Has this scuppered everything?

Lilhobo

I've not been here for such a long time but a while ago the MSE experts gave me some great advice and I wondered if you would be able to help with this one.

My husband and I both have nationwide credit cards that we paid by direct debit every month. Last month we cleared the entire balances, intended not to use the credit cards again and cancelled the direct debits.

I was then caught short later in the month and had no choice but to use the card for a £10 transaction, no problem, I'd just pay it off when the bill came in. Email on Saturday to say my statement was ready, got round to checking it today to see that I had a late payment applied on 3rd March as there was £2.03 outstanding from interest that had accrued at some point and because I had cancelled the DD it hadn't been paid.

Husband checked his account and same thing, late payment charge for interest accrued not paid of £1.42. We've both contacted nationwide and they've refunded the £12 late payment charge on each account as they can understand how the error has happened, and also it was not made explicit that I should not cancel the direct debits, as far as I understood the account was cleared, but here is where the advice differs. The woman I spoke to said they could remove the late payment charge but not the late payment marker, the man my husband spoke to by removing the late payment charge it would mean when it came to updating experian on the 28th (when they update) there would be no evidence of a late payment on his file so experian won't show a late payment.

Any ideas. We have literally just received a DIP for a mortgage this week and we're hoping to progress to full application by the end of this month. It could not be at a worse time (which I rather shamefully sobbed down the phone at the poor woman at the nationwide).

GingerBob_3

This shouldn't have an effect on your mortgage application if you explain the circumstances of this trivial matter to your prospective mortgage provider.

Credit card companies and other organisations with the potential to trash your credit rating after a trivial mistake often lie when they say something like "we can't alter the marker because it reflects the true position". They can alter it, but won't. This is yet another example of the dysfunctional, effectively unregulated, credit reporting industry.

In your case, I wouldn't bother with Nationwide again. Don't try to get it fixed. It's too much effort and probably time wasted. Rather, cancel your cards and don't ever deal with them again - and tell them why (not that they'll care).

PaulW922

I am pretty sure you can get these removed - just wait and see what happens when Nationwide update your credit report. It may well be that they don't appear. Even if they do, and you cannot get rid of them, a month month late marker compared to an otherwise good file is not a serious issue.