Hello first off before I ask for some advice I must sincerely say a big thanks to all the people who offer their time knowledge and expertise in helping others on this forum, the continued support offered and the positive impact it can have on peoples lives may be overlooked but is whole heartedly appreciated. Today I am after some advice on what to say to E.ON because they have suddenly increased my gas & electricity monthly direct debit from £107 to £250 for the next 12 months. (they gave me 10 days notice in writing) I feel this figure is unreasonably high for me to pay each month. Over the last 2 years I was automatically set on a tariff and only ever advised by E.ON to pay £107 p/month to cover my usage, Today it is now clear I wasn't paying enough each month and have now accumulated aprox £950 worth of debt. (its hard for me to understand but apparantly my electricity and gas usage has nearly doubled although nothing has drastically changed ergonomically in my household). I appreciate in retrospect I should have paid more attention to my annual statement and contacted them earlier to question my payments however, according to their terms and conditions, website pledges and the Energy Retail Association (ERA) Code of Practice for Accurate Bills, E.ON "will take all reasonable steps to ensure your payments are set at the right level. This includes reviewing your account proactively to make sure your payments are sufficient to cover your energy usage." My argument is.... If E.ON had proactively reviewed my account early I would have been better informed, and in a position to select a more effeciently priced tariff thus reducing my annual bill and subsequent debt. Their are also ambiguities on my on-line accounts energy usage chart (i.e 4 months of paying less than £5 a month for electricity usage last year which makes no sense). In summary i would like E.ON to reduce a percentage of my outstanding debt because to a degree their inefficiency has put me as a customer at a disadvantage, I would also need them to lower my monthly direct debit payments to around £160. (this covers my usage and pays £10 toward the outstanding debt) Questions 1. what would your advice be ? 2. Is telephoning best or should I write to E.ON ? and would It be best to deal with a manager or higher ? 3. What would be the best way of asking for a reviewed/reduced debt figure taking into account my personal circumstances and their apparent proportional lack of proactively maintaining my account ? 4. Can I write them a notice / offer to pay say £10 p/month over 10 years to pay of the debt on top of my monthly tarrif ? 5. is there any powerfull legal terms i.e neglegence, I can use to get my point accross Thanks in advance for looking at this really appreciate your advice Kind regards Lee

Hi all, I was looking for some help with regard to a letter we received over allocated parking spaced. We have received a letter to say that in order to regularise matters going forward they are enclosing an invoice for parking charges due in the sum of £147 plus VAT to reimburse for the period following notification up to the end of October 2013 and charged at £3 per day. Whilst the additional space continues to be used we will continue to invoice you for its use. At the moment we are using three bays for parking because we have two broken down cars which we cannot afford to get fixed. The person who owns the land, which is a company, came round on 12 September to say that their gardener could not get to the grass and we would need to move the vehicles to allow him access and in any event we should move the broken down vehicles. At no time was any dates mentioned to remove the vehicles and no notice period was given when they should start charging for the parking space. Matters were left that we would make arrangements to move the vehicles as we realise we were taking up more bays than we were allocated and rightly so I agreed that I would move the vehicle. Can anyone let me know how I should go about replying to this letter. My main worry is that we were not given a time period in which to do any of this and obviously we will do all we can to resolve the matter but I cannot see how they can charge us for something that we have not entered into. They say that they can revoke this temporary arrangement at any time. Can someone please let me know whether they are entitled to charge us £147 plus £3 a day until the vehicle is removed since no agreement was ever made in this respect. PS. we have been at the property for five years without any problems. Regards,

I am about to come into the 'silly season' regarding some old debts, fallen off of the credit files but last payments in 2008. Not out of stat barred. If I recall under legislation these companies are now required to send you a statement of account every 6 months - non have done so, I also remember that if they fail to do so they cannot claim any arrears. Can anyone advise if they can still bring action for the original ammount. David

Hi All, I read few posts on the forum and my story started similar to many of yours. Sorry for this long post but I thought it would be good to write in detail so you all can guide me properly. I live in Croydon. I mostly work from home and occasionally travel to London for "work" using my "pay-as-you-go" oyster card. My wife goes to office daily so she has monthly travelcard. Today evening I was due to go meet few friends in London and met my wife at Croydon station (she was coming back from her office). It was almost same time so I promised to see her before I go out. She used her travelcard to pass barricades and placed it in Ipad cover (she had ipad in her hand, guess was using in train). I met her, thought I could use ipad during journey, so took her ipad without me and her realizing that her travelcard is in the Ipad cover. So she left and after she left when I opened ipad, I noticed her travelcard in it. Now I have been in London only for a year and never used travelcard (always my oyster since she is always at work when I go out to London for my meetings) so honestly didnt know that it is not transferable (I know many would take it as a excuse but this is true, I stay busy with my work and hardly get time to research on things that I don`t use. this is the first time I got travelcard in my hands). At this moment, I made a bad decision. Without knowing it is not transferable, I decided to use it however, showed it clearly to inspector at barricade, he saw and allowed me in, I took the train to Victoria and then took underground using my oyster. On the return journey, I decided to board direct overground train from St Pancreas so again showed travelcard to inspector however, he stopped me this time. I had no bad intention of misusing travelcard which is why I wasnt afraid of showing travelcard to let him check and allow me in. But when I reflect back, I can see that I was wrong and also irresponsible - If I didnt know, I should have asked explicitly whether I can use this but In hurry to meet friends and rush time, I took it easy. he took my details, signature and told me that I will get a letter. Based on what I read, I am expecting a letter from FCC on confirming my address and perhaps interview (if I m lucky so I can explain my situation). I know I should wait for letter to come but just wanted to check if there is anything I should do in coming weeks before I get letter. I am very worried about criminal record now. I am due for UKBA visa in few months and also travel frequently across the world for my work which means quite a many visa applications in future. Due to sensitivity of my job, my employer takes criminal records very seriously and I am worried that this mistake might cost me lot more than money. I have a job I always wanted and now due to this reason, If it impacts my visa or employment, I would be quite depressed and disappointed. I never had any offence in my life (no speeding, no penalty, no fines etc.) but am afraid that this might just be a bad memory for entire life. I have no intention to endorse my stupidity and ignorance, I already feel awful about it but I hope FCC can consider my remorse and agree to settle out of court. thanks - S

Hi, as a family we have 3 monthly mobile phone plans with Orange UK. Below are our current contracts: iPhone Extra 41 - Unlimited Texts, 600 Minutes, 1GB data - £41 per month - (taken out 27th Feb 2012 for 2 years) iPhone Extra 36 - Unlimited Texts, Unlimited Calls, 1GB data - £36 per month - (taken out 14th Sep 2012 for 2 years) Dolphin 7 - 500 Texts, 150 Minutes, 250MB data - £7 per month - (taken out 24th Sep 2012 for 1 year) Now Orange have sent a letter stating that because of the economic climate they have to raise the prices on their plans and ours have been raised as such; iPhone Extra 41 - up to £42.324 iPhone Extra 36 - up to £37.164 Dolphin 7 - up to £7.224 Now we are a little annoyed that they can do this to anyone, let alone us, part way through a contract. Surely when signing up to a year or 2 year term, that is the price you pay, it can't be changed at some spurious point into the contract can it? Now, to add some other information here, none of our contracts were made in a physical branch, two were done over the phone and one via the internet, so no terms and conditions were given or shown. Today I had a look on the Orange website at the current monthly plans and found some interesting information. The Dolphin 7 plan is still shown and is priced at £7 per month, not the new £7.224 per month that we are being charged. Both the iPhone Extra plans no longer exist but have been renamed to The Works 36 & The Works 41, both of these plans are again shown as priced at £36 & £41 per month respectively and not the new hiked price. Now have we got a case against Orange for initially changing the contracted price part way through a contract and the fact that tariffs are still available at our initial prices on their website? Kind regards.., DHB

Hi to all, 1st time user on this site, so hopefully someone can give me some advice! As title says, i have had this charge taken from my blue amex credit card for a long time, well since i took on the credit card and not really understanding what its for, Its called AMERICAN EXPRESS INSURANCE SERVICES, it appears on my monthly statements from july 2007 costing £16.00 a month. Then in may 2010 the cost went to £16.80 a month up until present. I know some of you would say why have you left it this long to find and so on but i wasn't really 1 for studying my statements often , i just open them up and went straight into binder. hence im only now starting to proceed with ppi on other cards lol. anyway basically i'd like to know if this is amex's version of payment protection insurance, or if anyone has any info or dealt with this on their credit cards and maybe what actions to take like CCA Them and SAR Them also. Any help greatly appreciated. MB.

Just looking for some of your thought's of what you think of when Universal Credit comes into force, I have heard that people on benefits will get they money monthly instead of fortnight. how is this possible? how can people survive without any money for 5 weeks?

When I signed up with O2, about 18 months ago now, I was told in no uncertain terms by the sales assistants, that the cost will remain the same throughout the term of the contract. This was the strong point in their sales patter - the reliability of this charge being the same constantly to help you budget for the duration of your contract. I was (foolishly) persuaded. May I ask whether this constitutes a breach of contract if they now decide to increasse the charges in spite of having made verbal promises via the sales staff to keep to the same price every month for the duration? If there is a clause that allows them to do this, would this constitute an UNFAIR contract? After all, I am required to pay IN FULL the complete remaining cost of the remaining months should I decide to leave O2 and even then, after payment has been made, I would need to give a month's notice AND not enjoy the service any more from that day onwards. Should I complain to OFCOM? I shall, of course, be complaining to O2. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

hi, could anyone help me with this question please. My wife has been on a monthly repayment plan with cl finance after recieving a ccj, she has never missed a payment , a couple of days ago she checked her credit file and noticed she had been defaulted every month for the last eighteen months! Can they do this and if not what can we do. thanks

I have been with Npower for several years now, I live in a three bedroom ex council terraced house with no gas supply so everything runs on electric. I have 2 meters, a standard rate meter and a low rate meter - this goes through a timeswitch. When I moved into the house, I had been on a prepayment meter for several years and then for a few years paying via direct debit, and I believe if I remember correctly that I had an opening credit balance when I first moved in. Since then the monthly direct debit charge has increased exponentially, unfortunately I dont have old bills to hand but I am currently paying £240 per month for my usage and according to Npower I have a debt of £600+ and rising. I have been negotiating for several years now every 3-6 months as the Npower computer sends me direct debit increases that have at times been over £400 a month - and I have to call and get them manually reduced to the measured usage (with no debt repayment) - and even whilst paying £240 a month my debt is steadily increasing. Several years ago I complained that the meter must be faulty, Npower customer services informed me that they are hardly ever faulty and said I would have to pay to have the meter checked. As I couldnt afford it at the time (with the bills and debt) I never got it done, I sort of buried my head in the sand and just paid the direct debit, of course this affected my normal lifestyle quite dramatically but as the only energy supply I had I couldnt risk disconnection - my child is disabled and I dont think I would hear the end of it if she lost her pc for example. I always thought the usage was crazy as my mortgage is less than that per month (I live in a cheap area!) - but I have had a debt in the past at a previous address that Npower almost disconnected so I just paid up. After the most recent letter telling me my monthly direct debit would be increasing to £378 a month I again negotiated with customer services back down the "normal" monthly amount of £240 - and I demanded a meter test - I explained with my bills what have I got to lose. The most recent Npower advisor I dealt with was very amiable and I think went the extra mile to help me out - but still couldnt see the plain fact the meter was broken - but at least this time there was no talk about repaying the debt - just about controlling it a little. I have been taking my own readings semi regularly for the past three years - but they all seemed to show the same details too. I also got the advisor to send me previous readings - put these in my spreadsheet and tried to interpret the graph - looking for a spike or some thing that marked the change (we had a surge a few years ago - set fire to my shed blew up a lot of my white goods) and I also have a small substation next to my house in a garage block (its an odd thing - has my address on it!). But the readings all matched; I sort of set myself thinking I must be using the power somehow and began rationing it, every white good that was destroyed was replaced with AAA rated appliances - our shower blew up and I never replaced, the heating has been switched off for several years now and we have been living like energy nomads - even using candles in the bathroom. I thought somehow there must be a big hole for electricity under my house and it just kept eating it. And of course Npower advised me that must be the case (not literally) but they didnt think that my usage was odd and blamed it on the current price increases. The meter test happened, initially they couldnt fit a meter but they sent a portable tester - another extra callout so another charge that would be applied if the meter wasn't faulty. But it appears I have been right all along. The technician who performed the test told me he had never seen a meter as faulty, he quoted a 2% tolerance fast/slow was allowed on the meter - but he then explained that at times our meter was running approximately 300-500% quicker than normal, but then dropping down to -20 to -30% slower than normal. So over recent years I have paid in the region of £6-8,000 to Npower (no exact figures to hand!) and I dont think I can determine what has been used or not - can the meter be tested to find out how much has been used - or if the meter is that screwed up what will happen next? I am sort of expecting NPOWER to send me an increased bill - its traditional. Advice please!!!

For some time now I have noted that Barclaycard incorrectly under quote my Barclaycard monthly statement interest rate. If I then pay the quoted monthly minimum payment as shown on my statement I find that next month my outstanding balance has actually " INCREASED ". I would have thought that this was not only a failure under Barclaycards own terms and conditions but is illegal. This underhand practice by Barclaycard must be adding millions to their bottom line when you also take into consideration the added compound interest to customers Barclaycard accounts. Any comments advice or similar experiences by other Barclaycard customers appreciated.

Hi all, I have since found out that Three have registered a default to the pitiful sum of £50.00+ on a monthly rolling contract, not signed as a contract, but as a monthly only contract. This has had a disastrous effect on my credit rating and I am having all sorts of problems trying to talk to anyone, just the usual call centre in India. Various discrepancies of 3 different dates and no one knowing what date the default was registered. I never ever received the so called letter of 'Default' as it just appeared strangely after the amount was paid. I am now in the process of applying to the court to have it removed due to the odd dates, no reply to a recorded letter and the various discrepancies....not a nice way to treat anyone especially for the ridiculous amount of £24.00 + a charge of £25.00! Anyone any other ideas, experiences? Kind regards, TB

Hi, I have written to HSBC to ask they waive the charges due to be taken out of £160 due to hardship. I received a letter basically telling me no, be more careful with your finances. In the letter there is a line that says "only one fee will be applied per day, up to a maximum of £150.00 in any one monthly charging period". On several occasions I have been charged more than £150 in a month, including the charges due to come out of my account on the 14th of £160. Does anyone know if it has always been this limit per month, or if it is a new thing? Do you think I should complain? Thanks

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2147673/Three-Mobile-hikes-prices-3-6-pay-monthly-customers.html