Got a summons this morning from my local authority for non-payment of Council Tax. I have been paying over 12 months despite them never actually issuing me a bill. I went and found the value of the CT and have been paying via Bank Transfer a value more than the 12 monthly figure. In December the Council changed their Bank account and this was the first letter we had all year. I duly corrected my payment on the bank but only paid £1 for the month. This would have put me slightly behind and in mid-January we got a 'Council Tax Reminder Notice' (No idea if its the 1st, 2nd or final) so I split the outstanding value and paid 1/2 at the end of January. So, whats the chances of swerving the £80 costs? I have paid more than the outstanding Council Tax bill so they now owe me £1.something from that. My argument primarily is there seems to have been a Procedural Improprietry (sp?) in that they have failed to follow the procedure of issuing 3 reminders before preoceding to summons. Is this worth trying?

Hi, I need some advice. I have a credit card with Capital One which has reached its limit due to my card being stolen by someone in my family and used to make various online purchases which took me to my card limit of about £1500 - I did not find out about this until too late and I cannot possibly press charges against the thief as he is a family member. I agreed with Capital One that the best way around this would be to accept the charges and pay them myself, coming to a civil agreement with the man in question as a criminal charge would be completely fruitless as he is now in prison for something else. The problem this has left me with is managing my monthly repayments which are now in excess of £40 a month and I have already missed one payment so I am afraid that my debt is spiralling out of control. I know that I need to contact Capital One to agree.. .something. .. but I really do not know what to say to them, or how they will respond, as it is essentially my own fault that this has happened. Advice would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

i split from my wife several years ago. I agreed to pay towards car payments and paid extra child maintenance (extra £70 month). After my ex stopped me seeing or speaking to my children because she wanted more money I calculated the correct child maintenance and reduced payments. After months of no contact with my children she eventually agreed to go to mediation to resolve the issues, I went to my session but she refused. After 3 months of difficulty seeing my children I received a small claim for payments both arrears and until the end of the agreement, totalling thousands. I offered to reinstate payments as long as she reinstated regular access but she refused offer and further mediation through court. Will I have to pay? It was a verbal agreement, but so was the agreement to see my children? Any advice, gladly received.

Due to poor health, I had to take time of work, Jan and Feb, now from my wages I make sure I pay my Mortgage, Payment to the Debt arrangement scheme, and Council Tax Now I get weekly tax credits of £81, and around the 15 Feb, I received my bill from scottish Power of £298. Now from my tax credits, and working payments out on Excel, I have budgeted £30 per week to my account for Scottish Power, meaning by 5 May account should be paid in full On the 23 Feb, I emailed Scottish Power about my fiancial difficult, and included the payment plan for the account Now a few days later, I received a email, requesting me to phone them to discuss any payment plan I did this today, after receiving a third reminder this week, with " IF WE HAVE TO COME AND VISIT, YOU WILL BE CHARGED £37" Spoke to one of the Customer Service Advisors, explained my problem, have no suffiecent fund to make full payment as they requested, now she wasnt any help, infact all she was interested in doing , was to ask me if I was interested in a prepayment meter...quite honestly I dont want this Seems my problem is, Im a quarterly payment, and payment is due xxx date, and they cant change anything, as it is all down to the computer, I even asked before hanging up, if they would accept my offer of £30 per week for the next 6 weeks, but no I have even today, emailed Scottish Power for a second time, and expressed my concern, if I dont have the funds to pay of in full, but can at least budget £30 per week to my account, this should be good enough I have also pointed out, I find this very stress full, and because of heart problems, this going and coming dosnt help me, if we cant come to an arrangement, I gues I will have to stick it on to my remaining debts,and up the repayments

Hello I have been struggling with a lot of unsecured debt for quite some time and now find myself unable to pay this month. My credit record is unblemished at the moment but wont stay like that for long. 1 - Should I get in touch with the card companies and explain the situation and that I hope to return to making full payments in three months or so? 2- if ultimately I cant make my payment in the future should i make an arrangement to repay. I owe £85k so i would imagine I'm going to be hassled like crazy. 3 - There is a lot of advice about CCA on here and its great. I've had the majority of my cards for donkeys years. Can i really say they are unenforceable after paying them for a number of years? Wont they just take me to court and accuse me of trying to dodge my debts. I'm having another all nighter worrying about the future and whats to come. I would be very grateful for any help that can be provided in getting me started dealing with this.

Hi everybody I ran into financial difficulties 2.5 years go and arranged with Barclaycard (peviously Egg) to pay £75 per month with interest and charges frozen on a £10,000 debt. This was paid by direct debit and I have not missed any payments. I have just noticed that they have stopped taking the money - the last one being in November. Does anyone know what this means? Is it a prelude to heavier action? Thanks for any advice.

Hello My current situation has caused me to go through absolutely everything Ive paid in my life. I have a payslip from the NHS in the 80's showing super Ann payments which I have never had back. Can I reclaim these and if so anyone know how you go about it. Thanks to anyone who looks at this thread Exasp

Has any one been following the research paper (RP) about child care costs? if not this is a well worth read see here http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/childcarepayments.html description This is a report of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Childcare Payments Bill. The Bill would introduce a new tax-free childcare scheme to support eligible parents with childcare costs. Under the scheme, the Government would provide 20 per cent support on costs up to £10,000 per year for each child via an online account. The Government would top up any payments made into the account, capped at a maximum Government contribution of £2,000 a year for each child.

Hi I am self-employed and have just began receiving letters from Fredrickson Internatinional re overdue NI contributions for £500. They have said their next point of action is for an HMRC officer to visit me or for court proceedings. Does anyone have experience of this? Should I make contact with this company or contact HMRC? I don't want to make contact with Fredrickson as I know they have a very dodgy reputation. Thanks

I finally faced up to my huge debt problem and went through the CCCS to try and get life back on track. A repayment plan was made Everything's been great so far, apart from the Halifax who only let you have 6 months before they default you and send to DCA. So, I have now have defaults (through the Halifax) which I would love to get removed from my credit file. Having sent signed CCA requests to each of the credit card companies, so far, they've sent agreements just printed out (no signature) or application forms. They say that they don't have to send true copies with signatures on at all as per the act. My question is, as they don't seem to be able to provide signed ccas, how do I get rid of them? Did i just stop paying them? I don't want to take the easy way out, but life (as I'm sure you all know!) has been so stressful with these people and if something's been done wrong, it should be put right! Any help would be much appreciated and sorry if this has been done incorrectly but I can't start a new thread

Family member drove into London week before Christmas. Paid the congestion charge on their phone next day within the 24hrs allowed, whilst travelling on a train. Received acknowledgement 'Thank you for your payment.' In less than 2 weeks receives a penalty charge £65 if you pay within 14 days. Rings them to say it was paid. They were then asked to check bank account. It is then found the cc was not debited. Explained the ack received on phone and was told 'we hear this a lot.' Now i'm thinking, if you checked your bank account on the same day as making the payment, you wouldn't see it as debited. It would be the next day you could view the transaction. If it didn't go through it would be out of the 24hr allowance, so you are then in the realms of getting a penalty charge even though you are doing your best to pay the charge. I want to know if this is a hundreds or thousands of pounds worth of penalty charges given to people who this has happened too, a massive problem which hasn't been noticed yet by the public. If you receive a payment ack on your phone, will there be a trail to what is causing the transaction to stop short of debiting the money but still giving you reason to believe you have paid the charge, by sending a confirmation of payment. I look forward to comments on this. Maybe the problem would attract more attention if The Congestion Charge had it's own section in this forum.

Is ESA paid in arrears or one weeks in arrears ?? How is ESA Paid? please

Hi, I've just joined Cag after stumbling here with the help of Google I have missed the last 3 months of payments to Very due to a number of circumstances mainly just my own stupidity to be perfectly honest... I am now in a position to start to pay some of the debt off they have put a number of charges onto my account (late fees, telephone call charges etc.) which has pushed me beyond my credit limit on my account (I daresay they will charge me for that as well?) I have been looking on the site and reading other peoples posts and so far I think what I need to do is this Contact Very.co.uk and suggest a payment plan and ask that they stop all interest and charges due to financial hardship Send a Full Subject Access request to find out how many of these fees I have paid over the life of the account Send letter to re-claim these fees? They have also been calling me every day for the last 2 months (call blocker on the mobile is a wonder!) I'm also answering the next one and telling them I will be corresponding only by letter and then sending the Harrasment by telephone template Is there anything I have missed or would also be good to do? Many thanks

hi I went to sign on today at the JC and was told I may or may not receive my money before Christmas. Usually I'd receive my cash on the Friday from signing on the Tuesday (today) I got given a letter explaining that between 18th and 31st December payments that fall between then may or may not be put through. I have nothing in my bank at the moment and am relying on my JSA for Christmas, I have presents to still get. This uncertainty has worried me and I don't know what to do! if I dont get my payment I have to wait till 3rd Jan!!! in between then I have to see my advisor on NYE! but this apparently isnt a sign on (usually when I see my advisor he signs me on as well all in one go) so what are my options? surely they wont leave people high and dry this Christmas?. Ive heard loans from the JC are zilch as they have done away with them. Im pretty naffed off! Can anyone offer me some advice or is there anyone else who is in the same boat and maybe know more than me?

10 years ago I upgraded my kitchen, and purchased some granite work surfaces. Due to other issues I was going through my credit card statements back from 2004 and noticed the transaction as it was substantial. I had forgotten about it but I noticed they had taken the payment out 3 times, which rang certain memory bells in my head ! I checked through more statement, saw a refund once, but not twice !!! It's all there in the statements obviously, can't be argued with So, as the company is still trading, although it's a franchise model, and I'm fairly sure I was dealing with them before franchises became prolific, do I have any legal standing to recover monies...? Is the burden of proof on me to show without a doubt that they didn't refund a 2nd time, or is the burden of proof on them to show they did...? Cheers Rich.

Hi everyone! I'm new on here today and have been reading lots of things about our friends At Welcome Finance. My story goes as follows. We borrowed £20k off the sharks in 2009 payments are £379 per month, they put a charge on our house cos it was a secured loan. For the past 4 years I have been paying £625 per month to try and pay this off, I phoned up last week and found out that I still owe £9k!! I have paid back so far £37k! What would happen if i suddenly stopped paying this? Would the courts laugh at the and tell them to **** off cos they've already had my pants down? I want some advice, although I can afford to pay it, I really don't want to give these cretins any more of my hard earned money cos they've already had almost double back! Can anyone give me any advice?? Many thanks Nick

Have an account with this bunch of dimwits actually mean to say had and account as l am about to CCA them and l wont hold my breath over the CCA being available. This bunch of idiots have really pee'd me off because they have not sent me christmas presents and the presents they have sent me are broken. They have ignored me for over 6months over one christmas present that turned up broken they have refused to accept it back and are demanding payment for it. Ok i understand they cant accept personalised items back but if they are broken as in not fit to do the job they were ment to do then l am sure they have to take this item back. I have spoken to TS over this and they have said if it is company policy then we can t do anything about it. So i say £$%& company policy and they can go and £$%& them selfs if they think l am paying them for missing or broken orders especailly a £200 vodaphone mobile phone which they say is not covered in there returns policy once it is open the screen is broken and you cant see that threw the box. God why do companys think they can do what they like as long as they get there money? Chrissi

Hi all, I have 2 bank account, one is Halifax other Lloyd's. On my Halifax account I could go overdraft £1250, in 2013 I move to new place and forget to inform Halifax bank about my new address, and at that point I did not use Halifax account at all. I was on overdraft around £500. At the beginning of 2014, Halifax canceled my overdraft, which I realize in March 3 months later, I quickly repay outstanding fee, informed about my new address and start using this bank account more often. Recently I was shopping for mortgage and have been informed that I had 3 late payments on my Halifax account (outstanding £500 - my overdraft has been canceled). This mess up my credit score big time from 966 went down to 677!!! It was my fault I know, but is there any chance to fix that for example by witting a goodwill letter if yes, have anyone did it? Has other advice? Thanks for helping

Hi pay council tax on monthly installments. I pay £107 a month, I am £23.00 behind in payments, honest mistake. They are now demanding £331.31 this is the rest on the payments from now until April 2015 upfront, any advice please.

Hey! I joined Lifestyle Fitness on the 08/07/2014. When Harlands debited my account on the 08/08/2014, I was unfortunately short of money this day and the direct debit was returned. Unaware I received a letter from Harlands days later notifying me that the payment had not gone through and that I would incur a fee on top of the £17.99 direct debit, which I was more than happy to pay for my own recklessness. Unfortunately on the 21/08/2014 Harlands made a direct debit of £30.49 and on this occasion I was short by a couple of pence and my direct debit was returned yet again. I realised immediately and was very embarrassed to find out that this had happened a second time! I contacted Harlands to apologise and ask if it would be possible to arrange for the money to be taken out again. The woman who I spoke to on the phone was very polite, understanding and reassured me that it was fine because I contacted her straight away. I received no more letters from Harlands during September or October. As far as I was concerned money was in the bank and direct debits where set up to come out of my account as they where arranged to be. However, on the 27/10/2014 I received a letter from CRS explaining that my membership remains in arrears despite previous letters being sent to me. I have not received any letters from CRS it came as a total shock when this letter came notifying me that my account balance was an astonishing £320.13. Confused, I decided to contact CRS on the 28/10/2014. The man who I spoke to was extremely patronising and condescending. He assured me that it was my fault, despite the fact that I had spoken to somebody at Harlands and had arranged for them to debit my account again. I want to continue my gym membership. It is a 12 month contract, I have only paid for 1 month so far! I want to reinstate my direct debit and pay Lifestyle Fitness back for the months that haven’t been debited from my account. The man on the phone explained that I could either pay them £320.13 and be free from my gym contract and that I could set up a payment plan that incurred more fees. £2.50 charge every time I make a payment. Total nonsense. I explained I didn't want to leave the gym and he said that it would cost me £44 per month instead of £17.99 per month. Again total nonsense. I am appalled at how quick CRS have been to add their admin charges without warning! When I explained to the man over the phone that I hadn’t received any letters previous to the one I received on the 29/10/2014, he told me that it didn’t matter if I wasn’t notified anyway and that I still had to pay the fee because it was my fault. I found this obnoxious, rude and pretty unfair seeing as though I had actually made an effort immediately having realised payment hadn’t went through and was mislead into thinking that another direct debit had been set up. I have decided not to discuss anything further over the phone and I have written out a letter explaining this that I will send by recorded delivery to both Lifestyle Fitness and CRS/Harlands or whatever they decide to call themselves tomorrow. Just wondering if anyone has any advice they can give me I'm only 21 and I've never really dealt with anything like this before! Thanks Roxanna

Hello I overheard a conversation in the bank a customer was having his royalties gold payments refunded by RBS due to incorrect selling Is this possible? Thanks

Hi Everyone , This site helped me massively before and Thank everyone here . Recently I set up a Ltd company with a colleague from my old employment. He had the funds and I had the contacts and he spent about 2 K the company failed. I resigned last week well was partly forced to as he wanted money. Basically he was not committed to it threw some money in and went on holiday . Came back when it was not looking good he just continually give out negatives and every time I thought I ad a chance he would shoot it down. The issue is this. When we set up the business he purchased 2 laptops indicated he had about 10K in savings and would do everything possible to make it work. He paid the set up fee about £75 also the accountant and some business cards and some other expenses. I did purchases too paying for website etc and probably spent a similar amount overall. When he purchased the laptops I agreed we would pay him back for these as the business generated an income. Last week before I resigned he was asking me to pay him some of the company costs and the laptop and he would have the business approx. £600. Then he said if I would take the business off him ( we were both 50% directors) he would accept £2K . He knew when we started the business I had only enough funds for living expenses for approx 2 months as a result I resigned from the company. Then he has emailed me stating I said I would pay for the laptop in May and he is giving me 45 days . I do not have the funds to pay him and offered to return the laptop . He is emailing from his personal email and states he rejected the offer as the laptop is now 4 months old and he will extend to 60 days time to pay. We also had agreed we would be employed by the business but as no income of course we have not been paid . I am now on benefits and do not have the means to pay him . The letters are structured to try to paint a picture that is inaccurate and is designed to get at me as I resigned the business and he cannot operate without my contacts. Some of the emails came from his business email as a director then the last 2 emails from his personal email and without the older emails attached as they showed he was seeking personal payment for a limited company expenses. Any advice on what to do next would be great.

Regulator orders Banks and mutuals to review complaints about not cancelling recurring payments from November 2009. Consumers who have set up a regular payment from their account will now be able to successfully cancel that arrangement by contacting their card provider, the Financial Conduct Authority said. The FCA has been examining how easy it is for customers to cancel Continuous Payment Authorities (CPAs) due either to payday lenders or for other regular payments such as subscriptions or gym memberships. CPAs, which are also commonly called recurring transactions or recurring payments, are relatively easy to set up but can be hard to cancel, causing problems for consumers trying to manage their finances,the FCA said. Now, following the FCA review of how the largest high street banks and mutuals process requests to cancel CPAs, they have agreed that they will ensure that when a customer asks for a recurring payment to end, that will be sufficient to cancel the arrangement. They have also confirmed that should a payment go through by mistake following cancellation by a customer the customer will be refunded immediately. In addition to securing this commitment, the largest banks and mutuals have agreed to review every individual complaint they have received about the non-cancellation of a CPA and to pay redress where payments have continued to be made despite the customer cancelling the arrangement. This applies to all complaints since November 2009 when the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s predecessor, began regulating banking conduct. Clive Adamson, the FCA’s director of supervision, said: “It’s important that consumers are confident that banks are meeting their everyday banking needs. Today customers can be confident that when they ask for a Continuous Payment Authority to be cancelled – it will be cancelled - and that it can be done easily. “We recognise that historically this is an area where some customers have struggled but the banks and mutuals have responded positively to our work on this issue. From now on we expect them to be getting this right. In addition, they have committed to review past complaints.” http://www.ftadviser.com/2013/06/28/regulation/regulators/fca-banks-have-to-cancel-recurring-payments-if-requested-UxbeHUuYQIy0SEYbGRE4tJ/article.html

Restons solicitors acting for Marlin capital recently agreed monthly payments via ccj which have been kept up to date, but now I have just recieved a letter from Restons stating an interim charging order has been obtained and they have sent me a copy of the application. Surely they can`t do this unless payments are missed? I have rang Restons and they say the letter was sent out as matter of course, and agreed no payments have been missed. But now im worried whats going to happen next. Can anyone please advise me what if any action I can take. Thank you

I guess they think it's clever to demand an unrealistic payment plan as they will be able to collect their visit fee. They expect a council tax debtor to pay the whole lot in 11 weekly installments. Are these installment plans open to an offer? is it worth taking it up with the council?