Orange/EE Late Payments at the end of minimum contract ruining mortgage / house move

mattsoutham

Orange have totally ruined our credit file on a stupid misunderstanding.

I signed up to two 24 month contracts for my two sisters in December 2010 which expired in December 2012. The payments were setup from my Dad's Bank account the entire term, and from their address which I didn't even live at since December 2010.

After 24 months my sisters got new phones/contracts elsewhere and stopped using the two numbers in question. My Dad thought the contract was up and cancelled the DD.

In March & April we received a letter addressed to me, but to my parent's address, requesting that we pay the bill of 3 month's missed payments. In the confusion, we phoned in April and reluctantly paid off the two amounts (£81 and £88).

Due to these 2 late payments on 2 almost identical accounts we now have markers with a [1][1][2] for 2 identical late/settled accounts. The rest of my/my wifes credit history is completely clean, and we are even overpaying our £487 mortgage by an additional £400 per month.

These late payments are restricting us from porting our mortgage with our current lender Accord; or we would induce a £4500 Early Repayment Charge to switch lenders - of which we would also likely have to pay much higher rates!

Can anyone advise?
Are we really in this much trouble over a misunderstanding of a mobile phone contract of which we paid off anyway?
When we weren't even informed about it until March & April, via old numbers and to an old address?

ACG

Get all 3 of your credit reports - equifax, experian, call credit to a broker

You dont say how much deposit you have but presuming its not 5% i think you have a decent enough chance of getting a mortgage. Thankfully they are quite old and it only went to a "2" on your credit report.

You might not have the pick of the lenders but the bigger the deposit the better rates you will get (but that goes without saying anyway).


EDIT:
Just read your full post properly...
Accord i have found to be very strict and pedantic. I dont think you are going to get round accords lending criteria. Meaning you have the choice of sticking or paying the ERC.

Tjrw1985

Hang on, So YOU took out contract for YOUR sisters and they were paid from YOUR dad's bank account.

Sorry if I seem harsh here, but just because they were using the phones, they were YOUR contracts.

The terms and Conditions would have stated YOU needed to give written notice to cancel them, they don't just expire.

So it is not Orange's fault, it is YOURS

mattsoutham

Unfortunately yes, the contracts are in my name - that is not the issue in question here. The problem is we had no notification about any late payments until it was too late, and after paying every month it is just a misunderstanding that is causing us thousands of pounds of problems in moving home and remortgaging.

At the time of taking out these contracts I was still living at home, didn't have much of a clue about credit files, and to be honest forgot about them as I had only set them up and had them delivered. After that it was in my Dad's hands, and he unknowingly built up the late payments after the 'minimum term' was up - we all thought that was it. Evidently not.

We will have around 25% equity in the new house, a 170k mortgage for a 230k home; and these markers are in Jan, Feb, March 2013 on 2 accounts - [1][1][2] , with a settled marker in April .

Tjrw1985

That is why you must read T & C's.

You cannot cancel a contract just by cancelling the DD, and I'm sorry, but i find it hard to believe it took them 3 months to write. I honestly think, the 3 month letter is the first one you saw.

Unfortunately, I think you are stuck where you are until these are 6 - 12 months old.

ACG

Do you honestly sit there and read the terms and conditions of every contract you ever sign? Especially when you were young?

I dont and to be honest very few people read the T&Cs of their mortgage in full let alone a mobile phone.

Its clearly a mistake, hes made 2 years worth of payments and missed the last one. Jesus, glass houses and all that. Its hardly mistake of the century is it.

Tjrw1985

No I didn't ACG and that was not my point.

Just giving him the facts that he may be stuck where he is for 6 to 12 months as it appears he wants to port his mortgage to a different house as he is within an ERC so cannot change lender.

Also saying that I doubt they didn't write for 3 months and I would assume letters were binned previously before they saw this letter 3 months later.

Not mistake of the century at all, but one that is going to be costly for a few months.

ACG

Its a mistake, just part of human nature.

Were all on this site to either help or get help so its just a case of trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Sadly in this instance if Accord are saying they wont allow the port, i dont think there is much that can be done short of paying the ERC's.

mattsoutham

The first letter we received was in March, after 3 months of not paying. We got another in April stating it would be passed on to debt collection if we didn't pay in 7 days. We paid in 2 days, it was settled, and now the late payments (what seemed to be a small mistake) is causing massive problems.

We asked why it took that long to get any notification, and they said the first 2 months they try to call you - but ONLY on the mobiles which we had already stopped using.

Tjrw1985

Again, that is probably in the T&C's.

Im not saying this is correct of Orange to do this at all, but what they have reported to the CRA's is factual information.

Yes over a small amount of money it seems harsh, but that is the reality.

Have you written to them and asked if they will remove it. I'm not saying they will but they might, if you explain the circumstances.

roonaldo

Sorry its not Orange's fault.