Hello, in the last few days have I discovered that Vanquis Credit Card company are [problem]mers. I already have credit cards with Barclays and Capital One, and manage them perfectly well, am not in debt to them. I apologise, here, for the length of this post. In June this year, I received (junk mail....) an envelope from Vanquis, offering me a credit card with them. Because I was in need of a bit more cash at the time, I stupidly filled in the online application form, and then received a phone-call from them. They approved me for one of their cards. I did NOT then know that this company, Vanquis, are for people with bad or no credit history...to my shame, I simply assumed they were a mainstream, legitimate credit card company. After the card was received by me, a couple of weeks later, I used it to purchase a few items. Taking it up to within £3 of the (£250) credit limit. When I went through the application process over the phone, in June, with one of their staff, I arranged (or THOUGHT I did...see later) a Direct Debit with them, for the minimum payment. I told them that I'm on a (Civil Service) pension, and that it gets paid into my bank account on (the specific date of the month it's paid in). I thus said to them, "The DDebit will, therefore, be taken from my account several days later, right?". (ie, in line with all my other monthly payments). The Vanquis staff member said "Yes, of course All my relevant bank details were given to him, over the phone, in June this year, in order to [or so I thought...] set up the DDebit. Then, to my horror, on 18th July (just 6 days ago), I received a text from Vanquis claiming that my account was £33 overdrawn. Of course I phoned them immediately. I'd ASSUMED that the DDebit which had (ostensibly) been set up in June, had been taken from my account a couple of days earlier. Ie, I assumed my account was okay. (Not then knowing that they are a [problem]ming company - as I do know, now...). Prior to phoning them on 18th July, I went online to look at my account. And found, to my horror, that a couple of days earlier (ie, the date on which the DDebit SHOULD have been paid from my bank account, to Vanquis), Vanquis had slapped onto my account with them a £12 "Late payment charge" (???). A (FAKE charge, by them) charge which tipped my account over the credit limit. And that they therefore then slapped on a £12 "Overlimit charge". When I eventually spoke to Vanquis on 18th July, I said "WHY did you not take the Direct Debit which had been arranged in June?". The staff member said to me "We DID try to take it from your bank, but it was rejected". (NB., this, I learnt, was a deliberate lie on the part of Vanquis...). I told him that I had more than enough money in my ordinary bank account to cover the DDebit - that it should have been taken just a couple of days after my pension had been paid in. The Vanquis chap continued to claim that my bank had rejected the DDebit. I continued to say to him "That is nonsense, I STILL have more than enough in my bank account to cover that DDebit". The chap then had the audacity to say to me "Pay us £31 on your next pension payday and we'll clear the overlimit charges, and start again from scratch...". I checked with my own bank this morning, and not only did they confirm that Vanquis had NOT tried to put through a DDebit to them, but that NO Direct Debit has been registered with my bank, by Vanquis; even though in June I arranged such a DDebit over the phone - even telling them that (of course) they would need to take the DDebit each month on a date a few days AFTER my monthly pension is credited to my account. Having, in the last couple of days, read online re. the horrific [problem] that is being perpetrated by Vanquis - FAKE charges being slapped onto people's accounts (my own example, above, being one such), willy-nilly, and the extortionate interest charged, I'm very panicky indeed about what they might do to me, finance-wise, re. my account with them. I realise it was very careless of me not to have realised that they, Vanquis, are not a mainstream credit card company. It is an immensely stressful time for me, currently, due to other personal matters, so the very LAST thing I needed, right now, was to discover myself in the nightmare situation with Vanquis that I now see I AM in - thus adding to my stressed state. I've been reading some of the many horrific stories of people's experiences with Vanquis, online, and really do not know what I should do, in the first instance, to try to limit their horrific assault on my finances, with the FAKE charges they've slapped on my account with them. And re. the fact they deliberately did not, in actual fact, set up a DDebit for me, even though in June it had, I thought, all been arranged over the phone. Ie, they deliberately did not set up a DDebit with my bank, to them, precisely in order then to PRETEND they'd tried to put through the DDebit just a few days ago, to then PRETEND it had been rejected by my bank, in order to then slap FAKE charges on my account. (I've read, online, that other people have found this - that Vanquis have claimed that their bank had rejected the set-up DDebit, and then the victim discovers (as did I, earlier today) that they'd not set up a DDebit, precisely in order to slap the fake charges on... I would very much appreciate any advice as to what I should do, in this situation. Thanking you in hopeful anticipation.

Article also states Cabot spent £100m on £6.6b of face value debt, wtf. Is that approx 1.4p in the £ ? http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/14330/online-news/cabot-credit-management-posts-first-results