Good morning, I have outstanding balance with EON for £624 and have done since 2016. I have always disputed this balance as it appeared far too high for 2 months bills where I was not living in the property due to renovations work. The last payment on the account was in September 2015. To cut a long story short, I was due to set up a payment plan with simply past due credit who put the account on hold after I questioned EON sharing 6 late payments on my account in 2016. EON refused to refuse the payment markers and I wrote to the past due credit in February 2018 again asking to set up a payment plan but received nothing back. Last week, out of the blue, I received a letter from EON requesting a the full balance by 31st January or a default would be put on my account or if I did pay monthly by arrangement, "we will share the information about the arrangement with the CRA". My credit files are squeaky clean and near maximum with both agencies apart from the one with Equifax which bizarrely after 2017 showed payments on my account to EON then last month it showed a late/missing payment in December 2018 despite no arrangement being in place. I want to pay the full balance but am worried about how negatively it will impact my credit history as I've heard that "settled" can be viewed very negatively - some also say that a payment arrangement can be almost as negative as a default! Could anybody kindly give me some advice please?

I am interested in sorting out my Mother's Mortgage and my personal debts. My mother, who is 80, still has about £236,000 remaining on her mortgage. I have personal debts, which are costing me about £1,200 per month. My mother's house is worth about £450,000. Would it be possible to get a Lifetime mortgage to repay her mortgage and my debts? I would be happy, and I want to pay towards the mortgage each month. I know that I would not get a normal mortgage as I would not earn enough (£50,000 a year) and no deposit. I am just wondering if anyone thinks this would be possible, or if anyone had any other ideas?

Hi Im not sure if this is correct place to post this so I'll be brief and wont object if someone moves my post to the correct place! I have done a DSAR and noticed on my Bank Statement in 2007 that a cheque I wrote was presented on Tuesday 02/01/2007 and it bounced. It was further presented on the Friday 05/01/2007 and bounced again.* 02/01/2007** *Tuesday 05/01/2007** *Friday If cheque clearing took 4-5 days at that time, how could it be possible that a cheque could be represented 3 days after bouncing in the first place. I am mystified! Please can anybody shed any light on this. thank you

Hello, I made a lot of silly financial commitments about four years ago as I was working and in college, just turned 18 and assumed I'd be able to just walk into a job when I went to uni the following year. That didn't happen, and my student loan just hasn't been able to cover living costs and the debts I have. I've been trying to make payments as and when, but I realised that the charges I was getting on my accounts were more a month than I'd be able to actually pay them so, instead of being an adult about the situation, I just ignored it. I am now finishing uni in a few weeks time and have found a job and would really like to be able to start working towards being debt free but I've no idea what to do. My debts currently are: £560 to Lowell (o2 phone bill) I set up a payment plan with them about six months ago for £15 a month, even though it was more than I could really afford but was told it was the minimum they could accept or they'd escalate the situation(the idea of bailiffs at my student halls terrified me) but after some reading around I realise that I've probably been lied to. £1600 Simply Be £2000 Littlewoods I've no idea where to start with approaching companies and stuff, so any help would be much appreciated.

Hello CAG, Firstly can I say thank you to you all for your time and effort put into this site, if it wasn’t for yourselves I personally wouldn’t of been able to reclaim just under £3k for myself or of helped at least 20 of my friends all reclaiming tens of thousands back in unlawful Bank charges. So a massive thank you from myself, family & my friends. Now I find myself in a slightly more technical and difficult situation & in need of direct help. Before the last recession I was self-employed, earning very good money. I bought a property to do up, utilising the interest free cards that were being thrown at myself. And then came the recession and boom......sod all work and on the dole! I contacted the CCCS in Sept 2009 who did there magic resulting in myself using one of your template letters & sending to my creditors, advising of my debt management plan & offering £1 pcm as a token payment with all interest charges to be suspended. All agreed and have been making the £1 payments to date. My current situation is. A&L - sold to CAPQUEST - £8300 owed - £2900 settlement offered to myself in 2010 M&S - £1300 owed - £400 settlement offered to myself in 2010 RBS - Letters from Robinson Way - £3200 owed - No settlement offered. Bank of Scott - sold to CABOT - £4900 owed - £2700 settlement offered to myself in 2010 Barkley Card..Letters from CABOT - £7100 owed - £2800 settlement offered to myself in 2010 EGG - £1300 owed - £400 settlement offered to myself in 2010 Now with me nothing is simple. EGG, I have heard nothing from them in the last few years & on a recent check with Experian nothing is shown. I therefore cancelled my £1 pcm payment on Aug 2015. As of yet have not received anything from them. Barkley Card, Now as stated back in 2010 I was contacted by a very understanding and helpful account manager offering the £2800 settlement figure. Due to my situation though I had to pass on this offer. Now back in 2011 & 2015 I did an Experian check and the balance shown on both reports is £2800. Though the letters from CABOT show the original £7100 figure! Now my business is starting to slowly pick up again I would like to clear my credit file and improve my chances of getting another mortgage. I am in no means capable at the minute of paying out £12k. Seeing as all these offers were made 6 years ago should I negotiate a better deal for myself? Any help would be hugely appreciated, thank you in advance.

Hello, I am almost in the position to start approaching my creditors to give Full and Final settlement offers however I would like a bit of advice first. I am looking to get a mortgage within the next 2 years and want to get myself in the best position possible to apply. I will have money available from family to clear the debts however the majority will come from my local credit union, I have already discussed this with them. I am currently on a DMP with StepChange and one of my creditors has only just defaulted my account so the 6 year clock has only just started ticking.... I have read on this forum that its unlikely I will ever be able to have the defaults removed with the CRA's however I am going to try. Has anybody ever had defaults removed as part of F&F settlement negotiations? I have seen some F&F settlement letters on this forum with default removal as one of the conditions. I am aware that a settled default is not much better in the eyes of mortgage lenders than an unsettled default. Also, I am not sure if I should use Step Change's free F&F settlement service or go alone using templates here. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Many Thanks

Just a heads up to people with loans from PDE you must contact FOS to add to the substantial file they have on them, if they have done the following, Hi all payday express have been deliberately not taking the full balance even though there are enough funds in my account, they are just taking the interest so as to rollover the loan. They say they are acting on my instructions which is rubbish, I have contacted the OFT and received a very interesting reply. I am also in contact with the FOS.

On Tuesday I wrote a cheque for just under £500 to a painter decorator. At the time I wrote it, I did not have funds to pay it in my account but it is a joint account and my husband had agreed to pay some money in. Long story short, he didn't pay it in. On Friday I noticed the cheque debiting the account and taking it £200 overdrawn. We have no overdraft facility and I would expect such a cheque to therefore be returned unpaid. I went into my branch to see if they could tell me if it would be returned. They said they couldn't but they could stop the cheque. I asked them to do this for me (so that I could avoid charges and explain to the decorator and pay in two instalments) and they said they had stopped the cheque and it would re-credit my account later that day. By 8pm it had not re-credited so I phoned the bank. They said the cheque was being paid. I queried why when there were no funds and we do not have a good credit rating. I said I had been told the cheque had been stopped. They put me through to a customer care department where they said they would recredit the cheque and 'ask the payee to pay the money back'. At the time I was so relieved to not be £200 overdrawn (with no money then accessible to me at all, from any account) that I just said thank you. They even offered me £25 as a sorry for telling me they had stopped it when they hadn't. My bank statement still shows the cheque having gone out but a credit for the value of the cheque from 'customer care'. Now in the cold light of day I am wondering what they actually meant. Presumably the money would normally credit the payee's a/c on Monday. Will it not arrive? Or will it arrive then disappear the next day? Will they actually phone up the payee and say pay it back and if so, why on earth would they? I want to pay this bill as soon as I can but if my husband does not help I cannot pay it in full till 21st of this month. If the cheque recredits I fully expect the bank to take back their credit and I will then pay what I can to the decorator and pay the balance on 21st. But what happens if my bank can't get the funds back? Is that their loss or will they redebit and put me overdrawn again? Very confused - and also very confused as to why on earth they would let me go £200 overdrawn when they won't give me a planned overdraft of £50!!!!

I have a large amount of debts which I have been trying to tackle for a number of years. I am currently in an IVA with Payplan which is failing as I am currently employed in a private company who only pay SSP when you are off sick. Prior to arranging this IVA I informed Payplan that I have medical conditions which are a left clavicle joint injury which means I have a screw in my shoulder to hold my clavicle bone in place to my collarbone. I also have Sacroiliac joint injury on my right side which causes me pain and immobility especially when I am under stress, cold and exert myself too much through walking. Due to this I have been issued with a freedom pass as I have been informed that there is nothing they can do as the tissues have worn away from the joints. I also have a suppressed immune system which means I am susceptible to colds and flu’s I have been off sick from work on a number of occasions since starting the IVA, which was only started in April 2012 and could not pay the money into the plan due to my low salary therefore I have been informed that I am in arrears of £244.00. They have advised me that a Debt Management Plan maybe the best option due to the amount of debt which is around £56,000. I am concerned that due to that if I enter into any plans that I might end up in a similar situation of being unable to pay especially if I am off sick and only receiving SSP. I am not entitled to any benefits as I can work but encounter bouts of ill health from time to time and am currently seeking another position that does not operate the same sickness policy. Does anyone have any suggestions as I need to make a decision as soon as possible. Many thanks

I would like to know what the clearing times are for payments made by the DWP. I have heard some benefits are 5 days and others are 3. is this true? I had a payment released on Wednesday by the DWP so I would reckon I would get that Tuesday, Unless someone can correct me. I think this kind of information would be helpful to people here, The DWP are worse than useless at letting people know information like that. I'm sure someone here will have some knowledge about the process and I like many others will be grateful for the info.

Good Afternoon All! This is my first post here, so hopefully I get it right. Around six months ago I applied for funding to start up a new business, and unfortunately have been turned down by the bank, they advised me to obtain a copy of my credit report at the time, but for one reason or another - I didn't. I tried again a few weeks ago and declined again. This time I obtained a copy of my report from Experian, Equifax and CallCredit online. Upon looking at the reports, there are several discrepencies (old accounts that I failed to update addresses for, and some that I thought no longer existed - but are still "open") - these are easily rectified with some simple letters. However, there are a few that worry me, and are going to be the cause of being declined finance. There are 3 defaults, 2 with "Lowell Portfolio" and 1 with "HSBC". The accounts are very old, but have all been passed to Lowell Portfolio/HSBC(well, Metropoliton I think) in the past 2 years. I have been paying towards these monthly for some time (although small amounts). I have emailed Lowell Portfolio and explained the situation, asking them if they would be willing to remove the defaults on both accounts if I were to increase my payments in order to pay off the debts in the next 12 months. They responded in writing saying they are unable to do this, and to contact them to increase my payments. Not what I wanted, but I wasn't really expecting much anyway. The amounts owing to Lowell Portfolio are £1,200 and £500, and to HSBC it is around £1,300 (all approximate). I am not in a position to pay these off in full, and do not want to increase the payments if it isn't going to improve my credit score - as that is what I am after here. I have read through some posts on the forums here and see some guidance about requesting a CCA etc. - should I do this here? The debts are quite old as I mentioned, and have been passed from Littlewoods/Great Universal to Lowell Portfolio - who do I send the CCA to? I also do not remember seeing any "default notices" - I keep all my paperwork for open accounts, and cannot find them anywhere. Could I ask for these? In regards to HSBC, this is regarding a very old account. However, I have gone through some old paperwork and remember trying to file a complaint against them against unfair bank charges - at the time it was for just under £1,200 worth of charges (interest on top) - which, now that most of the debt is paid of, equals a good part of the outstanding balance. I may be able to dig out the old statements for this account, or even my original calculations - worse case, I guess I request it from the bank - although they passed to to "Metropoliton Collections" or something. Any ideas what I can do here? All my other accounts are in good standing (2 small credit cards and 2 bank accounts, 1 with a small overdraft), and I have no CCJs - so I would like to see if I can remove these defaults from my file and clean up my report. I am not trying to "evade" any debt, as I am aware that one way or another, all of the above debts have been incurred - and would be more than happy to keep paying them if they remove the default notices. I just want to improve my credit score, so that I can approach the bank again and start up a business. Any help would be appreciated - and many thanks in advance! Sorry if I waffled on a bit...