£4 Arrears with Very.co.uk

SupermumTGF

I can defiantly emphatise with you chalky, I also had an excellent credit report for years. Missed a payment on a £8. Item on very (thought it was apart of bnpl option) and recently was refused a mortgage as a result.
Their customer service is terrible, your calls are ignored and I was also given mixed information.
My intentions is to challenge their decision through the ombudsman as this is having a negative effect on my overall credit.
Have you already challenged the decision with very's so called 'customer excellence team' ?

Chalky87

Hello Supermum,

That is awful, sorry to hear that you've been refused a mortgage. We literally had a mortgage accepted a couple of weeks before this happened. I would have been mortified if such a small debt would have accounted for a refused application.

This must happen many times, BNPL to me sounds as if everything is included in the price. My order was for £500, I've now paid it off, just because I don't want to have to deal with them again full stop.

I've been regularly e-mailing the customer service team but to be honest they've been poor. I thought they might show some goodwill on such a large order, considering as soon as I saw the arrears (only notified by myself checking my noddle credit account) I paid off the balance. No such look however, I apparently have a letter coming through the post from them, be interesting to see what that says.

What was the information they gave you? Mine was a basic ignorance of anything I wrote and a standard line of 'we cannot change correct information'.

Thanks

Chalky

SupermumTGF

Hi chalky
Eventually after 3 months I was given the same spill. I queried it but they were not budging.
It's extremely fortunate you arranged your mortgage when you did. I was so dissappointed that they were so brutal in tarnishing my file in regards to such a small amount. Over the years I have spent at least £10k or more with them (credit limit £8k) I have even allowed family and friends use my accounts to set up their homes ect.
All payments have ALWAYS been on time and to be honest i could always pay upfront. I have a very small balance with them now (on bnpl) but I will now clear it simply to allow other lenders to observe I am responsible borrower capable enough to pay on time. Once the balance is clear I am closing my account and under no circumstances using any such credit services again.

SupermumTGF

Good luck chalky!

DevCoder

A couple of points Supermum

It would be extremely unlikely that one missed payment would result in a refused mortgage, did the mortgage lender explicitly state it was due to the missed payment? Normally its other criteria combined with the missed payment that would end up in a refusal.

It is also not a good idea to refuse to take out other credit services, a credit file that has no entries is just as bad as one with defaults on it in most cases. How will a lender judge your credit history?

Chalky87

Yes, the lack of goodwill here is incredible I think. Good luck to you as well, I'll keep updating the post and let you know if it gets anywhere.

I'll have to see where my credit score stands next month when everything is updated. You can also apparently apply a correction against your credit file - I guess this might be worth doing just to put your argument across.

I agree with Kris above though, some credit is good, I think my lesson for future is to always make sure the credit is set up with a direct debit, and if that's not offered, not to bother.

As for Very and Littlewoods etc. they won't get any custom from me again! And hopefully threads like these will chip away at their reputation.

Thanks

Chalky

SupermumTGF

krisdorey wrote: »

A couple of points Supermum

It would be extremely unlikely that one missed payment would result in a refused mortgage, did the mortgage lender explicitly state it was due to the missed payment? Normally its other criteria combined with the missed payment that would end up in a refusal.

It is also not a good idea to refuse to take out other credit services, a credit file that has no entries is just as bad as one with defaults on it in most cases. How will a lender judge your credit history?

Yes kris it was specifically related to that. Unfortunately it was a few days after the second late payment was applied to my report as their 2 months of a non payment as I believed the item was on bnpl , my bank HSBC were keen for me to apply for a mortgage which I did. It was then and there I found out about the 2 late payments after I was refused. I was mortified. Annoyed with myself and upset how I was treated by very. HSBC have a very strict criteria so this did not represent me favorably.
I previously had excellent credit. I have 2 credit cards with high st banks with combined limits of £15k and use them monthly and pay it all back on time the following month.
I am a responsible borrower and always have been. I was advised to continue to trade in this way and to apply again when the wound is not so fresh (credit wise)
Sorry what I meant was I won't be taking out any credit services from home delivery/shopping groups. I intend to keep using my credit cards, contract phone ect.

SupermumTGF

Hi chalky, As I said to kris.... I wasn't clear enough, I meant I will not be using shop direct or home catalogues altogether once this mess is over. I will keep all my other cards ect as they reflect well.

I was considering writing a notice of correction but decided against it simply because it draws more attention to the indescretion. Plus any application will need to be looked at by the underwriting team too. In addition to that I won't be applying for credit for at least a year from now so by then it will show all the payments on track and the account will be closed.

There are tons of similar threads regarding their protocol, it's sickening! The direct debit would have ensured it didn't get to this so I too have set it up with every creditor I owe as a simple just in case.
Do come back and let us know how you get on. I hope it won't have too much of a negative effect on you.

Chalky87

Thanks Supermum.

All for a few quid eh, that they could take at purchase to avoid ruining people's credit files!

Never mind, let's keep fighting them!

mike0090

Chalky87 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate you coming back to me. I'm still in the process of arguing with Very.co.uk regarding this issue. I've moved from 5/5 credit rating to 2/5 due to this single issue (for £4).

And it's interesting that Very haven't been so quick as to update the file is now no longer in arrears. So my credit file is now showing that I'm still in arrears (I'm not), and that it has been that way for three months.

I received no statement from Very.co.uk or notificationt that I needed to pay. Nor was it stated explicitly that payment of the delivery charge would be due immediately. As the earlier poster said if it's not included then either force the setup of a direct debit for a credit account or charge for delivery at point of purchase. I'm sure most people can afford a £4 delivery charge if they're opening a credit account. The first I knew that payment was required was checking my credit file.

I appreciate your comments SuperHan but a £4 oversight does not warrant ruining my credit score. You take the consequences, yes, but not presumably if they're disproportionate to the 'crime'.

I'll update with anything else I here back from Very. If not is the Financial Ombudsman an option to take my complaint further?

Thanks

Chalky

Last week my partner checked her credit file and noticed the missed payment has been removed. No idea if very had a change of heart or if the f.o.s has instructed them to remove it. Could even be the case the missed payment has to be removed until the dispute is settled. However I would definitely recommend disputing the missed payment with the f.o.s, you have nothing to lose and and as far as I'm aware it costs the company quite a bit of money.