Something similar was highlighted in London a few years ago. Beggars were travelling from the suburbs into London by train - Journalists discovered that the beggars were then returning to their homes at the end of the day, usually £300-500 better off !!

Daniel Head can’t take credit, move banks or even secure a new mobile contract because his bank mistakenly put a fraud flag against his name and refused to remove it Daniel Head has worked hard to build up a strong financial base and an excellent credit rating over the years. He has never fallen into debt or suffered financial difficulties. But he can’t take out credit, move banks or even secure a mobile phone contract because Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , his bank for 12 years, mistakenly put a fraud flag against his name and refuses to remove it. Financial institutions (NasdaqGS: FISI - news) have almost unfettered powers to share concerns about customers with other companies through credit reference agencies and fraud prevention registers such as Cifas and the National Hunter database. https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/paid-us-cheque-barclays-account-080751591.html

Hi everyone, Love the forum and I'm looking for little bit of advice. I had a run in with HFO at the start off 2011 about an old debt i had with barclay card which was over 7 years old then and was SB. I did all the letter sending and never heard from them again. But here's the crazy thing, I now live in Scotland ( since 12/2011 about 8 months after the letters from HFO stopped) and a letter from BCW dropped on my doorstep about 2 weeks ago asking if I was who they were looking for( It was my name on the letter) and if i could get in touch. And if i wasn't the named person to get in touch anyway. After finding out who they were i filed it with the HFO stuff and left it at that. Now yesterday i received another letter from BCW saying they were working on behalf off HFO and would i ring their office to settle the debt from Barclay card which is now about 8 years old and funny enough half the amount HFO wanted and is now more or less what the original debt was. What do you think i should do? Are they chancers and looking for a quick buck? I'm thinking of just ignoring them as going by the first letter they don't even know if i live at the address the letter was sent. They don't have a leg to stand on and don't want to acknowledge the letters in fear off endless threat o grams. Any opinion on this would be gratefully received. Cheers

Hi, Just noticed that Minicredit changed their terms and conditions and renamed the 19.50 GBP transmission fee now a drawdown fee. Makes me wonder why? So I thought it is time to reclaim this so I sent them this: "Dear Madam or Sir, I am writing in relation to loans associated to my account, for which I incurred transmission fees which I do not believe are fairly and reflecting the actual costs of fund transmissions. The loans were taken out from from 17 January 2012 to 06 July 2012 The reason I believe that these transmission fees (19.50 GBP for each transmission) are unfair and not reflecting the actual costs of fund transmissions is that these are very high and unclear. Unless you can provide proof that these transmission fees were reasonable and actually incurred, I will expect a full refund of these transmission fees (136.50 GBP), plus 8% interest on these up to 8 August 2013 (14.94 GBP), in total 151.44 GBP, plus daily interest of 8% after 8 August 2013. I look forward to your prompt response to this email. If I have not had a satisfactory response from you within eight weeks of this letter I will contact the Financial Ombudsman Service to formally investigate my complaint. Kind regards" Can't wait for their reply

Hi I have just been made redundant due to insolvency What happens to my statutory redundancy and pay in lieu notice if I either start a self employment pretty much straight away or if I can get what I think is available another job virtually straight away. Regards Roe

E.ON changed my "plan" [see "title"] (January 18th 2013), presumably at the behest of "D.E.C.C."...another one of "Dave's" BIG-IDEAS!!! I now have no control over "on-line" account management...submitted "meter-readings" are refused. I have five circuits; "Day", "Night", "Boost", "Heatwise" and "Heatwise night". Now, because my "Heatwise..." consumption has fallen to zero (I do not use heating during these Summer-Months)...E.ON have decided that "your consumption is inconsistent with your usual useage"...consequently my on-line submitted readings are refused! They (E.ON) promptly invoiced me for a Bill, which is not due...I refused to pay; my payment history is impeccable...I pay quarterly "on demand"...THIS IS INTOLERABLE. E.ON extol the virtues of "on-line" account management but they are unable to "deliver"...this is clearly misrepresentation. I strongly urge every customer of E.ON to switch ! I have (had) a perfectly satisfactory [contract] with E.ON for thirteen years; this is a debacle. It is clear, from my correspondence with D.E.C.C. that this [situation] is due to "lobbying" by the "Big six"; of which E.ON are one. The introduction of "simplified tariffs" is simply a manifestation of this Government's failure to address [our] lack of an energy-strategy; we are now "paying-the-price" of failure! The only long-term solution is to invest in "Nuclear"; meanwhile, us consumers have to pay-the-price of [futile] "experiments" with WIND!!!