Defaulted by Three mobile, can i get this removed?

louloulashes

Hello,

i need some advice regarding a default received from Three (Hutchison 3G LTD) and if i have any chance of having it removed.

I've held an account with Three for 3 years and last year decided to get a sim only contract for a 2nd phone for work to keep my personal and work phone calls separate. I never did this, never used the sim at all so actually forgot it existed. The account was registered to the same home address as my main account but a direct debit was paying the account from my work bank account. When i changed business bank accounts it looks like the direct debit was never carried over. I never realised this. I received a letter to home address in Oct 2015 saying i owed £17. I called up and paid this off within 4 days of the letter. The person on the phone didn't ask me to set up another direct debit and said nothing else was owing, he did however make me update the address on my account to the one on the card but it looks like he took this incorrectly. The address is a large office block that requires the office number and he has completely missed the name of the street so has directed mail to somewhere that technically doesn't exist. I therefore have received nothing else regarding this account until last month when a letter came to my home address from a debt collection agency saying i had been ignoring correspondance from their client and that they were now taking me to court.

Thinking this was my main account i disputed the debt straight away with the debt company who then had Three contact me. I spoke to a guy there in the 'Executive office' who advised me they had made plenty of contact before issuing this default. I told him i hadn't received a thing to either address. He says the collections team sent me a letter in Oct 2015 & Nov 2015 which i've told him i haven't received and that i certainly haven't had a default notice from them making me aware of the issue and allowing me to rectify it. He has adamently stated that despite me claiming not to have received anything, the default will not be removed. He claims that i was called by someone in November and asked for bank details on the phone and that i refused to give them out on the phone, I remember someone calling me last year when i was at work and asking for details i didn't want to give out over the phone from a withheld number. It sounded very suspicious to me and i don't want to sound offensive but the person couldn't speak very clear English and i didn't really know what the call was about. I don't give details out to anyone that calls me out of the blue. Most business advise this to their customers.

I asked the guy in the Executive Office for evidence of the letters he says were sent to me by their collections team, my initial feeling was that the address they held for me was wrong. The guy told me i had to pay £10 to request the information held on my account including the letters sent to me in Oct & Nov. I received this information today and there were no letters from the collections team regarding my account in arrears. The letter sent to me in Oct was the one i responded to that told me i owed £17. That was sent to my home address. The letter in Nov was a monthly statement for £44 that i didn't actually receive as that one was sent to the new (wrong) address. These were the only things sent to my by the company and i was defaulted in April 2016. The guy implied i'd be sent collection letters to warn me of impending action.

I keep my accounts really well, i'm not and haven't been in financially difficulty, I have no debts, no blemishes on my report and i'm really upset that a company can inflict 6 years of misery on me over £44 without having to write a letter to warn me.

There hasn't been a single collection letter, warning letter, breach of contract letter, default notice or anything so i'm completely in shock to have a default. The letter that accompanied todays information stated that the company were not governed by the Credit Consumer Act and therefore don't have to provide a copy of default notice. I've been googling this today and it seems like that might be right for mobile phone providers and that they issue defaults like confetti. I'm really quite shocked that phone customers don't have Consumer Credit rights. I hope im wrong.

I know many of you are probably shocked that i could have an account i forgot about but in my defense i have a toddler and run 4 businesses. I work most mornings, afternoons, evenings and weekends and it's easy to forget things especially without a bill or reminder from the company.

My husband and I were about to take out a mortgage so i know that won't happen now if i don't get this removed. What i'm hoping to discover is that they've done things incorrectly. Do they still have to follow some sort of guidelines? Should i have been written to? do they have to issue something equivalent to a default notice? Is the fact they have my address wrong a technicality i could get this removed on? Are there any templates out there for me? Everything seems to be based on those governed by the Consumer Credit Act. Are there solicitors out there that specialise in this sort of thing? I would happily pay for legal help in getting this default removed

Thanks for any advice

boo_star

You could end up paying a solicitor a small fortune and not get anywhere.

Ultimately mobile phone contracts are not governed by the CCA but even if they were, they only need to send notice to the address on file. In your case this was incorrect.

Did you receive transcripts of phone calls when you performed the SAR? If they have them you should have received them. I'd be surprised if they have been deleted in less than a year but stranger things have happened. Without those and given it is a civil case, it would be a matter of whether the judge believes your side of the story or theirs.

louloulashes

No, they've said they haven't kept the phone conversations. There are just notes. The payment wouldn't have gone through if i hadn't given the correct billing address so i have that on my side. The guy i spoke to then was also in an overseas call centre. This is what happens when you can't understand each other.

I've read something interesting earlier tonight about something the Office of Fair Trading said when they were still open that considered phone contracts as credit if you would have to pay the same amount for the term of the contract if you cancelled. I have emailed the Financial Conduct Authority about this.

I'm hoping if i annoy them enough about it they will eventually just agree to remove it.

I have a template from another forum challenging it based on contract law and not being notified of the cancellation of my contract but i doubt that will work.

Im desperate, i will try anything.

darkidoe

Similar issue happened with me 3 years ago when I moved and had my address changed and a mobile broadband plan which I took out for a month an cancelled was billed to my old address on a separate bill from my mobile phone bill even though i renewed the sim contract at the same time!! Furthermore I only got to known i was stuck with a default only after checking my credit file 2 months after when I failed a credit application. This was with 3 Hutchison too! Ridiculous. I wrote to them and managed to get it taken off.

To start off, request your statutory credit report and check out when this mark was put on your file.

Write them a complain letter/email detailing all of the above with as many facts as possible. Highlighting that this is an unfortunate adminstrative/banking error and not intentional. You have had a good history of payments and you believe you should not be unfairly punished because of it. Highlight that you paid off the outstanding amount immediately following known of the error and you would appreciate if they would kindly remove this mark from your credit file. Hope for a favourable reply. If not consider taking it further...

Check your credit file again in a few months time after it is settled to make sure all is good.

takman

They may have made a mistake with the address but at the end of the day your the one in the wrong!

You agreed to a contract for the sim only deal and then missed a payment, which was your first mistake. Yes you say you forgot because your busy. But everyone forgets things so you should have written it down or kept a log of it. I have a spreadsheet of all my financial accounts because I have more than 20, but I have never missed a payment in my life!.

Then when you paid the money owed you didn't even cancel the account!. If your not using it you should have cancelled it!. Plus it's obvious there will be future payments due on the account so you should have setup a direct debit so these were paid.

darkidoe

takman wrote: »

They may have made a mistake with the address but at the end of the day your the one in the wrong!

You agreed to a contract for the sim only deal and then missed a payment, which was your first mistake. Yes you say you forgot because your busy. But everyone forgets things so you should have written it down or kept a log of it. I have a spreadsheet of all my financial accounts because I have more than 20, but I have never missed a payment in my life!.

Then when you paid the money owed you didn't even cancel the account!. If your not using it you should have cancelled it!. Plus it's obvious there will be future payments due on the account so you should have setup a direct debit so these were paid.

Humans make mistakes. But default markers which can affect people's ability to get accounts, finance shouldn't be stuck onto someone who in a reasonable situation or circumstance would have paid the bill in full, especially someone with a long history with them paying their bills.

GingerBob_3

darkidoe wrote: »

Humans make mistakes. But default markers which can affect people's ability to get accounts, finance shouldn't be stuck onto someone who in a reasonable situation or circumstance would have paid the bill in full, especially someone with a long history with them paying their bills.

Exactly the issue I continue to raise. It's misuse of the credit reporting system, which is quite dysfunctional and not fit for purpose.

louloulashes

Thanks to those that are understanding of my situation. I don't know if takman has run multiple business on very little sleep and with a screaming child accompanying you but it's hard work and easy to forgot things. I don't claim to be perfect but i still feel that this is completely unjust.

For the record, i told the guy i didn't use the sim and that i wished to cancel it on that first call. The guy told me i didn't owe them anything else, just £17. He clearly meant 'currently' but i assumed this to mean my account was settled which is why i forgot about this. The sim was cut off and i eventually threw the sim away. I told them this when i first spoke to them about this default. They've said they have no record of that and they haven't kept the call so we can't see the transcript. It's my work against theirs and they're the ones with the power. They've said i would have been told that i need to be transfered to another department for that and that a cancellation fee would have been due.

Yes, i hold my hands up that i made a mistake and i lost track of this account but to not write a single letter, not one, is that not unethical?

Do business not have some sort of duty to let a customer know what they're going to do when it's so damaging? I came on here to find out if there are any guidelines that they should have followed correctly with regards to that. I've read that it's normal for business not governed by the CCA to still send a letter warning of a default at least.

I don't normally have any issues with bills. I'm not struggling, i'm quite financially stable, i pay everything by direct debit, everything is paid on time, but if there is an issue i've always received a letter telling me so and for a company to be able to essentially block me from getting any sort of credit for six years because i owed them £44 for a couple of months when they didn't even write to me is literally boiling my blood.

The guy implied i'd been sent letters about the debt in Oct & Nov but now i've received all the information about my account i can see they didn't. They sent one statement to a wrong address, no arrears letters and just issued a default at the first opportunity they could. It's causing me a lot of distress and they gain nothing from it. They know i've got another account with them that is absolutely gleaming and has been for years.

I don't understand the logic that this is not considered to be credit yet they can put it on my credit report for 'other' lenders when they're not considered lenders themselves.

takman

louloulashes wrote: »

Thanks to those that are understanding of my situation. I don't know if takman has run multiple business on very little sleep and with a screaming child accompanying you but it's hard work and easy to forgot things. I don't claim to be perfect but i still feel that this is completely unjust.

Yes anyone can easily forget things so that's you need to make sure that you don't!. Like I said I have a spreadsheet which lists all my accounts and what I have to do to each one monthly, when direct debit are paid etc. This means I will never forget, so there is nothing stopping you using a similar system. I would have thought running multiple businesses would make you an organised person!.
The trick is to use To Do lists, spreadsheets, calendar reminders so there is nothing to forget because it's all documented!.

louloulashes wrote: »

For the record, i told the guy i didn't use the sim and that i wished to cancel it on that first call. The guy told me i didn't owe them anything else, just £17. He clearly meant 'currently' but i assumed this to mean my account was settled which is why i forgot about this. The sim was cut off and i eventually threw the sim away. I told them this when i first spoke to them about this default. They've said they have no record of that and they haven't kept the call so we can't see the transcript. It's my work against theirs and they're the ones with the power. They've said i would have been told that i need to be transfered to another department for that and that a cancellation fee would have been due.

Yes, i hold my hands up that i made a mistake and i lost track of this account but to not write a single letter, not one, is that not unethical?

Do business not have some sort of duty to let a customer know what they're going to do when it's so damaging? I came on here to find out if there are any guidelines that they should have followed correctly with regards to that. I've read that it's normal for business not governed by the CCA to still send a letter warning of a default at least.

I don't normally have any issues with bills. I'm not struggling, i'm quite financially stable, i pay everything by direct debit, everything is paid on time, but if there is an issue i've always received a letter telling me so and for a company to be able to essentially block me from getting any sort of credit for six years because i owed them £44 for a couple of months when they didn't even write to me is literally boiling my blood.

The guy implied i'd been sent letters about the debt in Oct & Nov but now i've received all the information about my account i can see they didn't. They sent one statement to a wrong address, no arrears letters and just issued a default at the first opportunity they could. It's causing me a lot of distress and they gain nothing from it. They know i've got another account with them that is absolutely gleaming and has been for years.

I don't understand the logic that this is not considered to be credit yet they can put it on my credit report for 'other' lenders when they're not considered lenders themselves.

Yes I think they should have written you a letter but at the end of the day your the one who agreed to pay it monthly and failed to do that.

This won't stop you getting all credit because each lender has different criteria they use and a lot of them will give credit to people who have settled defaults.

A phone contract is credit because you have the ability to make calls, texts above your allowance that you pay for in next month's bill. You use the service then pay for it the following month, therefore its credit.

louloulashes

Then i should be protected as a credit consumer but i'm not. It's scandalous.
I've already been told by my bank that i won't get a mortgage with a default on my account. I've saved for years to get to the position i'm in and now myself and my family can't buy a home for 6 years if i can't get this removed.

I set up a direct debit for this account so it was paid each month so i didn't have to keep a spreadsheet. That's why most people set up direct debits surely? I wasn't aware the bank had cancelled it and no you don't have to be an organised person to run multiple businesses. You just need good staff.

Anyway, the point of starting this thread wasn't so someone could make me feel worse for making a human error, or tell me how i could have avoided it in the first place but so i could get some help with a situation that's causing me a lot of anxiety and i'd appreciate advice rather than criticism.

darkidoe

Try reading this: Removing small defaults

Disputing a default on your credit file - Where you can put in a short note regarding the circumstances of the default and why you are disputing it. People who check your credit file will come across it. This is a temporary thing but ultimately, Three has to removing it from their end.