Incorrect Default shown on credit file

steveloxton

Hi. Some five years or so ago, I bought a PC at Comet using the Edgecard as it was called then, that was provided by GE Capital Bank.
The payments were due to finish in November 2009.

Sometime during Summer 2009, I noticed that Santander Cards, had tried to claim a sum of money from my account at the end of the month when my account was empty, resulting in the payment being returned.

Curious as to what this was, I contacted Santander who informed me that they had taken over GE Capital Bank and as such my account would now be with them.

I explained that a payment had been returned to me and told them that I would like the matter resolved. After spending some time on the phone to them providing my personal details, I was told that all my accounts with them were at £0.
They could not explain why they had attempted to take money from my account.

I knew that I had several accounts previously with GE Capital Bank, so I provided them with all my previous addresses for them to check to see if they could find this 'rogue' account.
After some time again, I was informed that they had the details of all my accounts in front of them and they were all showing £0.

I accepted this at the time and assumed that a mistake had been made. (How silly of me!)

Some months later I decide to review my credit file. To my amazement, I now had 5 missed payments showing registered on one of my GE Capital Bank accounts.

I immediately contacted them to sort this matter out, but after 20 minutes on the phone, they continued to state that all my accounts were at £0.
I told them about the information that was on my credit record but he continued to tell me that all my accounts were settled.

I did not accept this due to the derogatory marks now on my credit file and asked him to check the database again. Some time later, he informs me that he has found the 'rogue' account, but it had now been passed to a debt collection agency, to which he provided me the contact details.

I immediately contacted them and arranged to pay the balance in full at my next pay day to which they agreed. I paid the balance as promised.

Recently, I have checked my credit record and have noticed that credit agreement with GE Capital Bank has been completely deleted and a new one has taken its place under C L FINANCE, which just shows a default in October 2009 and then a settled marker in November 2009.


I do not believe that the default should be shown on my credit file for the following reasons:

1) I made every effort to contact GE Capital Bank (Santander) to solve the problem, only to be told that all my accounts were at £0.

2) GE Capital Bank did not contact me at all to inform me of the outstanding debt, despite having several accounts with them, all of which had up to date contact details for myself.

3) I was not contacted by the debt collection agency at all before they registered the default against my account. If they had I would have had the opportunity to pay the outstanding balance immediately.


Does anyone think I have a case here to have my credit report corrected?

brians_daughter

yes you do. sorry i cant give full info as on my way out. If you search the forums for 'default removal' that will assist you further.

I would start with santaner ask for all the data they hold on you - you will have to pay a fee for this. speak to them and expalin the situation, i am sure that if the story is as you say (not doubting you here btw) it could be straightforward to rectify.

IMO you have done all you can to see if you owed the money and to try and pay it. Once you have done this you can threaten them with the financial ombudsman if the oputcome isnt to your satisfaction It may be quite straightforward, but that doesnt mean it wont take time - i dont expect theyw ill roll over straight away but you never know!

if you werent served a default notice they havent followed the correct practice

Sorry the reply is so short, someone will be here to help soon! If not i will post more on my return.