AQUA Credit card

gemsum_2

I had applied for a Aqua card after not having any credit in 2011 and i wanted to build a profile. After about 1 year i decided to move in with my Boyfriend and decided to pay off the card and close the account (they constantly sent junk mail). My usual standing order left the bank on the 25th of each month, and on the 31st i called aqua and asked for the settlement fee as i was moving. They gave me the fee over the phone which i paid and i closed the account there and then.

Now in 2016 im looking to buy a second property and have checked my credit profile for the 1st time and noticed a default notice of £3.30. When i looked its Aqua! i have called them explaining that i called for a settlement and paid in full and closed the account. They are claiming that they didn't include the "daily interest rate from the 25th to 31st"........they also said they they couldn't contact me as i had moved property. I have asked them to remove the default notice from my credit account and they are refusing. How can i resolve this?....surely a settlement figure is exactly as it is "settlement".....im so angry! this could affect my mortgage application!

Any ideas? :mad:

Thanks

eskbanker

It depends on exactly what was said in the call you refer to - if you asked them what the current balance was then this would have excluded trailing interest, which, as they're now confirming, they are entitled to charge for the period after your previous payment. However, if you specifically asked them for a settlement figure to close the account then they should have mentioned the trailing interest that would become due, this would normally appear on the next statement, and quite possibly did, but it sounds like you weren't around to read it.

Depending on how hard you've pushed already, you might make some progress with a formal complaint if you're convinced that you made it clear that you wanted to close the account rather than just paying off the current balance, although they may have wiped any recordings of calls that far back by now.

Anthorn

gemsum wrote: »

I had applied for a Aqua card after not having any credit in 2011 and i wanted to build a profile. After about 1 year i decided to move in with my Boyfriend and decided to pay off the card and close the account (they constantly sent junk mail). My usual standing order left the bank on the 25th of each month, and on the 31st i called aqua and asked for the settlement fee as i was moving. They gave me the fee over the phone which i paid and i closed the account there and then.

Now in 2016 im looking to buy a second property and have checked my credit profile for the 1st time and noticed a default notice of £3.30. When i looked its Aqua! i have called them explaining that i called for a settlement and paid in full and closed the account. They are claiming that they didn't include the "daily interest rate from the 25th to 31st"........they also said they they couldn't contact me as i had moved property. I have asked them to remove the default notice from my credit account and they are refusing. How can i resolve this?....surely a settlement figure is exactly as it is "settlement".....im so angry! this could affect my mortgage application!

Any ideas? :mad:

Thanks

Now if that was Vanquis and its associates alleged to have sent junk mail I would agree. But I had an Aqua card for 7 years and never received any junk mail from them at all.

In common with other card companies such as Vanquis, Aqua don't immediately close an account. They block the card and you're supposed to check the subsequent statement and clear the balance. If you failed to do that or you failed to notify them of a change of address it's not Aqua's fault.

[Deleted User]

Although ultimate responsibility does lie with the customer, too many companies are using credit files to effectively torture people. These companies can add what they like to a file and really mess up someone's life (lose house, sometimes even a job offer (or job, if it was in financial services))

It's a disgrace - the OP may, or may not, have correctly worded the request to close the account and pay off everything due. In my mind ANY request to close an account should automatically lead to the question of trailing interest being discussed. I'd imagine that the subject of the OP moving house may have also came up in the conversation - in which case it should have been taken down.

Even if this did not happen - aqua should have had telephone numbers on record in relation to the account. A simple phone call/text message would have resolved the issue. Likewise an email address (aren't all apps with Aqua et al. done electronically = email required).

As for the CRAs, there should be a reasonable buffer - e.g. £5 or £10, where a default simply doesn't get recorded. I'm sure Aqua wrote that amount off as they couldn't care less about it and the costs of collection - likewise, CRAs should not allow lenders to submit small defaults. The system is so unfairly weighted towards banks (I used to work for one)

OP stick a complaint in, you'll probavly get it removed and £25 compensation fairly easily. Threaten them with a complaint to the FOS.

If they refuse to play ball, email NewDay's executive office, they seem fairly helpful from personal experience.

Also a 4 year default shouldn't cause many issues, especially for that ridiculous value - you could take your statutory credit report to a broker who should be able to advise. If the rest of your report is fine, they may even be able to get you standard deals

gemsum_2

They did not have my new address , i did state i wanted a settlement figure and explained i was moving house they never asked for a forwarding address as it wasn't needed i was closing the account., they had my email address as i received my statements back then and mobile number (i still have the same one) . but received nothing at all. Im not going to go into hiding for £3.30 :rotfl:

Superscrooge

I agree that Aqua have been unhelpful. But they haven't actually done anything wrong. So I'm not sure threatening them will have the desired effect.

It might be worth sending a letter or email explaining the circumstances. That you had no intention of avoiding payment of £3.30 You are concerned that the default notice might affect your mortgage application. Would they be willing as a gesture of goodwill to remove the default notice? I know from working in customer service many years ago that a reasoned personal appeal often had more effect than a threat.

Another option is to add a notice of correction to your credit file.

The below text is from Experian website http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/faq/AR5.html

A Notice of Correction is a short (200 words max) explanatory note you can add to an entry on your credit report to explain the background to that information. Anyone searching your report in the future or who has seen it in the previous six months will see the Notice of Correction, and they must take account of it when you apply for credit.

[Deleted User]

Although I totally agree that threatening won't work to CS staff (I used to be bank cashier) - when it gets escalated, it will certainly make a difference to complaint handlers who have targets on resolving complaints (aka preventing escalations to FOS!).

It's not cheap for Aqua to defend cases at FOS.

If FOS decide a case is entirely without merit then there is no charge - BUT the OP had an account, and had a default marker placed. So there is certainly some merit in a FOS investigation = charge for NewDay.

The FOS outcome may very well be to clear off, and Aqua may believe that, but sorting it and giving you £25 to keep quiet is a lot cheaper than fighting and paying the £550 for each case! (In addition to the internal staff time spent dealing with it - if you look at it from a Management Accounting viewpoint)

My personal experience: NewDay offered £25 despite basically insisting they'd done nothing wrong. If they'd done nothing wrong, they'd write a 'thank you very much for your comment, now clear off' message..... scared of the £550 me thinks...