sorry did not address other point you made. If you are a business and checked the signature against the cheque guaranteed card you have fufilled your requirements regarding checkage and should be paid. ... However I reiterate I have argued until blue in the face before and have not been paid. Even Sainsbury's etc will not take cheques any more. You are probably fighting losing battle....

There is no law that allows banks to do this ...but they have been doing this for a while. I used to have a restaurant and we would religiously take all cheque guarantee card details and the banks would still on occasion dishonour them. I think they particuarly try this on with small businesses and try and shift it to thier problem. 1) you need to check that you did fufill all criteria when taking the cheques. If you missed some information they will use this as an exscuse not to pay. 2) Are you a LTD company or a sole trader -you may need to prove that you are a business and the cheques were received for goods/services supplied? In the long run pretty much every business are giving up on cheques as a guaranteed payment.

The Power, I have an account with NatWest set up as a Step account which is their basic account....it was quite basic when I set it up but now it does everything the normal account does bar a cheque book. internet banking etc. My credit rating has been improving steadily over the last year. The last time I went in a cashier asked if I wanted a full account with cheque book. I made an exscuse that I was too busy...thought she was trying it on for those add ons that they charge £10 a month for plus I didn't want another credit check at the time....as I left she said do it next time itheir's no catch and it will improve your credit rating. Next time I'm in the branch I will and let you know

Ethical Business..nothing against you personally but I have dealt with Co-Op and Smile whilst helping my girlfriend and cannot believe how un-ethical and incompetent the staff and bank are. Let's forget the unlawful charges for a second (some of which you actually call commission???) Having closed her account with a final payment (and being assured that it was closed) 4 mths later Gary from Co-Op (yes I still remember his name) rang to ask what she was going to do about The £260 charges on her account....When challenged he actually checked the account and then replied 'oh it seems when you made your payment to close the account the switch machine was broken so the payment took a while to go through..so interest accrued between you paying by card and the payment going through'.....so an hour or however it took resulted in £260 worth of charges.....you couldn't make it up. Gary then promised to sought it out refund the charges and close the account. Shame no one bothered reading the account notes before ringing. 2 weeks later ...threatening phonecall from Smile regarding balance on account. My girlfriend yet again feeling like a parrot repeated her story and her conversation with Gary...the reply...Gary from Co-Op does not have the authority to refund the charges and we will not refund them. Needless to say we submitted a court claim and were refunded. Does any of this ring a bell Ethical Business?...Do the departments at Smile and Co-Op Know what each other are doing???

1) yes... but the longer you leave it the less chance you have. There must be a genuine reason why the claim was not contested at the time eg you didn't receive claim form etc. The longer the time span the more dubious the Judge becomes and the more likely he/she will feel the set aside application is merely being done to improve credit rating. 2)The defendant must have a very good chance of success in defending the case. eg if the Judge does set aside judgement it will not finish there but the case will be reheard. You must bear in mind that a judgement that have been set aside could then be re-entered if you lose the subsequent case with the new judgement lasting 6 years from entry. 3) Sorry I don't understand the 3rd question. However bear in mind when deciding whether to apply to set aside the above 2 points. rightly or wrongly most Judges would come to the conclusion that by paying the DCA for the last 18mths you a) knew about the debt (so cannot plead ignorance) and b)agreed that you owe it as you were paying them back. Your best chance would have been that you dispute the debt (or part of it) because of unlawful charges...which I think you are inferring to. However the fact that any charges are unlawful is disputed (OFT Case) so I don't many judges will make a ruling on this in a CCJ hearing until this is resolved. Sorry if all this sounds a bit harsh ....but it is what the D Judge will say or refer to

The answer is I don't know if it will work. You need to make it clear to Wescott that you will not pay as it's unenforceable..so yes you could do a CCA request. However to save time you may want to tell them from the outset that Littlewoods have already told you that their is no executed agreement. As the amount is comparitively small I doubt if they have paid more than a few pennies to buy it....if anything. Maybe they split the money if you pay, or they work the sale of the debt on some sort of sale or return basis whereby they return the debt if they cannot collect. It all depends how important it is too you to get this resolved quickly. As well as confirming to Wescott that you will not pay I would write to Littlewoods offering an ex gratia payment to clear debt and remove default...though making it clear that you will take court action if they do not accept and that you would win any subsequent court case plus compensation at the discretion of the court etc. In otherwords ignore the fact the ownership of the debt is is hazy. In the long run they want the £260 though it won't mean much to them..and you want the default removed which probably means more to you.

As far as I am aware a creditor or DCA may pursue a debt if they believe it to be genuine ....even if the debt is unenforceable in court. The same with statute-barred debt. However although there is nothing legally wrong with them asking for repayment of a genuine but unenforceable debt....you are under no legal obligation to repay it. Infact if a creditor or DCA continue to press for repayment of a debt which you have confirmed you will not pay (as it's unenforceable) then you may report them to trading standards for harrasement. To answer your question 1)there is nothing legally wrong with them selling an unenforceable debt (as long as it's not disputed) 2) there is nothing wrong with Wescott who were stupid enough to buy it chancing their arm for repayment..until you confirm you won't pay. Finally from what I have read you can write letters until you are blue in the face but Littlewoods will not remove the default. I would try 2 options either take them to court (they will probably not show up) and get the judge to take it off under section 14 of the Data Protection Act......or write and offer them the £260 on the basis they totally remove the default entry. However this may be difficult if they no longer own the alleged debt.

The whole point about getting a default judgement is that you didn't file an acknowledgement or defense...had you done so you wouldn't be able to set aside the judgement as it would have meant that your defense was struck out for the order to be made. (In which case your only option is to appeal against the verdict within 14 days) Your argument needs to be a) for whatver reason you didn't receive the original claim form and b)you dispute the debt. Then even though the original default judgement was in Northampton the set aside application would be transferred to your local court. However how this works in Scotland I do not know. You may well be correct that Northampton have no juristiction in Scotland and the claim would have to be reheard..which as you say would be a result. If I were you I would ring your local court in Scotland and try and speak to someone sensible in the court division. They must have come across this before

To get a default judgement set aside you need a legitimate reason. The analyst mentioned one that is often used. Please bear in mind that the Judge may ask you to take the oath regarding this. However not only do you need a legitimate reason to explain why you didn't turn up in court or reply to the initial claim, you have in the Judge's eyes to have a realisitic chance of success.....in otherwords had the court case taken place what is your defense and would this have been good enough to strike out the claim. Even if the creditor confirms they have no objection to your application you still need a reason why you didn't reply to claim and why you would win. The fact that you have since paid off the CCJ's would (from the Judges point of view) merely confirm that you a) Knew about the CCJ's which would contradict the earlier argument and b) agreed with the claim otherwise you wouldn't have paid them off. Finally the judge will look at the time elapsed between the CCJ's taking place and the set aside application. If this is a while he will construe that your application is being made purely to improve your credit file...which they take a dim view of. I'm sorry if all this sounds harsh...but yes your best bet is to go back to the original creditors and try and get them on side. Even then the judge won't set aside without a good reason which you may have. Another point some people do not seem aware of...unless claimant has no objection to your application even if you are successful the claim does not dissapear it is merely rescheduled for a hearing. So someone who has a 3 year old CCJ could have a brand new one if the claimant wins-this is not relevant in your case as you have paid the claimants. Let me know if you need anything else. again sorry if I sound negative but I do know a little bit about District Judges and how they work on this issue.

congratulations on an excellent letter (to master of rolls)... this could also be varied slightly and sent as a covering letter to the court with any further N244 applications. I think it's important to keep up pressure on the court so they con't continue to take the easy options. All we need now is a hearing in CCC. If we don't with all the evidence submitted ...we really have been stitched up!

I think the £65 fee is if you want an individual hearing with a Judge. The £35 fee(waivered in this case) is for non-hearings..where the judge will read and rule on your written evidence but won't see you in person

I have read on another thread..I forget where...that Cardiff Court are making an exception and waiving the £35 fee specifically on this matter. However please do not take my word for it...phone the court tomorrow morning to confirm.

Don't want to post 'hearsay' so will post word for word on monday as per an earlier posting. I'm quitting posting on this too....sorry if I've given you a hard time.

thanks Gary for your responce... My posts have been limited to threads regarding Cardiff hearings due on the 14th August. If you look at threads over several links you will see that tens if not hundreds of people have rung Cardiff County Court to be informed that all claims due on the 14th have been stayed. On one thread I informed someone who was unaware that all cases have been stayed and that they should appeal. You seem to think this information should not be shared. The main difference between your advice and what I have noted from previous experience is that due to the useless admin at CCC it may take a while, possibly a long while before people get official notification of the stay. People shouldn't think because they haven't heard anything officially that their case is proceeding as before. They only need ring the court and ask for clarification on their case. I have never mentioned business accounts nor credit card cases. I would not expect people to seek an application to set aside withourt at least querying with the court the wording of the stay order. Of course according to your last posting they shouldn't believe a court official as they read the order out loud. I have noted on a number of occasions your responce to other peoples postings. I have no doubt you are a very intelligent and learned man. I certainly do not wish to go through all you posts with a fine toothcombe. However I do feel it is unnecessary that someone shoots down another posting perhaps without reading it thoroughly or without the full facts. Especially when it is then justified from a out of context previous post.

As posted above Smutley...this is not some great crusade I am mounting. Anyone can ring the court and ask for an update on their individual case. In the case of cardiff county court they will tell you that all cases due on 14th have been stayed. You may receive this confirmation tomorrow or it may take longer. However the sooner people (if they wish) put in application to set aside this stay the more chance we have collectively of achieving it and having a block application heard on the 14th. To answer your question as i have already said all cases have been stayed the fact that you haven't got the piece of paper in front of you yet is irrelevant. Please ring the court on monday to confirm your case proceedings.