removing 11 years of '6 months' delinquency markers

GlitterQueen_2

So, I'm going to claim statute barred status on the Paragon account. I know if there is a debt it hasn't gone away but at least it buys me time to sort my life out without harassment. In May next year I'm hoping I can rent my own place but my friends tell me increasingly that landlords are asking to see credit reports before agreeing a tenancy. If a landlord sees my Equifax report as it is now with the Paragon markers I'll never get the chance to move on so i'm really hoping a statute barred letter followed by a request to remove the markers under ICO guidelines will do the trick. Wish me luck and thanks again for your interest and assistance.

Tixy

I am sure you will manage to get this sorted but just to let you know a credit check for rental purposes doesn't include information on credit account conduct. They can only see public information on CCJs/insolvency etc.

If you mean that the landlord asks to see your own copy of the report I have heard of a few cases of this happening and landlords have asked to personally be shown a copy of someone's credit file (the version that only the person should see with all companies names on etc). A lettings agency should never ask to see that though.
Ideally you would always refuse such a request if one was made by a landlord. That said if this only shows on your equifax file then I guess you could always just use your experian or callcredit file.

GlitterQueen_2

You are completely right but in my life if something can go wrong (or become complicated) it will go wrong that became clear a long time ago so I want to try to be as prepared as possible I will post again when I have a response from Paragon.

GlitterQueen_2

So Paragon replied and in the letter they quoted from ICO guidelines

"In general, the reporting of arrears is designed to indicate that the expected payment, whether a fixed sum (as in the case of many products) or required minimum (in the case of credit and store cards), has not been paid according to the terms and by the due date.

The purpose of reporting arrears is to indicate at the earliest reasonable opportunity that a customer is showing signs of potential financial difficulty.

Arrears are reported as missed payments through status codes such as 1, 2 etc which are based on the number of months missed.

Generally by the time the account is 3 months in arrears, the lender may be taking further action such as reporting the account as defaulted (see Principle 4 below). Missed payments may continue to rise and be reported up to a maximum of 6. On some products this may continue to show as 6 until the lender takes action and reports the account as being in default."

No further explanation has been provided and no assurance that markers will be removed from my credit file has been forthcoming.

Can anyone shed any further light on this?

rizla_king

Dear Paragon.

Thank you for quoting irrelevant guidelines from January 2014.

To make things clear, those guidelines did not exist when you misreported the account as a 6 on a monthly basis until 2013.

The guidelines you were obliged to abide by at the time in question, and are obliged to adhere to in relation to the historical reporting, were the ICO Technical Guidance on Defaults that say clearly that

"A record showing a series of payments as six months in arrears when this does not reflect the real payment history should not be used as an equivalent of a default."

and that also give strict timescales on how long it is fair to wait before recording a default. 3-6 months at most.

Your attempt to misrepresent the guidelines is rejected, and I give you a final warning to correct this before I will take this to the FOS and Information Commissioner.

GlitterQueen_2

Update from a very happy GlitterQueen. Paragon Car Finance has been removed from my credit file. Thank you all for your guidance. If anyone in a similar situation would like to see a copy of the letter I sent to Paragon I will happily forward it to you. Thanks again one and all. :beer:

rizla_king

:beer: :j