RIP Pete Seeger. It's a sad day, and only slightly mitigated by the fact that I had chosen him in a Celebrity Death Pool on another board. The flowers have gone away, and they're not coming back. You heard it here first.

We have been paying HP on our car for the last four years, we are now nearly at the end 1495.00 left. My wife lost her job just before xmas. The we got behind with our £284.00 payments each month. We understood the procedure and understood the finance company would terminate our agreement as we had not paid. We were then told we could come to an arrangement to try and catch up on the the missed payment that come to £910.00 agreement was due to come to an end at the end of March anyway! When we tried to do this the finance company said we have applied for court hearing (we understood they just could not repossess the car without this) but they said you can set up an agreement which is £596.00 per month for next three months we said okay that is fine we can pay we just needed time. They said we are going to still get the court hearing date, but more than likely the court date will come after you have paid the sum agreed. The cour hearing date arrived and it is on the 12th feb! which is not after all the payments are made! We now are in the position we need to clear the £1495. by the 12th feb with gives us no time at all! we could do it complete strech but we will struggle to live! What do we do, if this goes to court they tell us we will more than likely lose the car. After paying £14K in total it seems crazy! we may pay nearly all of it say 1200 and let the rest go to court they will add £150.00 court fees as well which makes the bill £350.00 where do we stand with such a small amount like this will they get the car. Do we struggle and pay them Will they get the car if only a small amount is left Have they done anything wrong by telling us we can come to an agreement then changed their minds Woman said they will be able to repossess the car and the jugde is likely to grant this action, I thought the court gave you a chance to pay also? Help and advice needed please thanks

Hi, A builder/gardener did a job for us early 2013. The workmanship and meteials used was very poor. A job that was supposed to take 14-16 days took 2.5 months and still not finished before he walk off the job. After a few letters, etc we threatened to take him to the small claims court. He said he had replied to my last letter and should get it after a few days. After not receiving anything in the post, i emailed him and found that he had closed both his emails account down, changed his mobile number. Went to his address and found he had moved. I had tracked him down to another address but i am not 100% sure he is living there eventhough it showed in the electoral register that he is there. Is this enough for me to send the court summons to this address? I had read on the internet that i do not have to know for certain that he is living there, as long as i have "reasonable belief" he is there. Is this correct? would be grateful to hear from people who had experience of this or anyone who know where i stand legally? Thanks.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2532236/Outrage-hundreds-drink-drivers-named-shamed-Twitter-BEFORE-theyve-chance-fair-trial.html This appears to be causing quite a lot of controversy

Hi. Has anyone encountered problems with a company called TRUESHOPPING who trade on AMAZON!!?? I bought a chainsaw on Amazon through a company called TRUESHOPPING, in short it was a load of rubbish and when I contacted them they said they would arrange for their courier to collect it and that they would then issue a refund. After they failed to materialise on the FITH occasion I became a little tetchy with them understandably and yesterday I received an e-mail from Amazon saying that my returns request case had been closed due to TRUESHOPPING refunding me. This is utter tosh and I still have the item sitting by my front door waiting for collection. What is my best course of action re my refund Im out of work and the money when returned would come in handy for Xmas. Any help appreciated Thanks

Hi , I hope there is someone out there who can advise me. I am a school caretaker I had my hours cut April 2013 approx 15 % employed by County Council at that time it turned out to be breach of contract but I did not want the hassle of legal action to fight it at the time. I was transferred to the School from the council Sept 1. 2013 TUPE transfer with protected rights. However School have cut my hours again amongst other changes to my job without consultation again this is breach of contract and I am going to fight this time with Union assistance I have to make a stand having lost 30% of my hours over a number of years. My question is :- Is 15 % the maximum cut that can be taken off my hours and 3 years before any further review/cut can take place, There must be some restrictions on what can be changed regards employee`s Statement of particulars or they can walk all over you. Thanks.. Dave

Hi just a little advice please, we are currently in the middle of selling our house which we had valued at 140, 000 from when it went on we had a viewer every week we dropped the price to 135000 as we wanted a quick sale after finding our dream home. We currently have a buyer who knocked us down to 130000 and also asked us to pay half their stamp duty which we agreed to as we didn't want to loose the buyer or our dream home. They have now had a home buyers survey done which has told them that our house needs a new front door and frame ?? Guttering needs replacing and our conservatory needs replacing or knocking down. The buyer has been to see the house twice before they offered and I do agree the guttering needs replacing and also the conservatory ( wooden frame single payne ) Needs the frames and roof replacing and this is clearly visible. But considering I have already been knocked down over 5000 and I cannot go any lower as we would not be able to purchase the house we want. Does this make me sound unreasonable not budging on price as my thinking is the buyer seen the house twice before offering and haggled us down quite some.

I booked online after seeing they offered the best price for the hotel I was looking at. When the final payment screen came there was an additional £7plus added for fees which I thought was very deceptive. I continued with the booking and after a few minutes found a better price so emailed them giving them the info. They say they will beat any advertised price as long as they are notified within 24 hours. Heard nothing back. Their offices are outside the UK. Biggest shock came after arriving at the hotel 10 days later-they knew nothing of the booking ! And the receptionist claimed they had done this a few times recently. Was found a room but unfortunately it was nothing as had expected. Be careful if using this company.

Hello, I am after some advice for an issue I have with Virgin Mobile. August last year I cancelled my contract at the end of term. I called the one month before the contract renewal date to tell them I did not want my contract to renew. I was told that everything would be cut off at the end of August and I wouldn’t receive any further charges against this contract. In the December of 2012, I was going back through my bank statements and I noticed that the monthly charges for the mobile had continued. I contactedVirgin to get this resolved. I received a quick reply and apology and I wastold that the money wrongly debited form my account would be paid back to me. I never saw this money go into my account I sent another complaint tovirgin telling them that the money owed to me was not paid back. Weeks later Ireceived a phone call. The chap apologised, blaming computer issues blah blahblah... I was told that the money would be put into my account within a week. Ichecked my bank and I have discovered they have only paid back £15 which is aquarter of the amount they owe me. Please can someone tell me what my next step should be? Are they in any wayin breach of the contract? Will I need to complain to CISAS? What type ofresponse shall I expect to get from Virgin for their failure to give me backwhat they owe? Will they offer a gesture of good will? On another note, before I noticed that there was this problem with myoriginal contract, I started a new contract with virgin to take advantage of adeal that I had seen. Any help or pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Earlier this week I travelled from Welwyn Garden City to Kings Cross by train. I had a valid, paid for, First Class Ticket. The ticket had a photo card number, also valid and I had the photo card with me (You must have them together to make them valid). The photo card is a bit old and faded, the photo has slid and was poking out slightly, but the security seal is unbroken and the photo is recognisable as me. I approached the barrier and Revenue Protection Officer stopped me. He accused me of fraudulent use and demanded to see some ID so I showed my driving license. He accepted the photo was of me ... then ... detained me whilst he wrote it up and gave me a slip threatening criminal prosecution unless I replaced the photocard within 14 days! As far as I can see from my research (I am a law student) and the National Rail Conditions of Carriage as long as it is a genuine photocard and the photo is recognisable as me it is valid even if it is really crappy. Specifially, it must be a 'true likeness'. So, once the Revenue Protection office had established it was me then by definition it was a 'true likeness' and any power to prosecute or detain evaporated. s18 Rail Byelaws is an offence of strict liability ... but only if you did not have, or failed to produce, a valid ticket. I had both the ticket and the photo card. So I emailed them about an hour later, including a contemporary note with a photo of my ticket and the photocard. I served a letter of claim later in the week to the effect that once they had established the photo was me there was literally no reason to accuse me of anything and no legal authority to stop me or threaten me with prosecution. There is a good deal more to it than that, but I have posted the essentials, what do you guys think?

Hi all, I have recently had a great time in the lake district, now about a fortnight later I have had a parking charge from parking eye for a car park in Hawkshead. Through the holiday we used many car parks including the one in Hawkshead twice. So of course we had a ticket for every car park visited. surly they should provide a photograph of my car with no ticket. Of course I didn't keep the ticket, I have been driving for forty odd years and have never ever kept tickets. Comments/advise please.

Hi everyone, I joined TalkTalk broadband & phone in November 2012 and TalkTalk mobile in May 2013 and all was fine, until recently! For the last 3 months there have been problems with talktalk taking payment by direct debit despite direct debit being set up on my account. Their excuse has been that there is no direct debit set up! After numerous phone calls, emails and also a charge for non-direct debit payment, I hopefully have it sorted. (time will tell). The new problem is with my talktalk mobile plan. When signing up to a talktalk plan, whether it be small, medium or large, one of the features is that a customer gets 100 minutes to call other talktalk mobiles. On looking at my online bill, it appears that, although I have called a certain talktalk mobile number on numerous occasions, the minutes have been deducted from my monthly allowance. (I am on the small plan). I have raised this issue with talktalk through emails and phone calls but to no avail. I lost my patience and emailed the CEO, Dido harding, to help get this sorted once and for all. I then received an email apologising for the "mix up", and I was offered one months' free as a goodwill gesture. I gratefully accepted and was happy again. Or at least for a short time. I then received a phone call from a manager at the CEOs office who apologised for any inconvenience and promised to sort it for me. The manager phoned me again and told me that one of her colleagues had told her that to get the 100 minutes, I had to have an extra mobile or SIM linked to my account! I questioned this and also asked where this was stated in the Ts&Cs. I said that a friend of mine, who is also on talktalk, has this feature active on their account so why don't I? I emailed the manager a screenshot of the "100 minutes to other talktalk mobiles" and a copy of their own terms and conditions and I received a new email saying, Dear Mr Bloggs, Thank you for your email. I think you maybe right on this as I have spoken to some of colleagues about this and they agree that it must be for any TalkTalk mobiles not just ones linked to the account. Could I ask you to provide me with the mobile number of your friend who also has TalkTalk mobile so I can check over his details regarding this extra. Please be assured that I will sort this out for you as soon as possible. Although I am now better informed, I am still non the wiser. Could any of you clever folk pick the bones out of this and advise me where I go from here and what to do next. I have said to the manager via email that they have breached my contract and I intend to terminate my contract. Am I within my rights to do so? Thank you for taking the time to read this life story! kind regards

I just wondered how all these companies work after you've paid off a loan, I know someone that's had a few with Wonga, all repaid on time, they tell me they have not had any kind of attempt by Wonga to contact them again, either by e-mail, snail mail, text or phone calls. I doubt this is the norm.

Hi again guys, Just wanted advice on these 2 bank debts please. Nationwide and Natwest Nationwide was a overdraft for £1,300 Natwest was a overdraft for £1,700 I received today 2 letters for each debt. 1 from Red, one from Lowells. I have checked my credit files and these were on there last year but have now dropped off my report. - Last payments to both were before 2006 What should I do with the letters? Thanks in advance

Any help here would be much appreciated! So, I deceided a couple of weeks ago to try for a payday loan and was surpsrised to be accpeted with the first(or so ) I tried for. I was a bit desperate, now roll forward a week and I tried for another while still currently having the first, this time I couldn't find anyone, I have some bad credit from the past. So stupidly, and out of a bit of desperation, I just googled 'payday loans' and was trying a lot of what I thought were all lenders, but it seems I must/MAY have signed up to a broker also, I thought I was being careful, which I was, and I certainly don't recall seeing anything talking about a processing fee, but I must have, so I find £69.99 taken from my account. I don't even now what website it was, I now have a TON of junk mail, and have searched through it but don't see anything about a fee being taken. My bank tells me it's from a compain called ENHANCE, which after a google is Enhance financial, also known as Quintessential Finance and maybe another name as their parent lender. They seem to have many 'front' company website names, like myloan.co.uk etc etc. So, is there such a thing as a cancellation period, do I have a leg to stand on, how do I get in contact with them, should I go direct to the parent finance companies(enahnce etc) or do I need to find out what website I 'MAY' have signed up for, although I certainly don't ever recall see anything saying I will be paying £69.99. Anything I can do here, ENHANCE financial is well documented on the Internet and also on this site, some people seem to have been successful in getting a refund -mius £5. Thanks for any help.

In 2004 i opened a shop.After just 6 months some builders moved in upstairs and caused my stock room ceiling to collapse causing approx 30ks worth of damage.The resulting court case (which took years) i took out against the builders (nothing to do with me) caused a terrible toll on my health.In the stock room I had stock that was brand new on a 30 day account the stock was for the coming year (valentines, easter etc).The result was that one of my creditors got particularly aggressive and wanted immediate payment.At the time I had pneumonia from the dust in the shop and no income as i had lost my shop.The result in January 2006 was a CCJ.The ccj paperwork had been sent to my (useless) solicitor who did nothing to help me even negotiate with them.I didn't even get the 14 days to respond because my solicitor didn't bother to even tell me.Their solicitor was pretty nasty and started asking if I owned my house so they could put a charging order on it (i rent).I paid the ccj as best i could and by Jan 2012 when the ccj disappeared from the register i owed £600 having paid some £2500 over those 6 years.I am now in financial difficulty and I have 2 children with additional needs as well as a husband with health issues.This morning I had a letter from sherforce plus threatening me and telling me they want to send a recovery officer to my house.Are these people bailiffs? Please help as i am terrified and in tears.What happened with the shop was a dreadful time in my life and this is like a never ending nightmare.I have nobody at home who I can even tell I have had this letter (my husband is poorly and wouldn't deal with the stress of it very well)

Total Digital Solutions Limited were the subject of Administration and RSM Tenon Recovery were appointed joint Administrators on 1st August 2012. An immediate disposal of TDS was the business and assets was done by sale to Apogee Corporation Limited on the same day. TDS appear to have used Shire leasing for customer agreements. TDS core business was described as supply of latest technology,document,printy,copy,scan,and management services,and traded from premises in North West. I have been made aware that there are some business owners who are now questioning the validity of the contracts they entered into with TDS. I have seen evidence which shows that TDS mis sold an agreement,and when challenged,agreed to take over the remaining liability and continue the payments to Shire. For almost a year the business concerned made no payments and assumed that TDC as indicated in writing was paying. The dispute around the legitimacy of the agreement involved a number of things. 1.That the Customer was led to believe that the contract was only for 12 months which turned out to be 5 years. 2.That the customer was then offered a telecoms marketing package which comprised of bluetooth technology being provided outside his premises. Although a printer/copier was listed on the agreement,no printer was provided.When questioned about this the response was unacceptable. No mention of the bluetooth or associated services was made on the agreement 3.TDS applied a personal guarantee on the agreement,which the business man assures me he did not agree to or know about. The Business is now recieving telephone demands for arrears on 2 accounts from Shire. Shire have been informed of the situation,and in fact an email exists from when the arrangement was made by TDS to take over the account liability. When asked to provide these demands in writing,Shire said they had no need to do so and would be taking proceedings if he did not pay. Shire themselves are no strangers to controversy,and an internet search reveals that they were a party to previous regulatory investigations. Shire are holders of a number of Consumer Credit licences. If anyone has been affected by the TDS Administration and sale,please post details in this thread.

This is so funny

My eldest grand daughter, Ruth, has got a place at dancing college in London. Dancing is all she has wanted to do, ever since she was a very little girl. So now she can live her dream, well done Ruth, I am so happy for her and the proudest grandma in the world!! :lol::lol:

Good Evening All I have a property with an ex boyfriend. We split over 4 years ago, for 3-4 years I have never paid anything towards the property, his also been letting out the property, which I again have never had anything to do with it, I've never signed any paper work either. Now he wants to sell the property, however its in negative equity & there is a loan which was taken out with the 100% mortgage, so if he sells I shall be left with a lovely debt yet again. What I'm trying to find out, is there anyway I can sort this out as I've had nothing to do with the propery for a few years now. Thanks in advance & any information provided is most appreciated.

Have mentioned this before. Following an investigation by the FSA CPP were fined a total of £10.5m CPP was applied to both Associates cards and later Citi branded cards. It seems that CPP have a liability themselves for some agreements,while Citicard themselves have a Liability for others. If you have tried seeking a refund from CPP directly,they may refer you to Citicard,who will send you a letter saying they are investigating. I waited almost 6 months for Citicard to complete their inquiries which then saw them sending a cheque for 1 years CPP membership with no interest added. Their letter stated that this was in full and final settlement. I have demanded to be given a breakdown of what the payment covers and have preliminary accepted their cheque as part payment in settlement. It is therefore important that if you are contacting Citi or CPP in respect of card protection/Identity protection insurance,that you demand full information in respect of any payments they may send to you in settlement,so you are able to evaluate if you have been refunded in full with interest. We have obtained a dedicated address for the department dealing with these claims which is; Complaints Handling Team Citicard PO BOX 53680 London SE5 5PY email [email protected] Please share your experiences and progress with claims in your own threads. Here is the statement put out in November by the FSA We have fined Card Protection Plan (CPP) £10.5 million for mis-selling insurance which covered customers against the risk of fraud on lost or stolen credit and debit cards and against the risk of identity theft. CPP has agreed to pay an estimated £14.5 million compensation to affected customers. Find out what this means for you. CPP sold credit and debit Card Protection and Identity Protection both directly to customers and through high street banks. Between January 2005 and March 2011, these products might have been sold inappropriately. For example, we found that customers were told that they would receive up to £100,000 worth of insurance cover against fraudulent transactions with Card Protection insurance. This was often not needed as customers are usually covered by their bank. Furthermore, during the sale of Identity Protection, CPP sometimes exaggerated the risks and consequences of identity theft. Compensation for customers Customers don’t need to do anything at this stage, CPP will contact those who may have been affected and, following a review, will pay compensation to customers where appropriate. However, in the meantime, you can write directly to the firm. CPP has agreed to stop new sales of products (apart from where the insurance is sold as part of a package) and to stop trying to persuade customers who call to cancel their policies to keep them. You do not generally need insurance for fraudulent transactions on lost or stolen credit and debit cards because you are not legally responsible for unauthorised card payments – apart from in exceptional circumstances. Know your rights See more about unauthorised transactions in our Bank accounts: Know your rights guide (pdf) or see our Bank accounts: Know your rights page.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012...sell-insurance

having problems with minicredit, and from a loan of £100 it has already jumped to over £300 in 2 weeks, ive read and read these forums and cant find anyone that has been dealt with positively, there is no proper email address for them,have sent some via their website but they are not traceable so no proof as to what ive said, no other method of paying them apart from debit card, mine has been cancelled and money secured etc, anyone got an email address for them? anyone got bank details for them? how can i pay them without a debit card?? any help with letters or info for them would be great.

Well these are jokers, the CCCS sent a settlement payment to them on the 20th of November. No word from Joseph xxxxxxx as to if this has been received despite 5 emails to him to make sure this is the case. I returned from work yesterday to find a letter through the door from "Ground Collect" stating i MUST contact them right away etc, I called MHB who say they have not received payment, CCCS confirm it was sent. Set of clowns down at MHB that's for sure. Would of loved to of been in when they came round, It would of been fun that's for sure. Id of been knocking on 2 of my neighbors doors who are police officers to have them removed from my property.

Had the atos medical around a mth ago,not heard nowt,then i received a letter(IBM270 More information) from dwp saying that they have looked at all the info given to them.... there was a tick by the medical questionaire,a tick by the medical assessment but no tick by the doctor's certificate?? It goes onto say that based on this info u may not be entitled?..then... Before we decide if u are entitled or not,let us know if theres anything else about your illness/condition that u want to tell us about! For e+ample,tell us.. if u think we have not taken into account something that you have told us about your illness,or anything about your illness that you have not told us about already. If you do not have anything more to tell us Please let us know straight away lol If u have something to tell us Write to us At the bottom it says... We must get the information within 17days of the letter? It dont make much sense to me as they had loads of info in the esa50 and were told same in medical! Why dont they get all the info themselves as the history notes would spell it out clearly instead of relying on 3rd party info?...im baffled,what are they hanging the decision on?..your help would be great as 17days is now 15 days lol ty riggs. .