Furious!! 'Arrangement to pay' Santander

roje

:mad:

I have just joined checkmyfile, I've only ever looked at my experian report before which shows a score close to 1000. I am applying for a mortgage next week. On checkmyfile it shows a score of 2 out of 5 which baffled me.
Then I noticed that on equifax and callcredit, my current mortgage lender Santander recorded 'arrangement to pay' every month from Dec 2011 until Aug 2012. There was never any such arrangement in place, I made the full normal payments by direct debit every month (on time obviously as direct debit!). The blurb on there states that "lenders regard arrangements to pay as serious arrears,which is having a severe impact on your ability to obtain credit.'
I have NEVER had mortgage arrears. I've had the mortgage for 15 years and the payments have gone out every single month by direct debit. This 'arrangement to pay' is not recorded on experian, so I'm assuming that most lenders use them to credit score as I've been able to get credit easily enough.

I am going to ring Santander but I want to know how long it normally takes for this sort of dispute to be sorted out and the adverse ratings to be removed from an account? Am I likely to get a fight from Santander? I have the evidence of payments in my bank statements, and they should surely have it on their records anyway?

puk999

I'm a newbie to this, but given that it's only checkmyfile reporting this, could it be a checkmyfile error?

roje

I don't know as I haven't been able to check my equifax report, I couldn't see it on my callcredit report on noddle and it doesn't show on experian at all. Are they renowned for mistakes?

MEM62

roje wrote: »

:mad:

I have just joined checkmyfile, I've only ever looked at my experian report before which shows a score close to 1000. I am applying for a mortgage next week. On checkmyfile it shows a score of 2 out of 5 which baffled me.

These are randomly generated numbers and therefore meaningless. Lenders neither see them of use them so forget about these.

Then I noticed that on equifax and callcredit, my current mortgage lender Santander recorded 'arrangement to pay' every month from Dec 2011 until Aug 2012. There was never any such arrangement in place, I made the full normal payments by direct debit every month (on time obviously as direct debit!). The blurb on there states that "lenders regard arrangements to pay as serious arrears,which is having a severe impact on your ability to obtain credit.'
I have NEVER had mortgage arrears. I've had the mortgage for 15 years and the payments have gone out every single month by direct debit. This 'arrangement to pay' is not recorded on experian, so I'm assuming that most lenders use them to credit score as I've been able to get credit easily enough.

I am going to ring Santander but I want to know how long it normally takes for this sort of dispute to be sorted out and the adverse ratings to be removed from an account? Am I likely to get a fight from Santander? I have the evidence of payments in my bank statements, and they should surely have it on their records anyway?

If it is a error on the part of the CRA then it should be corrected very quickly. If this has actually been reported by the lender in error then it may take a little longer. Normally, I would allow a couple of months for it to be investigated and the data updated but Santander are not always know for their alacrity.

PaulW922

It is possible for Santander to correct this within 24 hours - they don't like doing it because it is outside of their normal process and requires specific intervention but it is perfectly possible for them to do.

fermi

Assuming Santander end, try emailing ceo@santander.co.uk with a formal complaint, saying that you will be taking them to the FOS and seeking compensation should you not be able to apply for the mortgage you need.

Request that they make a "rapid update".

roje

fermi wrote: »

Assuming Santander end, try emailing ceo@santander.co.uk with a formal complaint, saying that you will be taking them to the FOS and seeking compensation should you not be able to apply for the mortgage you need.

Request that they make a "rapid update".

Thanks for this. While they have been polite, they have not been very helpful and have now said they have to go away and find the alleged phone call made at the time to make the arrangement. They don't seem to understand what I'm telling them. I have bank statements right in front of me showing that every month that they have recorded 'AP' I made my normal monthly payment by direct debit. The person we spoke to agreed it made no sense but just kept saying 'there must have been an arrangement, we'll have to go through phone calls.'

I'm a bit bewildered tbh. They can SEE on my account that it was pain in full every month and don't seem able to comprehend that it could be human error.

fermi

That is annoying as they are usually very helpful.

While you can't make a formal compliant to the ombudsman until either 8 weeks or you get a final response from Santander - whichever is sooner - the ombudsman office will often contact them on your behalf before that point.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

If you’d like us to contact them for you, just get in touch.

A letter or phone call from them can work wonders in getting the banks to get their heads and backsides in gear on a complaint.

roje

Thanks, I'll message them and see if they would contact them. It may not have any impact on my mortgage, I passed the initial credit check regardless, but it's also the principle of it (and the underwriters might come back and query it at a later stage).

swindiff

I vaguely remember something like this happening to me many years ago. The mortgage company (I can't remember who it was now) set my DD up for a few days after the payment was due. It was therefore recording a late payment every month which I was completely unaware of. They did sort it and get it removed from my credit file but it was extremely annoying at the time.

roje

I tempted fate, they've just called and they've sent an urgent request to the credit agencies for it all to be removed!!! :-) Thanks for the advice.