Credit report defaults DMP - someone please help me understand!!

toughtimes

Hello there, would really appreciate some help from someone who knows his or her way around a credit report. Mine is not making sense to me at all and I'm getting so stressed out - have been trying to get my finances in order for the past nine months but it is proving very hard, even just to get information! Please bear with me and my attempts to explain what's on the report....

The report I have is a Credit Expert/Experian report - I have taken out a month's free trial that I will cancel in a week’s time. Firstly, it doesn't contain details of all the different credit products I have. Is this because different companies use different credit agencies? For example, might my Co Op Bank loan, which isn't showing up here show up on another credit agency report? I've had reports in the past from Experian which were much more thorough and listed all financial products from the past six years but this one just has info for two creditors - NatWest and Clydesdale.

I am currently on a DMP with CCCS and three of the eight debts on my DMP are showing up on the report - two credit accounts with NatWest (credit card and loan) and one with Clydesdale Finance (NatWest current accounts and past NatWest loans are also on the report). The reason I ended up on a DMP is because of trouble with payday loans but these are not showing up anywhere on the report. Is this a good thing, or is this just a bad report that isn't revealing all the information that makes up my (terrible) credit score? Does Experian/Credit Report have a special relationship with NatWest? My (dormant) NatWest current accounts are also showing on this report but not active current accounts with other banks.

There is no mention of my DMP on my credit report. Is this usual? I was expecting for there to be clear reference to the DMP status. I assumed it would be good for the DMP to be on the report i.e. explaining that steps being taken to clear default accounts?

On the report each account has a month-by-month payment breakdown with status codes: each month the payment is made on time it is marked '0'. When payments have been late there is a number (e.g. '1' to show one month late) and then when the account is in default it is marked '8'.

I had presumed because of the DMP that I would be marked down as having defaulted on all my credit accounts but The Clydesdale account has not been marked as defaulted at all. There are two months marked with '1' and '2' month late payment codes - basically the two months I didn't make my payments just before I started on the DMP - but all the payments that have been made via the DMP have been marked as '0' i.e. on time. Can I assume then that other accounts on my DMP that don’t show up on the report might not have been marked as defaulted? Is it not defaulted because Clydesdale are very nice or is there something else going on?

The NatWest accounts are marked as defaulted (coded ‘8’) every month since the DMP began. I had thought that all late payments/defaults drop off your credit report after six years, however, if the account is going to be marked as defaulted or late every month until the account has been satisfied i.e. until my DMP is finished, then that would mean that the defaults will be on my account until six years after the DMP has finished. Is this correct? My DMP is currently due to run to 2023 (very low salary but hope to change this situation and pay quicker) so that would mean my credit is destroyed until 2029!! This thought is causing me more stress than anything else.

I know my credit is ruined for now, but at some point in the future I would love to buy my own home, and I want to make sure that as well as paying off all my debt, I do anything and everything I can to repair my credit record - and stop it getting worse. I am being driven a bit mad by all this (and CCCS have been so unhelpful) so would really appreciate some help. Thanks so much.

eyeopener2

Hiya

I wouldn't worry about your credit report at all to be honest, it's an irrelvance to you at the moment. The main thing it your paying your debt back.

The credit report is really what the creditors choose to report. For example, i've been on my DMP for almost two years now.

Some show defaults and no DMP

Some show a full payment history but on a DMP

Some show i'm behind by x months and DMP

Some show i'm behind by x months an no DMP!

The payday loans are nowhere to be seen, and never have been.

You have a long way to go without getting stressed about what may happen in 10 years plus time. Anything can happen over that period. So stop stressing and just settle into paying your monthly payments. Everything esle is just noise.

So ignore your credit report now and just get on with your new DMP life. Best thing I ever did where money is concerned!

E2

TakingControl

Defaults will fall off 6 years from the date the default was placed.

Example: I have a default from March 2010, this will drop off April 2016 irrespectively if the debt has been paid back yet or not.

Mort

My understanding, from numerous posts here, is that different institutions use different reference agencies and not all of them which would explain some things not showing up.
Defaults show up for 6 years after being posted.
You say that your DMP is predicted to last 10 years so now is not the time to worry yourself about your rating. Concentrate on getting through the DMP and if you should have a windfall or additional regular income chuck that into the DMP as well.

toughtimes

Thank you Mort, TakingControl and Eyeopener2 for your replies - much obliged to you. TakingControl, to clarify, do you mean that there will be no reference at all to the loan on the report in six years time?

I hear what you're all saying about not worrying about my credit rating now when I've got ten years of DMP to get through but I have no intention of having the DMP for another ten years. I'm in the process of getting a new job with a much higher salary (doing what I'm doing now but in the private and not not public sector) and I will continue living frugally for another year or so and get the debts completely paid off. The total amount of money I owe isn't actually that high and I'm sick of creditors - and now also CCCCS - dictating my life. I bitterly regretting panicking and getting a DMP instead of a consolidation loan last year, but at least I have learnt lessons about money and borrowing. Will only ever do it in future for a mortgage - which is why I am worried about my credit rating now. In around a years time DMP will be paid and I will be saving for a deposit.

Thank you again for your replies.

TakingControl

toughtimes wrote: »

Thank you Mort, TakingControl and Eyeopener2 for your replies - much obliged to you. TakingControl, to clarify, do you mean that there will be no reference at all to the loan on the report in six years time?

That is correct. The account will fall off the credit files (all CRA) 6 years from when the default was placed. Any settled accounts (not defaulted) will disapear 6 years after settlement date

toughtimes

Thanks v much TakingControl.