'Late payment' due to bank switch

alreeve27

Hi,

My wife recently switched from Clydesdale Bank to Natwest a few weeks after setting up a finance agreement for our new boiler a few weeks earlier. This is with Hitachi Finance. The switch happened as planned, via the DD Switch Guarantee scheme, and other regular payments were successfully coming out of the new account. However my wife received a letter from Hitachi saying that we had missed the first payment and that this would cost us £25.

She rang up and complained straight away and they waived the fee but asked for confirmation from Natwest that it was their error. Natwest confirmed that they had sent over the new account details to Hitachi 2 days before the switch but that they had not responded. I would have thought that by attempting to take money from the old account with Clydesdale that it would have automatically been redirected (a bit like a postal redirect?).

Hitachi opened a complaint about this and then closed it saying that:
"As the payment was received later than the required due date, this may show on your credit file. Whilst I appreciate that you are unhappy that your credit file may be affected, we are obliged as responsible lenders to show a true and accurate reflection of the activity on your account. Should you provide us with evidence that your bank made the error which resulted in the above action, we may look to remove any late payment from your credit file however, at this stage we have correctly recorded the activity on your account".

Anyway Natwest provided a letter stating that this was not my wife's fault, and that they had given the new details before the switch and well before the first payment was due to be taken, which we sent over straightaway. This was about a week ago, and we have heard nothing back since. She chased on the phone a few days ago and they said they had seen the email and were dealing with it.

What we would like to know is:
- This is clearly Hitachi's fault as all other regular payments were successfully transferred to the new account, so are they even allowed to put this down as a late payment on her credit file?
- We have both never missed a payment, we always pay our credit cards off in full etc - how quickly can they remove it if it has been added? Her latest Credit Club report was just before this happened so it doesn't show on there yet - how quickly are they added?
- Even if it is removed (which it should be), is there any remaining mark on her file that could be seen in the future?
- Is this worth pursuing with the Financial Ombudsman Service or some other body?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Await Hitachi's response and chase it up if needed.

It sounds as if it will be removed, which will leave not a trace on your wife's credit file. It's not like red wine on a carpet.

You can't go to FOS until you've exhausted Hitachi's complaints procedure.