Will one default hurt a lot?

opensesame

Hello all.

Last year I made the rather foolish decision on a point of principle to get into a dispute with British Gas about a joint Electricity and Gas bill, for an amount of £68 - I ultimately ended up paying, but in the mean time the account has been listed as being in default (but satisfied). I don't think this is fair, so I am in the process of asking British Gas to remove this from my credit report, but I'm not holding my breath.

I was wondering how likely it is that this default will affect me? I earn a good income (over 40,000 pa) and have never really been in financial difficulties. All my bills get paid on time except for the odd late payment here or there down the years, and I have a credit card which gets used occasionally and which I sometimes pay off each month but sometimes let some credit build up. I have an overdraft on my current account which gets dipped into sometimes.

My main concern is that in March next year I will finish paying a hire purchase-type arrangement on my car and want to trade it in for a new model. I'm suddenly concerned this silly default will affect whether I'll be able to get a new hire purchase arrangement.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

[Deleted User]

All you can do now is get your finances in order from this point onwards. No more defaults, stop making payments late and stay out of your overdraft unless absolutely necessary.

Car finance is easier to get than other forms, as it is secured on the car, but it would be worth worth building a more solid credit history.

National_Debtline

Hi

The default will have a negative impact to some degree but it’s up the creditor whether it's a significant factor. They’ll look at various aspects of your situation when making a decision on whether to give you credit.

As zx81 says, the best thing you can do now is focus on keeping your credit report in the best shape possible from now on.

James
@natdebtline

GingerBob_3

opensesame wrote: »

Hello all.

Last year I made the rather foolish decision on a point of principle to get into a dispute with British Gas about a joint Electricity and Gas bill, for an amount of £68 - I ultimately ended up paying, but in the mean time the account has been listed as being in default (but satisfied). I don't think this is fair, so I am in the process of asking British Gas to remove this from my credit report, but I'm not holding my breath.

I was wondering how likely it is that this default will affect me? I earn a good income (over 40,000 pa) and have never really been in financial difficulties. All my bills get paid on time except for the odd late payment here or there down the years, and I have a credit card which gets used occasionally and which I sometimes pay off each month but sometimes let some credit build up. I have an overdraft on my current account which gets dipped into sometimes.

My main concern is that in March next year I will finish paying a hire purchase-type arrangement on my car and want to trade it in for a new model. I'm suddenly concerned this silly default will affect whether I'll be able to get a new hire purchase arrangement.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Scumbag companies like BG use credit reporting as blackmail: "accept everything we say and don't query it or we'll trash your ability to obtain credit".


The whole issue of non-financial organisations reporting your accounts to the CRAs needs a serious looking at.

opensesame

Thank you, both. Do you think it's worth putting an amendment on my credit report explaining what happened?

GingerBob_3

opensesame wrote: »

Thank you, both. Do you think it's worth putting an amendment on my credit report explaining what happened?

Yes, you should do that.

PaulW922

I would try my hardest to get that default removed - some mainstream lenders will just regard it as 'a default' regardless of value and reason

chanz4

notice of dispute is pointless