Forgotten bank account has destroyed my credit rating

LambTikka

What kind of person is stupid enough to forget they have a Student bank account that's £1100 overdrawn?

Me.

After finishing University, I had 5 years to pay it back at 0% with Halifax, and foolishly put it off.

Incredibly - I managed to forget I even had this account.

It wasn't until I checked my credit report last month I noticed 6 missed payments! :eek:

Obviously, I contacted Halifax immediately and payed off what I owed (which had now incurred interest).

Halifax were reasonable to be fair - they had tried contacting me by post several times by post (my old student address), and had even recorded on my file that they recognised I was no longer there give the lack of response. They did however have my current mobile number (which was frustrating, as if contacted it could have been quickly resolved - though I am in no way shape or form denouncing my responsibility for this embarrassing debacle).

Halifax waived the interest as a gesture of goodwill.

I'm in a position now where I cannot get any form of credit without it being extortionate.

Is there anything I can do, other than a notice of correction?

Does anybody have any experience of the efficacy of a notice of correction?

Arleen

Don't put in a notice of correction. It will automatically stop you from passing online applications as long as the notice is there, as lenders MUST read it, but at the same token they don't have to do anything about it. And even if they will take it into consideration the marker is there fairly, so it won't improve you situation.

I know that this isn't what you want to hear, but in the end the missed payments and gone-away markers show accurate story of what happened and there is no grounds to get them removed - it would even be wrong, and unfair to future lenders, if they did remove them!

The silver lining is that they are only late payments and the account is now settled. As long as you have nice and healthy file beside that one incident then, with time, the markers will not carry much weight. And after 6 years they will be just gone altogether.