Bank Account upgrade after discharge

Angiepange

I was in a meeting with an Account Manager at my local Nationwide this week and I asked him about where we stand as discharged BR's in relation to our account with them.

Before BR we held a full joint flexaccount that wasn't part of our BR as the account was in credit. After the OR had declared he had no interest in the account, Nationwide didn't close it but just downgraded it to a cashcard + account. We have continued to use the account alongside our Co op cashminder and have full vise debit facilities and online banking which updates instantly, so Im pretty happy with the account.

However the account manager at Nationwide asked me to come back to him when we are 12 months post discharge (I also mentioned I still needed to clean our credit file up) and he will look into upgrading it to a full account.

He mentioned 2 things which he said are most important regarding credit files and that is a Notice of Correction and a Certificate of Clearance. He said Experian do not like issuing the latter but if they do it will mean you have a completely clear file????? Surely your file is only clean 6 yrs after BR and not before?

Can anyone shed any light on what he was talking about , thanks!

wok_boy

Your credit file won't be clear because the BR will be on there for 6 years. All it means is that all creditors listed on your credit file for loans etc., would be shown as satisfied, that's what the Notice of Correction would be for.

Angiepange

wok_boy wrote: »

Your credit file won't be clear because the BR will be on there for 6 years. All it means is that all creditors listed on your credit file for loans etc., would be shown as satisfied, that's what the Notice of Correction would be for.

Thank you wok boy.

I am wondering what a Certificate of Clearance is then. The account manager said not many people know about it and Experian don't like it if you ask for one but will issue it? Im confused

fiveyearplan

I'd be interested to know what they're talking about too.

philnicandamy

Only cert of clearance I know of is to do with HMRC....strange!

iquit

philnicandamy wrote: »

Only cert of clearance I know of is to do with HMRC....strange!

Me too, normally for when you import stuff.

philnicandamy

iquit wrote: »

Me too, normally for when you import stuff.

Hmm the one I thought of was to do with inheritance tax

Angiepange

Thanks all, im clueless too!

I should have asked him to go into more detail but I was only there with my son upgrading his account as he's turned 18, so I wasn't really prepared for discussions about our BR and banking requirements! He said something about having a friend who was BR and that this certificate wiped your file clean!

Im not too bothered, only curious really, as I intend to start our credit file clean up shortly and if there is an opportunity in 4 months time to upgrade our account with Nationwide then I have nothing to lose discussing it with them.

Thank you again.

chrissmoggy

hi angiepange. i was discharged march 22nd 2011 and have just been accepted b my bank the barclays to upgrade to a solo bank card. basically i can use the card like a switch card. was rejected at first. but the lady who was dealing with it. said dont worry i should get it. and within a few hours she rang me up and i was accepted. try barclays

Angiepange

chrissmoggy wrote: »

hi angiepange. i was discharged march 22nd 2011 and have just been accepted b my bank the barclays to upgrade to a solo bank card. basically i can use the card like a switch card. was rejected at first. but the lady who was dealing with it. said dont worry i should get it. and within a few hours she rang me up and i was accepted. try barclays

Thanks for that and glad you got your account upgraded.

We are not too worried at the moment as with our Nationwide account we have visa debit facilities, online banking etc. We also have a joint Co Op cashminder account that does us fine too.

I was just curious as to what a Certfiicate of Clearance meant. Not heard of it before in regards to BR. And the Nationwide Account Manager seemed to think if we could get one it would make life easier !!

chrissmoggy

never heard of that certificate of clearance either?