Help with A Default on my report from BCW Group

Daveanthony32

Hi Guys.

Thanks in advance for your time reading this. Any help is much appreciated.

A few years ago I got into financial difficulty and had arrears with utilities etc.

I now have all these paid thankfully after hard work and cutting back.

Last Year I searched my credit report and there was an entry from British Gas as a default. I contacted them and they advised me what the debt was for, and also advised the debt was now with a company called BCW Group. I proactivley called BCW and set up a payment arrangement.
A few weeks later BCW made an entry on my credit report for the same debt, at the time I was still paying of balances so knew I could not improve my score at this time, so left it be.

Recently I was offered a settlement figure by BCW which I have paid, and they now show this as satisfied, British Gas have actually deleted their entry on my report as it was showing for the same balance with themselves and BCW.

Should BCW have made an entry on my report ? I contacted them after no mail from them directly about this debt, set up a payment plan - yet they still left a footprint on my file.

I have asked them about this in an email today and they have said that they registered the default in their own name, after British Gas deleted their default, which is impossible as I have an email of apology from British Gas from 1 week ago stating they will delete the default as it is incorrectly showing twice.

Have BCW acted by the book on this ?

MR D Nolan

fermi

BG should have removed their default when BCW put theirs on, but BCW can report it in their name.

The default date must be the same as the original BG one though.

Daveanthony32

They have removed it now, almost a year later - after a push. Just wasnt sure if a debt collection company could do this, especially after making a payment arrangement and sticking to it all the way through.

fermi

They can do it when debts are sold. Switch the default over into their name.

Sounds as of they took a long time to do it, and messed up somewhere so that there were 2 for a while.

Not good perhaps, but what is important is the end result, i.e. you now have just one default with the correct date.

From: Technical Guidance Note - Filing defaults with credit reference agencies

The ‘sale’ or assignment of debts on defaulted accounts

52 When the rights to a debt are sold to a third party, the lender has to make sure the records with the credit reference agency are accurate, up to date and adequate.

If they want information about the debts to continue on the credit reference file they will need to come to an agreement with the purchaser about who is to be responsible for this.

53 If the purchaser agrees to take control of the record, the customer should be informed that the debt has been sold or assigned and to whom. The credit reference agency file should be changed to show the name of the purchaser and that the rights to the debt have been sold or assigned.

The purchaser should then make sure the record is kept up to date including changes to the amount still owed. The purchase should not affect how long the record is kept. It should be removed six years after the default.

54 Where the purchaser of the debt does not agree to take control of the record, the original lender, and at least in part the credit reference agency, will remain responsible if the original record is kept on the file. When the debt is sold or assigned, the customer will no longer owe any money to the original lender. If the record is not removed, the sale or assignment should be recorded and the balance should be shown as zero. The customer should still be told who the debt has been sold or assigned to.

Pritchett2003

Hi just found on my credit file same thing, original debt from BG and then again for BCW so this shows double the amount of debt and defaults? Are they allowed to do this? If not how do I get it removed? Who do I contact first BG or BCW?