Adverse Credit From Credit Card

Helpless_2

I has a Tesco credit card and hit some bad times and defaulted in 2009. This went to a collection company and i made an arangement with them to pay monthly. Which i am still doing now.

I have just looked on my credit rating and every month they are putting a red default mark even though i have an agreement. Is this right?

I also want to pay off the outstanding balance and they have offered me a settlement of £2135 from £2847 owing.

However i have been told to pay the full amount as it then says 'paid in full' on my credit rating??????

Please help, any advise would be greatly recieved.

december2012

Hello there.

Like you (when I was 18, in my case) I got into a financial mess and sought help from a Debt Management Company.

Both Capital One and HSBC marked my credit file with an Arrangement to Pay. These are the red marks you refer to.

They were marked as 'settled' in September 2008 but as records stay on file for six years it'll be 2014 before I have a clean slate per se.

So whenever you sort out your credit cards your records will be updated and will remain there for that length of time I'm afraid. The six years also applies to your default.

I wasn't in a position at the time to be able to pay my balances in full so I can't help you with that enquiry, sorry.

Gromitt

Indeed, seeing the fact you paid in full on your credit report looks better than seeing that the account was satisfied at a lower amount - at least you paid back everything you owed! You will start getting credit again after 6 - 12 months of it appearing on your report.

If you don't care about credit for the next 6 years, then the settlement will obviously be much cheaper for you, but it may take far longer to people to offer you credit.