Advice for a student in debt.

icouldnotthinkofaname

Angry_Bear wrote: »

I don't think Experian have given you the right info. See here...

Yes, I was talking about debts that have not turned into a default. The quote says six years from the date the account was settled, or defaulted, whichever happend first. In my case, the debt has not defaulted, nor will it be settled for another 1-2 years therefore the 6 year cycle has not kicked in yet. Thanks though.

icouldnotthinkofaname

Tixy wrote: »

This is incorrect. If you start making repayments now your debts will still fall off 6years from the original default dates - as has already been stated on this thread several times.

I was referring to debt's that have not turned into defaults yet. I do understand defaults will drop off after 6 years settled or not.

Tixy wrote: »

The incentive is that if you pay the debt off you won't be taken to court. And also if you pay in full whilst its still on your file - it will be shown as a satisfied default for the remainder of the 6years since the default. A satisfied default looks better than an unsatisfied one.

Whilst the court part is true, a satisfied default does not look better than an unsatisfied one at all. A search on this forum will show that many people had had no chance of getting credit even though its since been satisified.

Tixy wrote: »

If they don't already have defaults then now is a good time to start recording positive credit history on your file by making payments. As these will stay on much longer than your accounts that are already defaulted, once the defaults drop off you will then be showing a history of repaying your debts.

Sadly I still do not believe a history of repaying my debts will go down very well with for example mortgages or car finance. I need a fully clear file and the fact is, it'd take me 1-2 years to repay these debts and then it would remain on my account as settled for another 6.

Thanks for the information about courts though, I will take this into consideration. However as I am a student with hardly any income, I cannot even set up repayments right now even if I wanted to. I will have to just hope this doesn't happen.

Tixy

icouldnotthinkofaname wrote: »

Whilst the court part is true, a satisfied default does not look better than an unsatisfied one at all. A search on this forum will show that many people had had no chance of getting credit even though its since been satisified.

Yes it does. With satisfied defaults on file it is possible for people to get some credit - and even mortgages. Likely to be subprime but for many people thats better than no credit. Certainly it wouldn't be classed as a good file but definitely better than unsatisfied.

With unsatisfied defaults the chance of getting any credit (except for subzeroprime such as payday loans) is near zero.