Vodafone default - please advise

hkj01

I had a look at my Experian and Equifax credit reports and noticed a default on an old Vodafone account. The default is from December 2008 and is for about £110.
I didn’t know that there was a default on my account until I checked my reports and it is only showing on the Equifax one. I think it is due to three missed payments.
To cut a long story short I had a sim only deal for a family member and the account was opened in my name as a favour but was used by my family member. Hope that makes sense.

Please can somebody advise me what I need to do sort this out and whether it is going to affect my husband and I when applying for a mortgage later this year. I would really appreciate any advice. I have no details of account numbers, phone number or anything and cannot contact the family member to get hold of this information either but would like to get this paid off and sorted.

McKneff

If its from 2008 I wouldn't worry too much about it. It will drop off automatically at 6 years. You can safely ignore it as long as you haven't acknowledged the debt in all the time the default has been there.

If it was due to 3 missed payments in your name, it is you who is liable.
No question. Getting credit for someone else is not a good idea, as you have found out.

After all this time, it shouldn't affect your ability to get a mortgage or just apply for one when it disappears.

After 6 years of non acknowledgement the default disappears, this doestn mean that you don't still owe it, it just means it cannot be enforced in law. Of course, if you want to pay it, offer them 30% of the amount owing and see what they say.

hkj01

Thank you so much for your advice. I realise I shouldnt have agreed to opening the account for somebody else I would be devastated if it stopped us from getting a mortgage.

kingstreet

I would qualify McKneff's answer.

A default from December 2008 is becoming historic, but it will remain visible on your credit file until December 2014. If applying for a low loan to value mortgage, or with a lender which only uses Experian, I suspect you will be fine.

If you need a 90% or 95% mortgage with an Equifax-only lender, this may still present a problem. Make sure you get an agreement in principle before you start house-hunting, preferably one with a lender which carries out a full search, rather then the "soft-footprint" version. This will ensure you have the certainty of a mortgage, not just the possibility until the full application search stage.

Vodafone

hkj01 wrote: »

I had a look at my Experian and Equifax credit reports and noticed a default on an old Vodafone account. The default is from December 2008 and is for about £110.
I didn’t know that there was a default on my account until I checked my reports and it is only showing on the Equifax one. I think it is due to three missed payments.
To cut a long story short I had a sim only deal for a family member and the account was opened in my name as a favour but was used by my family member. Hope that makes sense.

Please can somebody advise me what I need to do sort this out and whether it is going to affect my husband and I when applying for a mortgage later this year. I would really appreciate any advice. I have no details of account numbers, phone number or anything and cannot contact the family member to get hold of this information either but would like to get this paid off and sorted.

Hi hkj01,

Although I can't guarantee a favourable outcome I'd be happy to get this looked into further for you.

To enable me to do this could you email me with your details via the link in our profile here?

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it will take you to the Contact us form on our website.

To ensure that it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line and once our automated reply arrives update the thread with your email reference number and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK