Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

[Dobbs2010]

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

In August 07 my ex wife and I separated, by June 2009 we were divorced.

As part of the consent order my ex wife was made liable for a joint overdraft we had with Lloyds TSB of £5000. The exact wording on the consent order was "the Petitioner (EX WIFE) undertaking to the court to retain responsibility for the joint overdraft with Lloyd TSB ( account number xxxxxxxx), including the monthly repayments and bank charges, and to indemnify the respondent (ME) against all such liability."

Now fast forward to this week, I applied for vehicle finance and was refused, so I joined Experian to look at my credit file, overall my credit rating is very good apart from this overdraft which was passed to a company called Cabot Financial sometime in 2011 from what I can see. Now for the last 14 months they have been putting notes on my credit file saying I've defaulted on some sort of agreement with them.

My question is can I do anything about this, am I still liable for this debt? Also how can I default on an agreement with them if I've never made one or had any contact with them?

Any help would be great.

Regards
Steve

[nemesis45]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

Hi welcome to LB
Cabot has bought the account/debt from the bank and can now pursue it.

Was the bank made aware of the consent order and agree that the joint and several liability
was cancelled.
The entries on the credit files will be the banks original entries and Cabot has added it's name and details
when the debt was purchased.

nem

[Dobbs2010]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

In all honesty I'm not sure whether the bank were made aware of consent order, maybe verbally as I did have talks with them over the phone.

[nemesis45]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

In all honesty I'm not sure whether the bank were made aware of consent order, maybe verbally as I did have talks with them over the phone.

That could be your problem if the bank was not officially / formally consulted about amending one of the fundamental parts of an agreement signed by both parties agreeing to be jointly and severally responsible for maintaining the account and have no record of such a consent order it will chase either party.

You can try contacting the bank directly.

nem

- - - Updated - - -

In all honesty I'm not sure whether the bank were made aware of consent order, maybe verbally as I did have talks with them over the phone.

That could be your problem if the bank was not officially / formally consulted about amending one of the fundamental parts of an agreement signed by both parties agreeing to be jointly and severally responsible for maintaining the account and have no record of such a consent order it will chase either party.

You can try contacting the bank directly.

nem

[Dobbs2010]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

Might try that, the other thing is the original account is still showing on my credit file as being in default with a zero balance owing, while the Cabot Financial account is shown separately, also in default, so it looks twice as bad on file.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

Might try that, the other thing is the original account is still showing on my credit file as being in default with a zero balance owing, while the Cabot Financial account is shown separately, also in default, so it looks twice as bad on file.

That is not correct, there should only be ONE default per account. You need to get at least that bit amended.

[Dobbs2010]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

Thanks Flamingparrot, who would be the best people to speak to, the bank or Experian?

[nemesis45]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

First place a notice of dispute on the CRA files, but you will need to check all 3 main agencies first.

Your complaint is with the bank as the agencies can only post the data supplied to them, when you
contact the CRA's re the dispute/correction notice request they will check the data supplied by the bank.

Do not bother with the banks customer service department they wont have the authority to act, so you
should check out a " name" such as the Director of Retail Banking or similar title.

Can you still contact the solicitor who drafted the consent order?

nem

[Dobbs2010]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

First place a notice of dispute on the CRA files, but you will need to check all 3 main agencies first.

Your complaint is with the bank as the agencies can only post the data supplied to them, when you
contact the CRA's re the dispute/correction notice request they will check the data supplied by the bank.

Do not bother with the banks customer service department they wont have the authority to act, so you
should check out a " name" such as the Director of Retail Banking or similar title.

Can you still contact the solicitor who drafted the consent order?

nem

I can still contact the solicitor.

I spoke to the Experian helpline, they have advised me to email their customer services a copy of the Consent Order and they are going to raise a dispute with Lloyds and Cabot. Hopefully this may achieve something.

[nemesis45]

Re: Defaulted account on credit file, advice needed please.

I can still contact the solicitor.

I spoke to the Experian helpline, they have advised me to email their customer services a copy of the Consent Order and they are going to raise a dispute with Lloyds and Cabot. Hopefully this may achieve something.

May well be worth asking the solicitor to who the consent order was disclosed, if it wasn't made available to the bank formally or it was subject to a time limit that could be the problem.

nem

- - - Updated - - -

I can still contact the solicitor.

I spoke to the Experian helpline, they have advised me to email their customer services a copy of the Consent Order and they are going to raise a dispute with Lloyds and Cabot. Hopefully this may achieve something.

May well be worth asking the solicitor to who the consent order was disclosed, if it wasn't made available to the bank formally or it was subject to a time limit that could be the problem.

nem