Managed to get 2 defaults removed from my credit, just one CCJ to go... need some advice on strategy

TurningANewLeaf

xlnc99 wrote: »

Wow. I have never ever heard of a story like that resulting in a default being removed.
Hats off to you, thinking outside the box. I like it.
Keep up the good work

Took a lot of work, basically every time I thought of something new to tell them, I'd ring them again, and keep them on the line as long as possible, then ask to speak to their supervisor and keep them on the line as long as possible etc. This was going on every few hours for several days. I tried a lot of angles that didn't work as well. I knew I had to find mistakes in there to get the defaults removed. So it was luck and perseverance. For example, one of my angles that didn't work, was they were actually billing me for sewage rather than water, but it was based on my water readings. So on my 'credit report', it says 'water' rather than 'sewage', but I knew that was a long shot getting it removed on that kind of technicality. And of course it didn't work.


And another angle was trying to say, "how can my water readings be a fair reflection of my sewage?". For example, I might be using a lot of water for my garden which has nothing to do with sewage. Or I might be drinking a lot of water, and taking a !!!! elsewhere, or I could be boiling a lot of water, which is evaporating, so again, nothing to do with sewage. I didn't persist with that angle for long though as even I knew how ridiculous it sounded, and plus I found some better angles in the bills.

boo_star

TurningANewLeaf wrote: »

Thanks for the info!


Both defaults were from a water company for two different addresses (same company/two different addresses/two accounts).


So yeah, it was a bit of pain... I paid the balance off on both accounts, but they said they'd only remove the defaults if there was a mistake. So the first account, I noticed they got my 'move in' date slightly wrong by a few days, the reason I knew the date was wrong was because I moved in on my mum's birthday, and they had me moving in 3 days earlier. So I had to get the council tax people to write me a letter confirming the dates I moved in and left and forward it on to the water company. They still weren't budging on removing my defaults but they relented in the end, a mistake is a mistake after all.


The second default, at the next address I lived at, I noticed the bill was a lot higher one quarter compared to all the other quarters (or it might have been over a 6 month period... well however they bill it). So I said, "look, there was no way I was using that much more water over that period", so they said "did you have a leak? or were there more people in your household at that time?" and I said "I don't think so, your meter must have had a glitch". And they said "our meters don't mess up". So I was like "well how can you know 100% that your meters don't get glitches, nothing in life is foolproof". And they were like "well I can put you through to an engineer who can explain to you why our meters don't get glitches, we don't use digital meters so they don't just get glitches". So I was like "well if analogue meters are so 100% accurate, why's everyone on the planet switching to digital, there is no way on earth you can tell me with 100% certainty that your meters never make mistakes".



Anyway this went back and forth for a while, I spoke to so many differently people at the water company, made so many phone calls, and EVENTUALLY they relented and gave me a very small credit on my account explaining it as an "unexplained water leak" BUT they said they weren't going to remove the default as they didn't feel it was their mistake. So then I was fighting tooth and nail saying "well whose mistake was it then?" They weren't budging on this one though,



But anyway, as luck would have it, their 'credit data sharing' team emailed me to confirm the first default was being removed. PERFECT now I've got a line of communication with the right people to get the 2nd default removed, I wrote them a polite email explaining how there had been a mistake on the 2nd account too, and a few days to a week later, they agreed to remove the 2nd default too, and all negative marks on my credit file. Bingo!


If that hadn't worked I would have taken it to the Information Commissioner, but didn't get that far.


The moral of the story here is "never give up on the first hurdle". Took a lot of work, a lot of calls, a lot of emails, but got there in the end. :beer:

It sounds like you wasted enough of their time/money for them to make a commercial decision to give you what you wanted before you wasted even more of their time and money.

You can consider that a win, but it doesn't mean you were in the right.

[Deleted User]

xlnc99 wrote: »

Wow. I have never ever heard of a story like that resulting in a default being removed.
Hats off to you, thinking outside the box. I like it.
Keep up the good work

Again, this is one persons "success" story - it doesn't mean it applies to everyone else.

You have your own issues to tackle - by trying things that other people have tried for different situations will only make things worse.

You say hats off, I say... something else entirely.

xlnc99

of course the stories are different and everyone has different circumstances but the moral is the same

hard work and perseverance goes along way and i applaud the OP for that

I am not sure how things will become worse. They cant ruin a credit file anymore if you are fighting for a default or something to be removed. It can only get better so there is nothing to lose

These companies are ruining many peoples credit files maybe some justified maybe some not

its about time we fight back

So i say, damn right hats off! Bravo and keep up the good work

[Deleted User]

9 times out of 10 it's completely justified.

People think they can just bury their heads and not realise them implications down the line.

Then try and twist the blame back when they realise they're in the s**t.

xlnc99

Do you think its fair that a company or various companies give you a default, ccj etc etc when you have been made redundant out the blue and have to struggle to keep your life going

Or if you have personal circumstances around the time, medical conditions etc

these companies dont care. They only care bout money and ruining your credit file

i have no sympathy for them and applaud anyone fighting back to get their credit file amended

Willing2Learn

xlnc99 wrote: »

Do you think its fair that a company or various companies give you a default, ccj etc etc when you have been made redundant out the blue and have to struggle to keep your life going

Or if you have personal circumstances around the time, medical conditions etc...

"Is it fair?" you ask, if you are made redundant or have medical conditions? It is not the creditors fault if stuff happens 'out of the blue' to the debtor. A contract is a contract and the terms are usually pretty clear. When I was unable to pay, it was my fault. My health was irrelevant.

When I handed in my notice (of employment) back in 2008, due to deteriorating health, then the fact that I could not meet my contractual payments was not the fault of the creditors. I could have prepared for the unknown better. I am far better protected now as I have a 12-month financial buffer integrated into my monthly budget....

sambaird

xlnc99 wrote: »

Do you think its fair that a company or various companies give you a default, ccj etc etc when you have been made redundant out the blue and have to struggle to keep your life going

Or if you have personal circumstances around the time, medical conditions etc

these companies dont care. They only care bout money and ruining your credit file

i have no sympathy for them and applaud anyone fighting back to get their credit file amended

I'm not entirely sure you quite understand what the purpose of a Credit File is.
It is a history of your financial dealings - Companies use it to decide who they extend credit to. Remember, access to credit is not a god-given right - Companies get to choose who they lend to, and they need accurate data to base this decision on.

To put it another way - if someone wanted to borrow £X from you, would you want to know if they were likely to pay it back? Do they have a history of late payments? Do they have a history of letting down other lenders in the past? I'm pretty sure if it was your own money involved in the equation you would quickly change your attitude.

Like it or not, companies that lend money ARE in it for the money. They are a business, businesses exist to make profit for their owners or shareholders. If they extend credit to someone they have every right to take all legal action to get their money back.
Companies don't 'ruin your credit file', individuals do by not fulfilling their contractual obligations. Don't be so naive.

I'm all in favour of having correct data on people's files - if mistakes are made by companies when applying Defaults / Late payment markers etc, then these should be removed or amended. But if mistakes are made by individuals (ie, not paying bills on time, not fulfilling their end of contractual agreements, not paying their debts), then that should be accurately recorded too.

What drives a lot of people insane on this forum is the automatic sense of entitlement that correctly applied data should be removed simply to put an individual in a better position to apply for credit.

Yes... there are circumstances in life that happen that we may not have control over and have long lasting ramifications in financial terms - but let's be honest... the vast amount of problems that we see here are simply caused by people burying their heads in the sand at the time of the problem, and not dealing with the appropriately. This is why advice cannot and should not be sugar-coated in my opinion... that doesn't help change people's behavior.

AndyPix

TurningANewLeaf wrote: »

Thanks for the info!


Both defaults were from a water company for two different addresses (same company/two different addresses/two accounts).


So yeah, it was a bit of pain... I paid the balance off on both accounts, but they said they'd only remove the defaults if there was a mistake. So the first account, I noticed they got my 'move in' date slightly wrong by a few days, the reason I knew the date was wrong was because I moved in on my mum's birthday, and they had me moving in 3 days earlier. So I had to get the council tax people to write me a letter confirming the dates I moved in and left and forward it on to the water company. They still weren't budging on removing my defaults but they relented in the end, a mistake is a mistake after all.


The second default, at the next address I lived at, I noticed the bill was a lot higher one quarter compared to all the other quarters (or it might have been over a 6 month period... well however they bill it). So I said, "look, there was no way I was using that much more water over that period", so they said "did you have a leak? or were there more people in your household at that time?" and I said "I don't think so, your meter must have had a glitch". And they said "our meters don't mess up". So I was like "well how can you know 100% that your meters don't get glitches, nothing in life is foolproof". And they were like "well I can put you through to an engineer who can explain to you why our meters don't get glitches, we don't use digital meters so they don't just get glitches". So I was like "well if analogue meters are so 100% accurate, why's everyone on the planet switching to digital, there is no way on earth you can tell me with 100% certainty that your meters never make mistakes".



Anyway this went back and forth for a while, I spoke to so many differently people at the water company, made so many phone calls, and EVENTUALLY they relented and gave me a very small credit on my account explaining it as an "unexplained water leak" BUT they said they weren't going to remove the default as they didn't feel it was their mistake. So then I was fighting tooth and nail saying "well whose mistake was it then?" They weren't budging on this one though,



But anyway, as luck would have it, their 'credit data sharing' team emailed me to confirm the first default was being removed. PERFECT now I've got a line of communication with the right people to get the 2nd default removed, I wrote them a polite email explaining how there had been a mistake on the 2nd account too, and a few days to a week later, they agreed to remove the 2nd default too, and all negative marks on my credit file. Bingo!


If that hadn't worked I would have taken it to the Information Commissioner, but didn't get that far.


The moral of the story here is "never give up on the first hurdle". Took a lot of work, a lot of calls, a lot of emails, but got there in the end. :beer:

Wot woz you like ?

[Deleted User]

xlnc99 wrote: »

Do you think its fair that a company or various companies give you a default, ccj etc etc when you have been made redundant out the blue and have to struggle to keep your life going

Or if you have personal circumstances around the time, medical conditions etc

these companies dont care. They only care bout money and ruining your credit file

i have no sympathy for them and applaud anyone fighting back to get their credit file amended

Is it fair to the lender that you owe them money and think it can just be struck off?

It their fault you don't have savings or an emergency fund?