Default from Lowell Portfolio not showing as Satisfied?

hopeandjump

Hi there,

I can't remember if I've posted here before, but I just wanted to start by thanking you guys for all the advice and templates I've used in the past as a lurker on these boards!! I started off with around £14k of debt about 5-7 years ago and am now debt free (aside from the mortgage, but hey what can you do?)

I'll give a bit of background (life story alert!!) before asking my question...

I've finally had the courage to look at my credit report, something which I've put off for many years. It says "fair", but I have two defaulted accounts on there. One of them I understand - it's my overdraft with HSBC from when I was at my most financially low. They offered me a settlement figure and the default is listed as satisfied (not much, I know, but a start!)

The second is an 02 account. Their customer service was absolutely shocking - they cut me off for missing a bill repayment by 48 hours, then they failed to reconnect me for THREE weeks, then they charged me for a months line rental! When I called them to query it, I was told "What do you want me to do? It's your own fault for missing the repayment in the first place." I told them to stick their contract. They started hassling me for the money, only they didn't hassle ME because they waited so long to contact me that I'd moved out and gotten married, so they hassled my mother for the money, by letter, by landline and by mobile (as it was my pre-02 phone that she had). I repeatedly spoke to them and gave them my new details saying that I didn't live there anymore, my mother was nothing to do with it, please stop worrying her with collections threats etc. They repeatedly assured me that they'd removed her information, and then a week later the letters and phonecalls would start again. Finally 02 sold my debt to Lowell who continued this rigmarole with my mother. Lowell were insistent that they couldn't change my details because I had changed my name when I'd gotten married and they would need a copy of my wedding certificate - otherwise they would be breaking the data protection act.

Funnily enough, when I didn't send them a copy of my wedding certificate, they were happy to break the data protection act and send me a letter with my current name and address on it. I wrote to them pointing out every complaint I had with them and demanding they offer me a settlement fee that reflected theirs and O2's level of customer service, and threatening to report them to the financial ombudsman for the harassment of my mother if it continued.

Anywaaaaay, long story short, Lowell went quiet and I started receiving letters from Mackenzie Hall saying Lowell had "sold" my debt to them. They would send me a letter every two weeks, with a steadily decreasing settlement amount. Finally, when they said they would accept £40 instead of £280, I called them and made the payment. This was about 3 months ago now.

However, just looking at my credit report - I see that default account is still listed as Lowell Portfolio, not Mackenzie Hall, and that the default isn't listed as Satisfied. Any suggestions about what I should do? Can I write to Lowell and insist they remove the default as it isn't "with them" anymore, and it is settled anyway?

I'm using quotation marks when referring to Lowell/Mackenzie Hall as I assume they're all the same people?

Thanks for reading all of that!!