Removing a default - help please!

Sharbiiiie

Hi all,

I have just recently had a default added to my credit file - account start date is 02/2011 and default added 06/2016.

I stupidly took out some payday loans in 2011 at the ripe age of 18 and being young and stupid didn't realise the negative impact it would have on me later on in life. The default in question has been added by a company I presume bought the debt from the original creditor.

Now my issue - I am fully in a position to pay off the debt in full (£190), and have been for some time, if I had even realised the debt from FIVE years ago was still outstanding I would have settled a long time ago... so I was extremely shocked to view my credit report and see this brand new default added against me. I have received ZERO notification of this default.

Upon contacting the company the default was added by, they couldn't locate me on their system so I had to send a screenshot of my credit file, which then highlighted the fact the default they've filed is filed in the wrong address, they have used an address I lived at briefly with a partner - the address on my credit file is the correct one, and I have never told them otherwise. The address that will be on the original credit agreement is my current address, and although I lived at a different address for a while, it's my parents home so I still got post there. I'm a little confused as to why they used that address and I can only imagine that is the address they sent the default to if they did send one in the first place.

Am I correct in thinking they have to notify me of the default before it's added and give me the chance to pay? Had they sent the default to the main address on my credit file (and the address given to the original creditor), I would have received it... There are a few accounts on my credit file linking me to the address they sent it to (because I haven't changed the addresses back now as I don't get paper statements and to be honest I just forgot) But the majority of accounts are the correct address, and also the main page stating my name and address is the correct one too... I'm also on the electoral roll at the correct address too obviously.

Can I do anything about this? I emailed them and explained the address they have on file isn't my address, but they still said they wont be removing it.

Do I pay them now? Or wait until I've tried to get them to remove it? Or have they in fact not done anything wrong? If they have done something wrong please can someone help me with what I need to say to them? I have asked for a copy of the default and the original credit agreement but they have not sent them to me.

Thanks

National_Debtline

Hi Sharbiiiie


In order for a default to be recorded in respect of a Consumer credit Act-regulated debt, the creditor would have had to issue a formal "default notice" setting out details of how you had breached the agreement, and giving you 14 days to rectify the breach by paying the sum in question. Obviously in this case it appears that such a notice - if any were sent at all - may have gone to that other address you mentioned.


The timing of the default notice doesn't appear to follow the spirit of the guidelines in place for recording such data, to put it mildly. Have a look at them yourself as it may offer you ammunition for any complaints you go on to make:


http://www.scoronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/high_level_prinicples_document_final.pdf


I'd be chasing them hard for a copy of that default notice if I were you, and making a formal complaint if it is not forthcoming. I'd suggest that you use the "subject data access request" letter available from our website to demand from them any/all relevant documentation:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Personal-information-under-the-Data-Protection-Act-%28sole-name%29.aspx


In the meantime, if you can pay up and settle the account then by all means do so - it will not make your requests for information and/or complaints any less legitimate.


Dennis
@natdebtline