Late payment on credit file when all payments have been on time

Clive_Woody

Pam1010 wrote: »

Well I feel like a muppet as I have been paying Experian and Equifax for a monthly report. My money is better spent on takeaways! I honestly thought they could see my score and suffered from anxiety everytime my score went down a few points for no apparent reason. Thanks guys and thank you for this forum!

While the score is simply a number made up by the CRAs, it is probably an indication of how a lender might score you using their own systems, but they will do this based on your credit history which they get from Experian and other (i.e. they will look for missed payments, late payments, defaults, CCJs, etc as well as the good stuff).

As others state the number you are paying for is largely irrelevant and only seen by you and the guys who make it up so you would indeed be better spending this on takeaways or clearing any outstanding debts.

Paul_the_Painter

To give an example of how the score may well be meaningless, or less than useful, a friend asked me to look at his as he was having trouble getting a mortgage.
Experian credit "score" was 984 - and "excellent" according to them
However he had:-
Late payments from 4 years ago
A CCJ (settled) from 2 years ago
Not on the electoral roll

Now some lenders will not lend if you are not on the electoral register.
Some won't lend to anyone with a CCJ
Some won't lend, or only at worse rate, if you have any late payments.

Now a "score" of 984 implies that you are in the top 1.6% of people in the country for credit purposes, I would suggest the data would show someone perhaps in the top 10-20%.

That is my issue issue with scores, they are not bad enough! Therefore not honest enough.

Pam1010

I managed to speak to them again. The late payment marks had nothing to do with the time I had a payment agreement with them but something more recent in the last 3 months (??!) They agreed to remove one late payment from my file but will not remove the second one. According to the the second payment was 1 day late in January and I quote ' it is illegal for them not to report that I missed that one payment by one day.' The thing is the payment was not late at all. They took out the direct debits on both occasions they tried to say I made late payments but then sent the money back to my bank the next day. I have had my bank run a detailed statement and it clearly shows the company return the direct debit even though my account had enough funds and the direct debit was paid correctly by the bank. I still have to fight them for that because non of this makes sense at all. The late payments show as added 6 months ago but they say I was 1 day late in January and February.

daniel86_2

You should contact the provider and ask if they will update the payment as on time as you made good on the extension agreement. They may change it as a good will gesture. That said generally an old single missed payment would probably not affect you as much as a default, CCJ on not being on the electoral roll.