Getting missed payment removed from credit file?

Darwood

Is it possible to get a missed payment removed from your credit file if you can argue the case with the creditcard company? I have phoned Barclaycard to discuss the matter and they said I must write to head office. I am wondering if there is any advice/precendents in this or maybe even some advice of what to put in the letter or a template letter anywhere I could use?

I recently applied for a loan with moneyback (Alliance & Leicester) but was refused for an unspecified reason. I intend writing to find out the reason but when I spoke to another potential lender they suggested that it could be
a) I have moved house twice in the last 3 years
b) I have a missed payment 4 months ago on my barclaycard mastercard which my wife uses to pay her skype bills.

The missed payment was on an outstanding balance of £11.50 as I thought my wife had paid it and vice versa. I immediately phoned Barclaycard when the next statement showed the missed payment and sorted the matter out. They refunded me a £6 missed payment charge which never materialised anyway and I paid the outstanding amount off as discussed and even setup a direct debit to pay off the card in full each month so it couldn't happen again. I had no idea about the missed payment being flagged on my credit file until I applied for the loan and have since verified it via experian. Considering the small amount involved and the quick amicable settlement, logging the missed payment seems somewhat draconian. As I'm sure I could get a much better credit card elsewhere I wonder whether I can put any pressure on Barclaycard to remove this missed payment record. I am a long-standing Barclays and Barclaycard customer that is becoming increasingly disenfranchised with a company that seems to always take and never give.

darich

I'm in a similar position - for a missed payment of £7.40. Bank of Scotland didn't charge me any late payment fees and as a result i forgot about it until 5months later - it had increased to around £8. It shows on my credit file as defalted for 5 months (which i did - no denying it)

I was given some good advice on this forum and even a template letter. I've written to BOS and since my contract with them is now terminated and i owe them nothing, they are in breach of the Data Protection Act by processing my data to Experian. I've received an acknowledgement from them but basically all they can record is that i closed the account with no outstanding money even though i was late with a few payments.

DPA only permits the bank to process my data for the duration of the contract unless they specifically state otherwise in the original contract. However, even then, if the person that the data refers to requests that the data stop being processed then the bank must stop. They cannot argue the case although they could say it's a condition of having the card. In that case pay it off and close it.

If you want a copy of the template letter send me a pm with your email - i've got it at home and will send it tonight.

Darwood

Thank you darich for your help and the excellent information and letter you have passed on.

I will post the polite letter I am proposing to send below and was wondering if someone could give it the "once-over" please to see if the wording is good and make sure I haven't said anything stoopid! Is there a certain amount of time within which they must reply to this letter?

Proposed letter:
Customer Services
Barclaycard
Barclaycard House
PO Box 5592
Northampton
NN4 1ZY

Recorded Delivery


15th August 2007

Re: Missed Payment on Credit File

Card Number: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

Dear Sirs

After recently obtaining a copy of my credit file from Experian I was concerned to note that your company has placed a "Late Payment" notice against my account 4 months ago. This appears to be on the mastercard (£1100 credit limit) credit card that I hold with yourselves of which my wife (named) is an additional card holder.

The missed payment was on an outstanding balance of only £11.50 which I thought my wife had paid and vice versa. I immediately phoned you when the next statement showed the missed payment and sorted the matter out. No charge was made for the missed payment and I paid the outstanding amount off as discussed and even setup a direct debit to pay off the card in full each month so it couldn't happen again. I had no idea about the missed payment being flagged on my credit file and was not notified of such.

Considering the small amount involved and the quick amicable settlement, logging the missed payment seems somewhat over-the-top. In the current economic climate where there is fierce competition for credit-card customers I am a little surprised at this treatment of one of your valuable customers. I would like to remain a Barclaycard customer but am asking for some co-operation on your part. Aside from this one-off missed payment I am pretty sure I have an long excellent track-record with you of repaying debt on time and I have proven myself a responsible borrower. As you can no doubt see I also have a Visa card with Barclaycard along with several Barclays Bank accounts including personal and business current accounts & savings most of which I have held for over 10 years. I would trust that my business is of some worth to Barclaycard and the rest of the Barclays Plc group.

As this missed payment if affecting my credit file I would therefore ask that as a gesture of goodwill you immediately remove this missed payment record from my credit file (and my wife’s if applicable) with all CRAs (Credit Reporting Agencies) that you use including Experian and confirm in writing to me that this has been done.

I would appreciate your response within 28 days. My contact details are on the reverse of this letter.

Yours faithfully

Butlers1982

If they take off the missed payment, which it was "missed", all credit file will show a "U".
This means that its neither a missed payment or payment so it doesnt really make much difference

If youve only missed one payment on your credit file it will not affect your credit rating. Your credit file is only really affected after you miss 5 payments.

But you did miss the payment and defaulted against your credit agreement, the size of the payment is not relevant. They are well within their rights to show it as a missed payment.

Rafter

Darwood,

As Butlers says, one payment is not going to impact your application for credit in any way. Loan companies know that people occassionally pay late even though there is no credit problem.

The reason that you got declined with moneybackbank is that you declined the payment protection insurance. The only way they can make money at the rates they are offering is to subsidise them with insurance sales.

They way to get a best buy loan is to apply with insurance then decline it once you have the interest rate offer. By law they cannot change the interest rate or withdraw the offer just because you decline the insurance. You are buying two products and the insurance is for your protection, not theirs.

R.

Darwood

Thanks for the advice guys. Following your post Butlers I actually phoned up Alliance & Leicester to find out why I had been refused as they hadn't responded to my email. I didn't hold out much hope of getting an answer but I thought I would give it a go. After growing a beard whilst waiting to get through I eventually spoke to a very nice lady. She asked what the loan was for and when I said it was to pay back a family member (which I did put in the Other field) she said it was Private Debt Consolidation. "erm OK if you like."

She went away and eventually came back to say the loan had been refused because I put Other on the online application and I'm guessing Other looks dodgy. She said they are willing to offer me the loan and she would send out the paperwork! So I'm guessing my credit file is OK after all and hopefully the initial refusal won't affect it either as the credit file only records the fact an application was made doesn't it and not whether or not the application was accepted or rejected?

I will believe it when the money is in my bank but I guess the moral of the story is phone up to find out why you were refused.

PS. I will probably still ask Barclaycard to delete the late payment anyway. Won't hurt and you don't ask, you don't get!

Butlers1982

Press the Thanks button!

Press it

Press it

Press it

Darwood

Butlers1982 wrote: »

Press the Thanks button!

Press it

Press it

Press it

done it

done it

done it

:j

jay78

Rafter wrote: »

Darwood,


The reason that you got declined with moneybackbank is that you declined the payment protection insurance. The only way they can make money at the rates they are offering is to subsidise them with insurance sales.


R.

How do you know this?

Darwood

I'm guessing he/she was guessing. In any event Rafter was wrong about the PPI. The reason I got declined was because I put the reason for loan as Other rather than Debt Consolidation and some lazybutt in their underwriting department probably couldn't be bothered to read the description field ("repay family member") so just rejected it.
However it seems Rafter was right in that a single missed payment on my credit file wasn't the cause.