Hello everyone, Need some help and advice, I have come to financial difficulties long story, I am claiming Income Support under ill health. I have two debts with two catalogues one is Woolworths and the other is Very, I duly rang them both and told them of my financial difficulties telling them I can no longer pay the monthly amount on my statements, I've told them to cancel my credit with them but they will not and of course in mean time they are charging me interest and late payment charges which is making the debt worse. I need help on how I can make them close both accounts and then I can deal with their debt collector, both catalogues seems to be reluctant to close the account which I found very unusual, normally when you can't pay a debt it get send straight to the debt collectors but those two keeps telling me they cannot close the account. Any help and advice on how I can get them to close that account would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance helen

Hi, I desperately need help in regards to some catalogue account problems that are really affecting my credit score. I will start with saying that I have recently (end of Feb) been diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder and this is the reason for my current problems. I had bad credit from 4 years ago that I had dealt with and had repayment plans for and had never missed a payment since these were set up . Back in November of 2012 I opened accounts with both Freemans and Fashion World and made all payments on time and had no problems up until October of 2013. My account spiralled out of control with them and I was unaware that I was suffering from bipolar disorder and so excessive spending on anything and everything when I was high and not even considering repayments etc. Due to the bipolar I had pushed all of my family and friends away and was very isolated so had no one to help me with my problems and I lost my job due to my erratic behaviour. This lead to the problem of not being able to pay the 2 catalogue accounts, when I was really low I couldn't even face the thought of my getting out of bed so dealing with the debt at that time was almost impossible. I did make the odd phone call to Fashion World trying to explain my situation but they kept asking me to make massive payments of over £200 etc as I was in arrears and despite explaining that I had lost my job and was bipolar they really didn't care. Had I been in the right frame of mind things wouldn't have gotten so bad but due the problems I was facing I found it so difficult to contact them and try to sort things out. I did get more help from Freemans but only after chasing up a couple of times and it was hard as being high or really low meant that I was unable to focus and complete tasks like this so it was only certain times when my mind was in the right place that I was able to contact them, but they offered me a much smaller payment which I made but I now have listed 3 missed payments to them. I started receiving help from my doctors after I reached out just before Christmas of last year, but I wasn't officially diagnosed as bipolar until the end of Feb. I am now in a much better place, on medication and receiving regular counselling and cbt sessions and am back on good terms with many family members as I am now obviously much more stable and able to realise what I was doing before. I want to move to be closer to my mother as she is the key person in helping me at the moment and I live too far away from her (I have lost my driving licence for the next 3 months because of the bipolar diagnosis so being close to her is really needed). I have found the perfect house and is one of the very few I am able to afford around her area but the letting agents require a credit score from equifax of 200 or over. I spoke to the agents today and she was very helpful and told me what they needed, and I have checked and only have a score of 179 with the default from Fashion World and the late missed from Freemans on there. I don't know what to do, I tried to keep in contact with them both as best I could and explain the situation but neither was particularly helpful and Fashion World just kept demanding ridiculous lump sum payments from me. I have recently sent a letter to Fashion World explaining the whole situation and that fact I lost my job due to it, and sent them an income and expenditure report (my social worker has really helped me with all of this) showing that I have more going out than coming in but I can offer them a goodwill gesture of £2 a month to show I am committed to paying t he debt off but they have refused and want a minimum of £14 a month. I just feel so desperate and everything is hopeless, I need to be closer to my mum because of the support she provides me but with such a low credit score now I won't be able to pass the letting checks and I don't know what to do. Is there any way I can quickly improve my score? Can I fight the default from Fashion World? Is there anything at all I can do? I just feel so helpless, I didn't set out to defraud them of money or [problem] them

http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/15150/online-news/debt-buyers-snap-up-securitised-loans

Hi I hope you can help me? I really don't know where to start. I have recently split up with my partner of 20 year. We had to sell our large detatched house and go our separate ways. Fortunately i was lucky enough to get enough money from the sale of our house to buy my own little house for me and my son. I am currently unemployed and i suffer from anxiety and stress, i do get some help for my son from my ex. But, i am struggling now to make ends meet and to top it all off, in the next month my catalogue Buy now pay later purchases will come into affect. I currently owe over £3,000 with Kandco, and over £5,000 with Littlewoods. By the end of next month if i cannot pay them off before the interest hits, these will spiral out of control with a massive interest of over 40%, so, all in all i will be looking at a lot of money owing. I have contacted them both, to tell them that i have hit hard times like a lot of people, and asked if they would accept £50.00 per moth for both until i get back on my feet. They basically told me where to go, stated that as this would be below the minimum payment, they will not accept it. Please help, i don't know what to do, my friend was telling me that she knew someone in the same situation, it went on for a year, numerous threats, letters, phonecalls, numerous debt collection agencies, all refusing to help them, then finally they were issued CCJ'S. After all that the courts accepted their offer of £30 a month of which they had made to the catalogues in the first place over a year ago, so, why don't they just try and help in the first place. My main concern is after reading a lot of threads, is the charges they can put on my property. I am a born worrier to start with, and i know i was stupid, putting myself in this situation if the first place, i am a great believer in that if you havn't got it you can't have it, but, i just kept buying and clicking buy now pay later, thinking that when i sell my house i can pay it all off but, the worse happened, i split from my partner, he had a nervous breakdown afterhe lost his business, we tried for 3 year to sell our house. Property prices dropping all the time and i only just managed to walk away with a little house for us to live in. Now am i going to lose that too? I am at the end of breaking point, i thought that if i contacted them before the debt even happens, it might be better but, they really just dont want to know.

Hello I think I have to take Ambrose Wilson to court to get my late payment charges back. I have been writing to them since the summer but they just ignore everything I send them. They ignored my information request and endless reminders for a list of charges, so I had to file a complain with the ICO. I copied Ambrose Wilson into the email I sent to the ICO and then got a reply from AW within 24 hours with full list of charges!! And a denial that they have been ignoring me saying that they had sent them months ago (lies! They never wanted me to have them until I forced them to by complaining to the ICO) I asked for my charges back using templates from here and they have gone back to ignoring me again. So I gave them 7 days notice of legal action and no response again. So I am having to take them to court . I have a few questions please. * Do I claim against Ambrose wilson or JD Williams and Company Ltd? * Have I got the interest they have charged me correct? I have calculated using 34.1% on the interest spreadsheet. It says 2.84% on my statements which I assume is every 28 days. I can't remember where I got 34.1% annually from. * I need particulars of claim. I have found some on this thread here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?349051-Very-NDR-catalogue-PENALTY-charges-reclaim-filing-for-court/page3 page 3, post #53 But you are only allowed 1080 characters which I don't think will fit??????? Thankyou in advance for your help

I have catalogue debts which have been passed to NDR (I understand these are part of Shop Direct). Like many others, myself and my husband got into a situation where we could not afford pay the minimum amount. I have written numerous letters informing them of our situation and even giving them a StepChange reference (which they requested), all ignored, until this morning. I have now received letters for each account from NDR to say they will not accept a our offer of repayment. What do I do now and where do I go from here. I understand I owe this money and I don't think I could query my agreement as accounts were opened in about 2009/2010. Has anyone ever managed to get NDR to agree to a reduced payment plan??

Hi all, apologies if I'm in the wrong place. I'll try and make this as short as possible. I have an account with Ace Catalogue, and at the moment I'm paying the minimum each month which is £40.00 but my wages have been reduced at work so I'm unable to pay £40.00 a month. I contacted ace as soon as possible so we could sort out some sort of reduced payment plan. At first I received an email off them quite quickly, I explained my situation and they replied with "yes sure we can do a reduced payment plan, how much would you like to pay a month?" So I sent an email back stating how much I could pay (£25.00). And this was on the 31st January. I haven't heard anything back since. I keep emailing them but they're ignoring me. My bill due date is coming up soon, the 12th February, I checked my Ace account online and they still want £40.00 on the 12th February. I can't pay this, and I'm worrying because no one has got back to me, I have to pay this in 2 days! What should I do?? I can only pay £25.00... All answers appreciated, thank you in advance.

Hi all, Not sure if this is the right place to post so feel free to put me right. Just looking for some advice about a catalogue debt i've owed for roughly 4 years. Can't even remember what catalogue it was to be honest but the debt was about £240 although this has been bumped to £360 once Lowells got their sticky paws on it. It's been showing up as a red default on my file since 2010 (although there's a second DF added under one of the months in 2012, don't know why). i don't dispute i owe money to whoever it is and i'm now in a position to start paying it in the hope that the default on my file will magically disappear and was wondering if this would be the case when the bill was settled. the last time they sent a letter was 18 months ago and i've never spoken to or had any verbal contact with them so how do i go about clearing this up? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

I have just had a county court claim from Lowells Portfolio Ltd regarding a catalogue debt of £144 (now £226 with court costs). I had an account with GUS Ltd dating back to the 1980s but this was taken over by KandCo a few years ago. I always paid my debts but was a bit lax about doing so on time, but it didn't used to matter with GUS as long as I paid it. When Kays took over it all changed I started getting charges amounting to £24 each time I was late, in the end I got fed up with it, in July 2011 I paid off my balance and emailed them telling them I was closing the account. I didn't get a response but another statement showing another £24 charges added (because I had paid it after the due date). They continued to add charges until it was £144 and a debt collector took over the harrassment. Apparently Lowell has bought the debt, which I wasn't aware of. Can anyone advise me where I stand with this, is there anything I can do?

hi guys can anyone give me advice on how to deal with this debt DEBT 5 HUSBAND Mail order shop direct Lowell DEBT £381 catalogue on all CRAs start date 20/3/2010 defaulted 13/12/2010 updated 26/01/2011 This balance opened as £220 from catalogue then Lowell asked for £260 its been passed to numerous debt collection agencies and the balance is now £381 on CRAs last collection letter was from Frederickson international ltd on 20/2/13 letter before action is title.

sent 3 items back to isme in same parcel. they received one back but not other 2. I have been trying to resolve this since December 2012 and still trying to get it sorted. sent at least 60 emails. isme recently told me to send them my original returns receipt from post office which I did recorded delivery and was signed for in march 2013 so they could make a claims with the post office. then was told they could not help me. I contacted someone else again at isme to go through all this again and was told all I could do was make my own claim with the post office I told this person twice now that I cant do this as isme has my receipt. she replied back to me by letter saying nothing she can do but make my own claim. I am wondering is she stupid or just not reading my letters to her. THAT I DO NOT HAVE THE RECEIPTS TO DO SO AS ISME HAS THEM AS THEY HAD ASKED FOR THEM. I am beginning to wonder if isme are pulling a [problem] as they know I cant claim without the receipts, they expect me to pay for items which I returned. MY ADVISE TO YOU IS DONT SHOP AT ISME

Hello My sister in law bought a sofa from a catalogue buy now pay later. She now has to pay bedroom tax because her oldest child is under 10. Instead of paying the tax she paid the catalogue and got into arrears which have thankfully been paid thanks to a family member but now she can't manage to pay for the tax and the catalogue. The amount owed is around £900 and she has been paying £50 a month. As far as I know she hasn't missed any payments. Is there some sort of debt agency which could help lower her catalogue payments? Thank you

Hello everyone. I have a situation that I would really like to asked for your advice please. I had gone to arrears with Next directory by 90 days after being a loyal customer for 5 years. This is mainly due to a drop of income because of an illness. They initially passed on the debt of £814 to Brecon Debt Recovery on which they have accepted a 50% F&F settlement. I have promised to pay provided that everything is put into writing. Now since the 1st letter(& only) they have sent in writing was not comprehensive, the last letter that I sent to them was to confirm in writing about me from any liability to be pursued with the remaining debt & such. I sent it to 3 postal address (Their PO Box, the registered office & also to Next) in case they would claim that they never received it. I stated that, payment will be made once I have receive their response. I never got a response after that but it has been delivered (sent it by recorded delivery). It was sent on the 14th. Last friday (25th), I have received another letter, this time from Moorcroft. The letter they have sent is the common letter being sent by DCA's, with boldly written "intended litigation" saying they have been instructed by Next to recover the debt. Where do I go from here? Should I write Brecon or Next why passed the debt to another DCA when they have accepted the offer already? Are they allowed to do this? It is clear that I have no intention to run away from the debt since I promised to pay, but all I was asking is a written evidence just in case they pursue me again in the future. Or should I start all over again with Moorcroft? I don't have a signed CCA with Next because I was made a customer from ordering online. Thank you for any advice!!!

Hi everyone! I currently have 4 catalogue accounts with the Home Direct Group (Littlewoods, Woolworths, Isme and Very) and due to a recent change in circumstances am unable to make my usual payments. I have emailed all 4 catalogue's explaining my situation, offering them a token payment and explaining that I would like interest and charges frozen as well as a review of my circumstances in 6 months time. I also mentioned that I would like to keep all correspondence via email or letter (So that I have proof of what has been said). I have received emails back from all 4 catalogue's explaining that, although they are grateful for me keeping them informed, I need to speak to the Arrears Department who can only be reached via telephone apparently. I have wrote back to each catalogue saying that I am not willing to contact them via telephone and asked what they may suggest I do. I have yet to receive any further advice from them. Does anyone have any advice they can offer me? I am insistent on keeping all contact to letter and email only as they do not have my telephone number and I don't want them getting a hold of it. I am keen to get all of this sorted prior to the threatening letters and knocks at the door. Any help would be very much appreciated!

My mum and myself have been with Grattan catalogue for well over 30 years - so you can imagine the amount we have spent.. ...3 years ago I ordered a 50 inch tv/fridge freezer/washing machine/laptop/ipad and the bill came to £5400 .. ..i've now paid half of it off and have a current debt of £2600 (which I'm still paying)... .my mum has a debt of £1,000 with them. According to the credit available to spend we have over £8,000 available (I say we as my mum is elderly and I have a computer and I arrange the monthly payments online). For christmas, my children wanted a desktop computer each (to stop them arguing) at a total of £1600 for both (Yes, a lot I know but, when you don't have cash on hip to go and buy one - you have to pay through the nose). Two credit agreements arrived (already signed by Grattan's head office) - I signed them and sent them straight back....and was awaiting delivery. I checked online and the computer's had been 'cancelled'. ..mum rang them and they were quite abrupt and said we didn't have enough credit available (????£8,000 is what then?). We have never failed to pay, never defaulted, my mum is a VIP agent having been with them since 1983 . Grattan have said people have ordered items from them and never paid - so they're stricter with their credit terms. What I want to know is - is my credit agreement legally binding?

Been speaking to someone recently who has a selection of catalogues. Balances are only about £50 here, £80 there - total owed is about £400, but their credit limit combined is about £15,000. They plan on maxing the catalogues out on clothes, new cooker, xmas pressies etc and then not paying. She's 69 and hasn't worked for many years due to mental and other health reasons. I assume the catalogues would take a dim view of this?!

Hi My wife has received a Court Summons in regards to a Very account that she stopped making payments on due to us having income problems. I don't know a great deal about the account itself, but suffice to say she/we should have engaged in communications with the company rather than just stop making payments. Hadn't heard from them for a while and then the court documents showed up. The amount is for approx £1,600 account balance, plus interest, solicitor fees court costs = £1,900 approx. We are unable to pay this and will probably have to pitch a repayment proposal to them. Before we do this, is there any mileage in filing a defence with a view to establishing the amounts added for late payment fees an interest? Is it too late to do anything? Look forward to your replies.

hi, I'm really in need of some help. My partner has had a ccj for an old debt taken over by wescot. We have moved house quite a few times recently so I'm assuming that is how we missed the original court papers. Immediately we knew about the judgement we contacted wescot to ask what the bill was for. aparently it was an old catalogue debt but the only one he had was only for a couple of hundred pounds. This is now £1700! Have asked for details of the original bill but they have never replied to our emails. We asked for the order to be varied there is also an enforcement notice pending. The enforcement notice has now been suspended on condition we pay £100/month!!! We offered £40. This is an impossible ammount for us to pay ,what can we do? It has never been agreed he owes the money anyway but court action went through before we could get papers in. It changed court three times before we could do anything!! I work part time and get working and child tax credits my partner is not working we have two depenant children and a 18 year old in training. I don't get how we are classed as poor enough not to have to pay court fees but well off enough to pay £100/month! Any advice would be really apreciated

Hi, i am new to this site and unsure what to do. I really need help with a catalogue debt i have with VERY Ltd. I have been paying this debt for almost 2 years and it still hasnt cleared, infact it has only gone down about £90 from the total balance. I have been issued with numerous charges for late payments, minimum amount payments, letters, etc.. you name it, yet i had set up a payment option??? Also the amount of interest added is phenomenal. I am unemployed and am at my wits end. I feel as though I am never going to get this payed off. Please help !!!!!!

hi, this morning (Saturday), a guy with his car drop a card in my letter box asking me to pay for a catalogue debt i have since 2003/2004 . Since then i have move house and haven't hear from them. the card says ; CSL The Old Court House, High Street, Whitchurch, Bucks.HP22 4JS name mrs...... re Arrow global shop direct £... i called to see you today but was uneable to make contact with you regarding the above account. please phone me on .................. our free collection service is provided to assist you in paying your account . date25/05/13 agent: .... consumer credit licence no .... any one can tell me what shall i do? he never knocked at the door he just dropped the letters.... thanks

Hi, Not sure if I'm posting in the right place here but I need some advice with catalogue debt. I have recently received 3 letters from lowell finance saying that I owe money for 3 separate catalogue debts, 2 with shop direct and 1 with JD Williams. But I never took these out! I recently opened a credit account with Fashion World just so that I could get the 10% off and have since payed this off in full as I don't want to build up debts and I'm assuming that's how they have found me to send me these letters. The debt is from my previous address at University and I don't know who has taken them out but I wasn't even living there when the items were delivered. It's a problem for me though as I can't prove this, I found out that I was 5 months pregnant in early April of 2011 and moved home however my lease wasn't up until the end of June. I had already payed my rent for that term that covered me up until the end of my tenancy and just wanted to move home as I had decided to take a break from Uni to concentrate on the baby and sorting everything out. I have since moved in with my boyfriend and we have been living together for over a year now and I have had no letters from any debt companies until I opened the Fashion World account. Now I don't know what to do, I wasn't living at the address at the time but my tenancy agreement didn't end until the end of June and the items were delivered before that. Is there anything I can do?? The debts mount up to well over £1000 and I don't want to be paying that back but they are threatening to take me to court and obviously I don't want that and I'm worried about any affect this is going to have on my credit rating. Thanks for any advice you can give, Rachael

Hi all Just want to pick your brains on something. I purchased a Toshiba Laptop from Very Catalogue, which was delivered on February 28th 2013, just over a week ago. I switched the Laptop on and it started to go through the process of setting itself up etc, all good so far. Then it shut down during the process. Not a good start. After three tries I managed to finally get the Laptop setup. Since then, everyday and several times a day, I get the horrible 'Blue' screen fault. Having Googled the error it seems to be a Lan driver problem. I did the usual, full recovery (twice) download latest drivers from Toshiba, uninstall, reinstall drivers - full virus scans, basically everything I can think of. Still the problem goes on. I contacted Very, who as expected, kindly informed me to go to Toshiba. So Toshiba will no doubt come and take the Laptop, have it for weeks before bringing it back either fixed or unfixed. What I am mad about is the Laptop is so new and has never worked properly from day one, I can't imagine it working at all in a years time! Basically I have told Littlewoods (Very) that I want a full refund, but they are playing the "Go to the manufacturer" game. I don't want a repair. I know under the Sale of Goods Act the item has to be of Satisfactory Condition and Fit for purpose. I have spelt this out to Very, but alas I keep getting the same message -"Go to Toshiba, we are not responsible." What I want to know basically is where do I stand? I want a full refund end of. Your advice will be appreciated. Jack

Hiya Everyone, I am new here this is my first post. I joined because I am extremely worried and anxious that I may have gotten myself into a really serious situation. I will be honest from the outset. I am in debt with so many different payday loan companies/ mail order companies that I don't even know what they are any more, so has my mum (who I live with) In November 2011, my mum got a loan with a PDL company, she entered 'MR' instead of MRS and she entered 1 year out of the DOB, she was accepted for the loan and we haven't paid it back. I am now so worried sick that that is fraud? What happens if they find out, could she go to prison for this? She doesn't even remember doing it that way, but that's the information on her online account with them, so she must have! Late last year I opened several accounts with catalogue companies (simply be, brilliant gift shop) I got credit with them, and haven't paid it back - now this is where it gets really awful - I didn't pay them back, then I tried to open several more accounts with them (using variations of my own name, and a different DOB) I don't know why I even did that, obtaining credit kind of become an addiction and I now feel absolutely terrible and worried sick that my stupid actions are going to bite me in the arse in a big way! My mum also has several account with them, she also has credit with those companies that we have never paid back! I am in the situation now where I cannot think about anything else other than this! I do not want me or my mum to go to prison, we owe so much debt that I don't know how even to find out who we owe to (on my mums brilliant gift shop account, she used her maiden name instead of her married name) I am a very socially nervous person, and my whole life is my Dog (I know that sounds silly to some people but it's true) I love her more than anything and I am crying just thinking about what would ever happen to her if we was to go to prison for fraud! I am so scared right now! We are currently paying back Rent arrears, Council arrears and water arrears - we are sticking to the agreement and all is going well. I would ideally like to know exactly who I owe money to, so I can start payment plans with them - but I don't know who we owe it to, and I am also really scared that if I try to find out they will discover the untrue information and decide to prosecute us! Especially as I opened several other accounts that didn't get credit - they may notice that and say that we quite obviously had no intention of paying the debts back! I am overwhelmed with guilt and anxious, I wish we had never been this stupid, I don't know how to fix it and these worries are dominating my life it's so horrible. I would simply never cope with prison (and I know it's my responsibility to not get in trouble in the first place, I really know that, but I so wish I had never done this!) Does anybody have any advice here? Can we go to prison for this? How do we begin putting this right again? Thank you for reading, sorry this is a long first post that may seem a bit rambling, I am just so scared and regretful. Thanks again.

Hi all I am new here so hope I am doing this correctly. I have had a catalogue with Studio for many years now, always paid on time ( approx £220.00 ) every 28 days, although from that amount I was actually only clearing just over £100.00 from the balance. Late last year my husband was made redundant and has since found another job but significantly lower wage. As soon as I knew I needed help with the Studio payments I contacted them and for several months now I am going round in circles. They refused my offer of payment (£20.00) and refused to stop adding charges. They say they can only accept repayments based on the balance outstanding ( £3700.00 ) this was around £3000 when I asked for help but as I say they are adding interest etc still. I last emailed them to say I would not be carrying contact on with them as its getting me nowhere, they wanted approx £150.00 every 28 days which I simply cannot afford, if I could I would happily pay it. Now I have received a debt collection letter saying they want the full amount, it also says I can apply to the court for more time . . can I do this? Also, can debt collectors call at my home / collect goods to clear the debt? Sorry for the long story but I am at a loss as to what to do Thank you

After having a look at my options I've decided to let my creditors default my accounts and then come to some sort of arrangement to pay. I have catalogue, store card, PDLs and credit cards. I'm wondering how long it usually takes for them to actually default you? I want to get things sorted but definitely want my credit file recorded with those defaults first so that the 6 years start ASAP.