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rokat · 4 March 2017 at 8:31PM

Hi,

I started a DMP in December 2012 and I'm aiming to pay it all off by the end of this year.

Most of my accounts went into default in 2013 - the first ones were in March 2013 and the last on in November 2013. So I have been working hard to pay it all off before 2019 so that my credit report will eventually be clear.

However, Littlewoods didn't default me and just kept putting 6 month late marker on my report. I've contacted them twice about this and both times they said they aren't going to change it because I continued to pay thoughout. This is quoted from an email they sent me;
'A default would be recorded if an Account Holder was choosing to fully ignore a debt. In relation to your account I can see that you have contacted us and continued to make regular payments which, while less than the minimum payment requested on each statement, show as an attempt to reduce your balance. '

I have never missed a DMP payment and have recently upped my payment amount but looked at my credit report just now and Littlewoods have now defaulted me but the date is 25th October 2016 which means it won't drop off until 2022!!!

What can I do?

Westminster · 4 March 2017 at 9:04PM

Well you can try raising the issue with the FOS and the ICO which may give you the result you are looking for - I have seen people having success in getting defaults set back this way.

It certainly won't cost you anything to try.

However, the only defaults I was able to get back-dated were with agreement of the creditors directly. I had one - MBNA - who gave a similar response to the one you got from Littlewoods. After a long drawn-out process with the FOS and ICO they both upheld MBNAs position.

So if I were in the same position again, my first priority would be to force the hand of the creditors to issue defaults ASAP so as to limit the long-term damage.

As you probably know, if nothing changes, then your Littlewoods account will remain visible for 6 years after you finally clear the balance, not 6 years from when you first had difficulties making the contractual payments. To me this is a clear abuse of the guidelines from the ICO.

The cynic in me believes these creditors realise they can get around the 6 year limit by avoiding defaults.

Chappaz · 4 March 2017 at 9:37PM

rokat wrote: »

Hi,

I started a DMP in December 2012 and I'm aiming to pay it all off by the end of this year.

Most of my accounts went into default in 2013 - the first ones were in March 2013 and the last on in November 2013. So I have been working hard to pay it all off before 2019 so that my credit report will eventually be clear.

However, Littlewoods didn't default me and just kept putting 6 month late marker on my report. I've contacted them twice about this and both times they said they aren't going to change it because I continued to pay thoughout. This is quoted from an email they sent me;
'A default would be recorded if an Account Holder was choosing to fully ignore a debt. In relation to your account I can see that you have contacted us and continued to make regular payments which, while less than the minimum payment requested on each statement, show as an attempt to reduce your balance. '

I have never missed a DMP payment and have recently upped my payment amount but looked at my credit report just now and Littlewoods have now defaulted me but the date is 25th October 2016 which means it won't drop off until 2022!!!

What can I do?

I'm pretty sure they aren't allowed to slap a default on whenever they like. If they're going to apply a default (i.e. if they don't consider the DMP acceptable), it should be within a few months of the occurrence.

There are rules in place to prevent stuff like this happening, otherwise it would be a lot better if everyone just ignored their debt and let them default instead of trying to pay them back. It would encourage people to ignore them and discourage people from keeping them open to honour the debt.