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In March 2015 I was taken to the local magistrates court for certain council tax bills (briefly, I told the local council where I was living and they refused to update their records [the house was subject to a compulsory purchase order and the council wanted to pretend that the house was unoccupied] until I took them to a tribunal. They then updated their records and billed me for 5 years of council tax). The magistrate refused to grant a liability order for this old disputed council tax. I have paid recent council tax bills and I have a considerable amount of proof that I have done this (I even wrote on cheques what I was paying - where appropriate the cheques state it was full and final payment for the relevant year). The council has reallocated recent payments against the old disputed council tax and, after several adjournments, obtained liability orders for £5k of more recent, undisputed council tax bills in January 2016. I have stated that I have now paid these bills once and I have sent evidence of this to the council and their bailiffs. When I get a response it is that their records show a balance outstanding which they would like paid. The bailiffs are now "preparing papers" for an enforcement visit. I wont let them in but I am worried that they might take my car which I park on the street. This is a saga that, together with the compulsory purchase order, has dragged on for a decade. I would love to put it all behind me and get on with my life. I've done a Local Government Ombudsman Complaint and written to my MP & local Councillor without making progress. Any thoughts would be welcome.

THOUSANDS of British Gas customers may have had direct debit payments taken twice following an IT glitch. British Gas told The Sun online that less than 1 per cent of customers were affected by the problem. It supplies gas and electricity to over 14million homes, meaning some 140,000 customers could be affected by the fault . A British Gas spokesperson confirmed that a “small proportion” of customers have had direct debit payments twice and that any money taken in error would be refunded. https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2262624/british-gas-takes-direct-debit-payments-twice-leaving-customers-out-of-pocket/

Hi I am sorry if this is in the wrong place and please move if necessary. Person on esa benefit due to ill health currently in the 'assessment phase' receiving £72 per week. Out of which they are making payments to csa and rent/ctax and food/living costs. Outstanding amount owed to Barclay card and current account with Barclays into which the esa benefit is paid. Barclays have now written to say they will be taking payments, explained as 'setting off' for amount owed on credit card debt. Is this allowed, as a minimum affordable payment offer appears to have been ignored. No amount has been disclosed that they are planning to take. Any advice how to best handle this please? Thankyou

Hi I only just noticed that £13.99 had been taken from my Santander123 cureent account by Ancestry.com via DD !!!!!! I checked the DD and it states it started on 29/07/16 and i most DEFINITELY did not start/confirm this Direct Debit. Thus far they have taken £13.99 on 29/07/16 and today 02/09/16 !!!!!! How do i go about cancelling this, i can not recall using this service !!!!! I have an excellent credit rating and am more worried about it effecting that. Also i have no details of an account with them, so would not know how to even 'log in' to cancel it on their site. Anyone advise. Thanks Little update, i had full info on the DD, it has been taken by - Payee name: GLOBAL COLLECT BV RE ANCESTRY.COM I have NEVER authorised this !!! Anyone advise ? Thanks

Hi could someone help please? OH has had one of his accounts changed to delinquent on his credit file which will effect him for 6 years. The account is for an overdraft on an account he switched. Has been in contact with them the whole time as he has started a new business and been waiting for invoices to be paid. He tried to pay in full over the phone this month but was refused due to the account being closed/frozen. He had to go in branch and pay by cash but could only draw out half from the ATM so this caused more delays to payment. The payment status on his credit file look like this: April: £617 24th May: £521 OK 26th June: £521 (2 months late payment) 29th July: £521 (3 months late payment) August: £521 (5 months late payments - account status: delinquent) The last update happened in the past week or so (between trying to pay by phone and going in branch to pay by cash) but it is dated for: 04/09/2016. This is a date in the future and also a date we have made payment before. So how can they assume we will be 2 months late on payments by then and skip to 5 months late payments and a delinquency status? And how can they go from OK to 2 months late payments within a month? Is this allowed? OH called to complain yesterday and was basically told the delinquency is accurate so tough but not to worry because we're way off a default...But this is effecting his credit score just the same as :-/ Thanks

Mine is a complicated tale and desperately need some advice. To make it easier I will break it down as even I have difficulty undestanding it 2006 Applied for Job Seeker's allowance but refused on I hadn't worked for the last 5 years which I had. After much backwards & forwards they told me they had lost my records then found them and wld now credit NI onto my records. Too late to get the JSA etc as now out of time 2015 Applied for a Pension statement & noticed not enough years on Guess what the original missing 5 NI not been credited. Sent letter & copies of original forms I filled in (to show income for each year) and assured they would update their records. Dawned on me that as they had not updated my records when they said they would they would also not have sent any pension contributions to private pension co (I was contracted out to L & Gen). Contacted L & Gen and was sent summary of contributions. No contribution sent from HMRC for the missing years which approx totals £5,000. Wrote to them again and they sent me a letter to confirm that they had put the NI back on BUT for some strange reason instead of NI basd on my wages at the time £48-50K they had said I only earned £5,000-£7,000. Want me to prove I earned it with wageslips/P45 etc from 2001-2005 :mad2: Just contacted Bank to see if I can have statements for that period which hopefully will show a weekly wage (by BACS) otherwise I am stuffed!!! Can any one please advise, I have spoke, written to every department in HMRC and they still are cocking up my records:-x Thanks

Hello all, Been a while since I've posted; hope you're all well and still fighting the good fight This concerns people who, like myself, still sign on clerically - ie they don't use the electronic data capture pads at the Jobcentre. Keeping it brief, a couple of my JSA payments didn't go through during the past months and I'm convinced this was done deliberately to get me to switch over to electronic signing. The adviser tries to make out it's my fault and that 'these errors wouldn't happen if you used the electronic signing system'. I point out that I've signed via paper for years now with no payments missing and that the problem seems to have started when the pads were introduced and I refused to use them. The payment release procedure takes 20 seconds on a simple dialogue screen; there is no chance of any 'error'...unless the clerk simply doesn't do it. Just finished getting last fortnight's missing money put through as adviser once again didn't complete the release procedure - despite her assuring me payment had been processed (God bless digital voice recorders). So, has anyone else who signs via paper suddenly had payments go missing or problems with their claim they never had before? I'm willing to bet quite a few have..

Can the DWP dictate the payment method of which benefits can be paid, ie bank account, post office card account or any other ?..

I have two credit card debts, one of which is the subject of a CCJ some 9 years ago. I have been making payments in accordance with the CCJ and voluntary payments in respect of the other. Both defaults are over 6 years old and no longer appear on my credit reports. The DCA have offered to do a deal and accept less than is outstanding in full and final BUT if I agree does this deal appear on my credit report (as of the date of the full and final payment for a lesser figure) or, as the date of default is over 6 years ago, will my credit history be unaffected if I choose to pay a lump sum in full and final? Thank you.

Hi, hope for some advise. I paid my road tax via the DD scheme at my local post office back in September and set up the monthly payments via my bank. I have not authorised my bank to stop payments but the DVLA have stopped requesting payments and are now claiming that my car is not taxed. I have had no letters stating wht payments have not been requested and paid as agreed but it would appear that i am being held accountable for the DVLA breaching the DD scheme which seems a bit unfair. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi all, I'm lousy at writing descriptive titles, so apologies in advance I plan to remortgage my home in April of this year, and want to collate proof of income from both self employment and benefits/tax credits paid to me over the last 3 years. Is possible to write to the HMRC and DWP to get a list of all benefits paid into my bank account for the past 3 years? So I can use that as proof of a secondary income?

Hi We work on a campsite for one of the big clubs . We work a 40 hour week and are salary basic min wage ( 6 month a year contract ) we do not get paid overtime or on call payments. We live on site in our own caravan , when we are on call we cannot leave the site , drink or go out for a meal . Sometimes we are on call for 48 hours over 2 days or we on on call for 12hrs a night + our normal working day should we be paid for time on call . Regards & Thx in adv for advice

Last Sunday night I paid online my mail order shopping bill. When I then tried to pay my BT phone bill my payment was declined by the bank. This morning I called into my branch to try and sort this mess out and they wanted me to ring the bank's fraud number. When I asked for help off the bank staff with this phone call I was told that they're not allowed. Although I'm not deaf I do suffer hearing problems and I walked out. How do I sort this so called 'fraud' out without using a telephone? I haven't had any letters regarding this matter. All this fuss is because I tried paying my phone bill late at night! Sheila

I am trying to get my finances in order and have been reading up on forums about those who have had successes dealing with DCAs, but unfortunately my accounts don’t seem to make sense. I have four default accounts on my credit file, showing a D sign every single month on my account, but I have three payments from DCA going out of my account two I know why I am paying but PRA I don’t know what its for, and the two bank account overdrafts I have defaults for I don’t know what is happening with them and what to do. Should i send out CCA letters to all creditors including barclays and natwest? On my credit file are these four defaulted accounts Lender Idem Capital Securities Current Balance £1,868 I am paying this via direct debit reduced monthly installment at the moment, this has been passed from Agilent to Moorgate and now to Idem and I it was so long ago now I cant even remember who the original company was who I took a loan out with. Lender NWB Current Accounts Current Balance £1,691 It says I am paying £5 per month but I cannot see any standing order or direct debit going out of my account for £5 per month, so I have no idea what is going on with this account. Both Barclays & Natwest overdrafts have been passed over to DCA I am sure of it, but I am unclear on who they are or what is going on with these accounts. What shall I do? Do I chase up with the actual banks to see what information they can pull up (send SARS) Lender Barclays Bank plc Current Balance £1,590 Similar to my Natwest account, I do not have anything on my bank account showing I am paying them, yet it shows I am paying £18 per month, once again I do not know how to handle this and whether I have a DCA I am paying, I haven’t received any letters for a while and I don’t have a clue what I should do. Lender MKDP LLP Account Type Credit Card Current Balance £264 Finally I have a PRA Group direct debit set up for £8.86 per month but yet again I don’t know what debt this is for now, as it seems to have been set up some time back, with moving and getting married last year I lost a lot of paper work and I cant remember what DCA is for what account and why now. DCA payments: Idem Robinsons Way this is on my credit file under MKDP (are they the same company?)But there is nothing on my credit file saying I am dealing with Robinsons Way PRA Group £8.86 No clue whatsoever why I am paying this and for what account.

Hi All, I had a judgement against me in favour of Hillesden Securities t/a DLC back in 2014. The judge applied a charging order to my property and I have been paying by standing order £45 per month ever since. Today I have received a notice of sums in arrears from DLC even though I have not missed a payment since I started paying them, they actually also list the payments I have been making on the notice. I may be wrong but the agreement I have with DLC started on the day the judgement went in their favour and a payment plan was agreed, this being the case I am technically not in arrears with DLC I am simply working to the agreed payment schedule and this information should be accurately recorded. With this in mind an Arrears notice could easily be regarded as innaccurate and defamatory, perhaps a statement should have been issued instead. My question is whether there is any legal precedent I can call on to quote to DLC when I write to them about this, or whether I am simply barking up the wrong tree so to speak. Kind regards Groaty

Hi Again I come to get great information and help. I was with PayPlan Plus for about 5 years, paying £22+ per month for payment protection. My questions are ... 1 ... Can I claim Payment Protection from a Debt Management Company even though it was a free plan 2 ... Can you advise of the address of payplan as i have since emigrated and no longer have anything from them 3 ... If successful They are not allowed to pass this on as a split to the creditors are they Many thanks for your help again. Very much appreciated especially as I no longer reside in the UK. Grumpy Old Me ... lol

I recently moved house and was very surprised to experience Scottish Hydro taking final bill amounts out of my account in the early hours of Christmas eve morning. The total involved was £560!!! I have of course intercepted and prevented those transactions from being completed.... On closer inspection (actually looking at my paperless bills..... I know, I know......) I find that my monthly payments more than covered my usage, confirmed by the fact that they reduced my monthly payments in Jan '15. Both my accounts were in credit at this point..... Billing changed to 6 monthly upon reading my July '15 bill, I'm a bit confused.... The total for this period was £485.23.... My payments totalled £156.... obviously from then on my debt to Scottish hydro has just grown and grown as my payments aren't covering my usage.... What I cant understand is - Why didn't they inform me and change my payments (as they had done in the January)? I have been presuming that I have been paying for my gas/electric as I've been going along... My other irk, is that the bill states they will collect the total "on or soon after 29 December 2015" so sneakily taking it in the middle of the night on Christmas eve is a little more than cheeky - My contracted DD date is 3rd of every month, so why the change in date for this payment?!!! Would just like to know if anyone knows if there is anything governing payment amounts and if companies must make sure consumer usage is kept up to date to avoid situations like mine..... many thanks

Hi all, I have posted this on your facebook group but will also post on here just in case some of you do't use facebook but could still help. How the hell do we stop getting tax credits? I got a new job at the end of September and the pay varies from month to month as I get premiums for working different hours. In the last month I earned £1245 after tax and £1433 before tax. The month before last I earned £1227 after tax and £1420 before tax. Not much difference but this is just two examples. The lowest I could earn before tax is £1262. as my wage is not set I told the tax credits this who took an estimate which I thought was to low. I said I would call them back as I needed to talk to talk to my partner about it. We pay £80 a month for after school care to a registered child minder. We currently got £40 a month child tax credits. This was based on a wage of £15800 in my old job. At the thought of losing £10 a week we decided to cancel the tax credits as we didn't want to owe any money come the year end. We rang up and said we would like to stop all tax credits and the advisor said a letter would be issued to confirm this and we left it at that. We then had a reward notice come through telling us we was still getting £40 a month I rang back up and said that we had cancelled and we got told we could not cancel before the tax year end in April and we would still get these payments. We said we did not want the money. I said if I told you I got £17000 a year would this stop the payments. They said yes so thats what we did. My partner is on £12500 a year working 25 hours a week. Today I have just had another reward come through with my £17000 and my partners £12500 and we are still getting payments of £40 a month. Our issue us we don't want the money as no doubt when all calculations are worked out we will end up owing it back next year and its sthis situation we do not want to be in. Can anyone advise us what to do please? Many thanks

hi, i'm currently on benefits received a notice of warrant of control and notice of enforcement for an unpaid ccj that I was unaware of. bw legal are demanding £200 per fortnight on a £1480 debt! is this fair ? what can i do? the debt is a shop direct account from 2011. any advice welcomed

Hi I joined a Gym called Fitspace during the first Month a double payment of £11.99 was made to them . I only realized this when i checked over a week after it was taken out via my bank statements. This indicated to me that it could happen again as I was not contacted by the gym regarding this mistake. I sent a letter to by Bank and to Fitspace stating that the Contract had been breached as the contract stated the first payment of £11.99 will be taken out on the 16th of August 2015. however a double payment was taken out on the 17th of August 2015. I expressed that i have lost trust in the Gym for making this error and not following up to rectify the mistake. I received an email from Fitspace apologising for the mistake, instructed me to cancel my DD immediately by 27th of August 2015 and they offered me a free month if i was to rejoin. The reason for the double payment was a duplicate account was made, which i have no idea on how that happened. Then on the 3rd Of September I received a letter from harlands stating 'We write to you to confirm that your duplicate membership has been cancelled and the duplicate payment has been credited against your missing August installment on your live account. The terms of your Membership Agreement mean that you have to repay all your installments by Direct Debit. Therefore, you must call Harlands Helpline immediately'.... I chose to ignore the letter and received another letter on 20th of October saying that they have added admin fee leaving me at £31.99 in arrears. I chose to ignore this letter also. Then on the 20th of November 2015 i got another letter stating that they have added a further £20.00 charge which is leaves me at £63.98?? (dunno how they did the maths on that). They further threatened me saying that further charges will be added if i do not contact them by 4th of December 2015 and the balance of £159.90 will be passed on to a DRC who will add their fees onto my account. So i have written out a letter but before i send it i wanted to check up on it with the experts (YOU GUYS ) 26/11/2015 To whom it may concern I am writing to you regarding the lawful cancellation of my FitSpace membership, Fitspace reference number: First of all my argument against you is that Fitspace has acknowledged the mistake made by them and allowed me to cancel the membership on terms of breach of contract. They asked me to cancel my direct debit immediately by the 27th of August. They also offered me a free month if i was to ‘re-join' with them. The word 're-join’ confirms the agreed cancellation of my membership. No disputes were made by them about having to reinstate by direct debit because they know just as well as you do, if the contract is breached I am in my legal right to cancel my Direct Debit. I have this written in Email sent to me by Fitspace which i will attach to this letter. I hope you realize under The Protection From Harassment Act 1997 you are breaking the law by sending out these invoices in the pretext of bills/debts. You have no power or authority to do so, if you choose to continue with harassment I will be forced to report your actions to the Trading Standards and to the CMA. I would also like to notify you that I entered in a 12month contract with another one of your Gyms (Xercise4less). If this harassment continues I will most certainly be cancelling my membership at the end of the contract with Xercise4less . Also I was told by Fitspace that the double payment would be cancelled but it never was. I did not chase this up as I wanted to leave with a good gesture . Also do not attempt to settle me with further ‘good gesture payments’ as I am absolutely aware that I do not owe any money and I did not break any membership agreement as you argue against me. If you genuinely believe I owe a debt then do not hesitate to skip all the nonsense and pursue this case in court. I hope you are aware of a high court ruling where a judge openly said these gyms are out to take advantage of people and that there is no room for this kind of practise in business. Your Sincerely Il be looking forward for your sincere advice and help Thanks Jon

for quite sometime i have had clc finance on my credit report its nearly 6 years now but because they never defaulted me there is no drop of date it just says late payment they have not been in touch with me or bvice versa the loan was took out in 2009 what will happen with this is there away to get it off my file many thanks for any help given

Hi - I have a car which is financed by TFC (the worst HP company ever, their staff are so arrogant). I just wanted to find out if anyone has managed to come to a reduce payment agreement with them. I have been trying for the last 2 1/2 years to have my monthly installments reduced, reason being is I have had to reduce my work hours for health reasons so have lost +/-£300/month. I have written, complained, phoned just about done flik-flaks in their offices and they are having none of it. Their response is we do not consider your situation to be a material change in circumstance My argument to that is if I had come to them with my current payslip would they have lent me the same amount of money being the reasonable lenders they are or would it have been less? Also their BILL OF SALE BORROWER INFORMATION SHEET, which I believe is a form of false advertising states. “If you have a material change of circumstances we will take this into consideration and may agree to reduce your repayments until such time as you are to continue with your original contractual repayments.” They recently sent me an income and expenditure form which I completed and returned under the assumption that they would look at reducing my payments, also according to one of the staff who stated "I can see from you account that you have applied for a reduced payment" when I queried about them receiving the forms, so it is on file, the lady I spoke to today adamantly tells me its not somethign the company does!!! Why send me the forms then, will ask her when she phones back as was getting to upset and did not want to rock the boat. has anyone managed to get reduced payments and if yes how? Is the above worthy of a complaint to the FOS. My agreement finishes in September 2016 so only have 11 months to go but financially its killing me and my husband has just been made redundant so struggling big time. Sharon

Hello, I am hoping someone could give me an idea as to where I stand, although I think it's probably nowhere... I renewed my car insurance with Adrian Flux in August, £830 for the policy and £200 to pay monthly by direct debit (premium credit). I would now like to cancel my policy as I've been quoted £270 (with the same underwriter!!), a saving of £560, eye watering amounts of money. I rang to see how I go about cancelling. I was told that I would owe the rest of the 12 months remaining balance minus the three I have already paid. However, my insurer would effectively pay a proportion of this... Ultimately, I owe £152. I have paid three £100 instalments, so £452 for two months insurance. Surely this is too much? How do I go about challenging this or am I stuck paying the final £152? Thank you.

My good friend is in a financial mess.. ..he owes thousands to a number of companies and the debts have been sold on several times. He is making small payments on each debt every month and has had the interest frozen but it is going to take him years to pay these off. He cannot go for an IVA or bankruptcy due to the nature of his employment. Any suggestions as to how we can agree an end date with these companies, with hopefully a proportion of the debts written off? He is very demoralised at the prospect of making these payments for the next 30 or 40 years, or until he dies.... He is a proud man and wants to pay what he can, and keep working but the only option I can see is for him to do an IVA or bankruptcy and lose his job and go on benefits which he does not want to do. Any ideas??