Compensation for financial distress

[Spaniel14]

Hey guys,*

I recently discovered that a store card I had closed had not been closed properly.*

I closed the card for a popular high street shop in May 2018 however this year when applying for a mortgage and checking my credit file I noticed that the card was still open on my credit file. (I know, I should have checked it earlier but I never thought I needed to, sounds stupid now I know!) As you can imagine this was a real shock and has affected my credit score over the last couple of years. This was rather distressing for me and impacted the options I had for mortgages. *

I have since been offered the amount of £70 as compensation to account for the error the store card company made. They have admitted the card should have been closed properly in 2018 and it should have been reflected on my credit file. This amount is also to account for the poor levels of service I had when I called to report what had happened.*

My question here is - does £70 reflect what has happened? I’m unsure if this is an amount I should query or except as I have never experienced anything like this before.*

The error has caused me financial and emotional distress and has affected my ability to get credit elsewhere. Any help would be amazing.

Thank you,*
Spaniel14

[R0b]

They have a duty under data protection laws to ensure that datya is accurate and up to date which in your case it wasn't because they failed to close the account. Whether the £70 reflects the situation you are in will be subjective and it is difficult to quantify these types of claims because there are very few that make it to court and are reported on.

To give you an example, in one reported case a claimant was awarded £750 because the finance company applied an adverse entry to their credit file but it was immediately removed after becoming aware a couple months down the line - however your situation is totally different to that.

Whilst I can't comment on how it has caused you stress, you say that your ability to get credit has been affected, but I wonder how you can prove that if you only became aware of it when you applied for a mortgage? If you knew it affected you getting credit prior to applying for a mortgage then you would have been aware, unless you are saying that you were refused a mortgage on the basis of the store card, in which case how can you prove that?

Were there any outstanding amounts reported on the store card on your credit file or was it simply a zero balance but not closed down?