Lowell Portfolio Chasing a Paid Debt. - UPDATED

MentalMinnie

My OH had an old outstanding debt with 3 mobiles. He'd had a couple of letter about it, but finally paid it maybe 6 months ago, directly to 3. They confirmed that the debt was settled and the account closed. A couple of moths later he received a letter from Lowell saying he owed them the money. He called them, explained that it had been paid. Unfortunately we never received a confirmation letter from 3 saying it was settled, but his bank statement obviously showed the correct sum being paid to 3 so Lowell said if we posted a copy of the statement as proof that would be fine. I sent it with a strongly worded letter advising that we expected this matter to be cleared up quickly etc. never had a response.

Fast forward to today, he received an alert on his Equifax credit file. Upon checking it, the entry for Hutchinson 3G has gone and in its place is a default by Lowell Portfolio. Absolutely fuming. We need advice about what to do now. The debt was paid in full to 3 months ago, yet Lowell have gone and lodged the default anyway!!!!

fermi

Did he ever have a default on the entry from 3 on his file prior to the one from Lowell being placed?

If he did, and the one from Lowell has just replaced it with a default date that is no later, then while technically wrong it won't be doing any more harm than the original from 3.

Would still be worth fighting, as nothing was ever owed to Lowells, but more an argument of who's name any default should be in.

If 3 never registered a default, then Lowell are massively out of order. They were never owed the debt so have no right to record a default.

MentalMinnie

I'm not a 100% sure about 3 lodgi g the default, but I don't think they did, cos at the time I thought he was bloody lucky they hadn't. What's the best course of action now?

MentalMinnie

Just had a look at the credit report, the default was lodged in January 2010, so I'm guessing 3 did in fact lodge it. But irraspective, the debt was paid months ago. But no one is listening obviously...

fermi

In that case you need to dispute it with Lowells.

(1) Ask the CRA to mark it as disputed and pass the dispute on to Lowells.

(2) Contact Lowells yourself direct to dispute it.

Important to do both in case you need to take the complaint further to the ICO etc, as they will want to see that you have before they will consider any case.

If 3 originally recorded the default, and did it correctly at the time, then Lowells will simply have taken it over into their name. If the default was correct then you may not end up getting it removed, but it should at least be marked as settled if it's not removed altogether.

fermi

Page 19 onwards explains how to complain to companies that have put wrong info on your files.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/credit_explained_leaflet_2005.pdf

MentalMinnie

So, it turns out that Lowell did take over the default, and that they DID reply to my letter proving that that the debt had been paid, we have a letter from them dated around 27th Feb stating that they were looking into it. We've since called them 3 times chasing them to settle the account, but they claim that 3 haven't passed on the relevant info blah blah blah,,,,

Does anyone know a way forward? They've been dragging their feet for 3 months over this and it's driving us mad!!!!:mad:

MentalMinnie

Bumping for advice...please!?

MentalMinnie

I'm wondering if there's anyone we can lodge a complaint with, seeing as they seemingly won't sort this matter out?

MentalMinnie

Bumping...again!

fermi

If they are refusing to mark the default as settled, then the ICO.

I would give them one more blast in writing though, telling them that this is their last chance to correct it before you take formal action against them.

Reason being, the ICO etc usually has a backlog of many months worth of cases, so that's not going to be a quick route. Better if Lowells can be encouraged to get their own arsh in gear first with one last chance.