Missed Payments / Credit Rating

t1gger

Hi,

when I cancelled my vodafone contract last month, I stupidly did so just as I was leaving for a trip. Upon my return I found I had several letters from vodafone requesting my final payment be made on my account, which I did so immediately.

Although in my credit file it now says "Satisfactory", the missed payment mark has been left there which is particularly annoying for me at the moment as over the next 6 months we will be arranging a mortgage. My credit file is ok except for this but I am worried it'll cause me problems.

Is there any way I can remove this mark? I called vofafone customer services but they said there's nothing they can do. The credit ref agency says only vodafone can remove it. It was a genuine mistake and I have been a longstanding customer, never missed a payment until now.

Any advice appreciated!

opinions4u

It is a true record of fact, so cannot be removed.

You can register "your side of the story" by contacting the credit reference agencies and this would be made available to prospective lenders. From memory it's called a "notice of correction". But, to be honest, all it can say is "I made an error and made the payment when I found out about it" which is what your credit file will say anyway.

To be fair, all I would do when applying for mortgage/credit is be totally up front with the potential lender prior to a credit search being carried out. "There was a mix up, 1 payment was late, but as soon as I was made aware I paid it".

This would show an element of honesty straight away.

The "black mark" isn't a CCJ and presumably not a default.

Others on here who deal with mortgage lenders may be able to put a current "credit crunch" view on the advise I've given.

t1gger

Hi,

wanted to update this slightly incase it'd help anyone.

After some research I found out it is possible for a lender to remove these marks from your file but in general in the UK they'll only do so if there's a solid reason, for example: death in the family, serious sickness etc. Any kind of "I forgot" doesn't work. In the US you have a much better chance of talking your way out of it (which seems to defeat the purpose of a credit file somewhat).

So in the end I cannot remove the marks. However I have since discovered that while missed payments do influence your report significantly, if they're few and far between and you have a good payment history on the whole (along with other factors, eg. electoral roll registry) then it's far from the be all and end all. Despite these miss payments my credit report is still considered "Excellent" by Experian.

2 recommendations too:

the 'notice of correction' is definitely worth adding to credit accounts with missed payments. Lenders are obliged to read it and take it into account. It shows you "care" about your credit worthiness and allows you to provide something that may sound better than "I forgot".

The credit reference agencies provide a live view of your credit file online and have SMS and email alert services. I get access to mine free via my work but think it'd WELL worth the £60 a year fee anyway. If it wasn't for the alert I got on these accounts it may have been much longer before I had noticed something was overdue.

Scott.