How I removed a DEFAULT on my credit rating - Success!

flashsnaps

Yo what’s occurring,

Bit of success that I want to share with you guys as you put me in the right direction to get my DEFAULT removed from my credit rating. I thank you, very much!

####ABOUT ME####
Ok I use to have a HSBC student account which I had while at Brighton Uni, the overdraft facility was set at £1000, my account was overdrawn (£1025) for a good 6-7months, I did have numerous calls from HSBC from some call centre halfway round the world to pay off the overdraft as I had broken the agreement, but hey I was a student and money wasn't always on a tap. I was stupid, and should have dealt with it, but didn't - I mean you don't have time do you, with all that sleeping, drinking and going out we do as students.

####MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION####
Anyhow, 5months on I began to worry as I hadn't heard from HSBC for a while - so I paid £100 via cash deposit box in a branch. Rang them to say that I had paid money in, they told me my account had been closed and it had been passed to Metropolitan collections and gave me the number to contact them.
(Metropolitan are another department of HSBC, they rename it - scareware branding I call it!)
Anyhow, once it went to Metropolitan – my credit rating had been slapped with a DEFAULT on my account!

####CHECKING YOUR CREDIT RATING####

I used WWW dot creditexpert dot co dot uk to check my rating, which was now at VERY POOR.
Ratings: VERY POOR, POOR, FAIR, GOOD and EXCELLENT. It was FAIR/GOOD before.

####NEXT STEP####
Moving on, I was now in Full time employment, so I rang and agreed to pay metropolitan £150 a month until it was clear, they accepted this and didn't bother me. I paid £150 in every month until it was cleared.

Credit rating on the HSBC account on my file was marked as settled, but the DEFAULT would remain on my account for another 6years leaving a crippled credit rating of VERY POOR and no chance of getting credit on a car/phone/possibly mortgage etc. Which I soon found out!
I made it worst by getting declined for a mobile contract pay monthly contract twice.

####REMOVING THE DEFAULT####
1) Wrote to HSBC branch on 27th December 2009 where I opened my HSBC account with 3-4years before. The branch rang me a week later and said they had received my letter and that I would need to contact Metropolitan collections, and guess what - when I contacted Metropolitan collections they said I need to contact HSBC. I contacted HSBC who said they don’t update credit expert and that Metropolitan would do deal with that. I said no this isn’t happening; I need to speak to someone at customer service as I am been messed about so they passed me on to someone else.
2) The bloke on the customer service team said take the letter which confirms the debt is settled from Metropolitan to any HSBC Branch, and they will fax it over to HSBC customer service, which I did. Except the HSBC branch didn't know what to do!!! No fax number, no idea of what to do in my case, so there’s me telling them how to do their job. Got on the phone to HSBC in the branch, passed the phone over to the clerk in the branch who took the fax number and details etc, and faxed my settled debt letter form over to HSBC customer service.
3) Didn't hear from HSBC for a while, so rang them. I think that they had confused themselves with what I wanted. They thought I just wanted the default to be marked as settled on my credit rating even though in the letter I wrote it clearly states DEFAULT removed, and the customer service department had my letter on file. They gave me a different number to ring.
4) I rang the HSBC customer service operator and explained everything as above and a chap called Geoff said he would be handling my case, he said HSBC would not have the default removed as that would give lenders/someone checking my credit rating a false reflection of your profile and how you are or were with money.

5) I said no this is rubbish. Your colleague, who rang me in point 1) above, said the default would be removed. I said I have been messed about, none of you team know what they’re doing and told him all of the above. I asked him “Why the hell would Metropolitan not confirm with HSBC the debt is settled?” “Why would I need to fax them over the letter?” I went on to say, “why did your colleagues tell me that HSBC have nothing to do with updating creditexpert? And that metropolitan do that?” which is also B*****KS!!! (Sorry for the language but they kept fobbing me off with false information, don’t use that)

I said the debt is now settled so the default should be removed. When my HSBC account was open and overdrawn, I said that I hadn’t received letters from HSBC about the state of my account. I said I was a student and moved between properties, so I may not have received mail etc. Also it was IMPORTANT that I had NOT registered for internet banking as well, which swayed it in my favor.
The customer service operator took all this into account and escalated it to another department, to authorize the removal or decline it. Geoff rang me several times to keep me up to date and then on the last time, he rang to say it was being removed and would be updated on creditexpert in the next week.

When speaking to telephone banking, ALWAYS keep a record of names, numbers and dates and times you called them.

You've got to be pushy! know what you want but don't be rude. Don't lie through your teeth as your get found out, bend the truth by all means - like a ruler, bend it to much though and it breaks......

Booooom – Job done!


Good luck !