Default help?

catlady40

Hi, Sorry to sound dumb, not had a problem with credit before, but I'm not totally sure what a default is?

To cut a very long story short! We had a building project go wrong with a builder who disappeared, and problem after problem, it was going to be our home but we had to sell it because of the overruns and extra costs in getting it finished. We had a self build loan from the bank which we then had to turn into a mortgage with them. We got a buyer quickly but unfortunatly that fell through quite close to exchange, so we asked the bank if we could go to interest free while we resold because of the cost of the mortgage and rent. We paid the interest only for 5 months until we sold after reducing the price drastically to get a quick sale.

The 5 months are shown in red on Experian with a number 1-5 in each, we then paid our mortgage off and that month is green. Our credit score is showing as 'very poor' never had a problems before sadly. Do the red boxes mean we are in default? I have seen a screen shot on here from someone else showing a red box with a D in it? There is no mention that we paid the interest only on the mortgage?

We are having to find another house to rent now as landlord is returning from abroad and i'm worried our poor credit rating will affect this?

Any help you can give?

fermi

Numbers 1-6 indicate months late payments. On Experian an actual default registered is shown as an "8".

See: http://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/consumer/experian-YCRE.pdf

So no default.

catlady40

Many thanks for your reply Fermi and for link.

Can I also ask, is it correct that experian highlight it in red as late payment when we were paying the interest only as agreed by the bank? There is no indication on the report that that was what was happening? The bank did not mention that this would affect our credit score, should they have?