DCA's and Credit File

nwoodsy1

Defaults
Hi I am looking for some advice on previous debts that I had accrued a few years ago. Since moving to my current address 4 years ago its fair to say I've pretty much ignored them due to personel circumstances, Lost my job, separated etc. Been sent threatening letters from numerous DCA's over the said years and now wanting to get something sorted, hopefully. Got a copy of my credit report from Experian and it only shows 2 defaults which were 4 1/2 years and 5 years ago, for £172 and £13500. Not able to pay these off due to amounts. Also it shows on the report that I had an alias in 2002 with MBNA (another debt I owe but not on credit file) which is untrue I have NEVER used an alias. Can someone advise me please as to my best course of action.

Tixy

Does your file show any CCJs?

In terms of the 2 accounts you can see - they will fall off your credit file when the defaults hit 6years old.
You could arrange to start repayments towards these debts at a rate you can afford. Or if you make no payments for a 6year period and don't acknowledge that you owe the money for the same period, and if the creditors/DCAs don't take you to court in that period - then the debts would become statute barred - which means you don't legally need to repay them.

If you stopped paying 4years ago then there is still 2 years left for them to start court proceedings against you - given the size of the large debt I'd think this might be fairly likely to happen rather than them let it become statute barred.

Are DCAs chasing you currently for these debts? If they don't know your current address they will now be able to find it out as you have requested your credit file - so they could start chasing again over the next month or so.

If you have other debts that are unpaid they could be on your other credit files (equifax/call credit) or perhaps you originally defaulted on them more than 6years ago?

Regarding the alias - if its incorrect then you would need to contact the creditor that put it on your file if you want to have it removed - to challenge what they have reported. Is the alias very similar to your name (eg your middle name rather than your first name, or a slightly incorrect spelling) or is it a name nothing to do with you?

Of course if you owe MBNA money, which is not statute barred, you might not want to contact them with regards to this.