Credit Rating Collapse. Unknown outstanding bill. 6 month arrears.

Lineman

First time poster, throwing myself at your mercy. Advice please??

I have an otherwise faultless Credit Rating, and I'm currently looking to buy my first house (120k borrowed on a 30k deposit). But I was declined a mortgage with my bank (Halifax) this morning, when doing a pre-approval soft check.

I did some digging to find out why, and my last mobile phone provider charged me a fee when upgrading my account but I was never notified. In the following 6 months I have had no paper, email or phone correspondence whatsoever. In spite of them having all my correct details on file. I upgraded from talk-mobile, to Vodafone, because Vodafone bought talk-mobile.

So, unbeknown to me I have had an arrears of £13 for the last 6 months. I found out through looking at my Clearcore rating which has dropped to 400. I instantly paid the £13, raised a note with Equifax, and a complaint with Talkmobile.

I'm looking for advice on the following:

Is it likely Talkmobile will do anything constructive? And how can I help the process?
What can I do about it?
And can I still look for a mortgage in the immediate future, or should I let the dust settle and wait for the outcome with Talkmobile?

Thank you.
Lineman

Willing2Learn

Hi Lineman and welcome to the forum

How is the £13 marked on your credit file?
Is it showing as a missed payment / late payment?

Don't focus on your score as Halifax neither use it nor see it. Halifax will score you against their own independent criteria and policies using the data held in your credit files, added to the data you submit in your application, added to the data they hold on you as an existing customer.

Lineman

Thanks for the reply!

Clearscore lists 5 Late Payments from Sept to Feb.

It's reassuring to see my history with the lender may be taken into account.

Lineman

Willing2Learn

Lineman wrote: »

Clearscore lists 5 Late Payments from Sept to Feb.

It's reassuring to see my history with the lender may be taken into account.

You misunderstand me. Your credit data history will be taken into account by Halifax. They just don't look at your score.

If you are saying that the £13 arrears/late payment marker, is due to you not being billed for it, not being informed that there was a balance due, then I would make a complaint to talk-mobile/Vodafone.

[Deleted User]

It depends.

If talk mobile can confirm they sent you no notifications then they may remove the markers.

If upon a SAR they can show they sent you emails or letters then there’s not much you can do.

Lineman

Thank you.

SAR? Are they obliged to provide me with the evidence they did contact me? or is it just goodwill?

Willing2Learn

With a Subject Access Request, they will be obliged to send you copies of all correspondence sent to you. (As long as you ask...)

Lineman

Excellent. I will do so.

[Deleted User]

Yes If they have it on record for you.

What was the £13 for?

Lineman

Apparently it was a final ammount owed from the end of my contract when I upgraded.

I've asked the late payments are removed from my credit file as I paid as soon as I was aware of the debt, have been a good customer throughout the contract, and recieved no correspondence whatsoever. I've also lodged an SAR asking for evidence of all the correspondence sent to me informing me of the debt.

Anything I've missed, let me know.

I'll keep you informed.

[Deleted User]

Did you cancel down the direct debit?