Credit Rating problems and complaints to company please help

Ratrace_3

hi there,

I wonder if someone can give me some advice regarding improving my credit rating.

It is currently at 331 'poor' using equifax's online service.

I have all of the things you would expect that a 24 year old could use to keep the ratingbest as possible; a 7 year old bank account, no problems with accounts, electoral roll etc. all of my account shows as 'excellent', with the exception of one set of payments in arrears to 3 communications, which have since been settled.

These mispayments ran from last december to this february, and they were deliberate.
I took out a policy for a 3 Broadband Dongle in summer of 2009, and I had paid for it for 2 years, I imagine for more than £250. I have never once used the dongle. I took it out in a Phones 4 U store
in Manchester high street, and I had planned to use it on a train i was using frequently between Newcastle and Manchester; this train never allowed me to use my laptop wifi, and i figured having
a dongle would allow me to use the web on the train.

I told the phones 4 u sales man that this was the only reason i was taking it out and he told me it would definitely work. I gullibly drew up a contract.

After discovering it didn't work I repeatedly wrote complaint letters to Phones 4 U and . They either sent me nothing back (3) or told me to write to the other (Phones 4 U), 3's customer service phone numbers told me to write to the company's customer services.

Eventually I had grown so sick of this silence that I wrote 2 letters each giving a month's notice that I would terminate my payments to 3 as I felt utterly ripped off. Nothing came in reply to either so I cancelled my direct debit.

As I had never once taken consumer credit out for anything, I didn't realise this would damage my credit rating.

I work and have an inextravagant lifestyle that I can easily afford and right now I would like to buy something in stages
using a crediting agency...but I can't get credit now because of my poor rating.

WHen I settled the payments with 3's payments team I paid the remainder of the contract outright, and their team told me
they would remove any credit complaints they had made (I had read that these can be rectified if the loaning company agrees
to remove or contest your history of bad credit), acting ostensibly regretful that I had paid them some 250 quid for something I'd never
used on the basis of a salesman's lie.

So in the month between the settlement and the payments in arrears, my credit rating has gone from 316 to 331, and i still
can't get credit.

Is there any way I can further contest this on my credit file? I aml so incredibly frustrated that a situation like this has effectively
ruined my credit rating.

thank you for any help or insight you can provide.

regards,

David

[Deleted User]

You'll need to wait for the missed payments to drop off (or become less important due to age), if they're not going to remove them - which I wouldn't expect them to, as they were late/missed payments.

Your score is irrelevant, whether 331 or 1.8 million so ignore that.

You might want to try a sub prime credit card, if they will accept you, to start building some positive history. But make payments, preferably in full, every month. Don't stop paying again just because you have a dispute with a retailer.

Ratrace_3

hi thanks,

when you mention i'll have to wait, how long is that likely to be?

thanks again,
Davd

lisyloo

when you mention i'll have to wait, how long is that likely to be?

That's not a straightforward question.
From what I've seen the payment information will drop off after 4 years if you keep the account open or 6 years if you close it (as new payment information will not be added).

The rules of each lender are unknown to us, but some will consider it less significant after 6 months, 1 year, 2 years etc.
It gradually becomes less important assuming all other payments are made on time.