Credit Card Default!

landlord999

Hi,
I have a unison credit card account with the bank of Scotland and have had it for a number of years. In January 2013 I noticed I was not receiving any bills/correspondence from unison so I called them and explained I was not receiving any bills or correspondence and they asked me to confirm my address which I did They informed me that the address on my account had been changed and the bills/correspondence had been sent there! I asked who changed the address on the account and when and they could not tell me any information about this as they did not know. I confirmed my actual address and explained it was also my address when I opened the account and I had been receiving my bills no problem up until someone changed my address on your systems. The operator confirmed they had changed my address back and I will now be receiving my bills to my actual address. I made a payment to the operator as the account was behind because I had not been receiving any correspondence.
This brings me up to May 2013 when I realised I was still not receiving any bills/correspondence from unison even though I had informed them of my actual address back in January. So I called them again and was told the same thing as before that my address had been changed and the bills where going there, they confirmed I had called them in January 2013 but had no details about the nature of the call! So I went through the whole conversation as before and they still could not tell me who changed the address or why. They also explained the account was now behind as there were no payments being made so I agreed to pay £65.00 per month and the operator confirmed that she had now changed my address. I asked what was going to be done about the late payment marks on my credit file because it was not my fault, it was in fact the fault of Unison for changing my address, she put me on hold so she could speak to her manager. A short while after she came back on the line and said that her manager would write a letter to the credit reference agencies and remove the late payment marks but this would take up to a month to update so I said ok that’s fine. At the end of the call I questioned the operator quite strongly “Is the confirmation letter and the new bills going to be sent to my address. I had to repeat this question 3 times before she agreed and said yes they will.
This brings me up to July 13th 2013. I still have not received any confirmation of the £65pm arrangement, bills or correspondence from unison so I call them again, I enter my credit card details on the phone and I am put straight through to the Blair Oliver Scott answer machine. Having no idea who this is I googled it to find to my horror it was a debt collection agency that buys debts from the bank of Scotland! Having no idea what was going on because I have not received any correspondence from Unison or Blair Oliver Scott I checked my Experian credit file and was horrified to see the unison credit card account was showing that it was in Default!
My address on my credit card account was changed by unison for no reason resulting in me missing payments due to not receiving any bills/correspondence. I have contacted unison twice now to resolve this situation with every intention of repaying this account but unison have not changed my address back, in the last call in May 2013 I confirmed a payment arrangement and it was confirmed that the manager would contact the credit reference agencies to amend my file as it was there fault, it was also confirmed that my address was now changed back for a second time. Here we are now July 13th 2013 and I still have not received anything in the post and I now see my debt that I was happy to continue paying has been put in default and sold on to a debt collection agency. I have not received any default notice or warning of any of this happening which is illegal even though I have told unison my address twice now since January and only because unison changed it for no reason and with no explanation, I am absolutely at my wits end! Please Help!!!!!:mad:

Eonel

You are savvy enough to know that not paying your credit card will have damaged your credit record. And you are capable of checking your credit record online.

Yet you are not savvy enough to know that spending on a credit card can & should be paid by telephone or online if no statement arrives. And not capable of checking your credit card balance online.

You failed to pay your credit card for many months and now you need to be persistent telephoning BoS to sort this out. Don't input you credit card number when prompted to not get re-routed to Debt Collections Dept.

happy_bunny_2

You should only deal with companies in writing, for reasons like this.

Send them a written complaint telling them what you want done to correct the situation.

In my experience, BOS are a bit useless so you need letters as proof.

lynz68

Ok so you rang in Jan 2013 prior to this when did you last receive a bill or make a payment? You should have contacted them and made a payment when the first bill failed to arrive.

Again why wait from Jan to May to make contact? I am assuming you did not make any payments during this period.

You are not entitled to any warning letter about default as soon as you miss a payment a default is automatically recorded.

While they have certainly made an error and quite frankly it all sounds a bit dodgy to me you yourself have also failed to make attempts to pay. You are fully aware that payments are required on a monthly basis yet did not pay.

rabbit_burrow

lynz68 wrote: »

Ok so you rang in Jan 2013 prior to this when did you last receive a bill or make a payment? You should have contacted them and made a payment when the first bill failed to arrive.

Again why wait from Jan to May to make contact? I am assuming you did not make any payments during this period.

You are not entitled to any warning letter about default as soon as you miss a payment a default is automatically recorded.

While they have certainly made an error and quite frankly it all sounds a bit dodgy to me you yourself have also failed to make attempts to pay. You are fully aware that payments are required on a monthly basis yet did not pay.

Exactly what I was about to put. I would've been on the phone in February, and then I would have called them every week until I received in writing confirmation that my statements would be sent to my correct address. After a few weeks it would turn into daily calls and a letter if I still hadn't heard anything.

dalesrider

So have you made the £65 a month payment.

So in Jan. How many months had you not received any statements?
Why given that you knew there was a issue with the address in Jan did you not ring in Feb asking where your statement was. Instead of waiting a further 4 months to query that you were still not receiving statements.

Had you been making any payments over the months when you did not get a statement?
Were you using the card in this period?
As I'm surprised that the card was not blocked if you were not making any payments.....

Is the address that it was changed to known to you?
have you updated Unision with a new address or such.

While you could raise this as a complaint. What you may find is that you will be found to be part at fault for not acting over something you knew about.

happy_bunny_2

lynz68 wrote: »

Ok so you rang in Jan 2013 prior to this when did you last receive a bill or make a payment? You should have contacted them and made a payment when the first bill failed to arrive.

Again why wait from Jan to May to make contact? I am assuming you did not make any payments during this period.

You are not entitled to any warning letter about default as soon as you miss a payment a default is automatically recorded.

While they have certainly made an error and quite frankly it all sounds a bit dodgy to me you yourself have also failed to make attempts to pay. You are fully aware that payments are required on a monthly basis yet did not pay.

They have to issue a default letter and usually not before a minimum of 3 payments missed according to ICO guidelines.

Having changed the address means they would sent to wrong place and my be able to get the default removed. As long as decided its their fault.

lynz68

I am no expert on default notices but the fact still remains the OP appears to have made little or no attempt to pay what was a regular monthly bill for them as they have had the card for a number of years.

happy_bunny_2

lynz68 wrote: »

I am no expert on default notices but the fact still remains the OP appears to have made little or no attempt to pay what was a regular monthly bill for them as they have had the card for a number of years.

I agree. It's a long time, although they dd try after a few months. This might be a stumbling block, depends on why mood the FOS are in.

lynz68

Will also depend on the gap between last payment and contacting them in January could look like two separate periods when they did not pay. Really should have kept on top of it after first contacting them.

landlord999

hi when i called in jan 2013 it was 1 payment behind so i assume they changed the address in oct/nov 2012, i did make that payment on the phone and corrected them on my actual address. I admit i should have contacted them more often regarding not receiving the bills after i told them in jan 2013 but i do have 14 cards and i do rely on the paper statements to remind me which i know is silly but there you go! the angle im relying on is the fact that they changed the address on the account not me, which is a bit fishy plus i did not receive a default notice as it was sent to the wrong address again there fault not mine. i did tell them twice my new address but they did nothing which is not an excuse not to pay as i have contacted them. But you can not put someones account in default unless you first send them a default notice,which i never received. I have sent letter of complaint by recorded delivery.