could have occurred on top of my payments would be if i joined you with an estimated reading. i contacted my previous provider and was informed that i left with an actual reading. i dont believe my meter is faulty, as i have kept a close eye on my usage and all seems to be fine. i do believe something highly suspect has occurred somewhere along the line and i would like this thoroughly investigating, otherwise i will reinstate my complaint with energywatch and take it further. this account has now been in dispute for over a year, and im sure you can understand my concern and impatience to resolve it once and for all. i have given british gas ample opportunity to resolve my complaints, and am not prepared to undergo any more stress at the hand of your company. i also request that you look through all of my statements since joining you 2 years ago, and provide me with alist of all payments received from me. in addition to this, i would ask that you look at this total amount of payments and consider how, in a two bedroomed terraced house of average electricity consumption, we have managed to accrue a debt of over £400 in that time.' i would appreciate anybodys suggestions as to how to proceed. the problem is, i have lost the details of my complaint with energywatch, so i would have to start it up as a new complaint.

i have phoned the information comissioner, who informed me that they dont deal with this type of situation and that i need to speak with the office of fair trading, who told me that there is no such thing as a credit agreement for a credit card and that all hsbc need to provide is the terms and conditions for use on my credit card account. so all in all, im back to square one!

sorry curly ben, ive just noticed we are giving virtually identical answers. great minds think alike, and all that!!!!

just to be clear, it is 12 working days until default, and then another calendar month from the date of default