I will look into the solicitor option , thanks for your help , it will be a relief to finally get all this sorted.

Hi creditcardmug. I didnt mean anything negative to you , just surprised with the reference to solicitors. They probably charge around £150 or so an hour so drawing up legal agreements would be quite expensive. I know its an option though. All of the full and final offers are in writing. Do you think the full and final staement still requires the statement they will refer to the debt as satisfied on the credit ref agency file or is this implied in the statement the payment is a full and final settlement.

Are you suggesting everyone on this site who makes payments should do it through a solicitor. Given that they are probably as big rip off merchants as dca's banks credit card companies and all the other nasty cynical money grabbing organisations in this country is that really a good idea.

hi 42man. Yes i have done the cca requests based on info in this incredible site and have received them all and all are clear photocopies of the originals. All full and final letters are in writing. Given they refer to full and final is this enough to make the final payment. Also is it best to do this by cheque on registered delivery or would a bank card be ok. Many thanks

I have 3 debts each with frederickson international who are administering on behalf of other companies. I have received what look like correct cca's. I have made an offer and have been offered in return settlement payments of between 50 and 70 per cent. All of the offers say that this will be in full and final settlement and the case will be closed by their client. There is no specific reference to noting the account as satisfied on credit reference agency files or promising not to sell the debt on or chase me for the debt any more although i would think the reference to full and final settlement would be enough. I am happy with the offers just want your views on the adequacy of the reference to full and final settlement and referring to closing the case before i write the cheques. Many thanks for your help.

sorry about the strange things that went in previous post , not sure why that happened. If you want it re sent please tell me I will type it out in full.

Many thanks for your replies. I have been doing more research and would be grateful for your comments on the following as minimum requirements of the letter from BOS accepting the offer CONDITIONS The sum of £xxx will be raised via a third party, my father Mr xxx and this is being offered as an ex-gratia payment in full and final settlement of the account. Written confirmation is required from Blair , Oliver and Scott that by making this payment of £xxx to Blair, Oliver and Scott. Neither Blair , Oliver and Scott nor Halifax nor any other party will sell the debt on to another party to collect any further amounts. Neither Blair , Oliver and Scott nor any other company will take any further action to enforce or pursue the debt of £xxx and Mr xxx will be released from liability for the debt on account xxx . The debt of £xxx on the credit reference file will be noted as being satisfied in full and will not show any outstanding amount. I know there has been lots of discussion in this forum regarding terminology used by dca's where none of them seem to use full and final but use partial settlement instead. However if they agree to wtite the above in the letter they send presumably that will stop them messing around in future. Many thanks for your help.

I have received the cca from blair oliver and scott and have managed to negotiate a reduction of around 50 per cent on the current balance. My position is that I have been paying consistently on a no interest basis for a couple of years so feel a 50 per cent discount is good. I would like some comments if possible on the following blair oliver and scott letter wording. client xxx account number xyz balance £xxx We write with regard to the above account. Your offer of partial settlement has been accepted and a payment of £xxx should be sent to us by 15/01/2009. On receipt of this payment no further action will be taken in respect of the remaining outstanding balance and your account will then be closed. We trust that this is satisfactory for your purposes , however should you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us. xxxx Manager Litigation Is this good enough to make sure i get no requests in future from other companies. Many thanks.

Many thanks for your help, i will send the first letter of today.

I had a hire purchase agreement with direct auto finance [formerly yes car credit ] from March 2005 and which ended in March 2007. For missed direct debits they charged me £15 a time total £180. Does anyone know if i am able to claim these charges as i would bank or credit card charges. Many thanks for your help.

All of your replies have been extremely helpful, many thanks. I will raise the issue of what right they had to divulge my name and address to a debt collection company and ask the question of where it was from. I am sure there are issues around data protection here.

Many thanks for your replies , i will contact edf energy and advise them of the situation and tell them to contact the landlord whose name the account was in.

Many thanks for your help on this, i will do what you say.

I had an assured shorthold tenancy in joint names of me and my ex partner until June 2006. Edf energy have now instructed a debt collector to ask me for over £400 unpaid electric bill for the period of the tenancy.They have not specified how the bill is made up and have not mentioned my ex partner in this request even though she was joint tenant. The electricity contract including addressee for bills and all other contact was in the landlords name and me and my partner simply had to pay a monthly direct debit to edf energy at the instruction of the landlord which we did. There was never any contact between us and edf energy except for the direct debit which came from my bank account. When the tenancy ended the landlord gave my partner back the deposit which the tenancy agreement said could be retained for unpaid bills. He made no claim against us for any unpaid amount.

I had an assured shorthold tenancy in joint names of me and my ex partner until June 2006. Edf energy have now instructed a debt collector to ask me for over £400 unpaid electric bill for the period of the tenancy.They have not specified how the bill is made up and have not mentioned my ex partner in this request even though she was joint tenant. The electricity contract including addressee for bills and all other contact was in the landlords name and me and my partner simply had to pay a monthly direct debit to edf energy at the instruction of the landlord which we did. There was never any contact between us and edf energy except for the direct debit which came from my bank account. When the tenancy ended the landlord gave my partner back the deposit which the tenancy agreement said could be retained for unpaid bills. He made no claim against us for any unpaid amount. Any help on whether i am liable for this would be appreciated.

Cobbetts have offered a goodwill gesture of half being claimed and of course i have had court costs so far . The offer is couched in the usual language of you must withdraw the claim and so on. My dilemma is that financially i really cannot afford to risk losing the amount offered but of course this is much less than the charges plus costs. Does any one have experience of this situation and maybe provide some pointers as to what i might do. Many thanks.

Can anyone help with this . I have now sent off the forms and £35 to change the original Particulars of Claim. On the MCOL site the status is still Acknowledged(07/12/2006). Should i advise Cobbetts now what i have done or wait until the Court has sent me back the re sealed claim and then re serve it on Cobbetts with the necessary forms.

Can anyone help with this . I have now sent off the forms and £35 to change the original Particulars of Claim. On the MCOL site the status is still Acknowledged(07/12/2006). Should i advise Cobbetts now what i have done or wait until the Court has sent me back the re sealed claim and then re serve it on Cobbetts with the necessary forms. vbrep_register("443806")

Paul i have now sent off the forms and £35 to change the original Particulars of Claim. On the MCOL site the status is still Acknowledged(07/12/2006). Should i advise Cobbetts now what i have done or wait until the Court has sent me back the re sealed claim and then re serve it on Cobbetts with the necessary forms.

Fantastic Paul thankyou for replying so quickly

Hi Paulshieber, many thanks for your help on this. Can i just check with you, Cobbetts have already given notice that Acknowledgement of Service has been filed. I need to re serve Claim myself so should this go to Natwest the defendant or to the solicitors given that Natwest has already instructed them.

Many thanks for your help. I have prepared the forms and will send them with the cheque for £35 to Northampton County Court. I actually spoke to them and they e mailed me the forms with instructions on how to complete them and have also phoned them to confirm they have beencompleted correctly. The money claim online phone centre are always very helpful indeed. As regards not charging interest this was simply on the basis that whilst the bank may have benefitted i have not lost since its extremely unlikely i would have earned any interest on the money the bank have kept from me. So my concern is simply to reclaim the bank charges otherwise i would feel i would be profiteering in the same way as the banks do.

I have been looking through the 119 separate charges on my 200 pages of bank statements and have found that one charge was missed off and 2 charges were entered incorrectly. The net result is that the charges should amount to £3514 instead of £3535. Should i do a formal amendment of the claim or just let it go and admit to clerical errors later. I am not claiming interest.

I found the CAG website after submitting an online claim for £3535 charges, did not realise i had to send a detailed schedule of charges to the bank. Is it too late to send one now, should i wait to send one as a response to Cobbetts defence.

Unfortunately i found the amazing consumer action group site after submitting my claim via money claim online. The only information NatWest has at present about the charges i am claiming back is the total of £3535 and this was on the claim form to the court. I have not sent a detailed schedule to Natwest or to Cobbetts solicitors who have acknowledged service of the claim and said they will defend. Should i sent the detailed schedule to Natwest , Cobbetts, Northampton court now or wait to do so at a later stage.