O2 credit default over £13.85 debt

carlazi

So quick background. I took out an O2 mobile contract in Dec 2008 for 18 months. I paid up every month until the end. At the end i changed to a 1 year sim only contract with O2. I had moved house and o2 rep updated my address details etc for the new contract. I paid this every month etc until Aug 2011 when i cancelled the DD and got a new contract phone. O2 are saying that they sent me emails and text messages but because they went to out of date account/phone i never received them.

Fast forward to last week and I applied for a mortgage and it was refused. This confused me as i had always paid my debts, had a good income plus a decent deposit. I got a free equifax credit report and discovered that I had a default from the o2 1 year contract for £14.

I called o2 this morning and apparently this had been handed over to a debt collection agency. Apparently all correspondence had been sent to my old address and not the new address. I did some research and found that this could possibly give me some leverage with getting the default removed, is that right? I am on the electoral role for the past 2.5years so the debt collection agency could have found me but i guess £14 isnt worth it.

I have now paid the £13.85 to the debt collection agency. In the mean time i have been emailing O2 about the problem. They are saying that because they tried to contact me then its my fault that i didnt have updated information even though the O2 rep didint change my address when i changed to a new contract in Aug 2010. My entire life could be made incredibly difficult because of a £13.85 debt. How can I fight this problem?

I can post the emails etc from O2 if that would help people. I know that writing to the O2 CEO can help but would writing to credit agencies help. I am pretty desperate to get this sorted.

carlazi

I have just noticed that the default notice was applied to an even older address. An address i left in 2006. Would this error on the file be enough to count as an 'incorrect entry'?

carlazi

I've emailed the contact in the complaints team to obtain clarification of what information they have submitted to the credit agency.

So frustrated that such a small amount can blight someones ability to rent/pay/borrow. #ludicrous

chanz4

did you call and give notice to terminate, if not...

carlazi

chanz4 wrote: »

did you call and give notice to terminate, if not...

No i didnt give them a call, i just assumed that the contract finished in august 2011 and then cancelled the DD to stop them rolling it over (i had been lax in the past and paid for a mobile for 3 months longer than needed). I realise its my fault but its the fact that i didnt know i owed money, if i did i would have paid them.

Such a shame to ruin my life because of £13.85, i could understand if i had run off with a iphone but not for a sim only deal.

jennyc85

the exact same thing happened to me... I've been refused a mortgage on the grounds of an £11 default to t-mobile after the contract finished & I moved house... I hope you get it sorted... I now have to wait for July in order for the (settled) default to be more than 3 years old!!

carlazi

jennyc85 wrote: »

the exact same thing happened to me... I've been refused a mortgage on the grounds of an £11 default to t-mobile after the contract finished & I moved house... I hope you get it sorted... I now have to wait for July in order for the (settled) default to be more than 3 years old!!

I am fighting this tooth and nail because i believe it to be so unfair that i was unaware of a missing payment. I will seek legal advice if necessary because i cant even rent a flat without coughing up the money in advance, luckily i have been saving my salary so not a problem but still frustration for someone sensible with money

timetogrowup89

jennyc85 wrote: »

I now have to wait for July in order for the (settled) default to be more than 3 years old!!

If a default is settled and older than 3 years does it not have the same impact on applying for a mortgage...I have sorta thought I would have to wait 6 years on the default I ahev being removed before I could apply for a mortgage?


Good luck in getting this sorted OP. Surely someone at 02 has some common sense and can see that its not worth it for such a small amount.

carlazi

Thank you for the encouragement to continue fighting. I fully appreciate that companies need to be made aware of people unworthy of credit but when its insignificant amounts then discretion should be used by then company.

The O2 rep is doing his job to the letter which is frustrating me, its worse than dealing with local government officials. I have had some help from the consumer action group forums with writing letters to credit controllers and i am hoping that with everyone's help i can get this black mark removed.

carlazi

Hi all,

I have received 2 communications from O2 in relation to the letters i have sent. I have posted below. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?

Letter 1

Thanks for writing to our legal department regarding your credit file.

I’m sort you didn’t know about the default. It’s understandable you’re concerned.

Your service was disconnected in August 2011 for non-payment of your July 2011 bill. As well as us emailing and texting you about this, letters reminding you about the overdue payment were sent on 29 july and 2 august 2011. We also wrote to you on 10 and 17 August warning you that your service may be disconnected.

I’m sorry but we don’t have a record of you changing your address. As this was an online tariff however your bills were available to view online. And we sent texts to let you know when they’d been produced. You didn’t receive paper copies.

The account email was still active after disconnection. Section 2.11 of your terms and conditions advices ‘If you use our eCare service via O2.co.uk it is a condition of this agreement that you provide us with a current email address for billing purposes and that you maintain this address and advice us promptly of any changes to it. It is your responsibility to verify that your mailbox is working properly and you must assume the risk of all consequences for errors in sending and receiving email, unless caused by our negligence’.
Your final bill for £13.84 was produced on 5 September 2011. That was passes to Buchanan, Clark & Wells on 28 September 2011 and was taken over by Arrow Global on 9 May 2012. Both companies will have tried to contact you about this.

I appreciate you must be worried as this may have an effect on credit application but I’m unable to ask Arrow Global to remove the default. If you don’t feel the information on your credit file is correct, you may wish to contact the credit reference agencies and ask them to add a ‘Notice of Correction’. This will allow you to explain any mitigating circumstances which have led to this, which lenders can view when making decisions on lending. I hope this is helpful and explains things but if you’ve any questions please get in touch.


Letter 2

Thank you for contacting us.

As is out of the office I’m replying to you on his behalf.

I’ve looked into your account and can confirm the details we passed to the collection agency were correct. The address we forwarded on was the address that was always on your account and this address never changed. We also don’t have any records the address was requested to be changed.

The address we had for you was your address and this is the information we passed on. If the collection agency was unable to locate you at this address they may have performed searches in order to locate you. If they were satisfied they had located you at a different address they may have logged the adverse information based on this.

As we passed your debt onto a collection agency, it wasn’t O2 who applied the loading on your credit file. Therefore you’ll need to contact the collection agency you’ve been dealing with to dispute any inaccuracies. It should show on your credit file which organisation has loaded the adverse information.

I hope I’ve explained things clearly for you today. If you have any questions please get in touch.

StuC75

Does seem to be a painfull over-sight on your part, online billing kind of negates the address aspect of things. Assume the new contract you took out was a new number? rather than ported over?.. 12 month contracts do not just end, that is only the tie in, upon which it goes to a rolling agreement, so this assumption seems to have been your undoing - so next get confirmation that account has been closed down, then close down the Direct Debit..

Look for a mortgage company that allows appeals to the underwriter to be made - so to avoid the Computer Says No Scenario that you have with the mortgage, as everything from the Mobile Company seems to be factually correct..