Defaulted Accounts - Question....

crapwithcash82

I have four creditors with accounts which all defaulted in 2006/2007.

Two of these (Egg and Northern Rock) have around £1100 each left on them, and I'm getting desperate to get rid of them once and for all as they have been a stone round my neck for long enough!! I have been thinking and working out that I could probably afford to pay £500/£600 this month to, lets say Egg, with a little juggling of my finances, and again next month to get rid of one of these, and get one of the defaults off my credit file. It would give me a bit of a boost to be rid of one of them after so long!!

My question is, would there be any adverse effects of missing payments to Northern Rock for 2 months to pay off Egg in full, and then pay off Northern Rock in full the following month?

I've checked my credit file, and these accounts haven't been updated on my credit file since they defaulted four or five years ago, so in theory it doesn't look like it would make my credit file any worse than it already is. :undecided

Can anyone advise if this would be the case?

mildredalien

Have you tried contacting them and asking for a 'payment holiday'? Rather than causing more potential charges, fees or interest....

crapwithcash82

mildredalien wrote: »

Have you tried contacting them and asking for a 'payment holiday'? Rather than causing more potential charges, fees or interest....

Hi mildredalien, they haven't charged fees or interest since the debt management plan was set up luckily. I think the worst they'd do would be send a few nasty letters, which I can handle if it meant being rid of them in a few months.

Hannah_10

Hang on, so you defaulted in 2006/7, what's the score since then? You have been paying them by the look of it? How much to who and how often? Have you missed any payments? Are they sending you threatograms (unpleasant letters)? More info please.

Diana_Prince

Hi, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but if they are defaulted with an O/S balance, clearing the balance won't clear the default. It will still show as a default but 'settled'. I'm not sure this benefits your credit rating in any way.

When i phoned one of my DCA's last year to pay a final amount they said that it wouldn't benefit me as it's interest free and won't improve my rating.

crapwithcash82

Hannah_10 wrote: »

Hang on, so you defaulted in 2006/7, what's the score since then? You have been paying them by the look of it? How much to who and how often? Have you missed any payments? Are they sending you threatograms (unpleasant letters)? More info please.

Hi Hannah, yes I've been paying them since then, Northern Rock £60 a month and Egg £100 per month. I haven't missed any payments since I started the debt management plan (Which I manage myself so no fees to these DMP companies). No threatening or nasty letters or anything - I just really want rid of the debt.

Diana_Prince wrote: »

Hi, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but if they are defaulted with an O/S balance, clearing the balance won't clear the default. It will still show as a default but 'settled'. I'm not sure this benefits your credit rating in any way.

When i phoned one of my DCA's last year to pay a final amount they said that it wouldn't benefit me as it's interest free and won't improve my rating.

Hi Diana, I might need to take a look at my credit file again, as I had a default with Caboot financial, and when I paid that off the status changed from "default" to "settled". I would have thought that clearing the balance would look better on your credit file even if it still showed it defaulted than having a default which you still haven't paid?

Even if it doesn't improve my rating, I will have my wages to myself again, which at the moment is something I don't have and it really bugs me! Plus most of these were accounts that I defaulted on in 2006/2007 so they should be off my file in 2012/2013 anyway.

Am I right in thinking that defaults "drop off" your credit file after six years?

Maybe I've got this all wrong and am financially doomed for the rest of my life!!

fermi

crapwithcash82 wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that defaults "drop off" your credit file after six years?

Correct.

crapwithcash82

fermi wrote: »

Correct.

Phew!! Thanks for confirming that fermi, I was beginning to get that sinking feeling in my stomach again!!

So it is definately six years from the date of default, and not six years from date of settlement of the default?

I'm getting all paranoid now!!

fermi

http://www.equifax.com/help/q7/en_uk

Credit agreements: Six years from the date the account was settled, written off or defaulted – whichever happened first

So if it's defaulted, six year from that date.

Same for Experian and other CRAs.

crapwithcash82

fermi wrote: »

http://www.equifax.com/help/q7/en_uk



So if it's defaulted, six year from that date.

Same for Experian and other CRAs.

Thanks again fermi!! So, hypothetically speaking if the debt wasn't paid off within six years of the account defaulting, would there be detrimental effects of not paying the balance, if it drops off your credit file?

I am hoping to pay these off in the next few months, so not looking to go down that route, but just curious!

fermi

The default and all other details of the account would drop off your file, but if you didn't pay it then they could still go for a CCJ.

That would go back on your file as a new separate entry for another 6 years, and be worse than the default was.