Challenge Credit Check

elsmore1

Hi All,
We are looking to remortgage for a house move and I did a statutory credit file check with callcredit, equifax and experian. A while ago in 2008 HSBC who have our mortgage allowed us to miss the interest on the mortgage for just 3 months, we paid an extra £50 a month then after a year they said we could recapitalise and add the remainder which was only about £500 added to the mortgage and we agreed.

So all we missed was 3 months interest not the whole payment, but on the credit report it shows as about 13 months as late payments most months 1 but a few months show 2 late payments? There is a 5 month gap of ok/good payment then it shows over a year as AP or arrangement to pay and that was last month.

I called HSBC mortgage centre and the guy said that is was all correct and is what happened, but I feel it shows us in a bad light.

What is my next best step? Should I contact HSBC again? I will complain to them that they did not tell me it would affect my file, I know I could also have a note added. One minute i read to contact the credit company and then read to contact the provider i.e HSBC. I have emailed equifax via the website but they have not updated it yet its been 3-4 days.

I have told my mortgage broker who did not seem too concerned and I hope if we apply for a mortgage we have the paperwork to show our exact payments and it was only 3 months missed interest.

Many thanks for your reply

Thrugelmir

The credit file shows an accurate representation of the facts. Remember the purpose of the credit file is to provide other potential lenders of your history. Given time the event will age and have less and less relevance.

kingstreet

Did you ask how this "holiday" would impact your credit file before you did it? It's normal for some lenders to treat a holiday as arrears and for it to appear as such on your file.

Experian_company_representative

Generally, the data registered on your credit report will reflect your payments compared to the original terms. So, if you agree to pay a little less than this for a few months, to tide you over a difficult period for example, the data on your report would usually start to show payments falling behind.

The Arrangement to Pay flag will make other lenders aware that you did this with the lender's permission, but if you want to underline this, and perhaps explain what else was going on at the time, you can add a short note to your credit report called a 'notice of correction'. Simply send your note to the three CRAs, assuming they all hold this data, and it will become part of your report. As someone else said, the impact of the arrears will diminish over time.

James Jones

Meeper

Realistically, however, nobody takes any notice at all of a notice of correction, because 99% of them say "The situation occurred due to a short period of financial difficulty and is not reflective of how I normally conduct my affairs", which says nothing. The only people who can change the record are HSBC, and if it's accurate, then I'm afraid you should have checked the implications of your actions before you took them.

A NOC will likely do you no good at all.

elsmore1

Ok, out of interest I did the credit score with experian as a mortgage centre staff told me thats the one most of them use, its 30 days free so I must cancel within that time. Considering I have some 14 months of 1-2 late payments as per experian credit file again this was just 3 months missed interest, though the latest 2 years show 0 so up to date and no AP as per equifax.

My credit score was 962 out of 1000, Martin does say these score are ignored though the mortgae centre staff said they do look at this and will reject, poor or fair scoring.

I dont know who to believe but may show that the late payments maybe do not reflect me in a bad light, as I first worried.

I was surprised by the high score given to me by experian, but good if mortgage companies go by this.

Thanks

Experian_company_representative

The Experian Credit Score reflects how lenders are likely to score your credit report data, but they will not see this score, they will calculate their own. If the arrears are a few years old the effect on any scoring is likely to be greatly reduced. However, this will vary between lenders.

James Jones

BoGoF

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

The Experian Credit Score reflects how lenders are likely to score your credit report data, but they will not see this score, they will calculate their own. If the arrears are a few years old the effect on any scoring is likely to be greatly reduced. However, this will vary between lenders.

James Jones

You should be banned from saying stuff like "The Experian Credit Score reflects how lenders are likely to score your credit report data" as you know that's not true.

I think this thread sums up how poor your 'scores' really are

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3658699=

ACG

Forget the notice of correction, i worked for a bank a few years ago and they ignored it (thats the polite way of putting what the staff did with it).

There are lenders our there that will accept a few late payments, 13 on the other hand is unrealistic. What you could do is get a letter from the lender asking them to say what happened - ie ehat was agreed and how they represent it on the credit file. You will probably still get rejected automatically for a mortgage but if you speak to the actual underwriters before you submit an application - they may well agree to overturn it as it apears wrse than it actually is.

fiirls

Lloyds TSB have declined to remortgage us due to a late/missed store card payment. It would be a late payment as I mislaid my statement but only by a day. The adviser has told us to try another lender that does not use Experian. Another member of Lloyds staff has told us that if we wait 3 months then the check will go through ok. Are we now blacklisted due to me being late on a next account?:rotfl:

Meeper

The word "blacklisted" needs to be banned from the English language, because people use it so often and have no idea what it means.

You would never be "blacklisted", if that's a comfortable word for you to use, because of a single missed payment on a store card. Please notice that to be "blacklisted" because of something like that would be absolutely ridiculous, and nobody would ever be "whitelisted" if that were the case.

You still haven't cleared up the other issue surrounding the 13 late mortgage payments.

If the lender is telling you that you have been declined purely because of a missed payment on a store card, that would likely be incorrect and I would suggest that the "adviser" you spoke to doesn't know what (s)he is talking about. It may be a contributing factor, but it will never be the "reason".