Hi All, I understand that financial advise is not to be requested but without specifics, can anyone explain this ? I contribute to a group company pension and that contribution is deducted from my wages as a percecentage of my earnings. I have an o/l account with my provider and they allow me to make extra payments into my fund as and when I can afford it. I have done this twice with a few hundred pound , each time I have paid a small lump sum in , the provider adds a tax relief of 25 %. So if I pay £200.00p in they tell that I get £250.00p paid into my fund. Which i think is fine , but where's the catch ? Why don't I simply pay a small amount into my fund via my wages and then top it up with a lump sum payment which gives me a 25% bonus. Is HMRC really giving a dividend of 25% on monies invested ?? Or does it come off my personal allowance. It just seems too good to be true. Or am I just missing something ?? Or am I just thick ? TYVM.... GB...

Hi I was wondering if anyone can help me claim PIP. Briefly, I have severe mental health issues, whilst I was unemployed for nearly 15 months I was told by a local organisation who were supposed to help me find work (they didnt) that I would be able to claim PIP. They helped me complete an application, which was accompanied by medical notes, had a "medical assessment" by someone who didn't seem to know much more than I did about mental health and my application got rejected. I then asked the local organisation who helped me start the process to help me appeal and they left me to my own devices. Stating because I was no longer using their services they couldn't help me. So without seeking further assistance, I went through the first stage appeal process myself and the claim was rejected. After that I just couldn't face going through the further appeal process etc so gave up. The whole process and the questions asked etc is completely geared towards physical disability and does not really account for the mental and psychological elements. I would like to attempt another application with some better guidance because although I have recently started working again my mental health issues are not going away and I fear that holding onto the job that has taken me so long to get will be difficult. Any guidance would be appreciated and if I have missed anything please let me know. Thanks K

Here's a new one, probably.... I went to a show on Tuesday. We placed our belongings in a void near our feet. Unbeknown to us there was a mechanism in the void and it damaged our belongings. The void was covered by a black curtain. I would like to claim for the damage, but I'm unsure if either: a) I was negligent in putting my belongings there, or b) The production company were negligent in leaving the void accessible or not having signage. I kind of feel that with the close proximity to the stage it was negligent to have the mechanism easily accessible and/or no warning. I spoke to Front of House at the interval and they agreed they would put a sign up. The belongings were our shopping, so we have a receipt. Photos of the proximity to the stage and the void. Thanks, Kris

Hello everyone, Please be nice, I appreciate this trouble was something that happened when I was not as smart around money. I have learned my lessons and now doing well. The problem I have is a company I used to be a director of. My partner left the country and me saddled with the personal overdraft guarantee of £2000. No other debts. It is difficult to remember all the details, but I remember it was for an overdraft with barclays commercial banking. I had to dissolve the company, appropriately notifying companies house. This all happened without a problem. Company dissolved as of January 2013. A year or so later I was told I was liable for that money via letter. I ignored it - I know, head in sand not a good idea, but just didn't know what to do at the time. The letters stopped eventually. Now I've had a debt collection company get in touch recently out of the blue. But, given this occurred that long ago, and I never communicated with the bank after dissolving the company about this debt, is this debt still enforceable? Would really appreciate help with this. Thanks, M

I signed a franchise aggreement (unfortunately) and I would like to know if the : personal guarantee`s that was included is legal, if it was not witnessed, at the time of signing, and their is no provision for a witnesses signature, is there a set format for this, and could it be deemed invalid and/or, not binding? when is a deed not a deed? Your advice would be welcome. Thanks!

Hello All, About a month ago I paid online for a flight with a European Airline. Somehow (no fault of my own) the payment didn't go through although at the time it showed the payment pending. The next day my bank notifies me of possible fraudulent activity and thus locks my online account. Several days later the airline later email me about this non payment. Now I am back in the UK I have contacted my bank, and furthermore contacted the fraud centre. They notified me of the fraudulent activity was actually the airline getting into my personal online bank account with no permission. So regardless of if, why or what their intentions are / were, is this not illegal for an airline, or anyone, to invade a person's privacy like this?!! Can they just get away with it? Thanks in advance

Just had a letter from Lloyds regarding my loan. Now bear in mind I have been in touch regarding this and they refused token payment/syop interest and charges etc. Anyway this letter arrived this morning By the way the account no. on the letter is my current account. Now a couple of questions that someone may be able to answer. As there is no Direct Debit set up (I cancelled it) for my loan on this account why are they adding charges to it ? I downgraded the account and cancelled all overdraught facilities on yhe account, so will they just take it into the red ? Finally, as I don't use this account for anything at all should I close it, or will they refuse due to me having a loan outstanding ? Any other advice welcomed. Pete.

Hi, first time poster. I have noticed a default on my credit report from Clydesdale/BPF for an account that was opened in 2003. In 2005 I went through a bad patch and didn't pay any of my debts, my problem with this one is the date of default is listed as 2012? Is there a way I can get this removed as it is Statute Barred and should not be on my file. Thanks in advance. Jon

Many years ago, around 1996, I became a director of a LTD company owned by my ex partner. We had an agreed £20k overdraft on our HSBC (originally Midland) business account which ran until around 2011 when HSBC called us in and said that we could no longer have the overdraft and that we would have to transfer the £20k to a Managed Business Loan. I jointly signed the loan with my ex partner. Some time after this and without my knowledge, my ex partner removed me as a director. Please can anyone advise me: 1. Am I responsible for the loan which I believe is still outstanding, even though I'm no longer a director? 2. Can I make a claim for any PPI that may have been paid on the overdraft and managed loan? Thank you

Hi All I need help re clarification of the above I have started a civil court action against my housing association landlord I did send a LBA They did not response They have now responded that I breached the Pre Protocol procedure re disrepair Does anyone know what this means I have already sent my N1 form plus documentations to the court thanks

hi gents after a bit of advice, my brother took a personal training course and passed he got his certification and took a job being self employed in a local gym under your personal training they made him sign up to a membership of £400 a month so he could take personal training sessions in the gym and it had a minimum contract of 6 months. around two months into this contract he moved away, he sent them documents with his updated address to prove he no longer lived in doncaster where the gym was and he now lived in manchester so was unable to complete the contract, they have since said he is still liable for the contract even though he cant use the facilities with the distance he now is, he also seems to have had an agreement with harlands yet they seem to have cancelled it fine with the bank statement of his new address. your personal training have now passed this onto a debt collection agency and they are hassling my brother for the money which we believe as he no longer lives near the gym he should not have to pay any outstanding amounts. can anyone please advise me the best way forward we have tried to explain this to them but they are having none of it. i have attahced a word document of the contract with them and have removed his personal details if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

I had a halifax personal loan which was then transferred to cabot. the initial loan was many years ago and i paid cabot for a about 8 months and then havent had any contact from 2011 then in 2016 optima legal said they have the account and i need to pay them. having read through the forums i wrote to them on 24/02/17 asking for, see the letter scrip i have added below. i have had no reply from Optima legal. where do i stand legally and should i continue to pay? thanks. template removed - dx

An investigation was underway on Friday night after the personal data of up to 44 million British consumers was feared stolen by hackers in a massive cyber attack. The information commissioner said it was investigating how the hack on Equifax, a US credit rating firm, affected UK customers, many of whom will be unaware their data is held by the company. Equifax and its UK subsidiary companies state on their websites that they represent British clients including BT, Capital One and British Gas. There are fears that customers of these companies could now be affected. BT said that "many companies in the UK" used Equifax services and said that it was "monitoring the situation closely". The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has urged Equifax to alert affected UK customers as soon as possible, and said it will work with the relevant overseas authorities on behalf of British citizens. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/09/08/equifax-hack-britons-data-watchdog-investigates-ukimpact-major/

Hello This is my first post here so I've tried not to witter on, but it's complicated. The situation is that I was evicted from my home last year when I couldn’t remortgage it after the interest-only mortgage expired. The circumstances don’t matter, I have no quarrel with that. My query relates to what came after. I had managed to dispose of a lot of stuff I didn’t want, but there was still a lot of stuff I did want, left in the property. I’m past retirement age, live alone, and am severely disabled: I cannot legally walk, I have severe spinal problems and a max award of DLA. Acenden have known this since the beginning of the proceedings. They refused me entry back into the house to deal with my property, despite my undertaking to comply with whatever conditions they imposed. They arranged for all my stuff to be packed up and moved into storage, and I’ve paid all the moving fees and a year’s storage costs. Because of my disabilities I was completely unable to inspect my property while it was in storage; even getting to the chosen storage facility was beyond me unless I had substantial help which wasn’t available. When I eventually unpacked everything in my new home, which has taken me the four months since I moved in, I’ve seen that the packaging was very poor, no attempt was made to protect any of my property, a box that had contained glassware and china was full of smashed and dangerous pieces of glass and porcelain; glazed pictures were simply stuffed into inadequate cardboard boxes, the frames mangled beyond recognition and the glass fronts all smashed. Other of my stuff had been so badly damaged as to be made useless and needed replacing (e.g. tumble drier), a long list of other stuff, including a valuable listed edition print and expensive camera kit, has been stolen. I’ve photographed everything that’s been damaged clearly showing the damage, and recording the very poor quality packaging and careless packing. Acenden also suggested to me that they could arrange disposal of stuff I didn’t want before the rest of my stuff was packed up, to which I agreed, provided a list, and their initiative and my agreement and identification of that property are evidenced by email exchanges. They didn’t follow through on the agreement, and I’ve spent removal and a year’s storage costs for their broken promise. Acenden took four months before they even put the house on the market. I have other complaints but my question here, is what is Acenden’s legal liability for the theft of and damage to my property that’s happened while it’s been in their custody. To say that the removers were negligent is an understatement, but I didn’t have a contract with them, Acenden did. I know I need to see a lawyer, but I’m just hoping to get a view here as the first appointment I can get is two weeks away. To say I’m very angry is putting it mildly. I’ve spoken to my insurers – fortunately I have contents insurance that will cover a claim provided I exhaust Acenden’s complaints procedures before I start that claim. Do Acenden have any liability to me for my loss, which amounts to over £10,000 on current replacement values? Thank you for any feedback. Gleneagle

Hi. Just after some thoughts. My dad went to a Barclays branch in 2008 to take out a business loan The branch staff member stated that he could not take out a business loan to start up his business As an alternative, the staff member suggested just taking out a personal loan in my mums name as my dads credit file was terrible - despite him knowing it was for business purposes. They went ahead with this advice. My mum and dad have since split up and she's left with this loan amongst other debts he's left her with. Obviously with it being a loan it's in her name only and she is liable for it. She's in financial difficulty and I am trying everything I can do to sort everything out. My main concern here is that the staff were happy with a personal loan being taken out for business purposes and stated 'just pretend it's for house renovations'. This was in fact their idea too. Might not be anything, might be something, but during such a difficult time I'm not leaving any stone unturned. Further information ..... http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?479077-Barclays-unknown-debts

Hi, I don't know where to post this but, my cousin was in a relationship with a guy over 10 years ago. They bought a property together and subsequently split up. Her ex said he would get a mortgage on his own and stay in the property, which he did. My cousin moved to another city and eventually met and married someone and is extremely happy. However, her ex has sold the house with £10,000 negative equity. He took out a personal loan for £10,000 to settle with the mortgage company in his name only. Fast forward a few years and my cousin receives a small claim's court demand from her ex, stating he wants £5,000 (half of HIS personal loan). The court case is in August. Does my cousin have to pay this £5,000? I thought as the debt is in her ex's name only that HE is liable for the debt? How can he take her to court for HIS debt? How have the court allowed this case to proceed? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi I have a claim with a legal cover insurance for a car accident that happen in 2015. This is covered under my house insurance, so it is no no win no fee claim. They have sent me to a doctor. He created a report that was wrong since the beginning. I have object to it but the insurance insist it would not make a difference to my claim. Then the doctor send me for MRI scan for my shoulder that I had issues with since the accident. He came back to say " in his opinion after looking at the MRI scan, the issue with his shoulder, joint to hand, is degenerative and is been brought forwards by the accident by 3 years". I gone with my girlfriend to see him after few months of the accident, I said to him, I lost consciousness at the accident, I have issues with my neck, back, (they are getting better but still cause issues), shoulders, leg was broken and badly injured the muscles, tissue and bad scars. To understand the accident, I was slowed down to 40mph, gone out of the road to avoid them but they still hit me with 60mph. The front right side of the car was damaged, wheel broke off, the door gone into my leg, broke the bone and damage my muscles, nerves. I was holding the steering straight so the car not tip over because I knew the wheel would brake and had my foot on the brakes. So I got all the impact force on my shoulders and leg. He said in the report, I gone with my wife, I have not lost consciousness, he said "I said" that back, shoulder and neck have gone after 3 months of the accident, my leg is been fixed (broken bone), he does not mentioned anything about the rest of the damage on my leg, he does not mentioned to the report that I never had any issues with my shoulder join before the accident, he only show his opinion. I had the accident on 07/06/15 and gone for the MRI scan on 22/07/16. After his second report, after the MRI scan, I questioned the degenerative comments as the MRI was more than a year after the accident and never had any issues with my joints before, he replied: The client had the accident in 07/05/15 and the MRI scan was done on 22/07/16, well within a year time". I asked the insurance to scrap this report as the doctor they have sent me is not capable of creating a legal report, he does even know how many months are within a year, but they refuse, even after I said I pay for the second report from a reliable doctor who can actually create a legal accurate report. They tell me that changing all these errors would not make any difference to my claim and I can only claim 10K-11K. After I seen an independent solicitor he advised me to not release the report if I am not happy. I told that to the insurance claim, I asked them that by asking me to release an inaccurate report is their legal advice but they refuse to reply to this question. They keep telling me we can go back to the doctor to correct his report, but I already asked for the report to be corrected twice and once the insurance company refuse to pass the correction to the doctor as they said it would not affect my claim, and the second time I asked the question about the MRI and and the degenerative comments he did not correct nothing, he just came back with the 13 months is well within a year comment. I just stuck now, if you go from no win no fee solicitors, the take 20%-40% of your claim, probably to do the same job as the idiots that my home insurance sent me. Anyone else had similar issues that can provide with any comments? Thanks

In May 2015 my friend's neighbour fitted a new steel railings at the front of her house. The railings were welded up by her father, so owner of property has vicarious liability. The railings form the boundary between her property and the pavement and there was no barrier sheilding the public from the flash of the welding arc or the metal fragments from the grinder used to tidy up the welds. well, you guessed it, my eyes were caught by the welding flash and suffered retinal burns in both eyes and pitting to both eyes from the metal fragments .Very painful. Attended A&E, got treatment and antibiotic for the infection from the metal fragments. Cleared up within a week. The paintwork and windsreen of my car was also showered with hot metal fragments. Sorted out the paintwork myself, but the windscreen is covered in tiny pits. Noticable and distracting when driving into the sun. Written LBA to owner of property but no response. Told owner at the time, response was to go forth and multiply. Time to sort this out before three years is up. Medical report of examination obtained from A&E visit in 2015. Prob is, I'm in N.Ireland and defendent is in England. Need a little advice on N1 claim form. Do you need to include full POC with N1 or a brief outline with full details and evidence included at Allocation stage?

Hello All, I signed up with a GYM and within the gym also signed up with a personal trainer. I signed up for 20 sessions for 500£ and over the course of time, I used them all. During this time, I made friends with the personal trainer and he asked if I would like to sign up for another 20 and I was happy to. He asked if I could pay him cash as that would save him money and I did. For the first payment that I made in his bank account, I had received a acknowledgement on email but not for the second cash payment. There was no written agreement signed or emailed in either case. When I signed up, I mentioned to him and I might be changing house and in that case, would like to cancel mid way if I move too far and he said, Yes we can work out and he will refund me the money for unused sessions. After this, I got busy with work and travel and was off training for 2 months. I also suffered a ligament injury and a wrist injury. I consulted the GP who were not very helpful and just advised rest. I did another session with the PT and he said we can work around the injury but after the session, I felt pain. I saw a private physio who has advised against any heavy workouts and only Yoga for now for basic stretches for atleast 3 months which is recovery period. I requested my PT for cancellation of this arrangement and refund and he flatly refused saying these are no refund sessions and he offered 5 extra sessions which I cannot take. Please guide how to action further, I asked my physio as well and he said it is common curtsy for PT to return for unused sessions and in this scenario I am unable to use the sessions for an unknown period of time due to injury. I haven't moved house yet but I am moving in next 10 days All my exchanges with PT have been on text messages so far and I told him that I am not happy but I will not go to social media as it will be bad for his business and also told him he has never mentioned to me conditions of these sessions in writting or orally and his website also doesnt mention them. Since then he has taken his website also down. I am going to loose 500£ over 1 session which I have taken so far Thanks in advance.

Good morning, A friend of mine has a personal injury case against a bus company after driver took wrong route and hit a bollard whilst reversing to get back on route. - Bus company have admitted liability. The solicitor (well legal executive) acting for my friend requested a rheumatologist assess my friend because she suffers from a condition called hypermobile ehlers-danlos syndrome (hEDS) which causes constant debilitating pain and can cause small injuries or trauma to last for ages Anyway, this "expert" appeared not to know too much about her condition and has referred to out of date materials when talking about the hEDS, and also fibromyalgia, calling the fibro "neuropsychiatric not rheumatic" He has focused on the childhood depression and previous work problems (bullying but not mentioned this is why she left) and my friend feels like he is focusing on irrelevant issues and wonders if she can disagree to this being put in. The whole report practically makes her look mentally unstable, even though depression and anxiety are a symptom of hEDS from a very young age. I have helped her find current criteria on both hEDS, fibro, and also widespread chronic pain, which she also dx with at same time but not mentioned once in his report. Her solicitor is harder than a slippery pig to get hold of and my friend is looking to change representation, but I think she really needs to address this report before making any decision. So, my question is this please experts, Does the medical report need to include this information about her past job and depression which she feels doesn't really have a bearing on her case because she is claiming for the pain and inconvenience she has suffered since the accident. I have said that in my opinion it would need to be added because she has since had to leave her job. But I have promised to help her so will try to find out for sure. I know the info I have written is scanty, but this is the best I can do without disclosing too much. Many thanks guys.

Hi All I had a trip/slip over 4 years ago with the offending council admitting liability immediately. The case dragged on due to the fact that my legal team changed three or four times and a lot of time was wasted. Eventually a competent solicitor was appointed and an agreement was made to settle the claim (we were due in court on the 2nd June) on the 24th March 2017. A time frame was given of 4-6 weeks but usually much sooner than that. It is now the 18th May and I have not received my money, I have called and emailed my solicitor every day this week and have had no response. He forwarded me an email from the other side stating the cheque will be with us 'very soon' over a week ago. Still nothing. I called the other sides solicitor yesterday from the information forwarded to me and he has not called me back nor acknowledged my call. I am at a loss at what to do now. Why would they settle and not pay out. Any ideas where I go from here as I cannot afford to jeopardise nor delay my payment any longer. I am on the verge of missing out on a business opportunity and also a holiday that I booked on the strength of the money being with me at the end of the 6 weeks. Thanks in advance

I had been with Natwest for 22 years and had a black account with the Gold Advantage Charge card. I was advised to become a company as I would be delivering a service through several agencies. Unfortunately, due to exceptional circumstances and include a bad personal relationship left me in debt and I am about £8 -9k in mortgage arrears on a house I rent out and a personal overdraft that was £12k. In 6 months that OD was cleared and both business and personal accounts were in the black. The difficulty in meeting the mortgage department for an arrangement to be put in place was mainly because this period was over the summer, they would meet with me after 5pm and if I called at 4.45 they would not deal with me. I sent in 2 income/expenditure spreadsheets but they clearly didnt see them but I managed to set up a DD for the mortgage online and I met the deadline. That evening all three of my accounts were closed. I called the callcentre and they said they didnt have me on record. I tried to log a complaint and they were too busy on the Friday but promised they would be in touch the next day. They never did. As a prelude they stopped my access to online banking even though there was no way of spending money or transferring out into other accounts so it made knowing where I was financially and who had paid me and hadnt. The worst thing is that I couldnt operate, I need supplies, sundries and I was without any money to buy food or even some milk. I told Natwest this but they told me all my funds were transferred into the mortgage. It took a further 3 months to work out what had happened and the cause was not offered to me by the bank whose level of investigation was looking at the screen in front of them whilst on the phone. They hadnt cancelled the previous direct debit so every month the original arrangement would draw funds then the older previously arranged dd would be rejected. This was recorded as a default. I tried to make it clear to them there was an arrangement in place, it utilised a payment system set up and approved by the bank and it was their job to find out where the money was disappearing to every month for three months instead they left it to me. I complained about being oushed further into hardship by continued charges I had no way of keeping track of as the online facility had been taken away four months before they closed me down, failed to log 6 out of 8 attempts to complain and didnt care that I had not a penny for two weeks. They tried to issue a repossesion order and I wrote in to the lawyer to say that was illegal as the account was under dispute. In the meantime, I asked for SAR to get all the account information and after three months all I have is mortgage account copies. The lawyers are now calling me and I am sure its about instructing me to pay the arrears within the week or they would issue a repossession order on the house. They cancelled the direct debit that existed so I was conscious to keep puttting funds in every month but trying to function without a bank account lost me more money and irretrievably lost more clients. I am expecting a lump sum of money that will clear the arrears but the knock on effect meant that I was late paying my suppliers and one has taken a county court judgement out against me and bankruptcy is where I am at if I dont have some means of a reprieve. Yes, they said that if i didnt have an arrangement in place my account woud be closed and they talked about recovery. Sounded to me it was going to get better! The arrears werent as much as my overdraft which i cleared in less than 6 months and they had said the the charge card was a different legal entity and when I called the credit card company customer services before they closed my accounts they said that there wasnt any money owed and that it would be fully operational once the mortgage arrangement was in place. That wasn't true and I also lost my 36,000 reward points as I had no online access and frankly more serious things to worry about. i cant really afford a litigation lawyer at the moment and have little faith in the FSA from what I am reading. The banks replies to my complaints are to issues that weren't raised and they have not taken notice of my plea to allow me access to funds I had to eat and drink. I was not notified clearly that every account would be closed down and as far as I am concerned there was an arrangement in place that obviously isnt integrated into the RBS network as they couldn't see that the money had been taken from the holding account and HSBC provided a fast pay reference number. You cannot open another bank account if you have mortgage arrears is what every other bank told me but once I called the Business Debtline they advised me to walk into a bank and ask to open an account. Why didnt the other banks suggest this to me? A week after submitting an application form for a Cashminder account with the coop was i able to restart rebuiding what Natwest pulled down.

Hi, Recently I received a letter from the local force with an accusation of me going through a red light at a pedestrian crossing. This letter was simply asking who was driving at the time. However, the very odd this about this letter was that it arrived within less than 32 hours of the supposed incident, 2nd class. Of course, I responded to say that I would have been driving at the time. I then didn't hear anything further for 6-8 weeks, until I got a call from an officer wanting to come to the house to discuss the incident. Having spoken to the officer, it turns out that he was the one who witnessed said offence while off duty but has a dash cam (he tells me I actually braked for a yellow light and then took my foot off and went through on yellow). Now, to me it seems very odd that an off duty police officer witnessing and reporting an incident would also be the one dealing with it. It very much feels like a conflict of interest and that he should be a witness only and that a different officer should progress it. I also find it odd that the supposed offence was reported and a "who was driving letter" appeared so quickly. To me this suggests that I did something other than go through a yellow light to upset the officer, I suspect using the second lane of a dual carriage way to go round him (perfectly legal to do) could be the reason. he came to the house to caution me and tell me that I should expect a court summons. Does anyone feel that this is a conflict of interest and that the police officer is acting alone with an emotional response to something I'd done? Is there anything I can do about it? Also, am I legally entitled to see the dashcam footage before pleading guilty/not guilty?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/credit-card-time-bomb-personal-10356434?service=responsive Over the last couple of years - CAG has been advising people in debt to start paying it down and stop taking on more debt. It is frightening that consumers simply don't say NO to their children at Christmas and Birthdays - even just for one year - do you really need to upgrade your TV or sofa, EVERY year?

Hi, I took one of these out back in the day around 2000 maybe..? I phoned them today to put a claim in. The lady asked me a few questions and said they had a £3600 amount on file. She is going to send me some paperwork. I defaulted on the account and it went to Cabolt finance. I can't remember why i didn't pay it but they will ask me in the paperwork they send I am guessing. I think it maybe because i split with a partner and moved back down south which meant i quit my job. I don't think that is a reason they would pay out on is it as I intentionally made myself unemployed...