I was at Sainsbury's last week and sitting in my car in the car park, reading my emails before I went into the shop. Engine was off and I was stationary. Suddenly an almighty thump from behind. I jumped out thinking someone had reversed into me, but found that the car that had hit me had no driver. Turns out the dozy bint had parked her 4wd without putting on the handbrake, or put it in gear and just waked off into the shop. Plenty of witnesses, and video. The lady came back and admitted fault, but asked to send her the quote to fix to avoid having to claim on insurance. Got quote - about £1k. now she says thats more than she thought, so is "thinking about" claiming on insurance. Now, in the past I was a bad boy and have a drink driving ban (now finished) but my insurance is very expensive already because of this, and I don't want to make a claim, both because my excess is high and also because it will further hit my premiums. Also I AM NOT AT FAULT! Anyone have any advice on how I can proceed with this? DOnt report t omg insurance company, and instead do it through small claims court? Any other suggestions.

Hi all just got a few questions about deprivation of capital and spending your savings so I don't get into bother further down the line. I have recently made a claim for Income Support and have 10.2k savings which equates to £17 taken off every week (£1 every £250 over £6k). What's reasonable to spend your savings on? Would the DWP find it ok if I top up the deducted £17 per week from my savings? How often should I inform the DWP of when my savings decrease? Every 1k or less/more? Thanks Trev.

Hi all, I have been referred here by a colleague whom you all provided excellent advice: I will get straight into it the issues: Years ago (between 6 and 8) i made a number of poor decisions that lead to a lot of debt, this in turn lead to some serious mental issues and head getting buried in the sand. Couple of years ago I wanted to sort it out so I contacted step change and arranged a DMP and have been making payments ever since, payment currently £126 against a balance of £11000. The following questions are worrying me though and I need to get out in front and not take the risk of more head issues. One debt I could never find ownership of it was a credit card with Tesco balance of around £3,500 so it was not added to the plan, thought nothing of it until a letter dropped on the door from a DCA chasing this balance, I requested a copy of the credit agreement and haven't heard anything since assumption is that they do not have a signed agreement, i asked them when they received the last payment they confirmed November 2010 effectively very soon this will become statue barred, with this one I have three options do nothing and wait to see what happens, make a ridiculously offer of a final settlement was thinking £100 or add it to my dmp with step change. Secondly around the same time I was CCJd for a debt with HFC Bank around £4,500 and I haven,t paid this for a similar amount of time, every time I speak to step change they tell me it is urgent and I need to take action but I am fairly sure whoever is responsible for the CCJ do not no where I am living and contacting them seems like a bad idea what honestly do you think I should do in regards to this ignore or contact the courts? My life is totally different now I am paying things off and have a young wife and daughter and am now making steps to earn good money, the last thing I would is for a bailiff to show up at my door, I would prefer to commence payments again but unsure whether they would want the missed payments in one lump which I cannot do, I can prove the mental health issues that I was experiencing but unsure whether this would make a difference. Anyway your help will be very much appreciated. Thanks

Hi everyone, this may seem a strange thread, as I'm not currently in any difficulty, but I'm trying to be proactive about a possible future problem. I hire a car a couple of times a year, and have done for several years (I'm British but live in Italy), and have never had any serious problems with any of the companies I've used, mainly in the UK, but also in Malta and Poland. In fact I've found them to be very professional with good customer service. I also make sure I have full insurance, not from the companies themselves but for a car hire excess insurance provider, which is much cheaper. I've hired a car for a holiday in Iceland in August, at Keflavik airport. I did some research before booking and all of the companies, bar none, have a reputation for inventing non-existent damage, often several months after the car has been returned. In the end I hired a car with the company that wanted least money! As providing a credit card is obligatory when hiring a car, it's not a case of them demanding money, it's a case of money being taken from the card without the card holder knowing. Has anybody got any advice about how to avoid such a rip-off? As I say, I've only had positive experiences in the past but want to be prepared. Photographing the car in front of the car hire firm is a must. But I've heard about cancelling the credit card, and about telling the credit card company not to pay the car hire company, etc. I'm talking about a UK credit card. I want to emphasise that I would always pay for REAL damage incurred, it's just that I want to be prepared for a possible [problem]. Any advice gratefully received!

The new bailiff regulations came into effect on 6th April and bailiff fees are strictly controlled and comprise of a Compliance Fee of £75 which is charged when the debt is passed by the creditor. If payment is not made or a payment agreement entered into during the ‘compliance stage’ a bailiff may attend the debtors premises and an Enforcement Fee of £235 is chargeable. Significantly, the new regulations provide that from any payment made (whether to the bailiff, the magistrate court or the local authority) the Compliance Fee of £75 is deducted first with the balance being split on a ‘pro rata’ basis between the debt to the creditor and bailiff fees. This novel approach means that unless the amount due (including bailiff fees) is paid in full, bailiff enforcement may continue and it is this point alone that has caused extreme difficulty to some ‘debt avoidance’ websites with associations to the Freeman on the Land (FmoTL) movement and 9 months after the regulations came into effect it is astonishing that debtors are continuing to be advised by such websites to avoid paying bailiff fees by paying the amount of the Liability Order or court fine only (minus bailiff fees). Despite the regulations clearly outlining how payments are to be calculated, in May/June an individual made numerous Freedom of Information requests to Local Authorities seeking clarification as to how they deal with direct payments made to them after accounts have been passed to bailiffs. Since that time many more FOI requests have been made on the same subject and the up to date position is that approx a quarter of all local authorities have received requests on the same subject. What has been the outcome of these Freedom of Information request? Typically, in the very early stages (May and June) most responses made clear that the local authorities had very little idea as to how the new regulations would work in practice but since August/September the vast majority of responses confirm that they apportion the payment as outlined in the legislation and that they advise the bailiff company accordingly (or credit the bailiff company) with the payment. PS: It is likely that there are far more FOI requests than outlined here. I have only referred to those that are available to view publicly on the FOI website: What do They Know.

During my Easter break (whilst at home from university) I boarded a train from Redcar to Middlesbrough, and with my railcard this journey was £2.30. Unknown to me at the time, my bank cards do not work offline, and so would not work in the train conductors card machine. I then filled out the appropriate paperwork with the intention of paying the fare by phone. I rang the northern rail payment service to pay the fare the next day and was informed by the lady on the phone that they had not received the bill yet, and that she would write it in the records that I had attempted to pay the fare. The next day I returned to university in London for my Summer exams, and consequently forgot all about the fare, and also received none of the reminder letters as they went to my home address in Redcar. On returning home from university I realised the time that I had to pay the fare had passed, and had a letter stating I needed to pay an £80 fine, or that I could appeal this fine. I appealed by post, and a few weeks later (when I was away for the week) northern rail rang my home number and a lady over the phone told my mum that I would receive a court date, when asked about the appeal the woman replied that they hadn't received an appeal, only to then say that she had fount it, but that the matter had gone too far now and they would take me to court. So my hearing is on the 8th November, and according to the letter I can either plead guilty and pay the £100 court cost or plead not guilty to fare evasion and attend a hearing and then a trial. So far my intention is to plead not guilty, as obviously I have attempted to pay the fare and to appeal the fine, and so pleading guilty to fare evasion seems unjust to me. But do you think I have a chance of winning the case? And if I attempt to would this end up costing me even more? Many thanks, Charis.

Hello I hope that someone could help me with this. I just moved a couple of months ago to my new house and I am renting with a letting agency. I specifically asked before we rented it if they would be the ones that would take care of any problems in the house as we had some problems previously with a private landlord and they said that they would fix anything within the property. As always, they told me to fill a list of amendments to include them in the inventory so they could fix them. There were quite a few small things that were not included in there inventory list as toilet seat or hangers broken. I included them in the amendments list but I told them that there was no need to fix the small issues. But there was a leak of water coming to the ceiling of the living room, the door of the conservatory is broken, the stones of the driveway are broken so when you put a car in they hit the bottom of the car and the tv blocks are not working so I do not get any signal for tv. I gave them some time to fix them because I understood that was Christmas time but now they just came to fix the leak and they told me that the landlord is not paying to fix anything else and that they are not going to fix it neither.... What can I do? We got everything signed but I would like to know if there is any option to make them do it without go to court as I just want to enjoy my house and not having all this problems. Glad that I just signed for 6 months but I really do not want to start with the moving process all over again....

I have been declared bankrupt and have had my interview with the OR - they said I should be discharged in 12 months. They didn't want to go through my income and expenditure yet, as I've only been self employed for a few months before declaring bankruptcy, and they wanted to review my I&E in three months. I am aware that an IPA will be put in force for three years if I have surplus income during the 12 months, and I want to avoid this. As I am self employed, I can 'throttle' my income for 12 months and just take it a little easy, take on a few less jobs until discharge, thus avoiding an IPA. I just want this over and done with ASAP, not to drag on for three years when I can be 'out' in one. I wanted to clarify one thing: When I declare gross income to the OR, do they take into account the tax and NI that will be payable when I eventually do my tax return? Do they have a formula for that calculation? I don't want any surprises. I'll will eventually make a post about my bankruptcy experience as it may prove useful to people here. Thanks.

Hi all! My letting agency refused on THREE occasions to answer me back when I enquired about the protection status of my bond. My old Landlord and I are currently battling in the courts for my last bond, and I would rather it not come down to that again! Now I'm thinking of writing a nicely worded email to the letting agency once more, only this time using a little LBA and telling them that they/the landlord is breaching the law. Now I know the landlord lives in Saudi Arabia, so I'm not sure if protecting the bond will be difficult or not... But hell it's the law isn't it! Anyway my main question was this; if they refuse AGAIN to answer my emails, how within my rights am I to withold the last months rent on the contract and just up and leave with that? I'm guessing not but I really don't fancy another court date Thanks guys!

Hi folks, I'm in a position to pay off a lump sum on my credit cards. I currently owe approximately £4000 to MBNA (Virgin); £3,300 to Barclaycard; £4,000 to Ulster Bank; £9,500 to Halifax and £6,000 to Santander. There has been some history of late payment on all accounts but nothing too bad. Barclaycard has already closed my account although obviously I have to keep paying it off. Halifax have just sent me a letter telling me they are closing my account in 2 months time. I want to make full and final settlement deals rather than partial settlement deals, how can I best go about this? Will they accept them? What percentage should I be offering as a Full and Final Settlement? Has CAG got a template letter you can direct me too? How can I get them to accept these without the settlements having an adverse affect on my credit rating? All help and advice gratefully received.