Help needed making sense of credit report/score please

fiodyl

OK first of all I know Ive done wrong by not keping up my repayments, moving house and not telling the bank my new address for 2 years.

I can't change what I did in the past but I now want to put things right, repay the money I owe and hopefully repair my credit score so that maybe one day in the future I will be able to get a mortgage and buy a house.

So far I have told the bank my current address, and requested all 3 credit reports on me so I can find out how much I owe.

1 company CCCS collect have contacted me by letter requesting £840. i think this debt relates to a HP agreement I took out with PC world so I am going to reply and pay that of in full.

Im not sure what to do next though, i would like to write to the other companies I owe and pay them too, but I realy can't make sense of the credit reports and who I owe money to/who to contact. I know who I originally had the debts with but Im guesing they have been passed to debt collection agencies by now.
Also on the reports some accounts say they are settled but still have outstanding balances.I find it really confusing.

I really need some help here trying to make sense of these credit reports- finding out who to pay to-the account references numbers and balances. I could just wait until they contact me i guess but I realy want to get it all sorted now so I can start on repairing my credit score.

CCCS_Sarah

fiodyl wrote: »

1 company CCCS collect have contacted me by letter requesting £840. i think this debt relates to a HP agreement I took out with PC world so I am going to reply and pay that of in full.

Do you know the full name of this company?

CCCS_Sarah

If you are struggling with your credit reports you may need a face to face appointment, so someone can set down and go through it with you.

Citizens Advice Bureau offer face to face appointments. I have attached a link to their website for you to find your local office http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm#searchbox

Anything else give me a shout

fiodyl

the name on the letter is CCScollect.co.uk
It says I must pay £846.02 to TBI Financial services Ltd for a retail loan

GeorgeUK

Make a list of all the debts and contact the original creditors to enquire as to the status of your accounts.

If a debt collection agency tries to collect money from you, request a copy of the credit agreement, statement of account and notice of assignment. This should at least let you see that they are authorised to collect the debt, how much remains outstanding and that the debt is enforcable. Also check your records to see if the debt is statute barred.

A debt will become statute barred if no payment has been made towards the debt for 6 years and no written acknowledgement of the debt has been made.

fiodyl

None of them are statute bared as they were mainly all taken out around 2004 with last payments made January 05 at the latest- so only 3 and a half years.

I know who they were taken out with but that is from memory only as I have no paper records from this time at all. will they still be able to give me information on just my name etc as I dont know account nos or exact amounts?

also Iknow that I had a current account with first direct at this time which was overdrawn by about £3000. There is nothing on any reports about this account so what could of happened to it? My curent acount with barclays is also not on there but I am very rarely overdrawn on it.

GeorgeUK

There are 2 ways you could tackle this.

Either write to the banks in question saying you have lost your bank details and this should start the ball rolling

or

you could do a subject access request (SAR). The SAR costs £10 but the banks should provide all information they have held on you for the past 6 years. This will include account details and statements.

This may be the better option if there are not too many different creditors as you could then use the transaction details they supply to reclaim any charges they have put on your accounts.

The test case for bank charges is still ongoing, but it's best to get your claim in now as you can only claim back 6 years. Credit Card charges are not part of the test case so you should be able to reclaim these once you calculate the charges.

fiodyl

OK thanks I think il just do the first option though the other one ems a bit omplcated for me but I guess I can always do it later once Ive sorted this out.

Also would anyone be able to tell me how long it will take, once ive paid everything off, for my credit score to be 'good' again. the current scores showing range from 350-500.

GeorgeUK

There are template letters available for the SAR if you need them.

Not sure how long it will take to improve your credit score, but if the score you are quoting is from one of the credit reference agencies, they are not very reliable. All companies have a different method to work out the credit score and CRA's don't know your income. All debts will be on your credit file for 6 years so after this they will have no influence at all. It will probably take a year or two before the damage is limited though.

fiodyl

OK Ill have a lok at the SAR then but I can't promise anything as stuff like this I find very stressful and thats part of the reason Ive hiden from it for so long!

Im encouraged to hear that they may only have limited afect in 2 years time as this is when we are hoping to be able to get a mortgage(if house prices are low enough by then. I realise that credit history is only a part of it though and this is just the first part of our overall plan for the future.
I wil be starting a part time job in september and my partner is trying to get a better paid full time job. The money I will have left over from my redundancy after paying of the debts is going into a high interest account and we are gonna save like mad to get as big deposit we can.

I have heard that regularly spending and paying off on a credit card can help to boost your credit rating too, my partner has applied for one and I am thinking about doing it too if it will work, but Ithink it is better to clear the old stuff first isn't it.

GeorgeUK

It is better to pay off the debts rather than a creditor seeing that you have outstanding debts but are asking for more credit. After your debts are satisfied then definately paying off a credit card in full (so you do not get charged interest) and having it show on your credit file as an "on time" payment.

If a DCA does get in touch with you, it may be possible that they accept a settlement figure rather than the full amount outstanding. This could be as low as 30%-50%. If they make an offer or write to confirm an offer, make sure it is a "full and final" settlement rather than a partial settlement or they may come back after a few years.