Credit Union Loan - advice needed!

louisews

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me as I'm going in circles myself! Due to some difficult personal circumstances, my husband and I are going to have to try for a mortgage very soon and I've been trying to make sure my credit file is tidied up.

I had a loan from a credit union and it became part of my Debt Management Plan in 2011. However, I have only recently found out that the credit union had decided the amount they were receiving from my DMP provider wasn't acceptable and they defaulted me without a default notice or even sending a letter to say the amount wasn't acceptable. They have admitted sending not one bit of correspondence and say they don't have to. The loan was eventually written in off in 2013 when I became very, very ill and could no longer work.

I've asked them, due to my extreme personal circumstances, to remove the default early as it will affect my chances re mortgage and they have refused.

I was hoping to get some advice from anyone with a bit of knowledge (sadly I'm a bit clueless with financial stuff at times!) as to what I can do, if anything. It just doesn't seem right that they sent no letters to either me or my DMP provider to say the amount wasn't acceptable, I took their silence as accepting the DMP!

Getting so frustrated with it now!

Thanks for your time
Lou

fwor

It's difficult for Credit Unions because they are small non-profit organisations with minimal staff, so that as much as possible of any returns can go back to other members. Although it would have been nice for you to have had more notice, it's something that they may just not have had the time/resource to deal with, and they may at times have to make a choice between things that are required by law and things that aren't.

It's also difficult to know what you could reasonably expect them to do differently about your credit report. As it stands it is obviously inconvenient to you, but it does seem to accurately reflect how you performed in repaying (or not repaying) their loan. My understanding is that offering a reduced repayment as part of a DMP is in itself considered a default, so their record on your file appears to be accurate.

louisews

Thanks Fwor, appreciate the reply