Halifax and Experian

mgarl10024

Hi,

We have a mortgage with Halifax.
Long story short, last March I asked Halifax to reduce our term and increase our monthly payments by £800. I was told that because we were close to the end of a month, my next payment would be at the old rate, and further payments beyond this would be at the new rate - fine. So, the next month, the payment at the old rate leaves the account as expected.

I then have Collections hassling me - because their system says that I should have been paying at the new rate, and yet this (first) payment has only gone through at the old rate - and so we're (in their eyes) in arrears. I explain the situation, but Collections aren't interested and start threatening.

We simply didn't have the money, so I set up an arrangement to pay it over 6mths. I asked them if this would affect my credit record, and they say no - only if more than one payment was missed would my record be updated.
We paid the Arrangement over the 6mths, and finished it last November.

I escalated my complaint and their Customer Relations dept wrote back, appologising for letting us down. In my letter, I specifically asked whether any changes would be made to my record, and they specificially say that none were made.

Over the weekend, I applied for a Credit Card and was declined. The underwriters very helpfully pointed to my credit record with Experian and that something was wrong with my mortgage. When I look, I have:

Special Instruction Indicator: Arrangement
Special Instruction Start Date: 01/06/2011
Special Instruction End Date: 01/09/2011

I have contacted Halifax (who are investigating). In the meantime, I'd like to know:
- who do I ask to remove it? Halifax?
- can I contact Experian? If the Arrangement existed, then the information isn't actually inaccurate, so no grounds for removal?
- can I hold them to their letter stating no changes will be made?
- if Halifax remove it, how long will it take?
- what if Halifax refuse to remove it? Financial Ombudsman?
- how significant is this? Would it prevent lending for years?

Sorry for so many questions - I'm just trying to understand what has happened and what the best course of action is.

All help appreciated,

kingstreet

That has to be the daftest thing I've ever heard!

Upto Halifax to sort it out and to inform all the credit reference agencies they screwed up.

If not resolved reasonably quickly, WRITE a complaint explaining what they did wrong and what you want them to do to rectify it. If they don't deal with it to your satisfaction, you can then escalate to FOS.

kingstreet

For other readers considering reducing the term of their mortgage and tying themselves to higher monthly payments, this is a good but very extreme example of why voluntary overpayments are a better idea.

Committing yourself to a shorter term forces you to pay the higher payment and takes no account of any possible future changes in your circumstances. Voluntary overpyaments allow you to pick and choose what and when you pay extra and doesn't tie you, just in case something changes.

mgarl10024

Just had a phonecall from my complaints handler - Halifax are investigating and will get back to me.
Hopefully it can be removed.

mgarl10024

kingstreet wrote: »

For other readers considering reducing the term of their mortgage and tying themselves to higher monthly payments, this is a good but very extreme example of why voluntary overpayments are a better idea.

Thanks for the responses. Most welcome.

The idea behind this was to avoid the fees for overpayment. Halifax allow a concessionary 10% overpayment (and the calculation of this is far from simple). Reducing the term and increasing the payments works as a way around this - but you're right in that there is always the possibility that the lender may decide to disallow further adjustments (i.e. extending the term to lower the payments).

kingstreet

It should never have been recorded in the first place!

Let us know how it goes.

kingstreet

mgarl10024 wrote: »

The idea behind this was to avoid the fees for overpayment. Halifax allow a concessionary 10% overpaymen

You're still in an offer/penalty period?

My advice for others was based on no restriction on the voluntary overpayments you could make, ie deal and penalties both ended.

mgarl10024

kingstreet wrote: »

You're still in an offer/penalty period?

My advice for others was based on no restriction on the voluntary overpayments you could make, ie deal and penalties both ended.

At the time, we had a fixed rate product (now expired), so to overpay more than the 10% meant a 2% fee on the amount. i.e. to overpay £1000 over the 10% meant you were paying £20 fee.
Unfortunately, the boundary for the 10% was difficult to work out - as it was a rolling 10%. Halifax also (and my terms will be wrong here) allocate funds to your account - so for a mortgage of £100k they allocate £100k. But, if you surprise them with a £10k payment, they still leave the £100k allocated even though your balance is £90k, so the 10% is 10% of the £100k allocation which you can never see. It got so confusing in the end, we altered the term and our payments, avoided the fees, and believed Halifax when they told us that they had adjusted our Direct Debit in time.

mgarl10024

Just a quick update from this end.

I've checked my report with all three credit agencies, and all three have the arrangement listed.

Halifax Complaints dept have agreed with me that these modifications should never have been made and requested that their 'Credit Record' dept remove them. The Credit Record dept responded saying that no changes have been made and that they can't find it on my record.
My Complaints Handler (rightly) has no access to my record and so is stuck in the middle - I'm saying it's there, the Credit Record dept are saying it isn't. He's sending me an envelope for me to send him copies of the relevant sections of my record so that he can challenge the Credit Record dept.

All a bit farcial really. I may need to increase my costs for dealing with this!

Incidentally, to refer it to the FOS (Ombudsman) I have to give Halifax 8 wks - but is that 8wks to respond, or 8wks to deal with the complaint. If they are responding, and trying to be helpful, but taking longer than the 8wks, where do I stand?

Thanks again,

mgarl10024

mgarl10024 wrote: »

Incidentally, to refer it to the FOS (Ombudsman) I have to give Halifax 8 wks - but is that 8wks to respond, or 8wks to deal with the complaint. If they are responding, and trying to be helpful, but taking longer than the 8wks, where do I stand?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/4/handle-complaints.htm

We will ask firms to try to resolve complaints, or issue a "decision letter", within 8 weeks of the date the customer first complained to the firm.

kingstreet

They have eight weeks to respond with a suggested outcome. If you aren't happy at that time, or they've been unable to suggest a resolution, then you can escalate to FOS.