Poor credit after loan default and DRO

doxiegirl

Hi everyone,

In the folly of my youth I got into a significant amount of debt. It started as a small amount of credit card debt and a loan to pay for an educational course but I will hold my hands up and say that I made a lot of poor choices which caused it to spiral. By the time I was 22 I was paying over £400 a month in loan payments and this was a huge chunk of my wages - almost half.

Unfortunately I became seriously ill and had to give up work and claim benefits. I had no chance of paying the loan as the income I received was lower than my loan payments. There was no chance of me going back to work until I'd had a kidney transplant and there was no way of knowing when that would be.

I applied for and was granted a DRO in 2010 and when it was completed a year later I was relieved that the debt was gone.

I know that a DRO doesn't wipe my credit rating and that it will show up on my credit file for 6 years and that's fine. My question is that when I check my credit file on Noddle, it still shows the original loan as being on default. Is this because the DRO shows up for 6 years or is it something I need to contact the bank about to have it removed?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Voltaire7

So you want to take on more debt?

doxiegirl

No, I definitely do not want to take on any extra debt. I have learned my lesson the hard way.

I've been back at work for 3 years , I'm in a good place financially, I'm married. My life is completely different now. My husband owns our home in his name and the mortgage company know that I'm there.

The reason I'm asking about improving my credit rating is because we would ideally like to move to a bigger property. Currently everything is done on his salary alone and we live in an expensive part of the country so our housing options are limited. I make a good salary these days and if we could include my income on the mortgage and hold it jointly, we would be able to move without any problems. I realise I've said I don't want any extra debt but I don't look at a mortgage in the same way as credit cards, store cards, unsecured loan etc.

Tixy

Hi

What is the date of the default showing on your file? It should be no later than the start date of your DRO.

Does it show as outstanding balance on your credit file? or does it show a nil balance outstanding?

doxiegirl

The date of default is 31/10/2010 and I got the DRO in August 2010. The balance shows as £13,308 outstanding and having updated on 04/04/15.

I've checked the history of the loan and from 2009 each month has a green circle and the word 'ok' but from November 2010 each month has a red circle with the letter D inside it (which I'm assuming is for default).

Tixy

The default should be dated no later than August 2010 and it should be indicated that the balance is no longer owed.

Info and link in post 2 of this link on writing to the creditor to get it corrected.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4921240

It may be worth getting your experian and equifax files as well to see what they show.

doxiegirl

That is very helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to help me.