Advice on an 11 year old debt that nobody has collected

obloquy

Hey, 

Really need a bit of advice for a bizarre situation if anyone can help

I was still a uni student 11 years ago in 2009.  I applied for and was approved for a NatWest student account in 2009 with an overdraft of £1200.   That same year my car broke and I had to get a new one.  I paid for half of it with cash and the other half with all the NatWest student overdraft.   The next year in 2010 I received a letter from NatWest saying I need to pay that overdraft back in full.  I was still a student and earning nothing so I told them this.  Some months past and Natwest handed the overdraft case to a debt collection agency.  The Debt agency sent me a letter saying I had 7 days to pay in full (still a student, living at home mind you) so I ignored it.  7 days after the first letter they sent another one as a final reminder and said they had handed the case over to a solicitor who sent their own letter.  I again ignored it and didn't make any payment.  

After those 3 letters I never heard from them ever again; no other solicitors letters, no debt collectors knocking at the door, no court proceedings - nothing.  After 6 years apparently its legally written off (the money is still owed, they just can't collect it and you can refuse to acknowledge it?).  Well its been 11 years now and still nothing - in fact both the debt collection agency and the solicitors are no longer in existence.  My questions is - given theres been no activity for 11 years, does this have an affect on my credit rating even now?  Nothing shows up on my experian report as a tie to this debt or would an outstanding debt still be tied to my credit report even if I can't see it there since its been so long?

Also, I've never really needed credit for anything as I just bought stuff outright as and when.  I used to have a contract on my phone but I finished paying for it years ago and then just bought phones outright and kept the same sim only plan as I didn't wanna be tied to a 24 month thing all the time.  I tried applying for a barclaycard the other day and was declined, even though my experian rating was 964 (it went down after I was declined).  I have no loans or anything attached to my credit report as far as I can see... so it seems like I have 0 credibility which is probably just as bad as having bad credit!.  I'm now wondering if the reason I was declined a credit card was because I have no loan/borrowing history or because I still have the outstanding £1200 against my name even if I can't see it on my credit report.  

Can anyone offer any advice?  I'd like to get a credit history, but can't figure out whats stopping me from getting credit - the fact that I have no history or the 11 year old overdraft debt thats 'statute barred'.  How could I find this information if its not on the credit report?

ceremony

The debt won't show on your credit report because it's so old.
It won't impact your ability to borrow except POSSIBLY with Natwest and any related offshoots (if such things exist, I can't keep track of who owns who these days). Some banks use their own internal scoring and have long memories. Others don't.
Your credit score doesn't matter, it's just a number and banks/card companies don't use it.
If you currently have no phone contract and no credit card you have no or very limited credit history and that's what Barclays will have been looking at.
The best thing to do if you really want a credit card is use the eligibility checkers for some of the subprime ones - Capital One, Aqua and Vanquis are the three best known ones. One of them will most likely accept you. 
Get one of those cards, use it and pay it off in full every month. The interest is obscene so don't carry a balance. After 6 months or so you should be in a better position and can look at more mainstream card companies.

obloquy

Thanks for the awesome advice! I really appreciate it and thanks for confirming my suspicions 

When I applied for the Barclaycard (I've got a current account with them) I did the eligibility checker and was given an 80% approval for all their credit cards.  I only applied for the basic builder one but was then rejected which seemed odd if I was eligible for it in the first place.  

How long will I have to wait to apply for a subprime one if I've already been rejected from barclaycard a few days ago?  Will applying for another card within a few days of each other look bad to lenders?  

ps. I only want a credit card to just buy petrol every month and pay it off immediately to get gain some form of credit history.

finalfantasist

obloquy said:

How long will I have to wait to apply for a subprime one if I've already been rejected from barclaycard a few days ago?  Will applying for another card within a few days of each other look bad to lenders?  

Barclaycards credit builder card is subprime...

But you could probably apply to a different subprime lender and see what happens.  I'd avoid any further applications for 6 months though, whether you get accepted or knocked back.

sourcrates

As a word of warning, there are companies out there that specialise in buying up statute barred or otherwise iffy old debts.
If anyone does write to you about the debt (quite unlikely now but not impossible) you should not ignore it, send them the statute barred letter (we have a copy in the stickies, or its available on the National Debtline website).

You do this because, despite the passage of time, they can still obtain a judgement against you in court if you don`t respond to any letters they send.
As I said, its been 11 years, your probably in the clear, but just keep that in mind for a while.

obloquy

finalfantasist said:

obloquy said:

How long will I have to wait to apply for a subprime one if I've already been rejected from barclaycard a few days ago?  Will applying for another card within a few days of each other look bad to lenders?  

Barclaycards credit builder card is subprime...

But you could probably apply to a different subprime lender and see what happens.  I'd avoid any further applications for 6 months though, whether you get accepted or knocked back.

I see... so if Barclays basic credit building card is also subprime and I was eligible for it, but still rejected - wouldn't it be the same issue if I applied for a basic capitol one card?  (Which I checked and I'm eligible for that too).  Wouldn't this put me in eternal limbo of always getting rejected

I only have three direct debits going out; one for car insurance (£37), one for monthly car tax (£2.50) and one for a phone sim only plan (£15) thats been running for 7 years.  Having to wait another 6 months before trying again for any credit card  seems like it would impede any progress in my life haha especially if I knew I'd just be rejected again.

If I'm always eligible in a soft check but then always fail the hard check, what does this really mean? I don't know who to contact to shed some light on it.   I'm saving for a deposit so with parents currently, I'm on the electoral role, I have a full time job and get ok money for the moment 33000 that will raise.  I don't have 0 credit history it seems but at the same time I only have a very limited one with very small things on. 

I spoke to a barclaycard advisor yesterday on why I was rejected and she mentioned that it might be easier to use somewhere like very.co.uk/littlewoods and purchase something (clothes, tv etc) on a high interest instalment plan, but then pay it off immediately and it would go in your favour and your credit would rise.  Do it again next month etc until you see your credit rise.  Is this something that people do?  However if very.co.uk do a hard credit check, surely I'd be in the same situation as before with an ever dropping credit score filled with rejection that I don't know how I could improve. And that could take years to rebuild.  

Haha its a bit disheartening

finalfantasist

obloquy said:

finalfantasist said:

obloquy said:

How long will I have to wait to apply for a subprime one if I've already been rejected from barclaycard a few days ago?  Will applying for another card within a few days of each other look bad to lenders?  

Barclaycards credit builder card is subprime...

But you could probably apply to a different subprime lender and see what happens.  I'd avoid any further applications for 6 months though, whether you get accepted or knocked back.

I see... so if Barclays basic credit building card is also subprime and I was eligible for it, but still rejected - wouldn't it be the same issue if I applied for a basic capitol one card?  (Which I checked and I'm eligible for that too).  Wouldn't this put me in eternal limbo of always getting rejected

Different lenders have different criteria.

obloquy

finalfantasist said:

obloquy said:

finalfantasist said:

obloquy said:

How long will I have to wait to apply for a subprime one if I've already been rejected from barclaycard a few days ago?  Will applying for another card within a few days of each other look bad to lenders?  

Barclaycards credit builder card is subprime...

But you could probably apply to a different subprime lender and see what happens.  I'd avoid any further applications for 6 months though, whether you get accepted or knocked back.

I see... so if Barclays basic credit building card is also subprime and I was eligible for it, but still rejected - wouldn't it be the same issue if I applied for a basic capitol one card?  (Which I checked and I'm eligible for that too).  Wouldn't this put me in eternal limbo of always getting rejected

Different lenders have different criteria.

So I guess its a case of "Just wait and then apply again and see what happens"?

finalfantasist

obloquy said:

finalfantasist said:

obloquy said:

finalfantasist said:

obloquy said:

How long will I have to wait to apply for a subprime one if I've already been rejected from barclaycard a few days ago?  Will applying for another card within a few days of each other look bad to lenders?  

Barclaycards credit builder card is subprime...

But you could probably apply to a different subprime lender and see what happens.  I'd avoid any further applications for 6 months though, whether you get accepted or knocked back.

I see... so if Barclays basic credit building card is also subprime and I was eligible for it, but still rejected - wouldn't it be the same issue if I applied for a basic capitol one card?  (Which I checked and I'm eligible for that too).  Wouldn't this put me in eternal limbo of always getting rejected

Different lenders have different criteria.

So I guess its a case of "Just wait and then apply again and see what happens"?

No, you could apply to someone else right now. Two searches within 6 months is about as much as you should do. If you get knocked back, then yes, you should wait.

obloquy

Ok, will any one of the capitol one, vanquis, aqua ones be fine?

I use experian but signed up for a transunion (credit karma) report yesterday as this was what barclays based their check on and I saw that it showed 2 entires for the barclaycard application that I applied for.  When I put all my details in the barclays website, right before I clicked submit I clicked the T&C's link and it opened the page up in the same window as the application rather than in a new one. I couldn't go back and had to restart and put in all my details again.  I only applied once but dunno why it looks like it was twice.  Hope that doesn't go against me

finalfantasist

You could apply to anyone.

Perhaps you shouldn't bother applying to anyone else if you now have two hard searches, it's really up to you.