Unknown defaults on credit report

beyondconfused

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for me, let alone the correct section of this forum, but please feel free to point me in the right direction if I'm mistaken.

I've recently applied for credit (£400 over 9 months for musical equipment) for the first time since I was given an overdraft and credit card for university (not including my student loan, but that was probably before that, I guess) the best part of a decade ago. I was refused (and confused) so I did some digging online and was pointed towards credit reference agencies. I opened an account with Noddle and Equifax, who both had free access to my report and noticed a default on the Noddle report and three on the Equifax (question 1, how are they different? I'm presuming Equifax is somehow more "thorough"???)

The defaults are from Arrow Global Ltd, Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd and O2. The Arrow and Hoist ones are both for sums less than £500 (that seems to be some sort of magic number, from the brief amount I've read so far) and the O2 one is for less than £25.

The O2 one (it has a default date of July 2011), I imagine is right, because it matches up to roughly what I paid per month on a month-to-month SIM card I had before I left the UK a few years ago, but I never received any correspondence about it, as I'd cancelled it with the correct notice (I remember being without a working phone for 6 weeks, that's for sure).

The Arrow and Hoist defaults were odd, I just didn't know what they could be. I've had maybe 3 bank accounts in my entire life, a Yorkshire Bank children's account, a young Barclays account when I was at school and then they set up the student account afterwards. My current credit card is listed (along with my student account) as "up to date" and I usually pay my balance off in full each month, or 50% of it for larger purchases, but the limit is only £500. These two defaults were dated July 2012 and March 2013, when I was living abroad.

I put in some sort of complaint or contention on the Noddle website and a few days later HSBC wrote to me at my address (I've been here for four months, not even my parents have my address) saying they've sold an account (apparently in my name) to Arrow and that Arrow have appointed Wescot Credit Services Ltd as their servicing agent and that as Arrow are the owner of the account, HSBC won't provide further correspondence.

Anyway, I came back to the UK earlier this year and I'm just utterly perplexed as to what to do. I've read in a few places about these things being on my report for 6 years, which is a grim prospect, as we've been looking at buying a house and it appears that these are in the way, but I genuinely have no idea about them.

Truth be told, there's such a mess of details in here, I don't know where to start, especially because all I've read about online so far is that you shouldn't get in touch with them, there're all these bizarre "entering into contracts" discussions to read through and whatnot. Plus, just typing "Wescot Credit Services" into Google frightened the life out of me, after I read some of the results.

Any help would be massively appreciated, of course, even if you just let me know which route to take first!

Thanks in advance,

Tixy

(question 1, how are they different? I'm presuming Equifax is somehow more "thorough"???)

Lenders/Debt collection agencies report to either 1, 2 or all 3 of the credit reference agencies - and potential lenders search 1, 2 or 3. So to get a full picture you need to look at your files from all 3 agencies. Callcredit (aka Noddle) is currently the smallest/least used by lenders.

The 2 defaults - the entries on your file should say what type of account they were (e.g. telecommunications/bank/loan/credit card etc). They'll also list when the accounts were opened - was that while you were in the UK? or whilst abroad?
Does your credit file list any addresses that you don't recognise at all?

How recently did you get the letter from HSBC? It is quite likely that you may soon get something in the post from Arrow or Westcott chasing this debt. If you do then at that point send them the prove it letter - Letter when you know nothing about about the debt - AKA "Prove it" letter
and wait for them to provide evidence of the debt.

If you don't hear anything from them then I would write to Arrow and to Hoist to say that you have noticed they have placed entries on your credit file, that you do not acknowledge any debt to them and ask them to remove the entries from your file or provide evidence of what the debt relates to.