Help/Advice please

Spinderella1

Looking for some advice please as I'm going round in circles and after over 2 months of chasing I'm still no closer to a resolution.

Summary of my problem is:

*2014 I switched my current account away from Halifax to First Direct.

*A glitch in the system left a deficit on my Halifax account of £6.96

*I wasn't aware of this outstanding amount until 6 consecutive missed payments were logged on my credit file.

*I made standing order payments but these were forwarded to my First Direct, I rang Halifax who wouldn't take a payment over the phone. Ended up going into a branch and paying cash over the counter to settle.

*I complained at the time but Halifax dismissed my complaint.

*Husband and I are applying for a mortgage to buy our first home.

*Mortgage broker picked up on 6 missed payments and advised to get them removed before we apply for credit as it's likely I'll fail the credit check.

*Complained to Halifax in Feb 16, they agreed the 6 missed payments should not have been recorded and agreed to remove them.

*Received a letter from Halifax advising on 30th March 16 they emailed a notice of amendment to CRAs to instruct them to remove the 6 missed payments from my credit file.

*chased Halifax again as my broker advised banks can carry out a rapid update within 48 hours but it costs them. Halifax sent me a letter confirming they had send a further urgent request to the CRAs which would take 5-7 days to update my credit file.

*Credit file refreshed on 3rd May. Missed payments are still there.

*Escalated complaint with Halifax Chief Executive and also raised a dispute with Equifax.

*Despite uploading 2 letters from Halifax to Equifax stating the missed payments will be removed and Halifax have notified CRAs, Equifax keep responding with a template response that Halifax have responded to them to advise the missed payment data on my credit file is accurate and will remain unchanged.

Not sure what to do now, I'm exhausted chasing both the bank and the CRA and getting nowhere.

Is there anything else I can do or is this a lost cause?

Any advice would be appreciated.

MEM62

You should not have a problem.

You already hold written evidence from Halifax to the effect that the information on your credit report is wrong and that it needs to be corrected. Therefore, you should have no issues as these can be passed to the underwriter of any potential lender.

Your mortgage advisor should have picked up on this - perhaps you may want to try another advisor.

GingerBob_3

MEM62 wrote: »

You should not have a problem.

You already hold written evidence from Halifax to the effect that the information on your credit report is wrong and that it needs to be corrected. Therefore, you should have no issues as these can be passed to the underwriter of any potential lender.

Your mortgage advisor should have picked up on this - perhaps you may want to try another advisor.

The mortgage advisor did pick up it, according to the OP's explanation. Is the written evidence enough? You know what these financial institutions are like. They'll just carry out an automated credit check, which will fail, due to the malicious information posted by Halifax.


OP, if you are financially disadvantaged by this, including the loss of a mortgage, you should consider taking up the matter with a solicitor with a view to suing both Halifax and the obdurate CRA.

MEM62

GingerBob wrote: »

The mortgage advisor did pick up it, according to the OP's explanation. Is the written evidence enough? You know what these financial institutions are like. They'll just carry out an automated credit check, which will fail, due to the malicious information posted by Halifax.


OP, if you are financially disadvantaged by this, including the loss of a mortgage, you should consider taking up the matter with a solicitor with a view to suing both Halifax and the obdurate CRA.

That's exactly why you pass the documentation to the lenders underwriter - so that they can see the information is erroneous and make a decision in view of that fact. And it is this point that the broker should have picked up on but he appears to letting the OP run around in circles trying to correct the CRA data when they already have documentation in hand that should make that process unnecessary.

Also, there is nothing to suggest that the information was given by Halifax maliciously and I very much doubt that this is the case. It is an error which they have acted upon to correct.

Spinderella1

Thank you for your comments.

I offered to email letters from Halifax to the broker but they advised the data needs to come off the files and ultimately it will be the credit check that will be the decider and the letters are in effect useless.

I don't understand if Halifax say they have sent a general notice of amendment to CRAs on 30th March and an urgent request on 19th April how Equifax are saying they've had to notification to update my file and therefore the information will remain unchanged.

It's a good point that I will most likely end up instructing my solicitors now to escalate the issue with Halifax and Equifax to see if this pushes the process along.

One question though. It's only Equifax that is reporting these missed payments and where my file is damaged. The data is not reported with Experian - if Halifax only credit check for mortgages with Experian and not Equifax as alluded to on this website - will i have a problem at all when it comes to the credit check?

Experian_company_representative

Spinderella1 wrote: »

Thank you for your comments.

I offered to email letters from Halifax to the broker but they advised the data needs to come off the files and ultimately it will be the credit check that will be the decider and the letters are in effect useless.

I don't understand if Halifax say they have sent a general notice of amendment to CRAs on 30th March and an urgent request on 19th April how Equifax are saying they've had to notification to update my file and therefore the information will remain unchanged.

It's a good point that I will most likely end up instructing my solicitors now to escalate the issue with Halifax and Equifax to see if this pushes the process along.

One question though. It's only Equifax that is reporting these missed payments and where my file is damaged. The data is not reported with Experian - if Halifax only credit check for mortgages with Experian and not Equifax as alluded to on this website - will i have a problem at all when it comes to the credit check?

Hi Spinderella1

If your mortgage provider (or any lender) only does a credit check with one credit reference agency (CRA) then they would only see the data recorded on that CRA's report. so if the missed payments aren't on your Experian report and they only checked the Experian report then they wouldn't seen them.

However some lenders may perform a credit check with more than one CRA when running checks. It may be worth asking the mortgage provider who they do their searches with to find out.

While you are waiting for the incorrect data to be removed you may want to add a notice of correction to your report to explain the missed payments. Information on notice of corrections can be found here. Although this guide is focused around adding one to your Experian report the information would still be relevant, you'd just contact the other CRA's for one to be added on your report with them.

Regards
Joe

MEM62

Spinderella1 wrote: »

Thank you for your comments.

I offered to email letters from Halifax to the broker but they advised the data needs to come off the files and ultimately it will be the credit check that will be the decider and the letters are in effect useless.


To be honest I am struggling to accept what your broker is saying. I think you would be well advised to consult another mortgage broker.

I don't understand if Halifax say they have sent a general notice of amendment to CRAs on 30th March and an urgent request on 19th April how Equifax are saying they've had to notification to update my file and therefore the information will remain unchanged.

It's a good point that I will most likely end up instructing my solicitors now to escalate the issue with Halifax and Equifax to see if this pushes the process along.

One question though. It's only Equifax that is reporting these missed payments and where my file is damaged. The data is not reported with Experian - if Halifax only credit check for mortgages with Experian and not Equifax as alluded to on this website - will i have a problem at all when it comes to the credit check?

It appears that Halifax has attempted to correct the issue but you are being hampered by the time scales involved in the CRA report being updated. Either way I believe that you may be being ill-advised by your broker. There are many cases where mortgage decisions cannot be decided on just a 'computer says yes or no' and these cases are referred to an underwriter. An underwriter will take into account the documentation you have from the Halifax.

Spinderella1

My complaint is with Halifax Executive and after speaking to them this week they have admitted that the mistake lies with them as they have not been following the correct procedure to remove the missed payments from my credit file. Looks like I've been wasting my time for 2 months listening to Halifax tell me they have instructed CRAs when they haven't. This is so frustrating.

I think the reason why my broker wants us to wait until these missed payments are removed is because we are less likely to get as good a mortgage rate if these late payments are still showing.