Clarification / help with Credit Report Entry from GE Money

manian

I'm hoping to get some understanding of exactly what an update of my credit file means and how, if possible, I can get it corrected.

I have a mortgage with GE Home Lending.


Around the time of a divorce, June 2012 I missed a payment on the mortgage.

I continued to pay the mortgage thereafter with one payment of arrears.


About a year or so after missing that payment I contacted them to make an arrangement for the arrears to be cleared.
Their response was along the lines of
'We will not enter into an agreement as the arrears are not serious enough'
Based on that I decided to pay off 50% of the missed payment straight away.
Six months later I paid off another 25% of the arrears.
In early March of this year I paid off the remaining 25%.

All is good so far.


However, a few months ago I applied for a new mortgage in order to move house.
I received an offer in principle so decided to market the house and sell it.
I struggled to find a new place but last week I finally did.


I needed a slightly higher mortgage amount so re-applied.
I was immediately declined.
The lender suggested that I look at my credit report as an adverse entry was added on 7th April.

Having looked at my report, GE money added a '2' against my credit report for April.
This applied to both Equifax and Experian.
My credit report for this account shows Green for every entry prior to this.

The new lender is reading this as me being two months in arrears with my Mortgage.
I have provided bank statements to prove that I've been making payments on time but they are not interested.
A huge black mark for obvious reasons.

I have take this up with GE but I'm not making much progress.
They accept that they have added an incorrect entry for April.
They are proposing that they move the '2' entry to February '15.
They claim that this two entry means that a payment was made later than 30 days, but less than 59 days.
According two Equifax and Experian the 2 means that I missed two consecutive payments in February.

Dealing with GE is like wading through treacle.
I make countless calls and send numerous emails but I'm getting fobbed off time and time again.
One minute they are fixing it.
The next minute it's the credit reference agent's fault.

I guess my question is
a) what's the forum's view on the interpretation of a '2' recorded against a given month and
b) if there's any advice anyone can give to help me get this corrected.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any help

Tixy

I would say that a 2 indicates 2 months of missed payments/being behind with payments for 2 months in a row.

I cannot see that a 2 should ever be filed unless a 1 was filed the previous month.

I'd probably try writing to them with a formal complaint and enclosing a copy of the credit ref agencies guidance on status codes.

manian

Thanks for the reply Tixy and thanks for confirming my understanding of the situation.

I find it bizarre that they can claim that I'm 2 payments late in April, when April is not due for another week and all previous entries on my credit file are green. Apart from missing that payment in 2012, the only other mistake it appears that I made was bringing the account up to date.


It's so frustrating that because of this error I can say good bye to my new house and a few hundred lost on surveys and legal fees.