Incorrect BG default showing

alexanderfitu

Hi all

Around a year ago me and my other half moved out of a property that was being supplied with gas and electricity by British gas.

We had 2 seperate accounts with them, one for gas, and one for electricity.

When we moved out (approx Nov 2013) we informed British gas of:

The date we were moving
Our new address
The final meter readings for both meters.

BG informed us that they would send a final bill to the new address and that we would need to pay that and the account would be closed.

Approx one month later, we received the final gas bill but not the final electricity bill. We chased British gas on multiple occasions but could not get an outstanding amount or a bill to pay.

Fast forward 6 months and they have passed the "debt" to a debt collector to collect an oustanding amount of £395 odd for gas.

The first we heard of this outstanding amount was when we received the letter from the DCA. The account with BG is in my other halfs name, and they have had all our contact details (email, phone and both addresses) but failed to contact.

At the time we didnt have the money to pay it off at once, so arranged a payment plan.

To my horror, every time a payment was paid via the payment plan, it added another month to the late payment record on her credit record

As soon as I learned that they were doing this, I paid off the balance in full.

I believe that this is an erronous entry and should be removed from the account, as we where never made aware of the debt before it was passed to a DCA.

I have had a read around about removing incorrect defaults but am completely lost at where to start. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks - Alexander

sourcrates

Hi,
Start by checking the file on Noddle (which is free to use).

Then if there is anything incorrectly recorded, raise a dispute with them, simple to do, from there website.

They will only remove incorrect information, they wont remove stuff because you think its unfair.
If it portrays an accurate record of events, then they wont do it, if it was incorrectly recorded, then they will do.

You may want to check the other two CRA`s as well.

alexanderfitu

I already have an Experian membership, should I still dispute it through Noodle or can I do it through Experian?

sourcrates

alexanderfitu wrote: »

I already have an Experian membership, should I still dispute it through Noodle or can I do it through Experian?

All of the CRA`s would be best, BG may report to more than one.

alexanderfitu

No problem. Is this the first step, I assume if BG dont complain back then it will be removed from the record?

rizla_king

BG acted unfairly since you did everything you should and tried to get a final bill to settle the account. They then passed it to a collector out of the blue. If they hadnt done that you would have originally have been able to pay it promptly yes?

If so also complain in writing to BG explaining how their treatment and this default is unfair and tell them that unless they put it right you will be taking them to the energy ombudsman.

alexanderfitu

Hi all

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you all, the help is much appreciated.

I received a response back from BG via Experian stating that (suprise suprise) the default in their opinion is correct and that they will not be removing it from the record.

They also did not respond to my letter of complaint directly to their complaints department.

I feel helpless in this situation, its the only negative record on the credit file!

Any ideas what the next step should be?

rizla_king

Complain via

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html

and

https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/y/y/y