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Default date is 5 and a half years after last payment, can that be contested?
Hi everyone,
I am currently applying for a mortgage and just got refused due to a default on my credit file (from many years ago for a Lloyds student account that i forgot about (stupid me!))
The last payment into the account was on 11/12/2003 which reduced the balance to £644.50. I subsequently forgot about this and didn't update my address when i moved and in 2010 received a debt collectors letter about it (saying i then owed £1733.78 due to interest). They sent me copies of the statements from 2002 - 2009 (which say the account was actually closed on 29 July 2009).
I contested the debt based on the fact i had forgotten and it had tripled (actually mainly because, would you believe, one of the Lloyds employees i spoke to advised me to do this as the debt was so old she said that they wouldn't have accessible records and would write it off!)
After much discussion i finally received a letter in Oct 2010 saying:
"The full debit balance of £1733.78 is due and payable, but in view of the time since you last looked at your account, I am prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt and accept that you had forgotten about it.
Consequently i am writing of the full amount of the debt and we will not look to you to make any further payment towards it."
On my credit file it says the start date was 28/06/1996, the default date was 04/08/2009 and the updated date was 16/08/2012.
This means the default date is 5 and a half years after the last payment was made to the account which seems rather a long time to me! I understand that they are automatically removed from your credit file after 6 years and so if the date was closer to when payments stopped then it would no longer appear.
Are there any regulations on how long before they mark a loan as defaulted? Within http://www.scoronline.co.uk/files/sc...ment_final.pdf (linked from the ICO website) it says in relation to defaults: "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." But this obviously doesn't state it *has* to be within 6 months (but 6 years seems crazy!)
What is the best course of action here (particularly given this is currently preventing me from buying a house!) I was going to write to Lloyds and ask them to change the date but i wanted to see if there are any specific regs i could quote as to why they should and whether or not you think it's likely i'll be able to get it changed?
Thanks so much for your help,
Dave
I am currently applying for a mortgage and just got refused due to a default on my credit file (from many years ago for a Lloyds student account that i forgot about (stupid me!))
The last payment into the account was on 11/12/2003 which reduced the balance to £644.50. I subsequently forgot about this and didn't update my address when i moved and in 2010 received a debt collectors letter about it (saying i then owed £1733.78 due to interest). They sent me copies of the statements from 2002 - 2009 (which say the account was actually closed on 29 July 2009).
I contested the debt based on the fact i had forgotten and it had tripled (actually mainly because, would you believe, one of the Lloyds employees i spoke to advised me to do this as the debt was so old she said that they wouldn't have accessible records and would write it off!)
After much discussion i finally received a letter in Oct 2010 saying:
"The full debit balance of £1733.78 is due and payable, but in view of the time since you last looked at your account, I am prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt and accept that you had forgotten about it.
Consequently i am writing of the full amount of the debt and we will not look to you to make any further payment towards it."
On my credit file it says the start date was 28/06/1996, the default date was 04/08/2009 and the updated date was 16/08/2012.
This means the default date is 5 and a half years after the last payment was made to the account which seems rather a long time to me! I understand that they are automatically removed from your credit file after 6 years and so if the date was closer to when payments stopped then it would no longer appear.
Are there any regulations on how long before they mark a loan as defaulted? Within http://www.scoronline.co.uk/files/sc...ment_final.pdf (linked from the ICO website) it says in relation to defaults: "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." But this obviously doesn't state it *has* to be within 6 months (but 6 years seems crazy!)
What is the best course of action here (particularly given this is currently preventing me from buying a house!) I was going to write to Lloyds and ask them to change the date but i wanted to see if there are any specific regs i could quote as to why they should and whether or not you think it's likely i'll be able to get it changed?
Thanks so much for your help,
Dave
