6 Years From.... What exactly?

LuckyReds

A little curious regarding the 6 year time span regarding defaults on credit files. For example:

Person A defaults on an account in January 2010, they carry on their usual everyday life until a DCA gets involved in July 2010, and they make payments to the DCA up until January 2011 - when they've paid the debt off in full.

As far as I can see, this situation could "drop off" at...

- January 2016 - This is when the default has reached 6 years old.

- July 2016 - This is 6 years since the original creditor has passed the account over and the new owner is seeking payment.

- January 2016 - 6 Years since there has been no money owed.

I'm guessing it's January 2016 as that's when you defaulted on the actual agreement with the original creditor? However I'm not sure if your conduct with the DCA (as, essentially, a third party to whom you have no contract with) is recorded on your credit file..?

matttye

The DCA can report your conduct but the account still drops off 6 years from the default date, so jan 2016 would be the date it drops off.

Sometimes DCAs add second defaults when they take over debts, but this is absolutely not allowed and they're legally bound to remove it.

fermi

Yes, on a defaulted account it is 6 years from the "default date" that is recorded on the credit file.

LuckyReds

fermi wrote: »

Yes, on a defaulted account it is 6 years from the "default date" that is recorded on the credit file.

Lovely, thanks for clearing that up! I thought it worked that way, but figured I should probably check. That's brightened my day up somewhat..

matttye wrote: »

The DCA can report your conduct but the account still drops off 6 years from the default date, so jan 2016 would be the date it drops off.

Sometimes DCAs add second defaults when they take over debts, but this is absolutely not allowed and they're legally bound to remove it.

Now that is very interesting indeed! That's worth knowing, I'd never heard of that anywhere else. I'm guessing it's a "simple" (ahem, in theory) process of checking your credit reports and then approaching the DCA and the Credit Reporting Agency with a correction?

This leads me to another interesting scenario that I've found myself in though: can a DCA issue a default for a debt that wasn't credit based; i.e an unpaid library fine?

I recently got a letter from a Debt Collection Agency acting upon a library from somewhere I studied at about a year ago. Apparently unpaid fees have been passed on to them for the tune of £172.. :eek:

I rang up immediately and cleared £50 of it, and said I'd deal with the rest in the coming months. The woman on the phone (who was actually incredibly helpful and polite) read from her script "If you have any issues paying then just let us know, because of course if you fail to pay, we'll have to issue you a default". I asked her for more information and she explained that was essentially on her "script".

Can a DCA even issue a default if even the original debt/creditor didn't even have a credit agreement, in the case of a library fine for example? I think I'll have to keep an eye on my credit report for the next couple of months; even more than usual!

fermi

No. They can't record a default for a library fine.

That was just some clueless numpty reading verbatim from a script,

LuckyReds

fermi wrote: »

No. They can't record a default for a library fine.

That was just some clueless numpty reading verbatim from a script,

I thought as much, but just wanted to check. It did worry me as it hadn't even crossed my mind! As I say I questioned it and she said "Thats what I've got on my screen" or similar. Truly shocking as that is a quite a scary threat if you take it at face value!

I'll have to read through the ICO guidance sticked here, I've just briefly skimmed it and it seems to be very good stuff. Thanks again!