Credit File Scoring

nnop72

Hi

I have a question on my credit scoring ...

I have a number of defaults on my credit file that date to last May. My understanding is that these will then drop off my credit file by May 2017. Can creditors register a new default if the debt is not settled, e.g. if it is purchased by a DCA?

I am in a payment arrangement with my creditors and hope to clear the debts before then, assuming I manage to keep my job. Once a debt is marked fully or partially settled, is it then a good or bad mark? If a debt were still active after the default drops off, will it still appear on my credit file as a defaulted debt?

If I do manage to clear my debts prior to May 2017, what is the best way to begin re-building my credit record? The only other debt I really want to take on in the future is a mortgage, but could cope with a card as long as I paid it off in full every month and used it infrequently.

fermi

nnop72 wrote: »

Can creditors register a new default if the debt is not settled, e.g. if it is purchased by a DCA?

No.

nnop72 wrote: »

I am in a payment arrangement with my creditors and hope to clear the debts before then, assuming I manage to keep my job. Once a debt is marked fully or partially settled, is it then a good or bad mark?

Bad still. But it will have less effect the older it gets. A good recent history does a lot to mitigate the effect of an old settled default.

nnop72 wrote: »

If a debt were still active after the default drops off, will it still appear on my credit file as a defaulted debt?

No.

nnop72

Fermi, thanks for the answers. One of my loan creditors were unable to produce a CCA when asked. This is for a substantial amount (£15k +). They said I should continue to pay, which I have done, otherwise they would issue a default notice. However, they did this anway a year ago. Am I right in thinking that if I stopped making payments they would only be able to ask me for the money and not enforce the debt given they have used their only available sanction? I have another debt with the same creditor which is enforcable.

fermi

Assume a pre April 2007 agreement?

In theory yes, BUT you would have to be very very very sure that the debt is unenforceable.

Simply not being able to provide a copy is temporary thing, that they may be able to rectify at some point? Perhaps find a copy? Or records sufficient to reconstitute one?

Not having an original is also not a complete bar to them succeeding in any court action. For example if they can convince the court via other evidence that on the "balance of probability" a complaint agreement was signed.

nnop72

The agreement was from March 2009, but it was a consolidation from an earlier agreement pre April 2007. I went through the process of CCA'ing my creditors over a year ago, and they said they were unable to locate it and therefore acknowledged the debt is unenforceable but that I should continue to make payments and that they could issue a default on my credit file (which they did anyway). They have mentioned that the debt is unenforceable in subsequent correspondence,

My goal was to use it as leverage in any f&f negotiations in the future, should I ever be in that position, rather than cut and run, but it is interesting to know what you can & can't do.