Derogatory Status

rmcroy86

Hi,

I have been having some trouble with British gas. Firstly when I left them at renewal and had a bill for over £2k which turned out to be wrong and they eventually sent a new final bill for around £200 which I agreed to pay over 3 months and I asked if doing this would effect my credit rating; they said no. Then they failed to set the DD up and referred me to a debt agency so I contacted them again, they agreed it was their error, took the 1st of the 3 instalments over the phone and (hopefully) re-setup the DD for the remaining 2. Again I checked that it would not effect my credit file, they said they would remove the mark from referring me to the debt agency and that none of this would effect my credit file and not to worry. Then I received an alert from Equifax confirming that a derogatory status had been logged from British Gas. Again I raised yet another complaint (exhausting!) the woman I spoke to repeatedly told me there was no marks on my credit file despite what I could see in front of me on Equifax. Eventually she back tracked after speaking to someone about it and said it would indeed show on my file and she was sorry I had been misinformed but there was nothing that could be done.

I have threatened to complain to Ofjem but if there really is nothing that can be done I am not sure if that will help. The trouble is my rating has gone down and we are going to be applying for mortgages very soon so this has a big impact on my life. I have a son and one on the way, we only live in a 2 bed house and need 3 so if I can't get a mortgage...nightmare! If I would have been correctly advised by them in the 1st place I would have paid the lot off to save any marks on my file.

What can I do?

Specifically what I want to know is a) can this mark be removed and b) were British Gas in breach of any sort of consumer rights (or something along those lines) when they falsely told me my credit file would be unaffected, and if so what can I do about it.

DCFC79

The rating isn't that important as lenders don't see it, they see the raw data on your history. The marks on your file can be removed, might need to go through various channels.

anselld

rmcroy86 wrote: »

If I would have been correctly advised by them in the 1st place I would have paid the lot off to save any marks on my file.

If you could afford to pay off the debt at the time why did you ask for a payment plan?

rmcroy86

Not really a helpful comment that. It is better for cashflow to pay it off over 3 months rather than in one.

rmcroy86

Thanks, do you know which channels specifically?

GingerBob_3

Yet another example of how lies published by the CRAs can seriously affect someone's ability to obtain credit.


I'm contemplating taking up this general issue, and other CRA malpractices, with my MP. Has anyone else tried this approach?

rmcroy86

I haven't but that is a good idea.

Thrugelmir

rmcroy86 wrote: »

Not really a helpful comment that. It is better for cashflow to pay it off over 3 months rather than in one.

A very valid comment. As by asking for extended repayment terms it suggested you were under financial duress. The whole point of credit history being to inform other credit providers of an individuals circumstances. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

rmcroy86

I did not request extended payment terms, the option as recommended to me by my complaint handler.

takman

rmcroy86 wrote: »

If you want to criticise my choices fine but that is not what this forum is for. I am not under financial distress. I made a choice based on the false information provided to me by british gas which has had negative implications on my life, if you have anything helpful to say about how I can improve my current situation, wonderful! If not, kindly go away.

Actually that is exactly what this forum is for!. People commenting on what "mistakes" you have made will hopefully help others reading this thread. Also you can't tell people to go away on a public forum!.

Paying a final bill in installments is a strange thing to do because it usually has a due date and paying by instalments will make it seem like you have financial difficulties.
If you say that a £200 bill paid in one go would have caused cashflow issues then you really need to start building up some savings for these kinds of things. If you move into a bigger more expensive house without and kind of backup saving you are just asking for financial trouble!.

rmcroy86

This is not about my cashflow, but since you ask... cashflow is important because I invest a certain amount of money per month on promoting (I am a children's author) and something called matched betting (I do have a day job also) the more money I have to invest in these things the more money I will make each month. If I fail to invest £200 in July I would loose around £1000 in August. I budget myself very strictly because of these things which is why I made this choice. The point you are missing is that when I made this choice it was made explicitly clear to me that it would not effect my credit rating or leave a mark on my credit report, but it has. I agree that hopefully someone will read this and learn not to believe what British Gas tells you but that can be achieved by reading what I have written. What I am trying to achieve here is to find a solution to the problem I have and your comments are not constructive and rather rude.