Missed DD payment due to bank switch

sjenkins2

Hi,

I have recently switched my current account to Santander, having opened the account on 3rd May and had the switch completed by the 11th May.

I have now had an issue of a missed direct debit payment for laser eye surgery I have been gradually paying off. The DD is supposed to come out of my account on the 14th May but I notice it didn't actually go out until the 18th May...So i very promptly got a letter telling me about the missed payment and surcharge because of it.

I have since been in contact with the laser eye surgery and explained that I had switched banks and they refunded the surcharge. However, I am now left with this mispayment on my credit report!

Apparently, the surgery needed at least a week in advance to know about any changes to direct debit details; something I thought the bank would inform them at the start of the switching process...

Is there any way I can dispute this mispayment entry on my credit report now? I am hoping to get my first mortgage in a few months times and worried this might have a large impact on it.

National_Debtline

Hi sjenkins2

Unfortunately the credit reference agencies can’t remove something from your credit report that is factually correct. You would need to go back to the laser eye surgery company and ask them if they would consider removing the missed payment entry.

If they won’t agree add a notice of correction to your credit report. The information must be factually correct but it will allow you to explain the payment was only missed due to switching bank accounts. You can use up to 200 words. Any future credit checks will need to be carried out by a person (rather than a computer) to take into account the notice of correction.

You need to contact the credit reference agencies to add the notice. Good luck with your mortgage application.

Susie
@natdebtline

glosoli

I'm not sure if it would be worth a notice of correction for the sake of one payment. It may be better for you just to bring it to the advisers attention at the time of application.

If there is a notice of correction on file it automatically leads to a mortgage application being a referral by an underwriter, whereas bar some ultra strict lenders, assuming its just the one missed payment, isn't likely to cause any issues at all. And if it did, it could still be referred to the underwriter along with your explanation that you would have put in your NoC in the first place.

Ben8282

Don't really understand this. The direct debit is instigated by the company receiving the money not the bank. If it was requested on 14th then it would have gone out on 14th not the 18th.
I have never heard of a laser eye surgery offering their own instalment payment scheme whereby the surgery takes direct debits from patients bank accounts and applies surcharges in this manner. Surely this was arranged by some finance company or other?
Nor have I heard of medical practices making entries on patients credit files; not in the UK anyway. This payment was due on 14th May, received on 18th May and in less than a week there is already a 'mispayment' (whatever that may be) showing on your credit report? Wow! Your doctor is fast in his CRA reporting!

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

stuart30

OP ive just done a bank switch and im pretty sure (pretty sure as ive not had chance to double check) that any issues switching such as missed direct debits are covered under the switch guarantee.

Matter was out of your hands so you or anyone who reads this in future,shouldn't suffer as a result.

hunt85

IGNORE ALL OF THE ABOVE

when you switch you're covered by the current account switch guarantee. The bank you're switching to is responsible for making sure everything switches over smoothly and in this case it did not! Contact santander and do not stop (keep complaining) until this is rectified on your credit reports. I work for a bank and have dealt with this several times so don't give up!

pvt

There is a system that banks use for moving Direct Debits - It called AUDDIS, or something like that. It is meant to be used by banks to tell the company with the DD the new bank details.


Number of things don't add up:
- Are you saying the company concerned tried to take your DD from the old account on 14th, failed, and then took it from the new account on 18th? If that were the case it comes down to an argument about whether the company knew about the new details and failed to act on them. And your new bank, via AUDDIS, can establish when they were told the new details;
- Are you saying that a missed payment on the 14th has already been flagged on your credit file as a missed payment? Very odd for a company to flag a payment that's 4 days late as a missed payment.

Ben8282

pvt wrote: »

Number of things don't add up:
QUOTE]


Glad somebody agrees with me. The text that the MSE staff found it necessary to remove from my reply (post 4) reached a similar conclusion.

sjenkins2

Thanks all for your responses!

I will give both the bank and the Hitachi Capital (who I have the load with) a call to see if I can resolve this in some way.

pvt wrote: »

Number of things don't add up:
- Are you saying the company concerned tried to take your DD from the old account on 14th, failed, and then took it from the new account on 18th? If that were the case it comes down to an argument about whether the company knew about the new details and failed to act on them. And your new bank, via AUDDIS, can establish when they were told the new details;

The letter said they tried to take payment from my account on the 14th but it had failed (my old account was likely closed at this point). I had noticed the DD payment actually came out of my new account on the 18th (by which time I had already received the letter!).

pvt wrote: »

- Are you saying that a missed payment on the 14th has already been flagged on your credit file as a missed payment? Very odd for a company to flag a payment that's 4 days late as a missed payment.

Looking at the credit report, it doesn't show May as being paid, which might just need updating still, but what I did notice was my credit rating dropped from 5/5 to 3/5 and overall score (and that was the only thing I can imagine would affect it as its been the same for a while).

Ben8282

If this incident has not yet appeared on your credit report then it is highly unlikely for obvious reasons that it can have affected the credit score

meer53

Hitachi Capital would have been advised of your new bank account details by the date of the switch, 11 May.

If they don't update their details in time for the DD to be claimed on the 14th (which is likely due to the timeframe involved) then it's not the banks fault.

Your new bank should be dealing with this for you, it's unlikely it will be on your credit file yet. Your new bank can contact Hitachi Capital to ask if they would be willing to remove it if it does.