A mark on my (noddle) credit file, but not sure if pos/neg

Nine_Lives

I have a £1 balance in my first direct 1st account. In March i forgot to fund it with the £300 required for my regular saver. This took me to "£299D" which i noticed a fortnight later & corrected.

I contacted first direct to enquire as to whether my credit file would be marked negative because of it & their response was this:

Your credit file has not been marked as a late payment. The only time we would send information to Equifax is if we returned a payment unpaid.

I checked Noddle tonight for something unrelated & noticed under "other accounts" and first direct, March balance is listed as £299, where all other months are actually listed as £0.

Though the status is green for March & listed as "ok".

So i have a negative of £299, but i'm ok? How does that work?

Osarkon

Your 1st Account normally has a £500 overdraft.

The credit report is only reporting on the overdraft figure as its a form of credit.

Hence you used 299 of your overdraft, 299 will show on your credit report for that month.

Not an issue as its an agreed overdraft.

Hope that helps

Nine_Lives

Sorry i should've added - i removed the overdraft long ago.


EDIT: A few days before the above, i emailed them asking just about charges.

At no point did i "show my frustration". I just asked about charges, nothing more, nothing less, but you know how they like to pad their responses out......

In the circumstances, we believe it would be beneficial to explain our overdraft policy to you.

Our overdraft policy enables us to provide a service that offers choice and flexibility for our customers, whilst ensuring that we continue to lend responsibly.

As such, you can request an overdraft in the following ways:

Formal overdrafts may be requested in advance and will be agreed and authorised (subject to status) until further notice.

Informal overdrafts may be requested by presenting a debit for payment such as an ATM withdrawal, cheque, Direct Debit or standing order, when there is not enough money in your account. These requests will be authorised (subject to status) for 31 days. If another informal request is received within the same period, this will be treated as a new request.

If an informal request is agreed, a £25 Arrangement Fee may be applicable and is non-refundable. This is irrespective of the amount, or duration, of the request in question.

For your information, fees are advised to you on a pre-notification of charges and interest statement. They are deducted from your account 21 days after the statement has been produced. However, if you have suppressed paper statements, this information can be found via Internet Banking by selecting the 'view charges' link at the bottom of the statement page. Please ensure you view this regularly.

In your case, an informal overdraft increase was agreed on 25-Mar-2013. A £25 Arrangement Fee was incurred on one occasion only due to the circumstances described above. Whilst we appreciate your frustration regarding fees in general, they have been levied for the service provided in accordance with our published Rates and Tariff.

That said, after careful consideration, we are happy to refund the fee in full as a gesture of goodwill on this occasion.

Moving forward, should you anticipate making frequent informal overdraft requests, or if you wish to discuss your account facilities to prevent future fees, please contact us on 08 456 100 100.

matttye

They're treating it like they would an agreed overdraft, basically.

fiesta04

You have been very lucky this time, as this could have caused you problems.

F4

Nine_Lives

Ah thanks for clearing it up.

So what's the important part then? I assume the green marker with the "ok" rather than an entry of £299? As i see the £299 & think that surely has to be bad, as i was in the red, but the green marker seems to cancel that out.

matttye

Nine_Lives wrote: »

Ah thanks for clearing it up.

So what's the important part then? I assume the green marker with the "ok" rather than an entry of £299? As i see the £299 & think that surely has to be bad, as i was in the red, but the green marker seems to cancel that out.

Being in debt isn't necessarily viewed as a negative so long as you pay back what you owe on time and are borrowing within your means.

The simple fact that you're £299 in the red is not a negative in itself. It would only become a negative if the bank asked for the money back and you couldn't pay it, or if £299 is a lot of money to borrow based on what you earn.