118 Loan & Credit Report

DebtFreePlanning

Hoping someone can help me as I simply do not know where to go from here.

To try and cut an incredibly long story short; in June contacted 118 via their live chat and asked them to put my account on payment freeze due to being hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. I was told to put this in writing to them via an e-mail, which I did straightaway. I chased and chased and chased for an answer but received nothing. Anyway, my credit file was this month marked as having been 3 months behind on my payments to 118, so I contacted them on live chat to chase again for an answer to my e-mails. They claimed they couldn't find my messages and subsequently told me that the e-mail address they originally gave me was the wrong one. So I immediately contacted the new address they gave me, and I raised a complaint to them directly.

They have answered my complaint by claiming that they have no record of my live chat discussion in June and they are not willing to therefore take any further action on this. I have contacted the credit report agencies to raise a dispute but they are not willing to correct my file unless they receive confirmation from 118.

I simply don't know where to go from here. I have tried to keep it as brief as possible but this whole episode has caused a huge strain on me and my family, and all I want is for my credit file to be corrected. Having faced serious debt problems in the past I have been desperately trying to repair and maintain my credit report but I find myself in a situation where I have taken two steps back due to 'late payment', through no fault of my own. Does anybody have any suggestion of where I can go to dispute this further? I am going round and round in circles and the last reply from 118 says that their decision is final and they will not be replying further so I have no idea where I go from here. 

Thanks in advance for any help

D3xt3r5L4b

You shouldn’t have stopped payments. 

DebtFreePlanning

D3xt3r5L4b said:

You shouldn’t have stopped payments. 

I didn't. When I contacted them I asked them to put a freeze on my account, but then I proceeded to make several smaller payments to them whilst waiting for this to be sorted. All of a sudden, their system blocked me from making any payments, which I immediately contacted them about. They claimed my bank blocked the payments due to 'fraud concerns' which my bank has confirmed is not the case at all - the payment was never actually attempted by 118's systems.

I had no choice to stop the 'full' payments because I could not afford to make the full payments. If I could, then I wouldn't have needed to freeze my account for 3 months. But I wanted to keep my account in as good order as possible so paid several smaller amounts off until their system would not allow me to do so anymore.

D3xt3r5L4b

So you reduced payments off your own accord with no payment plan in place?

DebtFreePlanning

D3xt3r5L4b said:

So you reduced payments off your own accord with no payment plan in place?

On the basis that I was told during my initial discussion with them that I should make any payments that I can as interest will continue to accrue, yes. This is the very same discussion that they now claim they have no record of

It is correct that no formal plan had been agreed but that's through no fault of my own. I did everything asked of me by 118 

D3xt3r5L4b

Without a payment plan in place you will get penalised for it. 

Since they didn’t respond to/acknowledge your “requests” then no plan was put in place. 

Sorry but this is all on you. 

MinuteNoodles

DebtFreePlanning said:

I didn't. When I contacted them I asked them to put a freeze on my account, but then I proceeded to make several smaller payments to them whilst waiting for this to be sorted.

Unless you pay the amount per month that was in the original agreement then you've not made the payments.