statute barred debts and credit files

mattyg1982

Hi all,

I hope someone can help with this as I've been doing a bit of research. A bit of background... back in 05/06 I was having a bad time of life, split from partner, lost house, lost job, and to top it off my mother passed away... so bad couple of years! Anyway I ended up with a few debts. It's taken me a long time and have literally just finished paying them off. So now I want to look for a loan for a new car and my first step is to check my credit file and I see 2 defaults on there for debts I did not know about.

Two steps forward and a massive kick in the teeth eh?

Debt one has a default date of 7/12/06 and debt 2 has a default date of 5/1/07, both registered by some low life debt agencies, who I do remember seeing a couple of letters from now.

I have been doing a lot of research and found through my own records my last payments to the original companies were 10/07/06 for debt 1 and 22/05/06 for debt 2. No contact or admissions have been made so very shortly they are both statute barred.

As there are a few months lapse between the statute barred dates and the default dates, when do the defaults go from my credit file. They are being updated monthly by these debt collection agencies, so do I write them a statute barred letter and tell them to remove the default, or will that just disappear from my file 6 years from the default date - end of 2012, beginning 2013 and I have to wait?

Thanks very much for any help, I'm aching to get a clean credit file, it takes a long time to recover when life throws you lemons!!!

Matt

Naf

Hi, I am not 100% sure of my information, but I would like what I believe confirmed/corrected.
AFAIK, defaults leave your credit file after 6years regardless of their status; paid/unpaid/statute barred etc. except where a CCJ is granted, in which case it's 6 years from the date of the CCJ.
Some debt collectors try to keep stuff on there longer by registering a new default when it is passed to them, something I believe is illegal?

taffy056

The defaults come off six years after they are filed, check your credit files to ensure that the default dates do actually reflect the status of the account, a series of 6 markers instead of a default is against guidelines for example. But normally it becomes statute barred before a default comes off as there could be upwards of 6 months between them.

mattyg1982

Thanks so much for your speedy replies! So basically to confirm, the debts are pretty much statute barred so I can tell the companies that, so they cant chase the debt, does this mean they cannot re-register a default etc?

And then wait til the end of the year, which is 6 years from the default date and the defaults won't show on my credit file at all?

Thanks again for your speedy responses,

Matt

fermi

mattyg1982 wrote: »

Thanks so much for your speedy replies! So basically to confirm, the debts are pretty much statute barred so I can tell the companies that, so they cant chase the debt, does this mean they cannot re-register a default etc?

They can only register one default. Ever. End of. Statute barred or not.

mattyg1982 wrote: »

And then wait til the end of the year, which is 6 years from the default date and the defaults won't show on my credit file at all?

The defaults and all details of the accounts will come off your credit files.

Debt collectors are not allowed to put anything back on.

Gr8st33t

fermi wrote: »

They can only register one default. Ever. End of. Statute barred or not.



The defaults and all details of the accounts will come off your credit files.

Debt collectors are not allowed to put anything back on.

This might apply to me as well. I've just had a letter from a collection company regarding a debt I have not acknowledged in writing over the last 6 years (and possibly over the last 9 years), and I'm not about to start doing so now. They even cheekily put 01/04/2012 as the date of the 'opening balance', whatever that means. Is there a template letter I could use to dispute this?