legal services direct predicament

[bagnallmj]

I will start at the beginning
received a phone call from LSD asking about cc and ppi the bloke called issac instantly got positive as I told him that smile at some point increased my limit without asking.
he then went on to tell me that he could wipe of the debt as it would become unenforceable.
to this I replied that my debt was just £200, he said I might aswell go ahead with it better in my pocket than theirs.
so I agreed and paid £395 as was told if I don't win I would get my money back.
that was on the 09/01/2012 after a few days I decided to ring up and cancel using the 14 day cooling off period but was talked into carrying on.
few weeks past and was updated saying Smile have defaulted because they haven't responded and told me to spend on my credit card because I would be getting the money back, I bought some garden furniture (£1000) which I was going to buy anyway.
then another few weeks passed and rang LSD to see what stage we are at he told me he had received a letter from smile which stated they couldn't find my original agreement, I told him I the new balance and he then told me I could easily spend £2-3 thousand as it wouldn't be recoverable, I stupidly told him about another credit card I had that has a balance of £4500 but I only opened it in november 2011 he then went on to tell me it doesn't matter there will be some discrepencies and that would be made void.
so here's were I'm at I have a balance of £3500 now on my smile account from £200 I bought things I need and would of bought over the year but not all at once.
oh yes I was advised that I didn't need to make my minimum payment which I didn't and was charged late payment fees twice.

heres my question is there anything I can ask them as thing aren't progressing or how does he think the debt will be written off.
what ideally would be good would just to get a full refund from them but I'm concerned they would want to charge me extortionate fees for cancelling and I will end up losing my money.
please advise
ive been in touch with my banks and they have stated that I have to check to see if there's a time cap

[bluebottle]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Hi Bagnallmj and welcome to Legal Beagles.

I have looked on the Ministry of Justice website and have obtained the following data about Legal Services Direct -

Legal Services Direct Limited
794 Leeds Road
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD3 9TY

Authorisation No. CRM27537

They are a Claims Management Company (CMC) and are currently authorised for financial products.

My advice to you is to contact the Ministry of Justice about Legal Services Direct, especially if they cold-called you. You can contact the MoJ at www.justice.gov.uk . You need to speak to their Claims Management Regulation Department.

[teaboy2]

Re: legal services direct predicament

You can also make a claim against LSD for fraud by false misrepresentation under the fraud act 2006 - Basically what they have told you is to spend and spend, which will result in you not being able to keep up repayments and cause you to have default placed on your credit file, causing you financial deteriment, whilst they themselves make a financial gain from claiming more in fees from any winnings you get. If you can, record the next phone call where they will hopefully advise you to keep spending, that way you can use the recording to type up a transcript of the call to use as evidence in court. They should not being telling you that you will win as they have no way of knowing this, and they have not even produced a copy of the letter from smile or you have not received a copy from smile confirming there is no agreement.

Personally i would contact smile by doing a subject access request for the CCA and all notes and letters sent to you or to LSD regarding your account as well as recordings of all phone calls between them and LSD if any.

[Guest]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Hi

I am sorry but , am I hearing this right, you went out and spent someone else's money because you thought you would be able to get out of paying it back.

I don't know who is worse you or the CMC to be honest.

Peter

[teaboy2]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Peter, no need for that.

You know just as well as i do that CMC and DCAs and the likes deliberately pray on peoples lack of knowledge and innocent ignorance, not to mention those that are innocently ignorant take these peoples word for granted. Not everyone is as wise to these companies tactics as us members of LB. So berating him for his innocent error of judgement is not helpful, nor does it help LB's reputation for being unbiased either.

Fact is they clearly mislead him and abused the trust he had placed in them, to tell him the truth - That is a criminal offense. Spending on a credit card is not nor is it unlawful to spend on a credit card. So that kind of answers your questions of "i do not know who's worse you or the CMC?" as clearly its the CMC!!

[bagnallmj]

Re: legal services direct predicament

I was

Hi

I am sorry but , am I hearing this right, you went out and spent someone else's money because you thought you would be able to get out of paying it back.

I don't know who is worse you or the CMC to be honest.

Peter

I was advised to, remember I quoted in my first article it was things I was going to buy anyway. I have always intended that if wasn't successful I would pay back every penny.
what I'm more concerned about is my credit file. I have always had a inpecuble credit rating my main concern is how long im being kept in limbo and if successful at what cost as I don't want my credit rating being trashed.
my ideal ending to this would be that I get all my money back and then I can transfer my balance to a 0% credit card.
thanks for people's replies

[bluebottle]

Re: legal services direct predicament

The one thing you MUST do is contact the MoJ and report LSD to stop them doing what they've done to you to others. Whether this will help put right the damage they've done is another matter, but I do agree with Teaboy that their sales pitch is fraudulent. That's why you need to contact the MoJ ASAP.

[bagnallmj]

Re: legal services direct predicament

The one thing you MUST do is contact the MoJ and report LSD to stop them doing what they've done to you to others. Whether this will help put right the damage they've done is another matter, but I do agree with Teaboy that their sales pitch is fraudulent. That's why you need to contact the MoJ ASAP.

i have tried just keep getting answer phone

[bluebottle]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Ring the MoJ's main switchboard and ask what's going on. Ask if there is an email address to which you can send complaints about CMCs.

[TUTTSI]

Re: legal services direct predicament

I note that you spoke to your credit card provider/ Bank where the £395 came from. I would tell them that the company have taken your money and have not provided you with the service in last 5 months.

The one golden rule that we have here on LB is never to stop your monthly payments - the CMC will probably deny that they told you that.

You also need to write to this company by email or by post requesting an update on how your claim is progressing or you want the return of your money. Advise them that if you do not receive a satisfactory response with 14 days a full compaint to the MOJ will be made.

Please keep me updated.

[bagnallmj]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Update
barclays have sent me info from a cca.
just terms and conditions, a limit but no signature.
this credit card was taken out November 2011,even though I told LSD this they said it didn't matter and there were other things Barclays wouldn't of done.
on reading other articles I came across credit card had to be pre April 2007. I've since spoke to LSD about pre 2007 issue he told me that the credit card is still subject to the same enforcements as if it was taken out pre 2007.
do I tell LSD that
1, i received info from barclays
2, I received info from Barclays and say my signatures on it, and ask for my money back
3, don't tell them at all

[bagnallmj]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Update
barclays have sent me info from a cca.
just terms and conditions, a limit but no signature.
this credit card was taken out November 2011,even though I told LSD this they said it didn't matter and there were other things Barclays wouldn't of done.
on reading other articles I came across credit card had to be pre April 2007. I've since spoke to LSD about pre 2007 issue he told me that the credit card is still subject to the same enforcements as if it was taken out pre 2007.
do I tell LSD that
1, i received info from barclays
2, I received info from Barclays and say my signatures on it, and ask for my money back
3, don't tell them at all
I paid £1000 for this card but was totally assured I would get my money back and got written proof before I signed the papers. When I looked at my statement last week they charged me £1185.

[bagnallmj]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Should be that my names not on it

[TUTTSI]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Bagnallmj, you have lost me a bit here?

By not paying your credit card debts you are getting yourself in financial problems and it will not do you any favours for the future.

What is your objective here is it to claim back a £1k from Barclays?

Why did they take £1185? have you asked them?

I don't think it was just your signature that LSD were after as missing - I think thery are clutching at straws here, because if they stated originally pre April 2007, why in the hell would it be OK to claim on a 2011 card?

When you say don't tell them at all, what would you not tell them?

At the moment there is very little likelyhood that you will will get you debt written off, it is not substainable as many have tried and lost and been caught with legal fees - have they explained about the legal fees if you lost?.

The best advice I can give you is to try and get your money back ASAP and not mess with this type of situation.

You really need to follow my advice in my previous post and send them an email requesting the return of all your money or you will complain to the MOJ, Trading standards etc.

Update
barclays have sent me info from a cca.
just terms and conditions, a limit but no signature.
this credit card was taken out November 2011,even though I told LSD this they said it didn't matter and there were other things Barclays wouldn't of done.
on reading other articles I came across credit card had to be pre April 2007. I've since spoke to LSD about pre 2007 issue he told me that the credit card is still subject to the same enforcements as if it was taken out pre 2007.
do I tell LSD that
1, i received info from barclays
2, I received info from Barclays and say my signatures on it, and ask for my money back
3, don't tell them at all
I paid £1000 for this card but was totally assured I would get my money back and got written proof before I signed the papers. When I looked at my statement last week they charged me £1185.

[teaboy2]

Re: legal services direct predicament

Agreed with tuttsi.

Your best option, due to the debt still been enforcable. Is to issue a court claim against LSD for fraud by misrepresentation leading to finanical deteriment as a result of the misrepesentation of law and encouragment to spend on your card claiming that the debt would be written off. You will of course has to hold your hands up to a jusge and admit your naivity. But end of the day being naive (and i mean that it the kindess possible way, not offensively, as i do feel for you) is not a crime, where as fraud by misrespresentation is, and as such a court will likely find in your favour and you will probably hear a judge order LSD to pay not only cost, but to pay of your debt and pay you compensation for the deteriment and damage to your credit file which will be adversely effective. Also i would contact Barclays and invite them to join you in your claim against LSD by telling them exactly whats happened and apologising to them for being foolish enough to believe these con artists. Hopefully Barclays will feel sorry for you and will jump at the chance of getting one over on this claim management company as banks and claim management companies hate each other. Plus point out to barclays that not did LSD actions amount to fraud by misrepresentation but it also amounts to conspiring to to defraud barclays themselves, where rightly or wrongly you have been caught in the middle as a result of LSD fraud by misrepresentation.

Now am sure Tuttsi, Bluebottle and others will add to what i have said and probably agree with what i have said. Basically your strongest weapon against LSD and getting out of this debt, is to get Barclays on your side.