Help, credit rating awful due to Littlewoods

harriet.victoria

Hello

Back in September I bought a pair of jeans from Littlewoods (I was £17 in credit with them) and I needed to pay £7 in order to cover the rest of the cost, I entered my debit card details and thought it was all done with there.

Obviously, I received monthly statments each month, but as I assumed I had paid that seven pound, I never looked at them - as I believed I had no credit with them. In April, I opened the statement and realised that I owed them £7 - I paid that £7 that day.

Then, when applying to extend my overdraft (a student, so interest free) I was declined. I got an experian report to see what was going on and it turns out my account had been marked due to the £7 from littlewoods. I rang littlewoods to see if there was anything I could do to get this marker off my name - they said on this occaision only they will remove it from my credit report as it was such a small amount of money.

Anyway, a month later and I am still unable to increase my overdraft (which is a massive pain when I have my last uni exam of the year tomorrow and no way of getting there, as I have no money.) I completely understand that this is really my fault, I should always check any statement that comes through the post - but I am in a pretty rough position at the moment. Pay day isn't until the last friday of the month, I have bills to come out and no way to pay them without going into an unplanned overdraft and if the bank doesn't allow that then my credit rating will be even more screwed up.

I was just looking for some advice really. It's summer starting from tomorrow, so I plan to do alot of overtime to get out of my overdraft, but none of that helps me right now. I was wondering if anyone had any advice?

Should I go into my bank and explain my situation and see if they can help?

Should I purchase something else on credit from Littlewoods and pay monthly to boost my credit rating again? (Would that work?)

I have never missed any payments before and the only credit I have right now is - my laptop, my car finance, my car insurance and my mobile phone and my bank overdraft. I plan on paying my laptop off with my next student loan payment in september.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

stephane_2

If Littlewoods has actually informed Experian to change your credit report to remove marker it could take up to 8 weeks to update. The fact that you are declined the overdraft increase might have nothing to do with Littlewoods. Are you certain that your bank actually check Experian, they may use equifax as well. You should speak to your bank directly to know as to why they won't increase it.

bbfc

Was you overdraft extension request part of the annual increase you receive or was it initiated by yourself? The bank may of simply not wanted to increase your overdraft. Students aren't their best customers. I was surprised when my bank kept increasing my overdraft every year but I would never of thought of asking for an increase, because I presumed they would decline it. My HSBC Overdraft was never mentioned on my Credit Report and I don't think they credit checked me every year, it was just based on how I managed the account, which was not very well. But because I had a job and was earning around £800-£900 p/m, that probably worked in my favour.

If the bank refused your request to increase your limit a month ago, your chances of getting an increase anytime soon is zero.

I find it odd that if you owed Littlewoods £7 since September and it has been rolling over every month, you would of had interest added plus they would of contacted you. You will also of had late payment fees added if you hadn't paid it. Or an I missing something here?

alixandrea

Might it be worth trying to get a crisis loan, either from your local Jobcentre, or your University? Alternatively you could call around all your creditors and explain the situation, see if they're willing to take a reduced amount this month and the rest next month or the month after once you've earned a bit more from your increased hours.

Don't do what I did and rely too heavily on your student overdraft; it will come back to bite you BIG TIME in the end. It sounds like you might need to do a bit of budgeting to cut back on unnecessary spending (such as on store cards) and balance your books.

Whatever you do, don't rely on the bank being friendly to you once you leave university. It's in their interest to keep you in as much debt as possible, as it means they profit more from you. I recommend doing your best to prevent that from happening as the road to financial recovery was long and tough for me in good economic times where I got a full time job straight after my course. For someone leaving Uni now, with unemployment rising ever higher, it could result in an absolute nightmare of a situation.


Best of luck sorting it all out; you do have my sympathy.

Alixandrea

Joe_Bloggs

Contact your Student Union they may be able to arrange something.
J_B.