No Default date

lynnR

Hi,

hello, I'm new and in a bit of debt. I stopped making payments on a loan in 2009 for a loan taken out in 2007. On my credit report however there is no default date. It just says 'Status: In Arrears' The company is Welcome Finance and I have heard nothing from them for a long time. Will that debt stay on my record indefinitely as there is no default date from which to start the 6 years? It is for £4,800. The car was taken from me by the council in 2009 as it wasnt taxed (because I couldnt afford to get it MOT'ed - the repairs to fix it would have cost me £400 ) and they wanted to charge me 100's of pounds to get the car out plus pay for the car tax and the Welcome refused to pay the council the money to get it out saying the car wasn't worth the expense. So basically I have a debt of £4800 for a car i dont own any more. If the car hasn't been crushed already.
Will this debt stay indefinitely?
many thanks in advance
Lynn

PS It says I have missed 6 payments although I have missed many more

Apples2

lynnR wrote: »

Welcome refused to pay the council the money to get it out saying the car wasn't worth the expense.

Why do you think Welcome have even considered getting involved with this impounded car?

I'm sure the Default will come soon enough, it is probably sitting there fat dumb and happy accruing charges every month increasing the debt massively.
This will continue until just before the 6yrs are up and you become hounded morning noon and night to make a payment.

I think you should expect that £4,800 to become more like £10,000 by the time this catches up with you.

The debt will never just "go away", if it becomes SB, it just means they can't take you to Court for payment, they will continue to hound you for it (or whoever owns it by then will be hounding you) until you put a stop to it.

happy_bunny_2

Defaults should be issued within 6 months of no payment.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/default_tgn_version_v3%20%20doc.ashx

You could complain if you feel like writing to them. Otherwise they may get a CCJ or issue a default after just under 6 years thus ruining your credit file for 12 years or so total.

Do they have your current address?

Tixy

As it stands currently this record would stay on your credit file indefinitely. Or if you repaid the debt it would stay on file for 6years from the date of settlement.

The ICO guidelines do state that a default should normally be issued by when you are 6months in arrears.
You could contact them regarding this - though this is of course likely to start them chasing for the debt again - and could even trigger them to take court action against you.

If you last paid in 2009, then your creditor (or a debt collector) has until 2015 to take court action against you.

If you are in a position to do so - you might well find that the creditors would be open to a reduced figure in full & final settlement of the debt.

iritchie

Personally, in this case, though I don't recommend/condone building up debts and then running from them (mainly because ultimately everyone else who needs credit ultimately ends up paying for them), I would just avoid making contact with the company.
If they have stopped chasing you already, then the 6 year period is in relation to the time when you last had contact with them about the debt (i.e. if you called them to discuss the debt now, then the timer would be reset on any action being allowed to be taken).

You do run the risk of being taken to court, but you did build up the debt and if you do have to pay it, then so be it.
Chances are you won't hear another thing about it, and you'll only have trouble with some credit applications because of this record, off the back of it.
A partial settlement will remain on your credit file for 5 or 6 years from the data of the settlement anyway, as will a default (which, by the sounds of it, they are too late to issue).

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but you should have probably gone for a cheaper car, if normal running costs were tipping you over the edge.

lynnR

Thanks for the responses. Yes they know my address - I think the best solution would be to contact them and try and pay them off at a reduced rate. At least I don't have a default notice I suppose as this is worse than being behind with payments and even CCJs it seems.