DCA new default date but no communication

vicky72

Hello all,
first a bit of background. I got into a lot of debt as a student and entered into a DMP in 2005-2008 as I couldn't make monthly repayments. The last contact I had with any of my creditors was possibly in December 2008.
After this date, a lot of defaults appeared on my file and some have now disappeared. The only credit I have had since then is mobile phones, broadband etc.
I checked my file yesterday as I want to take out a small loan and saw that a new record appeared in May 2013 registered by a debt collection agency for an old debt. It looks like a new debt now. It says I entered into a DMP with them (I didn't!) and that it has some records of 1s showing my payments were up to date ( they weren't as I haven't paid or talked to any debt collection agency since the start of 2009 at the latest!). This will now start the 6 years off again! My question is, can they do this as it is an old debt and I haven't made contact with them or acknowledged it and it had already been defaulted by the original company (this isn't on my file and I can't even work out who it is). If I contact them to dispute it, will that count as contact and restart the 6 years anyway?
cheers

fermi

A debt collection agency can take over the record from the previous creditor. i.e. their name replaces the original on the entry and history.

They must not put a more recent default on though if there was a previous one with an older "default date".

So what is the actual "default date" on this one?

Sounds as if it may be similar to this other thread this morning.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5015577

and if so the same would apply.

vicky72

Thank you. I was just looking at that thread. I have been trying to find old paperwork related to these debts but have had no luck yet. I can't see anything on my file relating to the original debt so I can't be sure that they did put a default on there I suppose. And I definitely didn't enter into a debt management plan with them in 2013 either as it says on the report.
Does anyone know if there is a way to get access to older credit reports to see if it did have a default registered against the original debt?

fermi

If you obtained reports previously then you may be able to.

If you didn't at the time then I'm told by Experian at least that they don't retain the historical data, so can't retrospectively generate a report.

You should probably ask the agencies yourself though, as who knows you might get a different answer.

In the end though if you want it corrected then you will need to enter a dispute via the CRA and/or the collector that the record is not accurate.

Then take it to the Financial Ombusman and Information Commissioner if the collector refuses to ammed or remove if it is incorrect.