OMG, could cry, what happened :(

Positively

I am miserable this morning .

Just got a letter from Barclaycard to say they are reducing my credit letter following a change in my credit file. In a panic I have run off to check my credit file and whilst almost everything is green and up to date (including everything in my sig), my new First Direct account has ravaged my rating.

I took it out a couple of year ago for the £125 offer and thought it would be useful to have a seperate account for direct debits. After. I finished as a student last year I had a few direc debits returned over a few months (not all, just those annoying ones that come out in the middle/end of the month), the actual payments were always made in time.

First Direct covered one DD by increasing my OD from £250 to £257. If I log in and I am -£250 Overdrawn my available balance shows as £7. But on my credit report my OD has always been £250 so it shows months and months of being over my limit . So between that and missed DD I have a year worth of oranges against my first direct account and my Noddle rating is 1/5. I don't know what the credit score is because there is no way I am giving the CRA £15.

What do I do now? I know this is my mistake and I am working my socks off to pay off the debts in my sig. Do I settle and close the first direct account or just settle and leave it showing as active? When I finish paying off the ithers should I close them or does having unused credit reflect well?

How long before the first direct account doesn't have such a devastating impact on my file, I know it takes 6 years to disappear.

I have worked so hard to reduce my outgoings, have switched all my utilities, gone onto a sim only mobile plan, set up an envelope system and. Feel like this is a total kick in the teeth to all my efforts! Any advice is welcome, thank you for taking the Time to read my woes.

Thrugelmir

I would suggest settling it and then let time heal. Lenders will make their own individual decisions as to it's impact and how long for.

matttye

An overdrawn account shouldn't show up as a missed payment. I don't understand why they're reporting that.

I would query it.

YorkshireBoy

matttye wrote: »

An overdrawn account shouldn't show up as a missed payment. I don't understand why they're reporting that.

I would query it.

I think its a misunderstanding on the OP's part. The credit report will show any and all debit balances. Additionally, FD (and parent HSBC) also report a '1' to the CRAs if an unauthorised overdraft balance exists or could have existed had they not intervened. With current accounts this '1' has a different meaning on the CRA files to that relating to credit cards/loans/etc in that it means one or more of the following:

1. Cheques and DDs may have been bounced to keep the account in order, and/or
2. The account has been over any agreed overdraft limit for (up to?) one month, and/or
3. Agreed repayments are one to two months behind.

matttye

Even if (1) applies in this case, which it sounds like it does, they shouldn't have reported it continually for all this time if the balance has dropped within the agreed overdraft amount of £250 surely.

YorkshireBoy

matttye wrote: »

Even if (1) applies in this case, which it sounds like it does, they shouldn't have reported it continually for all this time if the balance has dropped within the agreed overdraft amount of £250 surely.

From the OP...

I had a few direc debits returned over a few months

Each one of these would have generated a '1' for that month. See example 1 in my list of 3 above.

Positively

Thank you for the responses, I think the DDs did create the 1s on th file.
The file also shows
A) that my overdraft limit is £250
but that my balance is regularly over that

On my first direct account my balance is currently -£240 but my available balance is £17, not £10 as it would be if my overdraft limit was £250? So I have been withdrawing the available balance (I could go to a cash machine and take cash up to £257) thinking this was ok but apparently this is some sort of unofficial overdraft. So when I look at my credit file it shows that I am always over my overdraft limit even though I don't think I am?

Apologies if this is confusing!