All three of my Barclaycard accounts have been passed to Mercers then back to Barclaycard and now on to Calders. I've had the same line as Kay from them. I also went to FOS and actually not much has changed , if you speak to any of them on the phone, the message seems to be very mixed-could be this is a grey area for them?I realise they must be overloaded, but .....

Anyway, I was so stressed by the whole thing that I went to one of these claim firms we are warned against, they don't ask for upfront charges and their fees come from the other side.When they asked for the agreements, Barclaycard insisted on sending them via me,so I did get to see what they were sending and although they didn't send signed agreements, they did sent copies of agreements that would have been used at the time. I rang the claims firm to ask whether Barclaycard were now in breach and they said not.Barclaycard had complied with section 78 of the act by sending relevant copies, they would now examine them to see if they complied with the act and go down that route. Presumably if it does go to court they will have to supply signed agreements. If you read through CAG this point is debated at length and the opinion on there seems to be-if you want to see your signed agreement, requests under section 78 or SAR won't do it,they have fulfilled their obligations by sending T&C ,it has to be down the CPR route which is the stage where you are about to go to court and you have to mean it. If they still don't supply signed agreements, the court will enforce it.

This is what did it for me, CAG has some very good instructions when it comes to preparing your case for court, but it is all so wordy and lengthy that I felt overfaced. I suppose the best advice is bite by bite. There's no reason why you can't take them on and win, just have a look on CAG, it is very reassuring.I have 8 accounts that I am disputing, and I just felt I didn't have enough hours in the day and brain space to get them right.

In the meantime, there is a very useful statement by

Susan Edwards,

Head of Credit Investigations and Enforcement, Office of Fair Trading, concerning Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, dated May 2008. Specifically, comments regarding regulation 5-misleading statements and criminal offences; and regulation 7- aggressive practices.

It's a bit long to quote on here but if you can get it up, it's well worth a read as some DCA have definitely been overstepping the mark.It made me feel a whole lot better.