Why is British Gas Trading on my credit report?

never-in-doubt

JamesJones wrote: »

That fact that more organisations are sharing data on credit reports should be welcomed. Most people do pay their bills on time so the additional data will strengthen their credit histories and make it easier for people to get credit (where appropriate) and, of course, the best interest rates for personally priced deals.

The CRAs have robust mechanisms in place to enable any data disputes to be investigated and resolved very quickly.

If, as in Matt's post above, there are special circumstances surrounding a previous late payment or default, you can always explain this on your credit report so future prospective lenders have all the facts. You can add a notice of correction of up to 200 words simply by contacting each CRA.

James
Experian

Tell me you're not from Experian? if so then you have a nerve sneaking in here without permission as a company rep.

I have reported you for breach of rules. As for your employer, you must need your head tested if you think you'll gain any friends from advertising the fact you work for one of the worst companies ever invented.

Do you know Lee Hancock? I suggest you speak to him and tell him you've now acquainted yourself with Niddy from MSE being I cause him a headache and a half each breathing day he goes to work!

How dare you, I still can't get over the fact you have not been kicked off for touting without MSE permission :mad: :mad: :mad:

Psychological_2

never-in-doubt wrote: »

You were too eager to pay the balance - first mistake. You should always first utilise their complaints and default removal system PRIOR to making payment, as you have now cleared the balancem unfortunately I cannot offer any advice. had you not paid then it'd be easy to barter with them for payment in exchange for default removal.

To be honest, put it down to experience....

Is it an actual default? Did you ever get the default notice? I would still consider a formal complain to OFGEM as BG seem too eager to default people in general.... - Ofgem Home

It appears as a big red default in my Experian report, but no I never received a Default notice, let alone the final bill that it relates to. Although BG claim they spoke to me so they won't take this into account. Frankly it's possible but I simply don't recall and certainly didn't receive anything in the post.

Feel stupid for paying it off based on your comments but assumed a Default marked as settled would look better than an outstanding one.

Defaulted on 01/12/2007 so no decent credit cards or mortgage for me until 2013 then. Do you know how seriously that effects a credit rating in real terms? I spoke to Barclays who said that defaults under £150 are unlikely to realistically effect a Mortgage application which gives me some hope.

never-in-doubt

matt.mcginty wrote: »

It appears as a big red default in my Experian report, but no I never received a Default notice, let alone the final bill that it relates to. Although BG claim they spoke to me so they won't take this into account. Frankly it's possible but I simply don't recall and certainly didn't receive anything in the post.

Feel stupid for paying it off based on your comments but assumed a Default marked as settled would look better than an outstanding one.

Defaulted on 01/12/2007 so no decent credit cards or mortgage for me until 2013 then. Do you know how seriously that effects a credit rating in real terms? I spoke to Barclays who said that defaults under £150 are unlikely to realistically effect a Mortgage application which gives me some hope.

Hiya

a settled default is no different to an outstanding one - a default is a default. However, you now need to move on to plan B and attack the CRA's and force them to investigate - send this to the CRA's: Default Removal Letter to CRA's


You will also need to complain to ICO about BG adding this default and sharing data about you when clearly, they had no right. Complaint to ICO is here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/data_protection.aspx

Also complain to OFGEM as detailed in last post to you.

Best of luck - the more official complaints you get in, the easier it is to get it removed. You will not get a mortgage with that default, but we'll keep going - see what transpires...

Psychological_2

In the end I was able to resolve this with a simple (but fairly long) email. Having got nowhere with calls and dealing with several different members of staff I wrote the the customer services team outlining my negative and conflicting experiences with their staff, the fact I have BG at my current place and haven't missed a single payment, and that for a measly debt of £147 I had paid off in full as soon as I learned of it - 6 years of financial purgatory was a bit cruel - they agreed to take it off.

After 3-4 days of sending the email and plenty of proactive contact from the case manager Stuart Robe I received a call yesterday to say they had resolved it, today the default has been removed from my Experian report.

Thanks for all your help guys - moral of the story is NEVER GIVE UP!

AussieAndy

Hi Guys - thank you for the informative and very interesting posts regarding British Gas Trading and Credit Reference Agencies.

Back in 2007, I was in quite a severe car accident, nearly writing myself off, I was away/off work for several months. During this time, my finances fell into arrears across the board. I was advised to enter into an IVA, to sell some property, to off-load my debt, to disappear back to AUS, however took none of this advice and instead, head down !!! up, I worked my way back from a steady stream of 6's, and D's on my credit file to now, almost all 0's.

Apart from 1...

British Gas Trading have reported that I am currently two payments late, in fact for the last 12 months, my report reads - 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5

Incredible, considering that I had not received a bill since my account was posted on November 5th, 2010.

As many of you have done, I contacted British Gas and was advised that I needed to speak with Credit Control as my account has an outstanding balance of £1,210.29 - CRIKEY!!

Querying the lack of bills, the customer services rep advised that I had been opted in to paperless billing - WHEN? by WHO? I asked... that will require an investigation. Anyway, back to the purpose of the call, I queried the CRA reporting and was asked to HOLD, whilst waiting on HOLD I searched and found this post, brilliant I thought, I was actually arming myself whilst they were getting their act together. So, the CSA came back to me and advised that indeed an email will need to be sent to their "Data Dispute Department", amazingly they actually have a department dedicated to us! She advised that someone would call me tomorrow.

So, I have posted here to keep you all in the loop, to hopefully keep you informed and to inspire those of you who are like me and have just found that without permission, our friends at BG are reporting information that will be detrimental to our lives for the next 6 years.

Wish me luck! x

bigmonkeyballs

Hi

First time on here and probably not the right place, but couldn't see where to open a new thread.

But anyway please help!......

I had a string of credit cards which I defaulted on very late 2005/06, today I checked my credit report with Equifax and could not see any sign of these defaults despite it being slightly under 6 years since default.

How could that be? The credit card companies were mainstream like Lloyds etc.

Is it possible they will just be showing on either Experian or Call Credit?

Rather baffled!

fatbelly

bigmonkeyballs wrote: »

Hi

First time on here and probably not the right place, but couldn't see where to open a new thread.

But anyway please help!......

I had a string of credit cards which I defaulted on very late 2005/06, today I checked my credit report with Equifax and could not see any sign of these defaults despite it being slightly under 6 years since default.

How could that be? The credit card companies were mainstream like Lloyds etc.

Is it possible they will just be showing on either Experian or Call Credit?

Rather baffled!

Open the debt-free wannabe forum and press 'new thread'

slickers

never-in-doubt wrote: »

Hiya

a settled default is no different to an outstanding one - a default is a default. However, you now need to move on to plan B and attack the CRA's and force them to investigate - send this to the CRA's:

You will also need to complain to ICO about BG adding this default and sharing data about you when clearly, they had no right. Complaint to ICO is here:

Also complain to OFGEM as detailed in last post to you.

Best of luck - the more official complaints you get in, the easier it is to get it removed. You will not get a mortgage with that default, but we'll keep going - see what transpires...

Do you still have a copy of that letter you can direct me to? The link seems to have been removed.

I have had exactly the same issue with B Gas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

spacebug

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

That fact that more organisations are sharing data on credit reports should be welcomed. Most people do pay their bills on time so the additional data will strengthen their credit histories and make it easier for people to get credit (where appropriate) and, of course, the best interest rates for personally priced deals.

The CRAs have robust mechanisms in place to enable any data disputes to be investigated and resolved very quickly.

If, as in Matt's post above, there are special circumstances surrounding a previous late payment or default, you can always explain this on your credit report so future prospective lenders have all the facts. You can add a notice of correction of up to 200 words simply by contacting each CRA.

I appreciate that the post quoted above is quite old but can anyone tell me what the robust mechanisms are please... I have an issue with British Gas that i need to get resolved.. Here's the story.


Back in late August 2010 I received an estimated bill from British Gas. I was paying by DD and had dual fuel.

The amount of the bill was high. I spoke with BG at the time regarding changing my payments to that my payments covered my usage - therefore preventing me from having such a high negative balance with them.

After discussing with them I decided to move to another supplier and pay the amount due to BG in full. (I owed in the region of £600 for gas and £350 for electricity). At this point however, I requested that BG send me a final bill, which I would settle when I moved supplier and I cancelled by direct debit. They said that I should pay the estimated bill and then any over payment could be repaid to me when the switch was completed. I did not like the sound of this as it meant I was paying BG more than I owed them.

Anyway, the switch progressed through September and October and was completed around the 1st of November. During that time I had a number of calls from BG who were still insisting that I paid the bill. I restated that I would be paying the final accurate bill once I had stopped using their gas and electricity. One customer service rep stated that if I did not pay the bill then there is a chance my credit rating would suffer. I questioned this and he said that it would be unlikely, but could happen. I though this was an empty threat as I was not stating that I would not pay my bill, I was a good customer up to that point and it was not like I did not have money to pay the bill.

Anyway, during the whole saga I never received a late payment fine or anything of the like which would indicate an escalation of the situation - if I had I would have been on them like a shot as my payments were not late - just being delayed to such a time that made sense for them to be paid.

Anyway - the up shot. I ended up with late payment markers on my credit file. 6 months late!! :mad: For both gas and electricity! :mad: :mad: I noticed this had happened around March 2011 when I was just looking at my CRA file with Experian. I contacted BG by letter and ultimately had a conversation with a lady who was adamant that I was in the wrong and that she could not change the entry. At the time I was not in need of credit so I let it pass, feeling rather helpless about the whole thing.

Now I need to move house and get a new mortgage. I found out the other day that I am really going to struggle (it'll be impossible!) with two 6 month in arrears markers on my file.

I am going to take this up again with BG after the bank holiday weekend but wondered if anyone on here would have advice that may change the outcome from last time.

The reason I was told the mark on my file was for 6 months is that the bills are paid in arrears. My billing cycle was March to September. Therefore at the point in did not pay the bill in September I immediately jumped to being 6 months in arrears (all the way back to March) !!!!

This really does not reflect the discussions I had with BG at the time, and even if it was true that I had not paid the bill then the worst it could be is that a bill due in September did not get paid until the end of October - 2 months late at the very most.

Does anyone have any advice? I am really stressed about not being able to get a mortgage due to some draconian process at a utility company!

Thanks in advance

spacebug

So I wrote to BG. I got this reply today. Bear in mind that in September 2010 they marked my credit file as 6 months late!

Also, no idea how they failed to contact me. They had my mobile number, house number and email address. The email below reached me OK.. Funny that!


As you’ll remember, you’ve recently been in touch and asked us to look into an important issue.


I’ve tried to contact you, but this hasn’t been possible. As such, I wanted to let you know that I’ve been in contact with our Data Disputes team in order to follow up on your Experian record details, on your behalf.


Upon speaking to them, I’ve been advised that, unfortunately, we’d be unable to amend your records, with regards to your accounts with us.


As there was an outstanding amount on each account that remained unsettled when you initially brought your concerns about the estimated bill you received to us, both gas and electricity account were deemed ‘late’ by 12 September 2010.


When you spoke to us and advised that you would be changing supplier and would pay the final bill that would be calculated upon your transfer, the length of time for the final bill to be calculated was dependent upon your new supplier providing us with a meter reading upon which to base our final meter reading. Whilst I’m aware that the processes that govern the transfer of supply from one energy supplier to another aren’t dictated by you, we were unable to produce a final bill for you until we had received meter readings from your new supplier.


Whilst the transfer was occurring, the debit balance on your accounts with us remained unpaid, with no payment plan in place to ensure that the outstanding amounts were settled. As a result, your credit record notes this and this is why the default notices are currently reflecting on your account.


I’m sorry if the advice you received at the time led you to believe that your Experian records wouldn’t be affected by transferring supply to an alternative provider and settling the resultant final bill. As there was a debit balance that remained unpaid, this has been recorded and I, unfortunately, cannot remove the late payment marker from your account.


Thank you for your letter. As I am unable to take any further action with regards to your enquiry, I’ll now make the necessary arrangements to close your enquiry. If you feel I haven’t answered all your questions, or you‘re not satisfied your enquiry has been completely resolved, please feel free to contact me on the details above. I’d be more than happy to help you further.


If you’d like information about our complaints handling procedure you can view a copy by either going online at britishgas.co.uk/energycomplaints, or by getting in touch and one of our advisors will arrange to send you a copy free of charge.



Yours sincerely

Christopher van der Heyden
British Gas