Debts, Diets and DIY.

Scottishmummy

Debts - not much to report here on the actual debt front. Moneywise though it has been a very spendy month. Road tax, car insurance and house insurance all due between now and the 10th of June so have been shopping around - obviously can't shop around for road tax but the other's I have. Have ended up staying with aviva for the car insurance as they gave my DH an introductory discount when I added him to my policy last year and he would lose that if we went elsewhere - next year though... House insurance - went through the meerkats and policy expert came out about £200 lower than our renewal, looked them up on quidco and they were offering £105 cashback so went and did all the online form filling only for them to say they couldn't cover us The only thing I think they could have had a problem with was we do my DH's clerical stuff (accounts) in the house. So ended up going with John Lewis who were £120 cheaper than our renewal plus £40 cashback through Quidco. House insurance was paid outright for the first time as we had been putting away some money for it this year. Road tax was six months paid and car insurance is monthly direct debit but would like to try and pay that outright next year too to save on the extra £30 I think it is costing us for credit.

Diet - weighed myself - not as impressive as I was hoping it would be - have a feeling over the last three weeks where I wasn't weighing myself that I might have lost, put on again then lost again. In total since restarting this weight loss journey I have lost a stone. I had hoped to be down into the next stone but that would have needed another 4lbs loss. Oh well!

DIY - not had a chance to do much as been working extra plus online quite a bit sorting stuff out.

Scottishmummy

Been a wee while since I last posted anything because basically I've had nothing to report until now.

Debts - PPI complaint with RBS for a Lombard loan has been upheld and they are offering over £2000 back. Unfortunately the small print states they will pay towards debt first then refund anything left over so basically we won't see any of that but at least that is the equivalent of 10 months I think off our debt free date - very quick calculation - need to do a proper one. We haven't been making payments to any of the accounts that have not responded to our CCA requests so the debt total hasn't officially gone down but unofficially if they can't find CCAs then it has gone down by quite a bit. Only 3 of our 9 cheques have been cashed, one was returned as they were not the company to deal with it but the company they forwarded the request on to have not done anything further.

Diet - not a clue. Have not weighed myself since I last reported on here because we have had birthday cake and a couple of other parties and days out so been a bit scared to. However my jeans are still loose and I am still getting the belt buckle in the third hole so that is a good sign.

DIY - Have moved bedrooms, three way move between us and two of the kids. This involved a couple of skip runs but we can't move in the livingroom for other boxes that need gone through.

Scottishmummy

Forgot to mention work - I didn't get the job I was interviewed for. I got through the practical assessment and went for the formal interview but I had a feeling I didn't answer one of the questions the way they wanted it answered and the feedback I got was if they had enough posts to offer I would certainly have got one but unfortunately I didn't mention certain keywords they were looking for so in this instance I was unsuccessful. However they did mention that there was an alternative route in to the area of work which would let me work up to the grade I was applying for and that they expected vacancies for that role to come up after august so I'll keep an eye out for that. In the meantime I have applied for another job elsewhere, closing date tomorrow so we shall see what that brings.

zenshi

May I ask.....have you had any aggro since you stopped paying while awaiting CCA? I'm just doing that now

Scottishmummy

zenshi wrote: »

May I ask.....have you had any aggro since you stopped paying while awaiting CCA? I'm just doing that now

Letters from a few, Tosco have passed theirs on to a DCA and BC who told us theirs was unenforceable has passed it on too. DH did get a phonecall from one despite them all being told to remove our phone numbers and they have put everything on hold for a further 30 days. I should have some time to myself this coming week so will send a follow up letter to those that haven't replied stating that unless we hear from them and they have been able to supply the CCA they will receive no more money from us.

Scottishmummy

Scottishmummy wrote: »

Debts - PPI complaint with RBS for a Lombard loan has been upheld and they are offering over £2000 back. Unfortunately the small print states they will pay towards debt first then refund anything left over so basically we won't see any of that but at least that is the equivalent of 10 months I think off our debt free date - very quick calculation - need to do a proper one.

Cheque arrived in the post yesterday :j so that has been added to our F&F pot which I am happier about than if it had come off their debt.

Also received a tax rebate so that also got added.

Scottishmummy

Warning - do not read if easily offended as there will be a lot of swearing.

FU(K, FU(K, FU(KING HELL We were "chosen" back in April/May to have our childcare payments from tax credits to be investigated by Conc.untrix. Sent off all of our documentation, didn't foresee any problems as we always updated them with any changes. Meanwhile we got our renewal pack through, tried to do renewal online, couldn't because of the investigation. Phoned tax credits helpline. They noted the renewal but couldn't make any changes at all while the investigation was occurring. Then our childminder retired and we started using a new childminder. Phoned tax credits again to inform them. Again they said they couldn't make ANY changes and that we had to inform Conc.untrix. So I duly phoned conc.untrix and told them our childminder had retired and gave them the details of our new childminder and new fee costs - she charges differently. They repeated that they couldn't make any changes right now while the investigation was ongoing but that they had noted everything and once it was complete it would all be updated accordingly.

Now remember how they couldn't make any changes while the investigation was ongoing? We got a provisional tax credit notice through saying we had NO childcare costs and our payments dropped by almost £400!!! I was on the phone to tax credits immediately only to be told yes the payments stopped because your childminder retired.
I replied "yes and we started a new one within a week!!!"
"Oh but we can't make any changes while you are under investigation. "
"But you have made changes by stopping our childcare payments."
"That is to prevent you being overpaid."
"Highly unlikely as the new childminder is more expensive than the last."
"There is nothing we can do until the investigation is complete."

So I phoned conc.untrix and had basically the exact same conversation with them. I asked how long was their investigation going to take only to be told every case is individual so they cannot estimate. I asked do you have a target timeframe that a case must be completed by - No.

I have phoned them every 3 or 4 weeks (when I can actually get through to them) to find out if they have completed yet and if not why not. Their story is the same every single fu(king time - they cannot tell me how long it will take. That lovely PPI payment we received back in July has been swallowed up in childcare fees. Then to top it off I checked the bank at the weekend only to find that the payment we were expecting then has dropped by a further £200odd because my oldest is 16 and even though I have confirmed with them twice that he was staying on in school, according to the automatic message you get when you phone to ask what the fu(k is going on, they don't take it into consideration until the next month. FU(K, FU(K, FU(K!!!

Have spent 3 hours tonight trying to get through to conc.untrix but was only ever getting the engaged tone so finally tried tax credits again. Was put on hold twice as I was told I needed to speak to the core team only for them to give me the full excuse all over again.

If this is not sorted out this month we can no longer pay our childminder which means my husband can no longer work all of his hours which means our income will drop but of course because they cannot make any fu(king changes while we are being investigated we won't get any more tax credits :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

January2015

Scottishmummy wrote: »

Warning - do not read if easily offended as there will be a lot of swearing.

FU(K, FU(K, FU(KING HELL We were "chosen" back in April/May to have our childcare payments from tax credits to be investigated by Conc.untrix. ..............................................................................................

If this is not sorted out this month we can no longer pay our childminder which means my husband can no longer work all of his hours which means our income will drop but of course because they cannot make any fu(king changes while we are being investigated we won't get any more tax credits :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

OMG I really feel for you.....but I have to say I have the biggest smile on my face reading your post - it's the inventive use of the keyboard and the fantastic renaming of Conc.untrix. I love it:rotfl::rotfl:

Thank god you had the PPI refund. Have you thought of contacting your MP to get involved on your behalf? They are pretty useless most of the time, but do occassionally give an appropriate kick up the backside to speed things like this up? MPs usually have surgeries in the local area - look up your MP and see if you can get a an appointment with him/her.

Scottishmummy

That is going to be my next port of call I think If I don't get a decision soon. I did actually get through to them tonight after being on hold for over an hour. Can't imagine what my phone bill is going to be like. When I mentioned how long I had been holding I was told they have 200 :eek: on hold at any one time. The guy I spoke to has said he will absolutely push my case through for a decision this week, preferably by tomorrow. I have to phone back Thursday or Friday. I have asked for the official complaints address in case there still isn't a decision.

Their twitter page has the cheek to ask people to vote for them for the Contact Centre World Industry Champion. :mad:

January2015

Saw this and thought of you....good things do happen sometimes