Given bad credit

JD15

Hi all

I had an student account with HSBC years ago that went dormant with 300 OD on it.
totally forgot about it. but then i had been told by the people who's house i had rented before them that i had some letters.

they were from hsbc saying that my account had gone into arrears and that i have now got a mark on my credit history. the issue is they were sending letters to a house i lived in 2 years prior and and the address on the account was the current one ! which makes no sense.

so when i called and explained that without getting the letters to the right address that was on the account system i didnt know it needed sorting. so if they would reverse the credit mark i will pay.

they refused saying they can't do that and that i need to pay.

is this allowed ?

many thanks

19lottie82

whats their explanation for sending the correspondence to your old address? Did you definitely provide them with your new address when you moved?

JD15

yes when i called the first thing i did was check the address. which is the one i was in.

then i went on to explain to them that they had been sending letters to a house i no longer lived in.

there excuse was that since the account was dormant and that they did hear anything from me they did a credit search and that was an address that came up so they sent it there. but i was registered to vote and paying council tax in my current address... the one that was on the account ?

the fact that i even said that i would pay it off in full that day if they remove the credit mark and they said they couldn't is a pain.

so im in a stand off now

and to add to it they have sold my debt to a collection company called Arrow. (received letter today )

Candyapple

The £300 OD probably escalated into thousands I'm guessing after HSBC added on late payment and other fees over the years.

You have probably received a default and this will stay on your credit files for 6 years. HSBC will not remove this. Your next step is to obtain copies of all 3 of your credit reports and then if you want to challenge the amount you will need to write to them and ask for a breakdown of charges.

JD15

no the amount is at 300 to pay back.

i don't mind paying it back after all its my debt. just wish they sent letters reminding me to pay to the right address.

if they did i wouldn't have this credit mark and they would have the money.

uncreative

EDIT... answered by the above posts, crossed in the mail..

If they had sent it to the wrong address despite having your correct address, you may have grounds for a complaint.

However, its each our own responsibility to pay what we owe when we owe it and you would need to have grounds for forgetting about it in the first place.

DCFC79

I'd complain stating you would have paid it if you had received the letters but couldn't as they were sent to a previous address. You can complain to the fos about it after 8 weeks I believe if you don't get a response from the bank.

SeduLOUs

The account didn't go dormant. You were £300 into an overdraft and then conveniently forgot about it. Them sending letters to an incorrect address doesn't exactly help matters, but take some of the responsibility at least - you spent the money!

They will not be able to remove the bad markers from your file as they are a factually correct statement of what happened.

Pay up and think yourself lucky that it's only the £300 - with most banks you would have an overdrawn balance of £1000s by now.

Candyapple

If all this happened a few years ago and HSBC didn't add on any charges or late payment/over limit fees then you are very lucky!

You still need to obtain copies of your credit report to see what the date of the default is (you said they had sold it to debt collectors).

If they have marked the account down as defaulted, you will have a hell of a fight on your hands to try and get it removed.

JD15

SeduLOUs wrote: »

The account didn't go dormant. You were £300 into an overdraft and then conveniently forgot about it. Them sending letters to an incorrect address doesn't exactly help matters, but take some of the responsibility at least - you spent the money!

They will not be able to remove the bad markers from your file as they are a factually correct statement of what happened.

Pay up and think yourself lucky that it's only the £300 - with most banks you would have an overdrawn balance of £1000s by now.

i like that for some reason you believe i don't think i should pay it back or that i don't want to.. i have said multiple times that i forgot about it and i was happy to pay it back and it was my fault. I HAVE NO ISSUE PAYING IT. the account did go dormant because there was zero money going in or out. no Direct debits, no paycheque.. nothing. there fore it went dormant from no use over a year.

my original question was can they add a credit mark during sending letters to the wrong address. which is not my fault.

its the fact that when they realised and apologised they said they won't reverse it. even though it states on credit reports that mistakes can be reversed via conformation from the bank. this is what i was asking them for if i payed that day.

do you see the what i was trying to do.

SeduLOUs

JD15 wrote: »

my original question was can they add a credit mark during sending letters to the wrong address. which is not my fault.

They didn't add the credit mark because they sent letters to the wrong address. They added the credit mark because you had an account that was overdrawn by £300 and you failed to make any payment or contact to rectify it.

As I said previously, them sending letters to the wrong address wasn't helpful, but the bulk of the blame lies with you for 'forgetting' that you owed money.