Vanquis default because of £1

Stan555

Hello,

Here's a situation:

I've paid £3.80 outstanding on my Vanquis £750 credit card and now few months down the line my account is being defaulted because of another £1 I owed next month apparently. And I have 4 missed payment marks on my credit report and sounds like I'll have a default as well. Talking to them they say £1 is interest applied and £1 or £1000 it doesn't matter. I had no phone calls from them neither to ask for a payment. They used to send text reminder of missed payment and you could pay by replying to txt but they didn't for this £1.
I have no debts, 5k+ unused overdrafts with my banks, no missed payments ever with couple of other credit cards, and this is unbelievably frustrating. We are expecting a baby and possibly looking to get a mortgage so this default is not what I need.
Can anything be done to remove these marks from my credit report?

Many Thanks,
Stan

StuC75

It looks to be factually correct, so will be difficult to argue against.

Did you not get the statements through, why did you not know about the balance? Hard to argue over the amount, since where would you draw the line of what 'does matter' in your book, £1, £2, £5....

matttye

StuC75 wrote: »

It looks to be factually correct, so will be difficult to argue against.

Did you not get the statements through, why did you not know about the balance? Hard to argue over the amount, since where would you draw the line of what 'does matter' in your book, £1, £2, £5....

Do we need hard-and-fast rules for everything or can lenders not be expected to apply some common sense? Nobody would wreck their creditworthiness for the sake of £1, so surely it's apparent they are simply not aware of the monies owed.

If there is an actual default, then there should have been a default notice sent to the OP before it was applied, so if he received no such notice then it may be invalid.

I would suggest for anything < £5 the lender should ring up the debtor and say "we're about to default you for not paying £X, do you want to pay it now to avoid this?" 99% of people would pay it there and then.

If the OP was notified in some form or another about the interest then I can see no grounds for the late payments being removed, but I think there's a good argument for the default being removed. Not least because it's going to have a disproportionate effect for the amount owed.

searcher1

matttye wrote: »

Do we need hard-and-fast rules for everything or can lenders not be expected to apply some common sense? Nobody would wreck their creditworthiness for the sake of £1, so surely it's apparent they are simply not aware of the monies owed.

If there is an actual default, then there should have been a default notice sent to the OP before it was applied, so if he received no such notice then it may be invalid.

I would suggest for anything < £5 the lender should ring up the debtor and say "we're about to default you for not paying £X, do you want to pay it now to avoid this?" 99% of people would pay it there and then.

If the OP was notified in some form or another about the interest then I can see no grounds for the late payments being removed, but I think there's a good argument for the default being removed. Not least because it's going to have a disproportionate effect for the amount owed.

Oh, they will or should I say their computerised systems will do it! Everything is automated so unless they set a manual perimeter it'll happen. You probably had many £12 overdue charges too I'd guess?
Michael

ShALLaX

Imagine the cost of having to administer a system where people have to call you up every time you're about to default. It's your responsibility, don't pass it off onto someone else.

matttye

ShALLaX wrote: »

Imagine the cost of having to administer a system where people have to call you up every time you're about to default. It's your responsibility, don't pass it off onto someone else.

I suggested that as an alternative of sending out the default notice, rather than in addition to. By law they're supposed to send out a default notice, giving the debtor a chance to put right the situation.

The default notice is often NOT sent out and defaults are applied unfairly. I suggested the call as a quicker and cheaper alternative to a letter.

lvm

OP...it sounds like you are saying you are about to be defaulted but haven't been so far.

Just phone up and pay the outstanding balance (yes, no doubt more than £1 now - ask them to waive maybe half the fees in lieu of them not contacting you as they usually do) and the late payment markers won't be a huge issue in a year or so. Wait til they've defaulted you and live the next 6 years with limited access to credit!