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Credit File Retention Period
outadebt
Posts: 7 Forumite
Hi
A general question I am looking for opinions on. I find myself increasingly frustrated with the period of time Credit Reference Agencies retain data on people which if you are not in debt does not cause an issue generally, however, for those who do miss payments, get defaults or other bad news details added to their credit file this clearly can have a long term damaging effect which can either stop any future credit or cost you more to obtain it.
Is this justified? I believe not for the following reasons.
1. 6 years is a very long time to have negative data about you available even after you have sorted out your financial situation and are able to make payments again on time.
2. The reason for getting the negative entries does not show the ‘cause’ and importantly, what you sacrifice to try to resolve the issue before and during the issue leading up to the bad news.
3. You can of course add an entry to your credit file of 200 words explaining your side (not that 200 words allows for much), but can anybody confirm that online applications even bother taking note of these before turning you down.
4. If you are a ‘won’t pay’ 3, 4 or 6 years will not make any difference to you whereas for those who are or were a ‘can’t pay right now’ a reduction in the retention time would make a huge difference.
5. Your previous years of being a loyal customer who paid on time, etc is lost and not considered.
6. The negative effects are felt by your immediate family.
7. The current time limits are not law but ‘agreed’ between the Information Commissioner and the CRA’s / financial industry – who got a say from the public, nobody!
8. Once you are in recovery mode and making all payments, the past still effects the present and the next few years before the negative effects diminish.
9. Anyone of us is only something unforeseen away from this affecting us
I am really keen to now what others thing about this as I feel exceptionally strongly about this and would like to see a 50% reduction in the retention period.
Kind regards
A general question I am looking for opinions on. I find myself increasingly frustrated with the period of time Credit Reference Agencies retain data on people which if you are not in debt does not cause an issue generally, however, for those who do miss payments, get defaults or other bad news details added to their credit file this clearly can have a long term damaging effect which can either stop any future credit or cost you more to obtain it.
Is this justified? I believe not for the following reasons.
1. 6 years is a very long time to have negative data about you available even after you have sorted out your financial situation and are able to make payments again on time.
2. The reason for getting the negative entries does not show the ‘cause’ and importantly, what you sacrifice to try to resolve the issue before and during the issue leading up to the bad news.
3. You can of course add an entry to your credit file of 200 words explaining your side (not that 200 words allows for much), but can anybody confirm that online applications even bother taking note of these before turning you down.
4. If you are a ‘won’t pay’ 3, 4 or 6 years will not make any difference to you whereas for those who are or were a ‘can’t pay right now’ a reduction in the retention time would make a huge difference.
5. Your previous years of being a loyal customer who paid on time, etc is lost and not considered.
6. The negative effects are felt by your immediate family.
7. The current time limits are not law but ‘agreed’ between the Information Commissioner and the CRA’s / financial industry – who got a say from the public, nobody!
8. Once you are in recovery mode and making all payments, the past still effects the present and the next few years before the negative effects diminish.
9. Anyone of us is only something unforeseen away from this affecting us
I am really keen to now what others thing about this as I feel exceptionally strongly about this and would like to see a 50% reduction in the retention period.
Kind regards
Do you think the time limits for Credit Reference Agencies should be reduced 3 votes
Yes I would like to see a reduction
66%
2 votes
No I believe the current durations are the right length
33%
1 vote
0
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