Default that should never have been

matttye

I recently had late payment markers removed from my report. I paid a cheque into my bank, in person, to cover money I owed on an overdraft plus interest that was due to be added that month. I was assured no further charges would be added to my account. Subsequently a £1.xx charge was added which I knew nothing about. I received one bank statement but stupidly didnt check it because I assumed what I had been told was correct and I had a zero balance. This resulted in a year and a half worth of late payment markers being added to my account. I complained to the bank, got them removed and got £50 compensation.

The point of this story is that just because you were told something verbally doesn't mean you can't still persuade them that what you're saying is correct.

You should write to them saying that you called up your old phone provider and paid £xx on dd/mm/yyyy (find the last payment in your bank statements) and you were assured that this settled the matter. If you can find a phone bill which corresponds with what you paid this will put you in a stronger position. You acted on the information given in good faith and made no further payments. When you subsequently moved address, you felt there was no need to update them as to your address because you had been assured the matter was settled. Tell them that if you had been aware there was £16 owing you would have paid it immediately, as such a small sum is not worth damaging your creditworthiness for.

Also tell them that due to the change of address, you never received a default notice and therefore were not given the opportunity to put right the position before the default was added.

McKneff

Chorley87 wrote: »

I was told over the phone that it was paid up to date, then seemingly they couldn't take the payment. As far as i was aware it had gone. This meant i didn't change my address etc and therefore defaulted.

I would really like to get this off my file. Annoyingly Lowell only added the default to my account because I paid the bill. It didn't apear on my report before Jan 13 when it was all paid. Seems honesty isn't the best policy with these DCA.

The bold is your problem, sounds like you presumed and didn't check your bank statement.

matttye

McKneff wrote: »

The bold is your problem, sounds like you presumed and didn't check your bank statement.

If he was told by the company he was paying that the bill had been successfully paid, why would he check his bank statement?

McKneff

Well, I would under the circumstances, I believe most people would to be honest. Wouldn't you.

oopsadaisydoddle

Was it the DCA or the Network who placed the default?

And how would OP have known to tell a DCA that he knew nothing about that he/she had moved?

Also, you say the default was dated 2011 - when did you actually call the network to cancel the agreement? And which network was it?

oopsadaisydoddle

Sorry I have just re read and realised the default was placed 3 yars after you called to cancel. In that case (even if the default was 'deserved', it should have been recorded no later than approx 6 months after the alleged last bill was produced.

Also, what difference would checking the bank statement make? OP was not expecting a payment to come out, and it didn't so really, everything was as he/she expected.

matttye

McKneff wrote: »

Well, I would under the circumstances, I believe most people would to be honest. Wouldn't you.

Yes but I'm quite anal about my finances