can i re-negotiate my loan?

prufrock

Hi there,

I took out a 4 year loan with Coventry Building Society back in 2009. I am now near the end of the loan as I have overpaid whenever I have had some spare cash. However, near the start of the loan I had a late payment marked against me as I paid my loan late one month. As an aside this late payment actually shows as two months late payment on my Equifax search.

Since then I have paid back the late payment balance owed and as mentioned earlier made overpayments to get the loan gone quicker. However I have just had the thought that late payments either show on your account for 3-4 years (3 for experian, 4 for equifax i think) or 6 years from when the account is settled. This means that if I pay the loan off too early those late payments will sit on my credit file for another 6 years!! However if I make another 1-2 years of loan payments the loan will still show as settled and the late payments will have dropped off the credit record altogether. For the record I have 10 more of the minimum payments of £300 to go. This should settle the loan exactly 3 years after the late payment.

So can I ask that the building society takes say the last 200 pounds or so over a period or 12-18 months. Or can i ask the building society to consider removing the late payment judgement as a condition of setteling early? Or is there anything else I can try.

Finally is it even worth worrying about? I would like to get on the housing ladder sometime in the next 6 years and so am working towards having the best possible credit score for a mortgage. I am worried that the late payment will still be considered a black mark in 5 years time!

Any help most appreciated!

somethingcorporate

Not sure why you think the bank would "reward" you for settling early, they'd rather you pay it over the agreed time frame so they can get all the interest that would have been payable. I very much doubt they would remove the late payment marker especially as it was accurate. You can but try though!

When you start looking for a mortgage use a broker, they will be able to assess your requirements and point you in the direction of a mortgage provider that may be more likely to overlook a single blip on your file.

nomoneytoday

A single "2" on your credit report shouldn't have a huge impact on its own

prufrock

do you think they would consider extending the last part of the loan though, say the last £300 and taking that over 12 months? This way they will get extra intrest and the late payments will drop off my file before the loan is settled?

Tixy

I would doubt it very much.
Whilst the late payment would still be visible after the debt is settled its really very unlikely to have any real impact on your ability to get future credit.

izools

Agreed with the above - a late payment three years old won't have a discernable impact on your credit worthiness if it's the only adverse

blue_haddock

Just pay the loan off and get it marked as settled sooner rather than later.

Experian_company_representative

I suspect that the positive impact of settling the loan will outweigh the old late payment, but ideally you should keep the loan going untiul the late payment drops off, otherwise it'll sit there for an six additional years. But I guess it depends when you're planning to apply for the mortgage really.

James Jones