Nationwide Default Confusion

hollip0p

Hi all,

Looking for a little bit of advice/reassurance please!

I'm on a DMP and received a letter from Nationwide this morning regarding my credit card, it's a copy of a letter sent to PayPlan.

It basically says thank you for your offer of £41.55 a month, please continue to make payments however due to the amount of time this will take to repay the balance (£461.16) it is our intention to issue the customer with a default notice.

I've immediately called Nationwide because I'm 9 months (maximum - I'm hoping to do it in 6!) away from my debt free date and really don't want a fresh default now.

The advisor I spoke to told me to ignore the letter because a default had already been issued in November 2014 and they couldn't issue a second. This was news to me as I wasn't aware of a default on this particular account, so I've gone off and checked Noddle, Equifax and Credit Expert. None of them show a default, as I'd thought.

I called back and spoke to a different advisor who couldn't confirm if a default had been applied or not and told me to go back and check my statements or call a CRA to see if nationwide had applied a default. Am I missing something or should nationwide know for sure whether this ever happened or not?! I don't keep copies of my statements and my internet banking doesn't go back that far.

I eventually managed to speak to a supervisor who still couldn't say for sure whether the default had been applied back in November 2014, but said one wouldn't be applied now because it's a fairly low balance being paid off in a reasonable amount of time. I've asked for this in writing because I wasn't very confident in the knowledge of the three people I spoke to.

Do you think I've done the right thing or should I be asking more questions about the supposed November 2014 default? If it's not showing on any of the three credit reports I checked it can't have been applied, can it?

Thanks!

fermi

Sounds if they might be confused about what type of default they mean.

There is a default notice under the consumer credit act, which is a letter basically a letter ending the agreement asking for their money back.

or

There is a default on your credit file, which indicates that "the relationship between you and the creditor has broken down" in general terms.

Those two are not the same thing, and don't have to happen together, although in many cases they do.

So could be they sent a default notice letter in 2014, but didn't default your credit files at that time if you were paying reasonably.

Sazzie23

Aargh, I'd be so cross if I was within a year of DFD.

Think I'd be writing back to the sender to say what are you messing about at threatening a default now. As Ferni says, may well be a default notice they mean, which they are obliged to send, but I'd still write to say I'm nit happy with they way you're treating me.

Saz

hollip0p

Thanks for the replies but I think I am being a bit thick! I don't really understand the difference between a default notice and a default on my credit file?

Does the first option not show anywhere on my credit file at all?

fermi

hollip0p wrote: »

Thanks for the replies but I think I am being a bit thick! I don't really understand the difference between a default notice and a default on my credit file?

Does the first option not show anywhere on my credit file at all?

1st is a letter telling you that you have broken the agreement, and that they may end it if you don't bring the account up to date within 14 days. Normal to happen in a DMP or payment plan where you are paying less that the full contractual amount.

That letter is called a Default Notice under Section 87 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

2nd is a default entry on your credit file.

They both use the word default, but they are not the same thing.

Put it this way.......

They could in law have decided to call the s87 default notice letter something else.

For example "Broken agreement warning letter"

Then there would be no confusion between the two.

However, they didn't, and it's now stuck with 2 different uses for the term 'default'.

hollip0p

Thanks Fermi - you are a star.

sourcrates

fermi wrote: »

Put it this way.......

They could in law have decided to call the s87 default notice letter something else.

For example "Broken agreement warning letter"

Then there would be no confusion between the two.

However, they didn't, and it's now stuck with 2 different uses for the term 'default'.

Hence all the confusion people have differentiating between the two !!!!