Banks keeping old records

SwisToni

Hi there

Bit of background info to explain my situation.

2005-2007 I was young and foolish and borrowed lots of money from Lloyds TSB and HSBC via overdrafts/loan/credit card. For one reason or another I wasn't able to keep up the payments so stupidly buried my head in the sand and walked away from them for 6-7 years. After much chasing, the banks sold on the debts to a recovery compnay, who in turn sold them on again a couple years later.

Last year (after realising I really needed to sort things out) I did an full and final lump sum IVA which cleared all of my debts for good.

Now as expected, all of the individual accounts which defaulted have dropped off my credit file due to the default date being > 6 years ago. My understand is that my IVA should show on my credit file for 6 years from the date it was agreed (is this correct?)

My IVA shows on my file with 1 of the 3 credit reference agencies but not with the other 2! As I've managed to have a well-run bank account in Barclays for circa 7 years, and they've recently given me a credit card (you'll be pleased to hear I'm a responsible adult now who simply uses it for monthly living expenses and clears it in full each month!), along with a mobile phone contract, my credit file with 2 of the agencies is immaculate. And with the 3rd agency it's immaculate other than the IVA (which is Obv not good). Have I been extremely lucky here??

Now that you know my background, here's my issue/question...

I am hoping to buy my first house this year, and will be looking for mortgages in the coming months. Now obviously it makes sense to speak to lenders who don't use the credit reference agency which shows my IVA. My question is, if I was to return to HSBC or to Lloyds, would they deal with me? Or would they tell me to get lost? I have had no dealings with them in 10 years, my accounts were closed and the debts sold off circa 7 years ago, I've got a different address to the one they had, and my credit file now looks decent.

Are they likely to know who I am/keep a record that I'm a terrible human being?

Apologies for the long post, and many thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

bengal-stripe

SwisToni wrote: »

My question is, if I was to return to HSBC or to Lloyds, would they deal with me? Or would they tell me to get lost?

The banks can certainly keep a list of individuals with whom they do not want to do business again.

Whether or not your 'failings' would have been considered severe enough to got you onto that list, nobody can tell you for certain.

David_White

If the IVA was registered last year I'd be very surprised if it wasn't on all versions of your credit file.

Have you moved house much in the last few years?

The reason I ask is these credit reports are only as good as the information you give them i.e if you don't give them all of your addresses when you register they won't necessarily show all of your data.

SwisToni

bengal-stripe - thanks for your reply. I'm pretty sure they would be bad enough to stop them offering me a mortgage if they connected the dots and worked out that I am the same person as before if that makes sense. £5k debt spread between overdraft and credit card which I shamefully walked away from and they chased me for ages. Do you think this many years on, if I went to apply for a mortgage, they'd know it was me?

David White - Thanks also for your reply. The IVA was started and finished last year. During the time it took to complete the procedure I lived in the same address, and still do to this day. It is registered on one of the files but not on the other 2. With the two it isn't registered in, my credit score is "excellent" apparently. When I apply for my credit report, I input all of my addresses over the 6 year period they ask for. And also it shows all of my previous addresses under the "linked addresses" part

Superscrooge

SwisToni wrote: »

Are they likely to know who I am/keep a record that I'm a terrible human being?

I can't say whether banks will have you on their 'Terrible Human Being' list! But I do know that some financial institution records go back much longer than the often quoted six years. .

I had to call into Nationwide Building Society a couple of weeks ago to produce some ID for a Nationwide Credit Card and they knew from their records that I last had an account with them 15 years ago.