Debt collectors and credit file

dialted

Hi,

For bit of background, between 5-7 years ago I was on the payday loan trap and ended up having to borrow money from family to get out the cycle. Forward to 3 years ago I had moved out of my rented house and ended up with a few unpaid end of tenancy final bills ( gas, electric and water totally around £1000).

I've always had a shoddy credit rating, to the point I couldn't have an overdraft or even open up a reward back account a few years ago. Recently I've had the attitude to get it all sorted finally and start moving on so I looked up my credit file on Experian and it came up as excellent, so i thought I'd get out a credit card to start building my credit in lieu of eventually buying a house in a few years.

I still do have the outstanding 3 utility Bills which seem to have been passed to collection agencies but don't appear to have negatively affected my credit file ( keep in mind they are 3 years outstanding so should be on there!)

None of those 3 seen to have been on my credit file at all

Now that I am contacting these agencies to settle up the debt from 3 years ago, do I run the risk of these now appearing on my file?

Any advice is much appreciated

Willing2Learn

Have you checked your credit file with all three agencies? It is possible the 3 utility accounts are recorded on the other two files.

Contacting the DCAs who currently manage the utility accounts would not mean negative data suddenly appearing on your credit files.

If you fail to address the debts, then there is always a possibility that they seek a CCJ against you, which in turn could impact your future mortgage application.

[Deleted User]

Ignore any scores or ratings the CRA’s give you.

If the debts aren’t showing it’s not likely they’ll show up now, although they still could.

Get them paid to prevent any possible CCJ’s which will show on your files

dialted

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Have you checked your credit file with all three agencies? It is possible the 3 utility accounts are recorded on the other two files.

Contacting the DCAs who currently manage the utility accounts would not mean negative data suddenly appearing on your credit files.

If you fail to address the debts, then there is always a possibility that they seek a CCJ against you, which in turn could impact your future mortgage application.

I've checked with 2 of the 3 but none of the 3 appear on either.

Once paid will they flag up on them and if so would I need to wait 6 years before they fall off?

Lastly, one of the agencies has offered me a settlement with a 30% discount, is that likely to affect me if I takes them up on their offer?

dialted

!!! wrote: »

Ignore any scores or ratings the CRA’s give you.

If the debts aren’t showing it’s not likely they’ll show up now, although they still could.

Get them paid to prevent any possible CCJ’s which will show on your files

Thanks, working on getting them all settled up!

[Deleted User]

Accounts only show for six years from default, so even if they appeared now, it would only be for 3 years.

Willing2Learn

dialted wrote: »

I've checked with 2 of the 3 but none of the 3 appear on either.

You need to check all three, to be certain.

dialted wrote: »

Once paid will they flag up on them and if so would I need to wait 6 years before they fall off?

Don't wait six years as you might end up with a CCJ. An account that appears on your credit file will show for six from when the account is settled or six years from when the account was defaulted.

dialted wrote: »

Lastly, one of the agencies has offered me a settlement with a 30% discount, is that likely to affect me if I takes them up on their offer?

Settling your debts is always good. If the account is showing on your credit file, then a settled account looks better than one that is outstanding.