Credit Report and late payment

gos_2

I have a buy to let mortgage with Mortgage Express. A few months ago I got a phone call saying my direct debit had failed. It turned out my tenant never paid the rent into our account. I offered to pay straight away over the phone by debit card as I was concerned it would affect my credit score. I was advised it would not affect my score once the money was in the account when the direct debit was represented, which it was.

I had the same thing happen again last month, again I was advised it was not necessary to pay by debit card, just make sure the money was in the account when it was represented. Again which I did.

I found out today that 2 late payment have been registered against my credit report, this has resulted in my score dropping from a 999 excellent score six months ago to a 865 fair score as of now.

Does anybody know if I have any recourse to have Mortgage Express remove these late payments from my report?

gizmo111

Does anybody know if I have any recourse to have Mortgage Express remove these late payments from my report?

No - you paid later than the due date so the info at the CRA is factually correct.

Trying_to_be_good

You can ask them if they'd remove them, but as you were at fault they're entitled not to.

If you don't ask, you don't get, so I'd give it a try (saying you were told at the time it wouldn't be reported). If I were you, I'd also think about leaving sufficient funds in that account to cover the Direct Debit even if the rent isn't paid on time, or change the date so you have time to check whether the tenant has paid the rent in before the mortgage is due out.

Conrad

When you sign a mortgage contract, the key tennat is that byou agree to pay on time in full, just as an employer agrees to pay staff on time in full.

The fact your tennant pays the rent late has zero relevance.

In a world where we all had an excuse to pay late, chaos would ensue. An employer could habitualy pay staff late, saying it's not his fault.
I could not pay for petrol saying the queue was too long and send a cheque later etc etc etc.

We all encounter problems which if not managed by us will result in late payments, but the fact is some people never make a late payment no matter what, whereas other do make late pays.

In effect paying late is renaging on your promise to pay on time in full. The mortgage contract wont have said "you can pay late, if it's not your fault".

gos_2

Yes and I would fully accept this if it was not for the fact I offered to pay by Debit Card straight away to resolve the issue. If they had of taken the payment there and then it would not have been a late payment, what my argument is, the fact I was told it would not be recorded on my credit file and it has been.

Same old, same old here in the UK. People giving incorrect answers because of lack of training or because they just don't care.

Joe_Bloggs

It suits the banking institutions to act stupid as they can make lots of money from charges. In an intelligent world if your current account was in deficit then funds would be swept from an interest bearing account into the current account. If your current account was in surplus then the excess funds would be swept back into the interest bearing account. This is known as sweep banking. I did have a current account that actually did this albeit only one way from savings to current.

I still think it is worth checking balances online, each day, to spot fraud attempts and general blunders.
J_B.