Help!! Credit score of 306, how bad is my situation?

stamina9008

Hi, to be a little more detailed the score was provided by Equifax so im assuming that the germane score is accurate but i have three defaults, two at my previous address (Lloyds £768 - Defaulted May '09 and Capital One/Lowell £315 - Defaulted March '08) and one at my current address with Natwest for £1238 which defaulted in march of 2009.
I am on the Electoral Roll and for the past two years have been regulary paying Virgin Media for my broadband and have never missed a payment, i was also surprised that this would be on my report as it's not a line of credit, so maybe somebody can explain that? Plus for the last six months ive had the Classic Credit Card with Capital One, was given a limit of £200 and always paid back on time but have since closed the account because i feared that in the future i might default again, but i kept it all up to date and i was surprised that they gave me credit seeing as i have defaulted with them in the past, i also have one current account with santander, one basic cash account with santander and a basic account with the co-op.
Basically, i cannot afford to pay off the defaulted amounts, if i could i would but i dont see the point of opening up communication with them just to pay a very small sum each month because i'll get hounded.
How long will it be till these defaults come off and when would my score start improving again, i've sure bucked up my ideas and am never late but i was less mature when i made those mistakes in the past.
Thanks for listening ad any advice will be greatly received, have a nice day.
Jim

iolanthe07

Six years from May 2009 is May 2015, so that is when the last default will fall off your credit file. It would be better to pay off these debts if you want to build up your rating, even if you can only do it a bit at a time.

stamina9008

Thanks mate, are you able to shed any light on the Virgin Media thing?

Squirrel29

Virgin media credit checked me when I signed up to them. Some utility suppliers do such as BT or pay monthly mobile providers.

Squirrel29

See link here for Virgin's credit policy http://shop.virginmedia.com/the-legal-stuff/credit-check.html

lvm

If Virgin are anything like Sky, it won't appear on credit file. Maybe they got a bit confused about what you were asking...

As for the defaults you say you can't afford to pay anything at the moment. There's every chance they will take you to court for the amount owed. Although not that common for that amount they're in their rights to do so and it would mean issuing you with a CCJ (decree if you're in Scotland) which would be applied to your account on the date of court case and last 6 years.

You should really look at paying them something - even small token payments as they would appreciate that you're paying something.