Default on file - possiblity of getting it removed?

icecream20

So I'm just here looking for some advice on what to do about this, if there is any chance with the financial ombudsman.

Here's what happened:

Two and a half years ago I left England (with a really good credit rating) and moved to Australia for what we thought was going to be a year. This turned into two years and I returned to the UK at Christmas. As far as I was aware all my credit was in good shape and all loose ends tied up before I left. To my absolute horror on checking my credit rating just now, I have 2 years worth of defaults (every month) from a company I've never even heard of. Upon investigation it turns out that the defaults were a result of my old  home phone & broadband contract I had with talk talk - there was an early termination fee of £40 which apparantly wasn't paid. They had sent letters out to my address which I wasn't living at because I had moved abroad.

This debt was then passed onto a debt collecting agency who marked all the D's on my file.

I have a chat transscript with Talk Talk at the time, discussing that there would be an early termination fee, I advised that was okay it will be paid from the direct debit. I think that I accidentally cancelled the DD before this was taken out.

I am told there was letters sent to my old address, and the phone number the debt collection agency were given was the phone number for my terminated phone contract, which is what the debt was actually in regards to.

Talk talk knew that I wouldn't be living at that address any longer- I had advised them of this, passed on an uncontactable phone number, and did not pass on my email address (which this whole thing could have been sorted out if I'd had received one bloody email!).

I feel like its incredibly sloppy on the part of talk talk for not even bothering really to get in touch with me in regards to paying this, and now I will probably never be able to get a mortgage because of it.

It feels wholly unfair to say the very least.  Is it worth bringing this to the financial ombudsman? Would I even have a chance at getting it removed?

SpreadableToast

icecream20 said:

So I'm just here looking for some advice on what to do about this, if there is any chance with the financial ombudsman.

Here's what happened:

Two and a half years ago I left England (with a really good credit rating) and moved to Australia for what we thought was going to be a year. This turned into two years and I returned to the UK at Christmas. As far as I was aware all my credit was in good shape and all loose ends tied up before I left. To my absolute horror on checking my credit rating just now, I have 2 years worth of defaults (every month) from a company I've never even heard of. Upon investigation it turns out that the defaults were a result of my old  home phone & broadband contract I had with talk talk - there was an early termination fee of £40 which apparantly wasn't paid. They had sent letters out to my address which I wasn't living at because I had moved abroad.

This debt was then passed onto a debt collecting agency who marked all the D's on my file.

I have a chat transscript with Talk Talk at the time, discussing that there would be an early termination fee, I advised that was okay it will be paid from the direct debit. I think that I accidentally cancelled the DD before this was taken out.

I am told there was letters sent to my old address, and the phone number the debt collection agency were given was the phone number for my terminated phone contract, which is what the debt was actually in regards to.

Talk talk knew that I wouldn't be living at that address any longer- I had advised them of this, passed on an uncontactable phone number, and did not pass on my email address (which this whole thing could have been sorted out if I'd had received one bloody email!).

I feel like its incredibly sloppy on the part of talk talk for not even bothering really to get in touch with me in regards to paying this, and now I will probably never be able to get a mortgage because of it.

It feels wholly unfair to say the very least.  Is it worth bringing this to the financial ombudsman? Would I even have a chance at getting it removed?

Am I missing something here?

You left the country completely, they had no address for you, you gave them a phone number that didn't work and didn't give them an email address... and you're complaining about them not contacting you?

What did you expect them to do, beam a message onto the moon for you to read?

icecream20

SpreadableToast said:

icecream20 said:

So I'm just here looking for some advice on what to do about this, if there is any chance with the financial ombudsman.

Here's what happened:

Two and a half years ago I left England (with a really good credit rating) and moved to Australia for what we thought was going to be a year. This turned into two years and I returned to the UK at Christmas. As far as I was aware all my credit was in good shape and all loose ends tied up before I left. To my absolute horror on checking my credit rating just now, I have 2 years worth of defaults (every month) from a company I've never even heard of. Upon investigation it turns out that the defaults were a result of my old  home phone & broadband contract I had with talk talk - there was an early termination fee of £40 which apparantly wasn't paid. They had sent letters out to my address which I wasn't living at because I had moved abroad.

This debt was then passed onto a debt collecting agency who marked all the D's on my file.

I have a chat transscript with Talk Talk at the time, discussing that there would be an early termination fee, I advised that was okay it will be paid from the direct debit. I think that I accidentally cancelled the DD before this was taken out.

I am told there was letters sent to my old address, and the phone number the debt collection agency were given was the phone number for my terminated phone contract, which is what the debt was actually in regards to.

Talk talk knew that I wouldn't be living at that address any longer- I had advised them of this, passed on an uncontactable phone number, and did not pass on my email address (which this whole thing could have been sorted out if I'd had received one bloody email!).

I feel like its incredibly sloppy on the part of talk talk for not even bothering really to get in touch with me in regards to paying this, and now I will probably never be able to get a mortgage because of it.

It feels wholly unfair to say the very least.  Is it worth bringing this to the financial ombudsman? Would I even have a chance at getting it removed?

Am I missing something here?

You left the country completely, they had no address for you, you gave them a phone number that didn't work and didn't give them an email address... and you're complaining about them not contacting you?

What did you expect them to do, beam a message onto the moon for you to read?

No I think you misunderstood - I left the country permenantly and informed them of this - the phone number that they passed on - was the home phone number of the terminated contract - not my mobile which they had on my file and which was contactable, they had my email address which was contactable, so they could easily get in touch with me.

SpreadableToast

icecream20 said:

SpreadableToast said:

icecream20 said:

So I'm just here looking for some advice on what to do about this, if there is any chance with the financial ombudsman.

Here's what happened:

Two and a half years ago I left England (with a really good credit rating) and moved to Australia for what we thought was going to be a year. This turned into two years and I returned to the UK at Christmas. As far as I was aware all my credit was in good shape and all loose ends tied up before I left. To my absolute horror on checking my credit rating just now, I have 2 years worth of defaults (every month) from a company I've never even heard of. Upon investigation it turns out that the defaults were a result of my old  home phone & broadband contract I had with talk talk - there was an early termination fee of £40 which apparantly wasn't paid. They had sent letters out to my address which I wasn't living at because I had moved abroad.

This debt was then passed onto a debt collecting agency who marked all the D's on my file.

I have a chat transscript with Talk Talk at the time, discussing that there would be an early termination fee, I advised that was okay it will be paid from the direct debit. I think that I accidentally cancelled the DD before this was taken out.

I am told there was letters sent to my old address, and the phone number the debt collection agency were given was the phone number for my terminated phone contract, which is what the debt was actually in regards to.

Talk talk knew that I wouldn't be living at that address any longer- I had advised them of this, passed on an uncontactable phone number, and did not pass on my email address (which this whole thing could have been sorted out if I'd had received one bloody email!).

I feel like its incredibly sloppy on the part of talk talk for not even bothering really to get in touch with me in regards to paying this, and now I will probably never be able to get a mortgage because of it.

It feels wholly unfair to say the very least.  Is it worth bringing this to the financial ombudsman? Would I even have a chance at getting it removed?

Am I missing something here?

You left the country completely, they had no address for you, you gave them a phone number that didn't work and didn't give them an email address... and you're complaining about them not contacting you?

What did you expect them to do, beam a message onto the moon for you to read?

No I think you misunderstood - I left the country permenantly and informed them of this - the phone number that they passed on - was the home phone number of the terminated contract - not my mobile which they had on my file and which was contactable, they had my email address which was contactable, so they could easily get in touch with me.

You specifically said you didn't pass on your email address.  And the number was uncontactable.

Either way, you don't have grounds for this to be removed. Communications like this are almost always done in writing (and for good reason) so you'll just have to take it on the chin.  Pay the amount owed, wait a year or two, and find a broker.  Small, settled, telecommunications debts are really not the kiss of death for mortgage applications that most people seem to think they are.

D3xt3r5L4b

You would have been emailed a final bill.

cymruchris

You could try writing a grovelling letter to TalkTalk asking them very nicely to remove it given the circumstances whereby you informed them you'd left the country, gave them a working mobile number and a working email address, neither of which they'd attempted to use (although their primary contact would always have been in writing to your last known address) and that you obviously are shocked that you'd missed a payment and want to settle it at the earliest opportunity. However it is very unlikely they will remove it, but there's no harm in asking. As for any ombudsman action - I don't see you getting anywhere fast on that side. 

Did you have any family in the UK - or a trusted friend? You could have set up a royal mail redirection before you left for a very small fee to ensure you hadn't missed anything. When I left the UK - I ran a redirection service for 4 years, I got a few bits and pieces through but hadn't missed anything important before leaving. 

ceremony

SpreadableToast said:

You specifically said you didn't pass on your email address.  And the number was uncontactable.

Either way, you don't have grounds for this to be removed. Communications like this are almost always done in writing (and for good reason) so you'll just have to take it on the chin.  Pay the amount owed, wait a year or two, and find a broker.  Small, settled, telecommunications debts are really not the kiss of death for mortgage applications that most people seem to think they are.

I read the OP's post as saying that they gave TalkTalk their phone number and email address and told them that they were leaving their home address.

TalkTalk then ignored all of that, OP got no emails/phone calls, and TalkTalk gave a DCA a vacated address and disconnected phone number.

It does sound to me like TalkTalk weren't particularly efficient and that OP took reasonable steps to ensure they could be contacted.

D3xt3r5L4b

ceremony said:

SpreadableToast said:

You specifically said you didn't pass on your email address.  And the number was uncontactable.

Either way, you don't have grounds for this to be removed. Communications like this are almost always done in writing (and for good reason) so you'll just have to take it on the chin.  Pay the amount owed, wait a year or two, and find a broker.  Small, settled, telecommunications debts are really not the kiss of death for mortgage applications that most people seem to think they are.

I read the OP's post as saying that they gave TalkTalk their phone number and email address and told them that they were leaving their home address.

TalkTalk then ignored all of that, OP got no emails/phone calls, and TalkTalk gave a DCA a vacated address and disconnected phone number.

It does sound to me like TalkTalk weren't particularly efficient and that OP took reasonable steps to ensure they could be contacted.

As you’ve probably noticed, things like this tend to (99% of the time) get sent via snail-mail rather than email or phone calls.

So they have acted accordingly. 

icecream20

My thinking was that before a company can place a default on someones credit file, there has to be reasonable effort gone into working out the issue with the customer.  As no real effort was made to get in touch with me, given the information about my wherabouts was disclosed to them prior, along with reachable methods of contact in the case they did need to get in touch, I don't think they've played their part. But we shall see, I'm going to make some phone calls tomorrow morning. Will post an update as to what happens. Wish me luck!

SpreadableToast

icecream20 said:

My thinking was that before a company can place a default on someones credit file, there has to be reasonable effort gone into working out the issue with the customer.  As no real effort was made to get in touch with me, given the information about my wherabouts was disclosed to them prior, along with reachable methods of contact in the case they did need to get in touch, I don't think they've played their part. But we shall see, I'm going to make some phone calls tomorrow morning. Will post an update as to what happens. Wish me luck!

Define reasonable.  I suspect that what you define as reasonable is just beyond whatever TalkTalk did.  It is understandable that you feel that way, nobody wants to have their credit file wrecked by default but it isn't ultimately reasonable.

They're a multi-billion pound company with millions of customers, they can't reasonably be expected to take a tailored approach to this.  They'll just send out letters and that will be deemed sufficient as far as the law is concerned.  If you want them to phone you up, send you personalized emails, etc, go with a more expensive provider.  You get what you pay for.

sambaird

Above poster is absolutely spot on... your definition of reasonable will always be what actions TalkTalk didn’t take.

One thing to also bear in mind is that telecoms providers like TalkTalk can place a default without issuing a “Default Notice”. Phone/Broadband contracts are not financial products and don’t follow the same rules as loans/credit cards. All they need to do is mention in their terms and conditions, or any letters they may have sent chasing non payment of bills, that failure to pay may effect your credit file - this is enough of a warning from them. And whilst you say that you gave them updated contact details... you didn’t give them an updated postal address.