HannahB v Intelligent Finance ***WON***

[HannahB]

Hiya,

 

Its getting exciting now then. Had to take mine to the county court, they have until 19th to do something, defend most likely.

 

Glad to hear(read) you have filed yours. Good luck, will have a virtual drink together when we win?!! (Dont know why i am feeling positive about it really!)

[MarkusDY]

Hi Hannah,

 

Whats happening with you then?

 

I had a surprise call from Rachel Hinchcliffe today of HBOS asking for my IF account number and telling me she would be referring to the appropriate department at IF and I would receive a letter from them in the next day or two. Wonder what they could be planning?!

 

Let me know if you get a call too?

[HannahB]

Oh you are honoured, i havent had a call!

 

Am still waiting to hear at the moment, i nervously pick up my post every morning and wonder if a letter from their solicitors will be there, but nothing so far.

 

I wonder why she wanted your a/c number, how odd, probably just trying to make you nervous!

 

Keep me posted, shall let you know when i hear anything x

[Zannie]

hi - My money claim was filed a week ago and they have acknowledged but I am waiting watching this thread to hear what happens to you and Markus, it dosn't look like many people have got their money back from IF, I have already got mine back from the Abbey but only at the 11th hour so wonder what tactics this bank will use.

[MarkusDY]

Good news...

 

Had a letter from HBOS legal services this morning, starting off a tad patronising saying I should have technically sued Halifax Plc not IF, however, that haven't noticed I issued my claim to Halifax plc t/a Intelligent Finance.

 

Letter went on to say they intend to defend, however, purely on a commerical basis it would cost too much to defend so without admitting liability they are coughing up in full blah blah...

 

:lol:

 

Anyone else waiting for IF claims, stick with it. Seems to be the same policy as Halifax claims as its dealt with by the same legal services people.

 

Hannah - Hope you hear from them soon. Shouldn't be long!

[HannahB]

Oh wow, congratulations. Im really pleased for you! They only have until thursday, am getting even more nervous now. Shall wait with patience though! x

[HannahB]

Well surprise surprise, IF acknowledged the claim today, right on the last day. To say i am annoyed is an undertstatement! I know full well they wont go to court, they are just waiting the courts time. I feel like telling them not to bother offering anything in a few weeks because i want it to go to court now!

[HannahB]

Receieved a letter from HBOS legal services today, they have paid almost in full. They have not included the 8% interest. Also they have said they will refund the money to the account, well the account isnt with them anymore! So im in the process of writing to them to hopefull get the 8% and a cheque.

[HannahB]

Well we have even more problems now, was wondering if someone can help. IF passed our account over to blair oliver and scott, in february this year. We have been paying them every month, the balance is £977. It now comes to us claiming the charges back from IF. We have said that we want to be paid by cheque, as the account was passed to bos, so when we get the cheque we will pay them.

well according to IFs solicitor, the account is still with them, and the balance is £1400. So we have been paying bos, but If have kept the account open and are still adding interest and charges.

They are refusing to pay by cheque, only into the account. So instead of receiving £1968, and paying bos, we get it paid into the account and get £500 approx.

Can they legally do this. I have a letter from bos saying they are collecting money for IF so surely they should have closed the account when they passed it to bos? I feel like they were totally misleading us!

 

Please help me!

[caro]

Well you have now asked enough times so I am moving your thread to the IF forum. Will see what can be done about advice as I am not familiar with IF or Halifax.

[bearo]

Blair Oliver & Scott’s registered office is at :-

 

8 North Bank Street

Edinburgh

EH1 2LP,

 

The registers of members and debenture holders are kept at :-

 

The Mound

Edinburgh

EH1 1YZ

 

They have only 2 shareholders :-

 

Bank of Scotland Edinburgh Nominees Limited, and

 

The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland.

 

 

So it looks like they are in fact a DCA owned by Halifax and not one who bought the debt!

This is the number they quoted on their website (which is currently down) 0131 442 7777.. main switchboard for HBOS.... it seems they like to tell customers they they are nothing to do with Halifax or HBOS so that customers feel obliged to deal with them, in fact it seems the opposite is the case!!!

Perhaps if you call the number above tommorow and do a bit of digging you may get a bit more joy?

 

Sorry I can't help more but hopefully it gives you something to go on!

[MarkusDY]

Hey Hannah,

 

Well done firstly on getting them to cough up.

 

I had a similar situation when they paid me. It wasn't Blair Oliver Scott but I do know of them from getting behind in the past. They are indeed an in-house collection agent and I told them so once on the phone, to which they denied my claim totally.

 

Anyway, my pay-out was also credited to my account by the time I received their letter. My current account was still open too, and they cleared my small overdraft and left me in credit. However, since IF collections had put a block on my account years back, I couldn't transfer the flipping money out to somewhere normal!

 

We all know why there's nothing Intelligent about these folks don't we!

 

I ended up getting very annoyed with several people on the phone before I eventually got my money out. If I were you, I would insist they play it your way. Definately insist that B-O-S are taken out of the loop with your account. Might be worth talking the that Rachel Hinchcliffe at HBOS Legal services as she seemed quite nice when she called me. I wouldn't bother the usual phone operators at IF as they won't give a monkey's chuff about you or your cash.

 

Good luck, keep us posted.

[HannahB]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

I have spoken to someone at the court and explained my situation. I said that as far as i was concerned i had been paying BOS and the account had been frozen. As i no longer have a bank card, even if they did pay it into my account, i wouldnt be bale to have any access to the money! The lady at the court told me to request a judgement, and say i want to be paid by cheque. That way i can pay BOS directly, and they have also agreed a settlement figure of £700. If i had to have it paid into the account, it would take £1400 off the amount claimed. How they can justify adding a further £400 in 6 months to an account that is with a debt collector i dont know!

 

Will let you know what happens. Am taking request for judgement form to the court tomorrow.

[HannahB]

Hello all,

 

Sorry i havent updated in a while. I finally got the money, but am still having problems with IF. They STILL havent told BOS that the debt has been cleared. So i still have them on my back even though there is no debt. I have sent IFs solicitor a letter requesting it is done urgently and have given 7 days before i start court proceedings again. Im so annoyed and fed up with it now though!

Any tips on what else i could do would be great, thank you!

[MarkusDY]

Hannah,

 

Not spoke for a while. Hope you had a good christmas?

 

Sorry to hear BOS are still chasing you for something that no longer exists. Nothing changes there.

 

All I can say is, you have to be extremely persistant with IF as they are the only ones that will call BOS off (even though we all know they are one and the same!).

 

I suggest calling IF, go absolutely MAD at them on the phone (without swearing of course!), insist on speaking to a team manager and get their name. Tell them exactly whats wrong and give them 48hrs to come back to you with it resolved. If they don't write to IF customer relations. Make sure you address it to Customer Relations. Be firm in your letter and you should get a response and the matter resolved as they actually seem fairly switched on in that department.

 

Good luck!

 

Markus

[HannahB]

Hi there, long time no speak!

 

Had a lovely christmas, kids totally spoilt, and me too, of course. How was yours?

 

Well had a very interesting time with IF and BOS. BOS started harrassing me because i cancelled the standing order i had with them to pay off the debt (obviously i thought IF would have told BOS!) They phoned constantly telling me it was my job to get IF to tell them the debt was cleared. (Like i hadnt tried!) In the end one evening i had enough, when BOS phoned (past 9pm, woke my 1 year old up ) i told them to hold on the line while i got my mobile and phoned IF. I put them both on speaker phone and told them to talk! It did sort the problem as IF emailed over a confimation to BOS and since then ive heard nothing.

 

I did write a letter to both companies telling them how annoyed i was that i should have to do what i did, and i wouldnt be responding anymore. If they wanted me they had to take me to court. Guess what? No reply!

 

So all in all it worked, but not an experience i enjoyed. (Managed to get rid of a huge debt that was all their charges though, which is fantastic)

 

Am just about to complete my MCOL for capital 1 now!

 

How about you, any more claims? x x

[KHMcBey]

Hannah - looks like you were in the same position as I'm in with Blair et al! If I were you I would dash of a letter asking Blair to produce the document that shows that you owe them money - can't remember the name of it right now (it's very late lol) but basically you can also demand that they remove any defaults that they've given you as a) they can't prove you owe them money and b) they shouldn't have your details anyway and shouldn't be giving them to a third party without your consent. I'm still new to this whole duffing up debt companies, but there's loads of info on the DCA bit of the site

[xpuser]

Hi HannahB,

 

I will be starting proceedings against IF shortly. You said in an earlier post that they offered you your money back but not the 8% interest.

 

In the end did you get the 8% interest as well?

[HannahB]

Thanks for the replies.

 

xpuser, yes i did get the 8% as well. I just told their solicitor that if he didnt get it paid i wouldnt let the court know it was settled.

Good luck with your claim.

[caro]

Belated congratulations Hannah.