Hi there. I am trying to help a friend sort out a problem & hoped I might get some advice. He had a substantial debt, which the bank obtained a CCJ for sometime ago. Frustrating I know, but he does not know how much the judgement was for or what the payments should be & hasn't been sent any payment book etc . I tried to find out more, but he just said he waited until he got a letter from the court & then paid it! The situation now seems to be quite serious, I have seen the letter that says they are going for a warrant of execution & yesterday, he had a visiting card from a baliff whilst at work. He is going to the court today to make a payment & I have told him he must ask for details of the original judgement & we can take it from there. At the moment they seem to be asking for arrears of over £2000 to be paid within 7 days. Impossible of course. A couple of questions. Will the local court be able to provide him with details of the judgement? He is able to make reasonable payments towards the debt. Should he contact SCM to arrange this, or go straight back to the court for a variation order, assuming that the payments must be pretty high for that level of arrears to accrue? Thanks in anticipation

Hi, I need some advice. I have a credit card with Capital One which has reached its limit due to my card being stolen by someone in my family and used to make various online purchases which took me to my card limit of about £1500 - I did not find out about this until too late and I cannot possibly press charges against the thief as he is a family member. I agreed with Capital One that the best way around this would be to accept the charges and pay them myself, coming to a civil agreement with the man in question as a criminal charge would be completely fruitless as he is now in prison for something else. The problem this has left me with is managing my monthly repayments which are now in excess of £40 a month and I have already missed one payment so I am afraid that my debt is spiralling out of control. I know that I need to contact Capital One to agree.. .something. .. but I really do not know what to say to them, or how they will respond, as it is essentially my own fault that this has happened. Advice would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Hey folks. Over the last few months Ive noticed that whenever the Virgin Media Advert it on a banner top OR Side that loading becomes really slow and I have to try and reload the page. It is getting a little frustrighting Any suggestions? Using Firefox

Hi all, I have 6 catalogue accounts in total. My total payments on them are £289.00 per month. I could make this payment fine when I was working, but I was made redundant just over a year ago and have struggled for the past year. I am getting to the point where I can't keep paying them. A few months ago, I phoned the largest payment catalogue and asked to reduce my payments. The lady I spoke to said if I made reduced payments on one, then all the accounts would be affected. So I struggled on. I would ideally like to reduce the payments to £100 a month, but don't know what the first step is.

This week I had a letter from the Halifax advising me that they were reducing my faciity from £1750 to £250., because " I have not been using it" I have been with them for over 40 years. The facility enables me to make "emergency payments or holiday deposits". On average my account is £300 in credit My pensions of about £900 pm is paid in directly I have not been overdrawn for at least 15 Years My credit rating is very good The account is topped up when required from my Natwest account, which receives my returns from investments. My overall credit limit with Barclaycard and RBS CREDIT cards £10.000.00, and when used always paid monthly in full. When I rang to complain, they agreed to uplift it to £1000 Max. I have written back to Halifax and told them I am agreived and to reconsider the decision, I have always been satisfied with them, but I may have to break this relationship of over 40 years. I await a reply Any comments or advice please?

Hi all, I have an over draft with nationwide for 1,800. Yesterday i received a letter from nationwide saying that they are reducing my overdraft to 1,100. At present i am in my overdraft 1,791 and in a panic. I'm not sure what will happen will I be charged the interest of 50p a day or is it worth me asking for a repayment plan and asking for the account to be closed. My tax credit payment get paid into this account and now i'm wondering if i should ask for payments to be paid into another account advice would be very much appreciated.

Only recently I had Reed look to pay me below the bottom of what they's quoted to get me to attend the interview for a job and then try to skim additional margin for paying me on Ltd Co. basis rather than PAYE. Now I have Randstad who have decided they got the pay rate wrong on a job I started after signing a contract at that rate and they've looked to cut the rate by 20% - they even attempted to backdate this and claim that I had to pay them back (something they've now backed down from). - are insisting that they had the right to make such changes immediately and without agreement (even backdating for time worked prior to notification). Whilst there are contract terms allowing them to move me to other assignments or to terminate an assignment, they did not explicitly do so, despite being asked several times if they were going to do so (to which they did not respond), It looks like I may need to go down the legal action route, although the amounts to gain are relatively small compared to the time and costs involved in pursuing such action. In the meantime, I'm working under protest and looking for another job; I hate the fact that I'm making the agency money until then. Any advice beyond avoiding dodgy agencies and consultants appreciated.

Ok I'm not sure what to do here I'm in a mess now. I have read all online but it's just general pages I need some human input and help here from someone who knows a little about what they are advising on. I have worked for next for 3 years Last year they reduced my contract from 16 to 13 hours I said yes because I was told I had no choice, this year again they have said to me they are now reducing my contract from 13 to 9 hours. I do not agree, all part time employees are being forced to do this, yet they have taken on an apprentice and a full time employee whilst trying to force me to accept this change. I can not live on a 9 hour contract, it seems unreasonable to me that they can do this and tell me that I do not have any choice in the matter. My boss is telling me daily I need to sign this contract but I don't want to I do not want a 9 hour contract. I want to try and push them to keep me as I am, I'm liked, I work well I have good reports so there is no penalisation here. It's just something they have started doing yearly and thing they can get away with. There is nothing in my contract that says they can do this so I am confused. Regards Jay

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20600442

I am one of a team of 7 and have been on the team since it was first set up some 3 years ago (I have been with this nationally recognised company for almost 5 years in total). My line manager came to the job about a year ago. There are two part time members on the team. One works 4 days per week and has been with the team from the start. The other was recruited by my line manager about 7 months ago she is part time 3 days per week. In August due to personal issues which only my line manager and head manager are aware of I requested to reduce my hours to 3 days per week. It was agreed that I could go part time but that I cannot stay in my current job role The solution was offered that I could transfer back to the original job role that I had (same pay). My objective at the time was to reduce my hours and I still feel that if it means going back to my old job then that's the way it has to be. I reduced my hours in September but keep having my transfer to my old job postponed whilst decisions I presume are being made about recruitment etc. I have not been kept informed by my line manager on what is happening. I have told my manager that I would be very happy to stay in my current job role and have good relations with my colleagues and know my work inside out. However in a team meeting the other day I was told in front of everyone that I would be transferring to my old job in January and they would interview for a full time post to replace me. I feel as though I have been treated unfairly. I have not been given any of the business reasons for why I cannot remain in my current role. My line manager is unapproachable, in the past she has reduced colleagues to tears with her manner. My colleagues have expressed surprise to me, but not to her that I cannot remain on the team on part time hours and another manager said in confidence to me, that they could accommodate me if they wanted to. Before I requested part time hours my manager spoke in general of recruiting another person as the workload was increasing so why do I need to be taken off the team? I would appreciate any advice.

Hi i am after advice please, I have an account with JD Williams and had ordered a set of curtains (along with previous orders) the curtains came and was incorrect so these where returned and reordered, the new set arrived today and once again was incorrect so i called up to arrange return and complain about whats happened AGAIN!, I got a right jack the lad who was quite arsy, i became defensive and said things along the lines off 'well there is no way im going to make any payments towards the current balance I am not happy at all with the service and if you want a penny outa me then send a debt collector and then I hung up' all this was said in the heat of the moment due to the bad service and the tone of the agent who took my call today, I have since logged into my account to review purchasing different curtains and found that my credit limit has been reduced down to £800.00 with my balance now showing as £816.58 making me now overdrawn by £16.58 when this morning my available balance to spend was just under £500.00, them reducing my credit limit without prewarning is now potentially going to get me charges?? where do i stand with this as i am now fuming to the max and will no way shape or form pay any charges, my minimum payment is not due on this statement until 23rd oct so even my outburst today on the phone could not justify them doing this as they have yet to find out if this would be followed through, please help!!

Hi, I have a secured loan with paragon, been paying it for 7 years and so far they have charged me over £36k in interest and I have paid £39K so far. My debt has only reduced by £2,800. I want to do a spreadsheet so i can try and work out how my balance will reduce over the years, I know interest rate may change but I just want an idea of how the payments will start to reduce my balacne becasue at the moment I see no light at the end of the tunnel! This should be a 300 month term and I can't see it'll get paid off in time if over 7 years I've only cleared £2,800 off balance. I thought it might help if I culd put my payments in up until end date of July 2030 and use current interest rate just to see if it does look any better and make things a bit clearer for me. Then it should give me some hope! I called paragon and raised my concerns but they just said as long as I paid my monthly payments on time it would be clear by the end of the 300 months but I can't get my head around it. Any ideas how I can do a spreadsheet please on excel? Thanks in advance!

Re-titling job role and reducing pay Back in September 2011, I applied and attended an interview for the role of a manager with 3 direct reports. I was successful and commenced employment in November 2011. I was however disillusioned from day one and was informed I have no direct reports and that there would be 2 others equivalent to my manager’s role to achieve the business objectives. My manager asked whether that would be ok, to which of course I’d said yes. (as I’d left my last job and very little option)! He said the change would not affect the agreed salary and no further amendments were made to my original JD to reflect their sudden changes. The business as a whole has been going through re-structure after re-structure for the last few years, with some teams being changed several times over a very short period. Four months in to the role and my manager left. So me and my 2 colleagues were left AWOL for several weeks. Their after my mangers manager who was a executive director also left his role with a golden handshake. We were then aligned into a different team and left to continue what we were doing. Within weeks we were again realigned into another Directorate. Back in May 2012 we went through another re-structure and once again allocated a new manager to report into. This individual is a Director for the department concerned. He wanted to make a minor change and across a team meeting said he’d like a manager to support 2 managers. He said the new role would allow him to communicate with one person as oppose to three managers. He said our existing T&C and role would not change irrespective of whether we applied for the new role or not. I decided against applying for the new role on the basis that I was happy with my current role and the fact that we had been told nothing would change to our existing T&C’s. However my other colleague went for the role and was successful (being the only one to apply). He commenced his new role with an increased salary on 1st August. Last week I was called into a meeting with my new manager, a representative from HR and a staff rep. I was advised that the team would further be restructured which would mean a change in my job role from manager to “business partner”. It would also mean a salary reduction of up to £10,000. It all came to me as a surprise, more so because i’d been advised our T&C’s would not change. I have been pushed pillar to post through changes and ambiguity since commencing my role. The new role has much of the same responsibilities. The argument is that I don’t line manage which was in effect part and parcel of my original role. However my argument is that the line management work was absolved by the 3 managers when they decided to change the structure back in Nov 2011. An more importantly that I’d been promised by both my first and most manager that T&C’s will not change. Could someone advise me where I stand and what I can do? Thanks, Abs

Currently on long term sick (since january) I am admin enhanced supervisor. Made the decision to step down so they can fill my position while i am off and when i return i will just be an admin assistant. Receive a letter today stating the max i will be allowed to work is 25 hours, (i used to work 39) - can they do this?