Is it worth trying to get ICO to do their job

crazyhaggid

Without wanting to go into lots of detail approx five years ago I was made redundant and couldn’t afford the repayments on my credit card, I came to an agreement with them where they took a reduced payment and froze the interest. About halfway through the agreed payment plan they sold the debt to Cabot who after a bit of messing around accepted the same repayment plan.

Fast forward to now I’ve managed to get myself a good job and have repaid the debt in full, I was checking my credit file as I’m looking for a mortgage and found that Cabot have registered a default against me. Having no knowledge of this happening, I tried to contact them asking for proof, which they could not produce. I then made a complaint against them through the Information Commissioner’s Office, who to be honest should be ashamed.

They obviously take no pride in their work, they completely misunderstood my complaint, it appears they didn’t even read it. The person ‘handling’ my complaint ignored my emails, and would not return my calls. The first time I called trying to speak to him I was told he was working from home and would call me back the next day which he didn’t. I then called every day for three days trying to speak to him, he never called me back; once I got told that he was on lunch as they have lunch 12-2, wish I had a two hour lunch break!

Eventually I just said I would speak to anyone about my complaint, the guy I spoke to basically said that as I had agreed a payment plan I had likely defaulted. I told him that they can’t just issue defaults without given me a chance to rectify the breach first, and they also didn’t send me the default notice. He just kept repeating that as I couldn’t pay the correct amount future creditors had the right to now this.

However I have since found a document entitled: “Data Protection Technical Guidance - Filing defaults with credit reference agencies” published by none other than the ICO! Part 39 of this document states;
39 Records
Any default record should be accurate. We normally expect a lender to keep records that are necessary to show an agreement exists and to support filing a default. We would also expect a lender to be able to produce evidence to justify a default record they had placed on a credit reference file. Not having any supporting records may indicate a breach of the data protection principle requiring personal data to be adequate, relevant and not excessive for the purpose for which it is processed. A record that a notice of an intention to file a default was sent, if not a copy of the notice itself, will help lenders to comply with this requirement.

So it appears that Cabot are quite clearly breaching the ICO’s own guidelines yet the ICO aren’t interested, does anyone think it would be worthwhile having another go getting them to look into this or am I wasting my time due them appearing to be a load of work shy incompetents?

nottoolate

they are a bit like the FOS

you have to pester them until they pass your complaint to someone who is actually competent and understabnd their own rules

they don't have many people who actually understand their own regs. or who can even read them it seems

so its a hard job.

dancingfairy

When was the default put on? presumably it was 5 years ago now? if so it should drop off soonish? I'm not sure if they can lodge a default when a debt is sold on though or whether the default date should be the original date you defaulted.
Oh and I think that even if you agree a payment arrangement that you are still in default of the original termas so therefore get a default anyway.
I'm not saying that they haven't followed the correct procedures though.
I'm sure Tixy will be along later or one of the other experts that know these things better than me though.
Best of Luck
df