One off £20 payment I did not even owe is ruining my credit score

Simpss

Many years ago I purchased a two year phone contract from Orange which ended in June 2012. At this point I paid them £20 to get my phone unlocked so I could switch to another provider, however they never sent me the code. I could only contact them via email and after sending many over the course of 7 weeks I never received a single response. Eventually I reached the end of my patience and threatened to contact the Ombudsman after which I magically received a reply within 2 hours, an apology, and the code to unlock my phone finally, and that should have been that.

A couple of weeks later however I received a letter demanding the £20 I had already paid for unlocking the phone. I obviously refused to do so, however in my youthful stupidity I thought I could just ignore it and there would be no repercussions. It wasn't until years later after checking my credit score I realised what an idiot I was. This one-time £20 payment has been recurring as a default on my credit score ever since, and it is absolutely in the dirt because of it. It's been passed around a couple of debt collection agencies, the last of which sent me a letter in May of last year to tell me they were no longer persuing the "debt", yet to this day still it comes off as a default every month. I've had finance deals and credit cards in the past, and I have never missed a single payment on any of them, so I have to assume I would have decent credit if it were not for this.

My question is, what can I do about it? I know very little about how it all works, but is there a way I can remove this from my credit score, even if it's only partially? Is it even right that a one off payment should recurr monthly on my credit report like that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Deleted User]

It'll drop off your file (not score, you don't have one) 6 years after the default.

For that amount and age, it will be having only a very small impact on your files now.

Grezz24

Surely the fact that the £20 was already paid, and im presuming you can prove this via bank statements etc then they should be removing the default.

Ignoring it until 6 years has passed doesn't seem the right approach here.

PixelPound

If you have proof it was paid, you can dispute it but it will drop off in a matter of months and the debt collectors state they are not pursuing it (too low a balance for a CCJ). You could send them a copy of proof showing it was paid, but if it takes them a couple of months to investigate, is it worth the hassle.