Should i take this to small claims?

dodd1987

Hi all,

First time posting so go easy on me! I am looking for some advice on this issue I am in the middle of with British Gas. Im going to call them BG in this post. The issue is they incorrectly put default payments on my file, then didnt remove them all after they said they did which over a year later resulted in me paying a higher rate of interest on a car finance arrangement.

I'll try give more detail below.

Dec 2017 - BG messed me around too much so i left to join another company.
Asked them for final payment amount for gas and electric which i paid and didnt hear anything else off them.

May 2018 - Tried to extend my overdraft to book an emergency flight and found out i had terrible credit score so couldnt get any more credit. Signed up to experian and it turned out BG had only told me the final bill for the gas but not the electric and then hadn't sent me any more bills etc and had started putting default payments on my credit history. :mad::mad:

June 2018 - After alot of aggro BG admitted it was there fault and told me all the markers would be removed, checked on experian and they were all gone. :beer:

Sept 2019 - Went to buy a car, when they did credit history check they said i had poor credit again and could only get a finance agreement at a rate of 14.9%. I presumed they were pulling a fast one as i had checked my experian score (which was showing excellent) before going to get the car but it was already late and i needed the car for work and i thought if i could later prove my excellent credit score i would be in a position to re-negotiate the finance rate so i went ahead and bought the car and signed up to the agreement.

Went home and checked experian again (excellent score), just to be sure i signed up to transunion (excellent score as well). To be 100% i signed up to Equifax. This is when i found out BG had not removed the markers from this credit agency giving me poor credit history. The next morning i rang BG and told them if they removed them in the 14 day cooling off period i could renegotiate the finance agreement. They took over a month to get them removed so i could not do anything. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Due to this i am now paying an additional £22 per month over a 4 year loan term which is going to end up costing me £1056 in total.

I believe they should cover this cost. I have gone to the ombudsman and they have decided BG should only give me a goodwill payment of £150 but are not liable for the rest. I can appeal this decison but had a long conversation with the officer dealing with case and sounds like the appeal will have no chance.

I cant understand how through no fault of my own i am now going to be down £1056 and the ombudsman doesn't see anything wrong with this?

So does anyone have any experience with this kind of matter and advice on whether i stand a chance in the small claims court?

Thanks for any replies in advance

Ben8282

How did BG actually mess you around prior to this causing you to change provider?
Did you cancel the direct debit with BG before the final bills were taken? If not can't really understand how this situation could have come about.
If you had to 'extend your overdraft' in order to book some emergency flights this would indicate no other available credit on any credit cards and that you were living in your overdraft. It sounds like your credit was pretty poor anyway regardless of what BG did to it.

Gaz83

You have no way of proving you would have been offered the headline rate if it wasn't for the BG default, so you'll have a hard job convincing anyone it's BG's fault.

Not sure why you thought you'd be able to renegotiate a finance rate after you'd signed for it.

[Deleted User]

You have no proof that purely because of the BG marker you were given the higher interest rate.

Also your “excellent score” bears no resemblance of your actual credit history and your chances of being offered “decent rates” on financial products.

jonesMUFCforever

The only way you would win in court is if the finance company confirmed your version of events.
Do you really think that they will do that??

dodd1987

I had no other default payments etc showing on my credit history apart from the BG ones. Finance company told me if it came back excellent I would get 7.9% rate, if came back poor would get 14.9% rate. So only reason it was the higher rate is BG fault

dodd1987

Yea quite hard to understand but thats how it happened. Didn't have a credit card at that time. Was about to go on holiday and was near end of the month so money was scarce

[Deleted User]

It doesn’t matter what the finance company told you.
You don’t know their lending criteria and it’s more than just account history that’s taken in to account

sourcrates

Hi,

You cannot take someone to court on the pre-text of what might have being, anymore than you can "re-negoatiate a finance deal" once youve signed on the dotted line, its pure conjecture on your part, where is your evidence to support your claim ?
You cannot possibly know for sure you would have been offered the headline rate without knowing the lenders acceptance criteria, which is a private business matter.

I`m sorry but your claim has no substance to it, if incorrect information has been applied to your credit file, then you follow the BG complaints procedure to get it removed, escalate to the ICO if nessessary, you agreed to the finance, so no matter the circumstances, its your signiture on the paperwork.

dodd1987

Ok thanks for all advice. Obviously going to be not worth going down the small claims route