Creation finance - store card

Hughesy84

Anyone had any problems with Creation?!? :mad:


What happened:-

My missus has had a card with them for 9 years or so, for the first 6 years no problems, then in 2009 they contacted us saying they hadn’t been able to take payment (£5 a mth) for a few months…..when we checked with bank, they hadn’t rejected anything and when we checked the dates, over £700 was in the bank account.

When they investigated they found that someone at their end had somehow changed the direct debit details and the info was now incorrect, they agreed it was their error, refunded any charges and my missus paid up the arrears it caused. They promised it wouldn’t happen again. My missus then started staying at mine 95% of the time (without changing address details over, as it wasn’t her registered address).

Anyway time went on, and then a few months later Creation had the same problem, they claim to have sent letters which my missus didn’t see, and therefore passed the account over to a 3rd party debt company. They refused to discuss the previous problem for the £200 store account and claimed we needed to speak to creation, but when we spoke to them, they just said ‘we have sold the debt’ so you need to sort it with them. Anyway we told them the original account was £200 credit limit and agreed to pay in instalments of £50 a month, which we did.

We are now being contacted by a 3rd company who say we owe £226, and that we only paid £200 (correct as the original debt was that amount), we are arguing that the error was caused by creation and that they caused the mess, and that £200 was the original amount owed…..they wont listen, they wont negotiate and also Creation have the same line ‘no longer with us’……so now the missus has a default.

The default is going to stop us getting a mortgage, and we have even said we will pay the £226 even though its not her fault, aslong as they remove the default, which the 2nd 3rd party company say they cannot do.

• How can we go about getting this sorted?!?
• Would the financial ombudsman help??
• Could we get the default removed if we can prove the problem wasnt caused by my missus?

Tixy

When your parter missed payments they would have added on charges and interest. So the balance sold on to a third party would have been more than £200.

Did the first debt collector write to her - and what balance does that letter say was owed? If it was more than £200 and she only paid £200 then the first debt collector can sell the debt on again, or continue to try to recover the remainder of the debt, unless she has written confirmation from them that they will accept £200 in full & final payment of the debt. Can you confirm she paid £200 to the first debt collector rather than creation?

What is the date of the default on her credit file? it should be no later than the date creation sold the account on to the first debt collector. Whose name is the default in? creation, first DCA or second DCA.

I would do everything in writing from now on and I would write to second debt collector and ask for proof of the debt and a breakdown of the balance they claim is owed.

If she did miss payments and they sent out letters which she didn't see then its very unlikely the default will be removed. Unfortunately its up to her to check her statements each month and to check that payments are going out.

Hughesy84

1st debt collector was CapQuest and yes they got the £200

New debt collector is WMD - West midland

Default was only added in March 2011, despite the debt being sold on in 2009. Its in Creations name.

Yes they may have added charges etc on, but as we keep trying to argue, it was their error, not my missus'.

Hughesy84

Could the ombudsman help me?!

MrsTinks

The problem is that it is still largely HER responcibility to check the payments have been made - be that by checking her bank statements or the statement from the storecard account.
The charges could be argued and I agree it's bad form for them to add them, however she SHOULD have checked and prevented it escalating.
For now you need to ask for the proof of debt and breakdown of the balance as Tixy said.

I don't know if you would have a good enough case to get the default removed, certainly to get the date changed to the correct default date which would help a little if settled, but probably not to have it taken off completely - after all she did default the account.