Incorrect EON markers on credit report stopping a mortgage

Gerry1

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena said:

Every month, we share payment information from our home energy customer accounts with Equifax, a credit reference agency. We share, name, address, date of birth, date the account was opened, the current balance on your account and if applicable, default notices and any debt.

That's why I never give my DoB to energy companies or any else who has absolutely no need to know it.  Most banks and companies are so predictably stupid that they use DoB and Mother's Maiden Name as passwords to access accounts.

The golden rules of passwords are that they shouldn't be shared and the info should not be known or accessible by others.  Obviously E.On and Equifax have never heard of birthday cards !

stewie_griffin

When you first set up your direct debit did you give e.on your bank details or did you set it up through your bank?

emily_dutton_

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena said:

emily_dutton_ said:

Hi All,

I am currently trying to get a mortgage and the mortgage company will not complete a full assessment due to markers from EON on my credit report. I was not aware of these markers as I have never missed a payment to EON.

Since downloading my credit report I have found a number of markers on my credit file from EON. These vary from 2 late payment from 3 months ago to 6 late payment last year. I was unaware of these on my report and this is considerably dragging down my score.

Since finding these markers I have contacted EON on numerous occasions and all staff members have agreed that I have never missed a payment and that EON are incorrect. They have passed me onto a resolution manager who has now told me that they will not be removing the markers as I should have increased my monthly payment. This is stopping me from getting a mortgage and is extremely distressing as I have never missed a payment to EON and never once received a letter from them regarding this.

I have paid £100 a month for a small 3 bed house for over 2 and half years and never missed 1 payment. The most recent markers on my report are for March 2020, yet April, May, June, July 2020 do not show markers. I have never paid anymore money, therefore what I can’t understand is why wasn’t there markers on the other months. I have had a payment plan in place with EON since moving into the property over 2 years ago.

Has anyone else had any issues regarding the removal of markers from EON? I have made on average 3 calls a week for 3 weeks, all lasting an hour. Sometimes EON representatives will hang up on me. I have tried to log a complaint 3 time’s, however when I call back up the complaint hasn’t been logged. I have contacted citizen advice to help me however they are back logged due to COVID and I am going to lose the opportunity to purchase my new house. I have already paid £400 to solicitors and £200 to mortgage company and I will also lose this due to these markers. 

Has anyone got any advice / been through this before?

Thanks, 
Emily 

Good morning Emily,

You have done the right thing in raising this with us, I know you have now re-opened your complaint as this is not resolved, taking 5 phone calls to get this done isn't acceptable though and I'm really sorry about that.

When you speak to your complaints resolution manager, if you're still unhappy you can ask for it to be referred to our Complaints Review section. They'll look again at what's gone before from both your point of view and ours. They may also refer your account to our specialist data share department. At this stage, if you're still unhappy with what's happened, you can go to the Energy Ombudsman for an independent assessment. The Ombudsman's decision is binding on us but not on you. Our Reviewers will let you have a Final Resolution Offer letter to help when you go to the Ombudsman. Although, if the complaint is over 56 days old, you'll be able to go the Ombudsman straightaway. No need to wait for a letter.

Every month, we share payment information from our home energy customer accounts with Equifax, a credit reference agency. We share, name, address, date of birth, date the account was opened, the current balance on your account and if applicable, default notices and any debt. If we do decide to make a change to what we have shared it can take around 14 days to show on your credit file.

When the resolution manager is looking in to your account, they can see what actual information we have actually shared, so I would advise you to also ask this question.

Thank you

Helena

Afternoon Helena, 
Thank you for getting back to me. A resolution manager has just been back in contact with me and said that they have sent this off to a specialist team for review. I now have to wait a further 5 working days. 
Can you please answer the following questions:

• Why would markers be on a credit report for March 20 and not on for Jan, Feb, April, May, June, etc when I have not paid more or less than my arranged DD with EON?
• If there is a payment plan in place with EON, why would the DD not have been increased automatically by EON if payments needed to be increased? Is that EON responsibility?
• If a customer has never defaulted on a payment, do you still have the right to state that late payments have occurred with credit reference agencies?
•  If there is a balance on account and it is being carried over, is there a rule that it needs to be paid off by a certain month or does the 1/12 rule apply to the tariff I was on? I was not notified on any of my statements that anything needed paying off.
  

Thanks,
Emily

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

emily_dutton_ said:

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena said:

emily_dutton_ said:

Hi All,

I am currently trying to get a mortgage and the mortgage company will not complete a full assessment due to markers from EON on my credit report. I was not aware of these markers as I have never missed a payment to EON.

Since downloading my credit report I have found a number of markers on my credit file from EON. These vary from 2 late payment from 3 months ago to 6 late payment last year. I was unaware of these on my report and this is considerably dragging down my score.

Since finding these markers I have contacted EON on numerous occasions and all staff members have agreed that I have never missed a payment and that EON are incorrect. They have passed me onto a resolution manager who has now told me that they will not be removing the markers as I should have increased my monthly payment. This is stopping me from getting a mortgage and is extremely distressing as I have never missed a payment to EON and never once received a letter from them regarding this.

I have paid £100 a month for a small 3 bed house for over 2 and half years and never missed 1 payment. The most recent markers on my report are for March 2020, yet April, May, June, July 2020 do not show markers. I have never paid anymore money, therefore what I can’t understand is why wasn’t there markers on the other months. I have had a payment plan in place with EON since moving into the property over 2 years ago.

Has anyone else had any issues regarding the removal of markers from EON? I have made on average 3 calls a week for 3 weeks, all lasting an hour. Sometimes EON representatives will hang up on me. I have tried to log a complaint 3 time’s, however when I call back up the complaint hasn’t been logged. I have contacted citizen advice to help me however they are back logged due to COVID and I am going to lose the opportunity to purchase my new house. I have already paid £400 to solicitors and £200 to mortgage company and I will also lose this due to these markers. 

Has anyone got any advice / been through this before?

Thanks, 
Emily 

Good morning Emily,

You have done the right thing in raising this with us, I know you have now re-opened your complaint as this is not resolved, taking 5 phone calls to get this done isn't acceptable though and I'm really sorry about that.

When you speak to your complaints resolution manager, if you're still unhappy you can ask for it to be referred to our Complaints Review section. They'll look again at what's gone before from both your point of view and ours. They may also refer your account to our specialist data share department. At this stage, if you're still unhappy with what's happened, you can go to the Energy Ombudsman for an independent assessment. The Ombudsman's decision is binding on us but not on you. Our Reviewers will let you have a Final Resolution Offer letter to help when you go to the Ombudsman. Although, if the complaint is over 56 days old, you'll be able to go the Ombudsman straightaway. No need to wait for a letter.

Every month, we share payment information from our home energy customer accounts with Equifax, a credit reference agency. We share, name, address, date of birth, date the account was opened, the current balance on your account and if applicable, default notices and any debt. If we do decide to make a change to what we have shared it can take around 14 days to show on your credit file.

When the resolution manager is looking in to your account, they can see what actual information we have actually shared, so I would advise you to also ask this question.

Thank you

Helena

Afternoon Helena, 
Thank you for getting back to me. A resolution manager has just been back in contact with me and said that they have sent this off to a specialist team for review. I now have to wait a further 5 working days. 
Can you please answer the following questions:

• Why would markers be on a credit report for March 20 and not on for Jan, Feb, April, May, June, etc when I have not paid more or less than my arranged DD with EON?
• If there is a payment plan in place with EON, why would the DD not have been increased automatically by EON if payments needed to be increased? Is that EON responsibility?
• If a customer has never defaulted on a payment, do you still have the right to state that late payments have occurred with credit reference agencies?
•  If there is a balance on account and it is being carried over, is there a rule that it needs to be paid off by a certain month or does the 1/12 rule apply to the tariff I was on? I was not notified on any of my statements that anything needed paying off.
  

Thanks,
Emily

Hi Emily,

I'm pleased the resolution manager has got back to you, it sounds like they have sent your account to the specific data share department, so it's good it's gone to them.

I can't answer specifically as I don't have your account details, however, you resolution manager can go through these points with you.

Generally though, We check arrangements quarterly and, if necessary, make changes at the mid-point and annual reviews. At the other times, we'll let you know if we believe a change is needed and leave it to you to make any adjustments. Changes in usage will trigger requests to amend the monthly payments to keep the account on track for a zero balance.

You can also use the Direct Debit manager tool via your online account to make changes.

As I say you've done the right thing and your account is with the correct people and I do hope this is sorted out for you.

Thank you

Helena

matelodave

The graph below shows how your DD, energy consumption and credit/debit varies throughout the year. It's based on percentages where your total consumption is 100%, so your EAC = 8.33% per month (time 12 = 100%) and your energy consumption varies month by month (more in the winter and less in the summer) but equates to 100% at the end of 12 months so your account should balance.

It assumes that you start on 1st Jan and make your first payment on 31st Jan and your last payment on 31st December.
The blue boxes are your regular payment of 8.33% and don't change through the year.
The red columns are your cumulative payments which add up to 100% when you pay your last one on 31st Dec.
The Yellow boxes show your consumption in each month, using more in the winter than in the summer

Comparing the blue and yellow boxes shows how much more or less your monthly payments are compared with your consumption

The green line shows how you use more than you pay for in the winter so you will end up in debit from day one. However as the summer consumption decreases your account should break even about the middle of July and then start accumulating a credit ready for November/December when you'll use more than you pay for.

You'll see that the times and amount that you'll be in credit or debit depends when you start your 12 month period - the optimum is around October/November as you'll be in debit for most of the year (although the energy company wont like it and will try to increase your DD) However if you start in April you'll be in credit for most of the time so it's not usually a good idea to reduce your DD or take some of the credit out unless you are pretty certain that your consumption profile matches your DD

emily_dutton_

stewie_griffin said:

When you first set up your direct debit did you give e.on your bank details or did you set it up through your bank?

I can’t remember as it was 2018. I will be asking this question when the manager next gets in contact. 

Today I emailed a director of the company and they have said they are going to look into this further over the next few days so fingers crossed. I will keep you all updated. Thank you again for all your feedback and comments so far!! 

emily_dutton_

Update - I received a phone call
from a directors PA after I emailed my letter of complaint to the directors office (definitely worth a try if you have the same problem as me and are not getting anywhere). They have removed all the late payments from last year and are currently looking at removing 2 markers for March 2020. They have pushed the case forward as urgent and I should hear the result for March in 24 hours now. With last years payments being removed it has improved my Credit score, however I still can’t proceed with my mortgage until March is removed so I am going to continue to fight for March 2020 to be removed. 

Thanks again for all your comments!! 

MWT

emily_dutton_ said:

With last years payments being removed it has improved my Credit score, however I still can’t proceed with my mortgage until March is removed so I am going to continue to fight for March 2020 to be removed. 

Thanks again for all your comments!! 

The credit score is essentially irrelevant, the mortgage companies don't look at that at all, just the credit history information and the markers on the account.

emily_dutton_

MWT said:

emily_dutton_ said:

With last years payments being removed it has improved my Credit score, however I still can’t proceed with my mortgage until March is removed so I am going to continue to fight for March 2020 to be removed. 

Thanks again for all your comments!! 

The credit score is essentially irrelevant, the mortgage companies don't look at that at all, just the credit history information and the markers on the account.

I have just received a phone call to say that all EON markers were incorrect and have now been removed from my credit file. This should make a massive difference now and will hopefully help me obtain my mortgage. 

It just proves, perseverance pays off. I have made countless phone calls (more than 20 hours worth) sent countless emails and it has paid off. 

If anyone is ever in the same position as me and you know 100% you are not at fault with EON keep fighting and don’t give up!!!

joeksemail

emily_dutton_ said:

MWT said:

emily_dutton_ said:

With last years payments being removed it has improved my Credit score, however I still can’t proceed with my mortgage until March is removed so I am going to continue to fight for March 2020 to be removed. 

Thanks again for all your comments!! 

The credit score is essentially irrelevant, the mortgage companies don't look at that at all, just the credit history information and the markers on the account.

I have just received a phone call to say that all EON markers were incorrect and have now been removed from my credit file. This should make a massive difference now and will hopefully help me obtain my mortgage. 

It just proves, perseverance pays off. I have made countless phone calls (more than 20 hours worth) sent countless emails and it has paid off. 

If anyone is ever in the same position as me and you know 100% you are not at fault with EON keep fighting and don’t give up!!!

Hi Emily,
First off, I am really happy to hear EON sorted this out for you.
I know the stress it can cause as I am in the midst of an almost identical situation with them.
However mine was due to a house move, the account was in debit when I moved and then there was an issue with the switch. They sent me a letter to say I owed X amount and if I did not pay by 31st August then it would affect my credit file. I called them straight away and arranged a direct debit to cover it off. Turned out despite what they said in their letter, they had already sent the arrears markers to Equifax. I was told by someone today that they checked this with their billing team and it should of never of happened and was a "glitch in the system."

Mid-August I had an offer accepted on a house and already had an AIP with my bank in place. When I did the full application it was declined straight away. After looking into it, I found EON had put markers on my new address account which was less than 2 months old for 3 months in arrears.
I have had countless phone calls with them and sent numerous emails, today I had someone tell me they had filled in a form for the data sharing team but I have lost all faith.

To top it all off, it turned out they owed me £150, I only wish there was some system I could put a black mark against their name on.
Can I ask what email address you sent your directors email to?

It is so stressful when you try to do the right thing, do everything they ask of you and they send inaccurate data to the CRAs which ultimately could of led to me losing out on a home. A first home at that so it has really marred the experience. 
I really hope I have the same outcome as you, I am persistent to say the least so I wont roll over, its just so damn frustrating.