Incorrect default dates on credit file

[AEH1983]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could help me, I have several debts that are now statued bared, last payments were Feb 09 through a debt management company, no payments or contact from me since (please try not to judge we all have a story :-) ) I spoke to national debt helpline and they have given me the template letters to send out advising them the debts are in fact statued barred, BUT my question is about the default dates on my file...defaults are all registered at least a year later, Lloyds have 13 months stamped as AP (arrangement to pay) after the first missed payment, so my question is, is 13 months fair for a default to be registered? Surely after around 3 payments the default should have already been registered especially seeing as the account was already defaulted before I got the debt management company to step in a pay minimum £s payment, if anyone has any advice that would be great, be nice to get them off my report now instead of another year + Thank you!!

[teaboy2]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

The ICO recommend 6 months, so yes you should be pushing them on this as its causing you further unnecessary financial detriment i.e. from applying for credit or a mortgage!

Also if you fully repaid them though debt management plan, then they should be showing as paid!

[AEH1983]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Hi

Thank you for that, I didn't fully pay them off thou :-/ but they are statued barred, I was just hoping they could remove them from my credit file with the correct default dates :-). cap quest informed me that defaults are never registered until 12 months after the last payment was made...little fibbers! I will try and hunt down a letter template asking them to alter there info on me. Thank you again!

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Thank you for that, I didn't fully pay them off thou :-/ but they are statued barred, I was just hoping they could remove them from my credit file with the correct default dates :-). cap quest informed me that defaults are never registered until 12 months after the last payment was made...little fibbers!

Crapquest are a debt purchaser, it wouldn't be up to them to record a default in the first place, it would be for the original lender to do so after you stop making your contractual payments.

These are the principles for reporting to the CRAs: http://www.scoronline.co.uk/sites/de...ment_final.pdf

4. If you fall into arrears on your account, or you do not keep to the revised terms of an arrangement, a default may be recorded to show that the relationship has broken down.

As a general guide, this may occur when you are 3 months in arrears, and normally by the time you are 6 months in arrears.

I will try and hunt down a letter template asking them to alter there info on me. Thank you again!

Below is the SAR letter. It should be sent recorded delivery with a cheque or PO for £10. They have 40 days to respond:

Dear Sirs

Ref: xxxxxxxx

Subject Access Request - S.7 Data Protection Act 1998

Under the Data Protection Act 1984 and 1998, and including the right of subject access under these acts, I hereby request that you supply me with any and all historical data in your possession which, in any way appertains to me, including (but not exhaustively) a copy of the original signed executed agreement; statements of account; duplicate statements and/or printouts of all account transactions; all internal and external correspondence sent or received by you including memos, logs, notes, screen prints and transcripts; notes of manual interventions such as telephone attendants' notes, copies of stored telephone conversations, internal and external emails; any other information held on all types of media in any relevant filing system. If you have disclosed any information to a third party (with or without my express permission), will you please include details of this in your reply, along with notes of any legal action passed or pending (to include a true copy of default notices, court orders and the like).

If you store any of the older records on microfiche, please be aware that the Information Commissioner deems this to be a relevant filing system under the Act. As such, any microfiche data must be sent to me in fully legible and comprehensible form.

Where any information that you provide includes any charges, for example returned payments, late payment fees, and so forth, would you please advise your breakdown of actual costs (liquidated damages) incurred for each charge, and the Term or Condition on which you rely upon to claim such a charge. I also require that you forward, within the above mentioned time scale, a true copy of the Terms and Conditions that were in force at the time my account was opened, and any subsequent amendments to those Terms and Conditions.

Additionally, where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff, or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my business with you. If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response.

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10.00 to access ALL data held by you about myself. You have 40 days in which to comply with this request.

Yours faithfully,

[nemesis45]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

A defaulted account record is removed from credit files on the 6th anniversary of the default date paid or not.

A debt may well be statute barred/ last payment etc. does not affect the default entry which remains for the total
of the 6 year period.

The ICO has expressed a different view on " arrangements to pay" which used to be considered unfair if used as a "replacement" for defaulting the account, it seems now the overriding matter is the absolute accuracy of reporting of the true conduct of an account.

It is always advisable to inform a company that the debt they hold is statute barred, but this does not affect the default status, the entry will be removed from CRA files after 6 years paid or not.
If you feel the entries are wrong raise a formal complaint with the original creditors who reported the status of the accounts.
You can also get advice from the ICO on such matters.

nem

- - - Updated - - -

Hi

Thank you for that, I didn't fully pay them off thou :-/ but they are statued barred, I was just hoping they could remove them from my credit file with the correct default dates :-). cap quest informed me that defaults are never registered until 12 months after the last payment was made...little fibbers! I will try and hunt down a letter template asking them to alter there info on me. Thank you again!

Capquests answer should be reported to the ICO.

nem

[AEH1983]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Super! Thank you so much. So I will start with the statue bared letters, then move to getting the default dates. Cap quest have said they are happy to send me out the statements to prove I owe the money (last payment was over 6 years ago so I'm hoping they are just sending me clear evidence it's statue bared!) so just to clarify AP shouldn't be there for the 13 stamps of actual missed payment, only 6 then it should have defaulted? Also...I know overdrafts are a bit different, another account had my overdraft recalled, so AP was put in place and they reduced the overdraft limit each month to stay in line with what I was paying. I didn't keep up, then handed it to a debt management company too who arranged minimum payments (interest and account charges continued and it went from £350 to £880 by the time I stopped paying debt management ! Ridiculous as I was more in debt !) but AP has also stayed for 13 months after last payment, is the cause of action date when the first arranged payment was missed? Or some time after? Thank you again, I'm very grateful!

[nemesis45]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Super! Thank you so much. So I will start with the statue bared letters, then move to getting the default dates. Cap quest have said they are happy to send me out the statements to prove I owe the money (last payment was over 6 years ago so I'm hoping they are just sending me clear evidence it's statue bared!) so just to clarify AP shouldn't be there for the 13 stamps of actual missed payment, only 6 then it should have defaulted? Also...I know overdrafts are a bit different, another account had my overdraft recalled, so AP was put in place and they reduced the overdraft limit each month to stay in line with what I was paying. I didn't keep up, then handed it to a debt management company too who arranged minimum payments (interest and account charges continued and it went from £350 to £880 by the time I stopped paying debt management ! Ridiculous as I was more in debt !) but AP has also stayed for 13 months after last payment, is the cause of action date when the first arranged payment was missed? Or some time after? Thank you again, I'm very grateful!

AP markers and the actual placing of the default is largely at the discretion of the creditor, the ICO issues only" technical guidance" on this.

The Credit files have just not been updated.

Statute Barred in England and Wales ( simple contract e.g. Credit/store card = 6 Clear years with no payment or unequivocal written acknowledgment of the debt, the 6 year clock starts ticking when a Contractual Payment was Due and Not Paid after which No further Payment and/or written acknowledgment of the debt was ever made. i.e one month after the last payment.

For Loans/HP. The date the creditor can First Demand Immediate Payment In Full starts the clock.
In all cases no payment to any party in the relevant 6 year period.
The debt must be SB before the date the claim was issued.



nem

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Super! Thank you so much. So I will start with the statue bared letters, then move to getting the default dates. Cap quest have said they are happy to send me out the statements to prove I owe the money (last payment was over 6 years ago so I'm hoping they are just sending me clear evidence it's statue bared!) so just to clarify AP shouldn't be there for the 13 stamps of actual missed payment, only 6 then it should have defaulted? Also...I know overdrafts are a bit different, another account had my overdraft recalled, so AP was put in place and they reduced the overdraft limit each month to stay in line with what I was paying. I didn't keep up, then handed it to a debt management company too who arranged minimum payments (interest and account charges continued and it went from £350 to £880 by the time I stopped paying debt management ! Ridiculous as I was more in debt !) but AP has also stayed for 13 months after last payment, is the cause of action date when the first arranged payment was missed? Or some time after? Thank you again, I'm very grateful!

Overdrafts fall under s.6 of the Limitation Act, the SBd clock starts running when the overdraft is recalled rather than from when you first miss a payment since there are no set payment dates for o/d facilities, however, if you made further payments after the o/d was recalled, then the clock would start to run from when you stopped making payments into that account through the debt management plan.

With regards to defaults vs AP, the new guidelines aren't much better than the old ones:

If your lender agrees to give you a temporary arrangement, but you fail to make the agreed payment against the new terms, they may still file a default (see Principle 4 below) as soon as a payment is missed, as long you were at least 3 months in arrears on the original agreement.

If you are subject to a debt management programme managed by a third party (such as StepChange) this will be shown on your credit file so that lenders know you are subject to this type of arrangement.

Debt Management Programme

A debt management programme (DMP) is when a third party debt adviser negotiates a repayment schedule for all or a number of a consumer’s credit agreements.

If the plan is accepted by the lender, the record filed at the credit reference agencies must reflect that the consumer is on a DMP. For such accounts arrears may continue to be calculated in accordance with the contracted terms, but the account marked as under a DMP.

Unacceptable or Token payments

If your lender does not agree a reduced or revised payment with you because the amount you offer to the lender is not acceptable, for example, a very low or token payment, the account will not be reported as an arrangement.

Any payments you make will be reflected in the current balance, arrears will continue to accrue and a default may be recorded.

[nemesis45]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Don't get bogged down with complications!!

nem

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

Don't get bogged down with complications!!

nem

The purpose of this site is to provide as much information as possible, not just to the OP but anyone else reading who may be in a similar situation.

If the OP finds it all too complicated they can ask for clarification, that's what we're here for. :thumb:

[jon1965]

Re: Incorrect default dates on credit file

From what I can see there are a couple of points
I would be writing to the credit reference agencies telling them that the info is incorrect as at the time the AP markers were placed the fact you were in a DMP was one of the triggers that the ICO had for saying a relationship had broken down and thus an account should be defaulted . It is possible that this will cause things to be changed.
IF you were wanting to take action against the creditor you would need to prove that there was a loss which is difficult in many cases

Final point for info only, the descriptions of SB are IMHO slightly wrong and I wouldn't wish to rely on them in court however as they do not seem relevant here there is little point in going into them