Derogatory Status

rmcroy86

If anyone is interested in my original post rather than how much money I may or may not have in my bank account.. I have been advised by citizens advice that British Gas were indeed in breech of my consumer rights as per the following:

Misleading actions

5.—(1) A commercial practice is a misleading action if it satisfies the conditions in either paragraph (2) or paragraph (3).

(2) A commercial practice satisfies the conditions of this paragraph—

(a)if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful in relation to any of the matters in paragraph (4) or if it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer in relation to any of the matters in that paragraph, even if the information is factually correct; and
(b)it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.

Clearly I took a transactional decision that I would not have taken otherwise. They were therefore acting illegally when they mislead me into believing that this was not a credit agreement but extended terms and that my credit file would be unaffected. This could entitle me to compensation for the financial losses I may face (more expensive mortgage). Thankfully I have legal representation but should any of you find it unaffordable it is a matter covered by legal aid.

In reality, after speaking to my mortgage advisor, what we will probably do is get the mortgage based purely on my partners credit rating, I can still be on the mortgage but my particulars are not taken into account and I will likely not bother taking legal action. It did feel nice to speak with someone with some expertise on the matter and I will be writing a strongly worded email to `BG now that I am firm in my convictions.

rmcroy86

anselld wrote: »

I don't think that is true. Suppliers prefer Customers who pay their debts promptly, regardless of the standard terms. There are many suppliers who will offer better terms to Customers who are prompt payers. Even if there are no formal improved terms then it improves relationship with the supplier, particularly small Businesses, to pay promptly.

Maximising use of payment terms is a narrow short-term accounting view. Large Corporates inflating their cash flow at suppliers expense is one of the reasons perfectly decent small businesses fail. It is not good practice in the long term.

With respect I know a fair bit about managing cashflow for small and medium businesses - it is my job. Very small businesses, cleaning companies, gardeners etc generally give short payment terms of around 7 days, to pay such a company 7 days from DOI is completely fair. Larger companies tend to give more genorous terms, usually 30 days, to pay such an invoice any sooner makes no sense. I am a bit of an oddity I am both employed as an accountant and a self employed author as well as, as I have mentioned partaker of matched betting. You don't really have enough insight into my accounts as a self employed author or as an employee so to attempt to give me unwarranted advice based on really very little knowledge and, I suspect, no expertise, is wrong, morally.

Matched betting is an interesting one, with my book sales I don't outlay any costs for printing and I receive royalties based of sales, I put all of my royalties into a savings account which I must give 45 days notice to withdraw from (that is where my house deposit is), depending on what I have left of my wages after I have budgeted for bills, food etc, I try to spend an amount each month on advertising campaigns, website development etc. I don't know if you have given matched betting a go yourself, you definitely make money from it but if you want to make around £4k a month (which I am aiming for) you need to have a very large bankroll, so I take what is left after living costs and marketing and use that for matched betting. There are times when you will have thousands tied up in betting accounts due to wagering requirements.. So when British Gas finally amended my bill to it's correct £200 (rather that the initial final bill of over £2k) my specific situation was this; any serious money I had was in my husband an I's joint savings account, I had just been paid and all of my regular DD's had gone out I had budgeted £500 for the month for spends including petrol as I do every month and I had around £1000 left for book promotion and matched betting; there was one particular thing I wanted to make sure I did which was a Bet365 offer requiring around £1k which I would make £100 from and see my money again in a week or two giving time to meet the wagering requirements and the 3 to 5 days for withdrawal. I had also been in discussion with a particular magazine I wanted to advertise in costing £200 but they needed a quick decision as magazines often do due to their tight schedule and high demand... leaving me with £300 'spends' which is a decent amount but this was also the month of both my husbands and my (now 4 year old) son's birthday so that all needed taking into account too. Thankfully the nice lady (she was very pleasant, and to be fair I think she thought she was telling the truth) from British gas told me not to worry about paying the bill straight away, as I had been through a lot with getting my bill sorted they were more than happy to extend the terms and allow me to pay over 3 months and yes she was quite sure there would be no adverse effect on my credit file. Now had I known this not to be true; I would of course dipped into my spending money or walked away from the Bet365 offer or even turn down the magazine ad space but as I believed she was telling the truth why would I do that, there was no negative aspects to it so I was being told and it was my belief that she was legally obliged not to mislead me (she was by the way I can now take legal action if I wish). So there you have it, you know my bank accounts better than my best friends do lol.

We talking about a large corporate business taking actions at Joe public's expense here. British Gas are not some cozy little family run company, they are the rich people who don't pass falling gas prices on to us, who are well known for harassing people including the elderly to change their supply to them, then harassing them when they leave for payment of incorrect bills. I will keep my money out of British Gasses pockets for as long as possible regardless of how much money I have and even i it is only £200, I have a good mortgage advisor who has found a way around this so my credit file is not important now, I have no need for a good credit rating. I am sure you will try to advise me otherwise but you are wrong.

[Deleted User]

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Multiple (dismissive) posts by the OP here are hardly conducive to healthy discussion.

I don't really know why any other users are still posting on this thread.

The OP already seems to know all the answers (apart from how to use the "quote" function ).

anselld

rmcroy86 wrote: »

You don't really have enough insight into my accounts as a self employed author or as an employee so to attempt to give me unwarranted advice based on really very little knowledge and, I suspect, no expertise, is wrong, morally.

.

I was not advising on your specific circumstances.

I was commenting on your general view that it is always best to maximise use of supplier terms. This may be true for you personally but I have been in business long enough to know it is not generally true, at least not beyond the confines of the finance department.

I know you don't want any advice, but make sure all your relevant bank statements are clear of gambling transactions for theee months prior to any mortgage application. Mortgage companies dislike gambling as much as adverse credit and they won't make the distinction of matched betting.

Bmth100

I hate it when companies say there is nothing they can do to remove a marker from your file. I worked for a large lender for a few years and spent some time dealing with complaints. One of my mates at the time handled correspondence with the credit rating companies. It literally took an email and about an hour to have something removed.

rmcroy86

Bmth100 wrote: »

I hate it when companies say there is nothing they can do to remove a marker from your file. I worked for a large lender for a few years and spent some time dealing with complaints. One of my mates at the time handled correspondence with the credit rating companies. It literally took an email and about an hour to have something removed.

That is very useful information. Thank you.

rmcroy86

anselld wrote: »

I was not advising on your specific circumstances.

I was commenting on your general view that it is always best to maximise use of supplier terms. This may be true for you personally but I have been in business long enough to know it is not generally true, at least not beyond the confines of the finance department.

I know you don't want any advice, but make sure all your relevant bank statements are clear of gambling transactions for theee months prior to any mortgage application. Mortgage companies dislike gambling as much as adverse credit and they won't make the distinction of matched betting.

I have a mortgage advisor thank you.

takman

What is the interest rate on this account that you have to give 45 days notice to withdraw from?. It seems to be a bad idea to keep all your savings in one low interest account when you can get 3 - 6% from multiple current accounts and regular saver accounts.

Also if you are serious about matched betting then why are you putting money in their doing an offer then taking it out again?. When I'm doing every offer I can I constantly have a couple thousand pounds in the exchanges which is always in use. If you keep withdrawing money you will never make any serious profit.

Also even if all your money was locked away you could have paid it on your credit card then paid it off the next time you got paid.

I really can't believe you are employed as an accountant when you have all your money locked away in a low interest account and seem unable to get a grip on basic personal finances!.

meer53

As an accountant i would have thought that you would be more au fait with how things can go wrong when disputing a bill with a supplier. Your post doesnt make sense, you say they forgot to set the DD up THEN referred you to the Debt Collection agents ? Now you say they did that before the DD ?

Also, just because someones mate says info can be removed from a credit file within an hour doesn't make it true. I say this as someone who deals with removing info from credit files. And please take note of Anselld's post regarding gambling transactions, they will have a huge impact on your mortgage applications.

rmcroy86

Thank you for bringing the discussion back to the actual issue. They failed to set the DD up and rather than letting me know about it they just referred it to a debt collection agency even though the date of the 1st DD had not yet passed. So I set the DD up with them again as well as making the 1st payment by debit card.