AP on Credit reports

DebTB324

Hi everyone,

I had a Goldfish credit card and in January 2004 I became ill, lost my job and as a result entered into an agreement to pay a reduced sum each month with interest frozen.

By December 2005 it was clear that I would never be well enough to work again and that I had no way of returning to making the full payments as I was on state benefits. At this time as far as I can recall Goldfish defaulted the account and I continued to pay a reduced rate.

I know that Goldfish changed hands a few times before coming to an end and each time this happened the account moved to the new bank, it was never placed in the hands of a debt collector.

A couple of years ago this debt was passed to Cabot and I continued to pay them at the same rate that I had been paying prior to the debt being passed to them. Earlier this year I had to reduce this amount to a nominal £5 a month from £20 as I now have increased outgoings because of my health. This was at the suggestion of the call handler.

I have recently received a letter from them stating that I am now in arrears and that I either need to pay them the arrears or they will default the account and this could affect my credit report. Because I was scared by their letter I have paid the arrears (and left myself without any money left until the end of the month) and they are phoning me later in the month to take a manual payment as they can't change the direct debit in time to take the higher amount this month.

I have just checked my credit report and it does say 'agreement to pay' on there going back the past 6 years, but:-

A) I thought it had been defaulted in 2004
this will take me another 22 years to pay off with this Agreement to pay on the file for this length of time. (I will never be well enough to work and pay this off as I have a progressive illness)

I have been searching the net, but can't find out if they are allowed to do this.

I can't find the original Goldfish default notice as I moved and other people cleared out my old house as I was in hospital at the time.

Thank you for any help and advice that you can give me on this.

Deb

[Deleted User]

You are being bullied by these scum: always deal with debt collection agencies by letter, get everything in writing. I would write to them and say your financial situation has worsened and the very most you can afford is £1 per month. stressing your illness. The worst they are going to do is apply for a ccj. At the end of the day, 'so what', a court would most likely agree on the £1 per month payment. I think the status of your credit report is largely irrelevant in this case.

[Deleted User]

They tricked you by saying they would default the account.

You can only default an account once.

Even if they could default it twice, then, and no offence intended, given your position, what difference could it make?

You could try complaining, about their misleading statement.

Stewart_78

First of all, it's very unlikely that the current owner of the debt has a valid and enforceable credit agreement and if they don't, they can't take you to court. What I would do is an SAR on the account which should give you all the account history and any default notices that have ever been applied. You need this info to fight back. If it has been defaulted in the past, then it should be marked as default on your credit file. If it was defaulted in 2004 then it shouldn't even show on your file now, regardless of how many times it's been bought and sold.

So you need to find out if it was defaulted and when really. If goldfish never actually served a default notice then you need to write to LLoyds and insist that they update your credit file correctly with a default as of 2004, pending a complaint to the FOS and ICO.

rizla_king

Cabot are full of s!!t, and have the most complaints referred to the FOS of any UK debt collector.

Should have been defaulted back in 2004. Complain and take them and Lloyds to the FOS if they won't backdate the default to then.