Argos Card debt late payments

Jojocircus

I got into a lot of debt a few years ago & managed to get a lot of debt written off as unenforceable. I have another 3 years before they drop off my credit file. I am
paying Argos card a reduced amount (& interest frozen) of £30 on A £2700 Debt. They record me as late paying every month on my credit file. What’s the best thing to do to get rid of these late payment markers so my credit file will be ok in 3 years when the defaults go. I can Afford to pay £1k off of If necessary But I don’t want to waste my money if this isn’t necessary &’there is another way like a full & final offer to pay them off. 

sourcrates

The account has not defaulted, and as you are on a reduced payment plan, your account is correctly recorded as late payment every month, you cannot "get rid of them", but they will vanish after 6 years.

Argos may entertain an offer to settle, but it won`t be around the 1k mark, your stuck with late payment markers for 6 years whatever you do.

ldhme

I've got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that you could very likely end up having these late payment markers removed along with the account in 3 years time.
The bad news is that it's not 100% guaranteed, requires effort and a lot of patience.
I'll give you some background to the advice I'll give you first. I went into a DMP 6 years ago with 7 creditors, 2 accounts defaulted within 6 months, 4 after 12 months of reduced payments  (important later), and 1 defaulted 3 years after, having placed arrangement to pay markers on for this time.
The crux of your argument is this: Had you have stopped paying the account completely, it would have defaulted within 6 months of no payment. However because you tried to do the right thing you will be adversely affected for at least 6 years from now (i.e. if it defaulted now or you settled it now). Meaning you will be negatively impacted for 9 years, which is inherrently unfair.

For me the account that defaulted 3 years late was my HSBC overdraft, I sent them an email complaint and they agreed to move the default date to 6 months after I first broke the agreement, took about 3 months for a reply and another 2 months update on credit files. I also have had success with another account that defaulted after 12 months of reduced payments (mine were approx 1% of total debt just like yours). It was my Tesco Loan, sent a complaint, 2 months later they sent me an email saying they had done the right thing, it was their policy to allow the account 12 months before defaulting to give an opportunity to get it back in order*. I escalated this to the financial ombudsman and won, took about 3 months but the date got moved to 3 months after I broke agreement and I got £100 compensation too.
*This is important as even if you agreed to these reduced payment plan, the fact it'd take 7.5 years to finish paying it, late payment markers every month, then 6 years for them to drop off means it'd be 13.5 years before the negative impact of this arrangement drops off. Argos should have reviewed them after 6 or 12 months and defaulted the account if there was no sign of these payments coming back into line.
I have another account default date sitting with the financial ombudsman and 2 with original creditor waiting for responses. I'm pretty confident I'll end up being successful with all of them.

So to wrap up. Send Argos a complaint email or letter (signed for) stating you want them to default the account, backdated to within 3 to 6 months of breaking the agreement as per the OCI guidelines, stating the reasons above e.g. would have been better off not paying at all, you'll be impacted for 13.5 years under this agreement etc.
Then wait, allow 8 weeks for a final response. With a little luck they'll agree and do it and the default will drop off in 3 years along with the account. If they're final response isn't in your favour or you hear nothing, escalate it to the financial ombudsman. And wait 3 months or more for a reply, but they will reply. They should side with you if you're using the argument above.

Any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Jojocircus

Thank you for the above advice! I wrote a letter as you suggested & they are backdating the default to 2016 so I am very pleased.