Credit Rating Improvement Question

BertieBassett84

Hi All,

This may have been mentioned numerous times but i'm struggling to find information.

Recently I decided to tidy up my credit file as my partner and I are looking to try to purchase our own house. Her credit record is spotless where as mine has a few blemishes. I have come across one thing in particular which is likely doing a lot of the damage to my credit.

It appears that I have a default from Virgin Media from February 2009 for a value of £27.00. I do not remember having any issues with Virgin Media, basically the lease ran out on my property and I was moving back to my parents and I called them and cancelled my account with no issues. I then moved out and thought that was the end of it. Virgin did not ask me for any forwarding address or such when I cancelled. I have never received any phone calls or letters regarding this default so I have never had the opportunity to dispute/settle it and am now wondering what I should do?

If I contact Virgin and dispute (or at the very worst offer to settle) this debt will the mark "reset" and remain as a settled debt for another 6 years? I do not want to re-awaken a debt that is over 4 years old.

This is really the only major blemish on my record and I do not want this to prevent my partner and I from receiving a mortgage for the next 2 years (especially considering a large inflation in house prices is expected quite soon).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Tixy

Hi

If you pay the default it will be marked as settled for next year and a half, that is it will still drop off 6 years from the default date shown on your file.

Once it is settled, as it is a fairly old and very small default it may not be a major hindrance to getting a mortgage (it might reduce the number of willing lenders but wouldn't necessarily put you in the subprime lenders market).

You may be able to negotiate with Virgin for them to remove it as a goodwill gesture if you pay in full, certainly worth a shot.

Did you have mail forwarding from your last address to your current one? if so then they should have sent you letters relating to the debt. Did you cancel the DD at the point you cancelled the contract - or did they just stop collecting the DD themselves?

BertieBassett84

I honestly can't remember that far back I'm afraid. I know what I usually do is contact the company, confirm everything is cancelled and then cancel the direct debit myself.

I didn't have mail forwarding from that address to my new address at the time. Anything that was specifically for me I either settled, cancelled or informed the company individually of my change of address. As I had no argument from Virgin when I cancelled and they didn't ask I didn't provide them with any forwarding address. Obviously that means they couldn't have sent me any letters notifying me of a default but I never received any calls or emails either.

Is it possible just to call them and tell them that I was never informed I owed them money and was never given a default notice so they should remove this from their records? It seems ludicrous that they think I would default and damage my credit for the sake of £27.00!!