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Hi all
Hopefully a bit of background to, and then a quick question that has a quick answer...
So, very very long story short (ish): I VT'd my car after a catastrophic loss of income in 2016. The advice to VT was given to me by the BMW salesman who'd sold me 3 cars (incl. this one), meaning I trusted his advice. He said the car would go to auction, and the excess mileage that had been accrued (again long story short-I ended up needing to work further afield, ramping up mileage in the process), would be wiped. The plan was to downsize, and I'd given BMW a £1000 deposit on a new (and significantly cheaper) car. Unfortunately, I had to exercise my right to cancel the order. They kept the £1000 deposit, with the request for a return of the deposit being "my manager is too angry at you right now for me to ask him about it". I never saw the deposit back (tbh, if that's fair enough, it's fair enough, but suffice to say, the decision to cancel was unavoidable).
Needless to say, I VT'd, the car was inspected (approx 2-3 months before the official end of contract, iirc), taken away, and that was that, until BMW Finance came at me for excess mileage. At the time, I couldn't pay the excess mileage, and I was also really annoyed at BMW's behaviour towards me, the duff advice, and my stupidity for taking it.
The charges were then pursued by a solicitors (Lester Aldridge), who were rather relentless initially, then progressively less so.
I have been aware that they became involved in 2020, up until then, I don't believe there was any record of an excess mileage debt on my Credit File, but suddenly, without any arrangements to enter into a payment plan, they began to record missed payments. Not from 2020, mind, suddenly, missed payments appeared from 2016 onwards...
I now have 6 years and 3 months worth of missed payments marked on my credit file. No default, just every month, another missed payment marker appears.
So now, and this is my question:
Whilst I'm under the impression they are within their rights to record in this way, does each new missed payment keep the account live on my credit file regardless of time (i.e. resets the clock), or should it drop off my file after the usual time scale(s)?
I've contacted Experian, but rather than just telling me how long accounts like this stay visible, they raised a dispute with BMW in spite of me asking them not to make any contact with them.
Any advice would be really helpful, even if it's a "suck it up and be a man about it".
Thanks in advance!
Hopefully a bit of background to, and then a quick question that has a quick answer...
So, very very long story short (ish): I VT'd my car after a catastrophic loss of income in 2016. The advice to VT was given to me by the BMW salesman who'd sold me 3 cars (incl. this one), meaning I trusted his advice. He said the car would go to auction, and the excess mileage that had been accrued (again long story short-I ended up needing to work further afield, ramping up mileage in the process), would be wiped. The plan was to downsize, and I'd given BMW a £1000 deposit on a new (and significantly cheaper) car. Unfortunately, I had to exercise my right to cancel the order. They kept the £1000 deposit, with the request for a return of the deposit being "my manager is too angry at you right now for me to ask him about it". I never saw the deposit back (tbh, if that's fair enough, it's fair enough, but suffice to say, the decision to cancel was unavoidable).
Needless to say, I VT'd, the car was inspected (approx 2-3 months before the official end of contract, iirc), taken away, and that was that, until BMW Finance came at me for excess mileage. At the time, I couldn't pay the excess mileage, and I was also really annoyed at BMW's behaviour towards me, the duff advice, and my stupidity for taking it.
The charges were then pursued by a solicitors (Lester Aldridge), who were rather relentless initially, then progressively less so.
I have been aware that they became involved in 2020, up until then, I don't believe there was any record of an excess mileage debt on my Credit File, but suddenly, without any arrangements to enter into a payment plan, they began to record missed payments. Not from 2020, mind, suddenly, missed payments appeared from 2016 onwards...
I now have 6 years and 3 months worth of missed payments marked on my credit file. No default, just every month, another missed payment marker appears.
So now, and this is my question:
Whilst I'm under the impression they are within their rights to record in this way, does each new missed payment keep the account live on my credit file regardless of time (i.e. resets the clock), or should it drop off my file after the usual time scale(s)?
I've contacted Experian, but rather than just telling me how long accounts like this stay visible, they raised a dispute with BMW in spite of me asking them not to make any contact with them.
Any advice would be really helpful, even if it's a "suck it up and be a man about it".
Thanks in advance!
