Unfair entry on my credit file

Bianca47

In 2009, I took advantage of a Carphonewarehouse deal and introduced a friend who received a free laptop and phone for starting an account with them. It was only after I'd done this that I found the contract was actually in my name, and I was responsible for the bills. After a couple of months, my friend could not afford to pay the phone bill and gave me the handset. My son's fiance (now my daughter in law) said she would take over the contract and set up a direct debit with o2. After visiting the shop, we then rang o2 and asked them to transfer the contract into her name, and as far as we were aware, this is what they agreed to. I no longer received the bills, and the direct debit was no longer taken out of my bank account.

I have worked in finance for the last 30 years , and I have to have as near perfect a credit score as possible to do this job, and my score has been 999/1000 with Equifax and Experion, and 4/5 with Noddle. To keep an eye on my rating, I have an account with Noddle who regularly send me emails which contain a link to their site so I can check my credit score. On 3rd June this year I found to my horror that my rating had dropped to 1/5 due to an unpaid phone bill for £101.00 with o2.

I rang o2 and found this was my daughter in law's phone bill from November 2012. I immediately paid the bill and was advised to email creditfilereferrals@o2.com to ask that this entry be removed from my file as I did not know the contract was still in my name, and also had known nothing about this bill until that morning. I did this, and 6 days later received the following email from them refusing to do this:-

"O2 do not allow people to simply transfer an account from their name to another person’s name, which is called a “Transfer of Ownership”.

The account was in your name and you were legally responsible to ensure the account was paid within the agreed terms of contract - invoices to be paid in full within 14 days.

If you entrusted someone else to pay the invoices on your behalf, then that is a civil matter between you and that individual, but the money was owed to O2 by yourself, not them.

As per the terms and conditions agreed to at the point of sale, all invoices and chasing correspondence were sent to the email address (my name + four numbers)@o2.co.uk with a backup email address of XXXXXXXXXXX (my daughter in law's email address)

The account was in arrears from 14/11/2012 until 05/06/2013, despite several invoices and chasing emails been sent.

I’m afraid the information is loaded to your credit file correctly as per the terms and conditions of contract, as such I am unable to remove the arrears from your credit file."

I replied saying that I considered the default they had put on my credit file was very unfair as (1) I did not know the contract was still in my name, and (2) I had never heard of the email address in my name that o2 had sent these invoices and chasing correspondence to, so therefore I had never received them and was in total ignorance of the outstanding bill. I even sent them a screen shot of a search I did on my computer trying to find some record of this unknown email address and the only item the Search found was in the email o2 had sent me.

I then received the following email from o2:-

"As confirmed below by my colleague Chris we cannot remove the default from your credit file for the reasons he has explained. Bearing in mind that the account was in arrears for 6 months, your daughter in law (believing that the account was in her name) must have been wondering why she wasn’t receiving invoices, but we had no contact to query this from her? The default is correct and cannot be removed."

I have contacted the Financial Ombudsman about this, and they say they cannot help me as o2 did not confirm in writing that the contract had been transferred into my daughter in laws name.

Given my low credit score, I am now in grave danger of losing my job, and if that happens, I will not be able to pay my rent and will lose my home. It also will make it impossible for me to rent another cheaper property. I am a pensioner and live on my own and am at my wit's end over this. I don't know what to do or who to turn to for help and advice.

Dovah_diva

Sorry to say, but it sounds to me like the error was yours and O2 have lodged that default fairly.

Can you speak to your employer and explain?

*Kat*

How can you lose your job for a poor credit rating?

tinkerbell28

*Kat* wrote: »

How can you lose your job for a poor credit rating?

Quite easily depending what the job is.

Op I don't know what to say. I feel for you though.

Bianca47

I can't accept that the error was mine. I took in good faith what my daughter in law and I were told when we rang o2 ie. that the contract had been transferred into her name. I was completely unaware that this had to be confirmed in writing. I was also completely unaware of this debt because o2 wrote to me about it using an email address that did not, and never has, existed.

And if I did speak to my employer about it, they would sack me on the spot. I'm just hoping it will be some time before they run another routine credit check on me.

Thrugelmir

Bianca47 wrote: »

"O2 do not allow people to simply transfer an account from their name to another person’s name, which is called a “Transfer of Ownership”.

The account was in your name and you were legally responsible to ensure the account was paid within the agreed terms of contract - invoices to be paid in full within 14 days.

If you entrusted someone else to pay the invoices on your behalf, then that is a civil matter between you and that individual, but the money was owed to O2 by yourself, not them.

This sums up the issue, standard contractual law. No if's or but's.

Let sleeping dogs lie now and let time heal your credit record.

sfax

Although I feel for you, I don't see how you can accept no blame on the issue. You could have called O2 after the supposed transfer to check your account was clear. You could also have checked your bill at any time online (you must have been setup online if you weren't receiving paper bills).

tinkerbell28

Bianca47 wrote: »

I can't accept that the error was mine. I took in good faith what my daughter in law and I were told when we rang o2 ie. that the contract had been transferred into her name. I was completely unaware that this had to be confirmed in writing. I was also completely unaware of this debt because o2 wrote to me about it using an email address that did not, and never has, existed.

And if I did speak to my employer about it, they would sack me on the spot. I'm just hoping it will be some time before they run another routine credit check on me.

That sucks it really does. I got a ribbing on here for subscribing to my files, so does my OH. It is this kind of mishap we really don't want or need. So £6 for peace of mind.

You can get fired for having bad credit files, dependant on job. How awful. Be sure to thank the daughter in law won't you!

JustinCredibleGillespie

Definitely put a notice of correction on your credit file also.

JCG

xx

Caz3121

what does your daughter in law say about the payments?

Bianca47

sfax. It never occurred to me to ring o2 again to check on the transfer of the contract. I just took what they said at face value. I wasn't able to check my bills on line as I only received paper bills at that time. Once o2 had agreed to the transfer, I received no more bills - they all went to my daughter in law. Also, no more money was taken by Direct Debit from my bank for this phone. It was taken out of my daughter in law's bank. This just added to my belief that the contract had been transferred to her.

tinkerbell28 Many thanks for your supportive comments.

JustinCredibleGillespie I have considered putting a Notice of Correction on my file, but found a site (can't remember its name) where many people strongly advised against doing this because with them, it had backfired and had a negative effect on their ability to obtain credit. So, I still don't know if I should do this or not...

Caz3121 My daughter in law and my son are absolutely mortified about what has happened and are doing all they can to support me at the moment.

Anyway, Guys - many thanks for all your help. I've emailed o2 again but I'm not expecting them to change their minds.