Disputing records of nearly 30 late payments on my credit file

ChronicThinker

Okay. So. Over the past few years I've had reduced payment plan arrangement with creditors I am in debit with. They agree to freeze my account and not charge interest while I pay them back an agreed monthly amount.

I've just checked my credit report for the first time in my life today and there's a number of mistakes, these creditors would mark these payments down as one, two, sometimes even three months late?!

One payment may have been late as I was arranging a new payment plan after the 12 month period would come to an end but this is just ridiculous. There's at least 20 errors on there. I would pay these creditors through a standing orders on the agreed date, which sometimes would fall on a weekend or bank holiday. I called them several times to tell them my concerns about this and the silly agents over the phone told me not to worry about it and it would be fine as long as it was paid on the next working day. 

Lo and behold I check my credit report, you can see a string of equal payments coming in each month but the status code would be 000232211221110000000000 for example over the last 24 months (1 means payment is 30 days late; 2 means payment is 60 days late etc). Some months show that I paid 0 followed by paying double the next month. It's extremely worrying and I have records from my bank that these payments were all on the same day of the month (unless they fell on a weekend or bank holiday, in which case it would be the next working day as I said).

This is just 1 creditor, I have another with a similar record of many late payments. I've really f*cked my credit badly here by choosing to pay the arranged payment plan through a Standing Order instead of a Direct Debit.

Would Experian take me seriously if I try to dispute 28 of the 29 late payments in the last 24 months? How long does this process usually take? Is it worth doing this on my account or sending them 28 letters in the post?

JamieJ89

If you are on an agreed payment plan and paying less than your contractual amount (you mentioned interest has been frozen), then this is being reported correctly. 

In addition, any complaint should go to the lender and not the CRA. 

phillw

ChronicThinker said:

Some months show that I paid 0 followed by paying double the next month. It's extremely worrying and I have records from my bank that these payments were all on the same day of the month (unless they fell on a weekend or bank holiday, in which case it would be the next working day as I said).

It will be your responsibility to make sure the payments get there in time.

Payment delays because of weekends, bank holidays & just general faster payments not going through immediately is not the creditors fault. You could have set the standing order for a week earlier, setting it to the due date is asking for trouble.

Not that it helps now, but if it were a direct debit then it's a different story. It easier to get over payments back from a direct debit and any delays are not your fault.

I'd make a complaint to the lender that they didn't adequately inform you that the payments were late, you can mention that you queried this previously and were told it wasn't a problem but otherwise keep the complaint short and sweet.

ChronicThinker

JamieJ89 said:

If you are on an agreed payment plan and paying less than your contractual amount (you mentioned interest has been frozen), then this is being reported correctly. 

In addition, any complaint should go to the lender and not the CRA. 

Well this is news to me. Does the lender have the ability to rescind already declared late payments to the CRA? Is the best I can hope for a mitigating circumstances note next to this payment?

ChronicThinker

phillw said:

ChronicThinker said:

Some months show that I paid 0 followed by paying double the next month. It's extremely worrying and I have records from my bank that these payments were all on the same day of the month (unless they fell on a weekend or bank holiday, in which case it would be the next working day as I said).

It will be your responsibility to make sure the payments get there in time.

Payment delays because of weekends, bank holidays & just general faster payments not going through immediately is not the creditors fault. You could have set the standing order for a week earlier, setting it to the due date is asking for trouble.

Not that it helps now, but if it were a direct debit then it's a different story. It easier to get over payments back from a direct debit and any delays are not your fault.

I'd make a complaint to the lender that they didn't adequately inform you that the payments were late, you can mention that you queried this previously and were told it wasn't a problem but otherwise keep the complaint short and sweet.

I had set it to a few days earlier out of paranoia. The payment was never late, it was either one day early or sometimes five days early to my knowledge, but I’m worried when I called these agents about my concerns regarding this who assured me it was fine they may have manually changed the day of the month the payment was due given I had told them I’ll set up the SO for four days earlier than required date to be on the safe side.

Could the agents changing the day of the month the payment was expected (while the plan was ongoing) be a potential reason why this payment would have been marked as late? When I log into my account online there’s no mention of a payment plan and it’s unclear what date of the month the payment is expected.

even in the letter in the post confirming this payment plan it just said I’m agreeing to pay £x per month for 12 months without any clarity what day of the month it is.

every couple of months or so I also get a letter saying my account is in arrears but that I can ignore this message if I’m on an arranged payment plan. So ignore it I did…

[Deleted User]

Now that you've had your lightbulb-moment it would be worth looking at your files with all the CRA's.

Most of us on here had ours and it led to us being far more aware of our money management - the buck stops with us, we are in charge of what we do with our money, no-one else.
Due diligence is key, our hard earned money is too important to waste via lack of it.

It's this experience that enables us to offer advice and/or insight to fellow forumites.

backinbusiness

ChronicThinker said

Well this is news to me. Does the lender have the ability to rescind already declared late payments to the CRA? Is the best I can hope for a mitigating circumstances note next to this payment?

Oh I feel your pain - I remember the horrible moment I realised the exact same thing.  Unfortunately an agreed but reduced payment plan IS reported as you describe.  BiB x 

sourcrates

Its absolutely nothing to do with making your arranged payments on time, or the method you use.

Once you stop making the contractually agreed repayments, then you are in default of your agreement.

Unless normal payments are resumed, and any arrears accrued are settled, your account will continue to be marked in this way.

Any repayments agreed as part of a payment plan are not contractual, as you have broken the terms of your original agreement, so are marked as missed or late payment.


The only way to stop having your account marked as late, is either to settle the debt completely, including the arrears you have accrued, or just pay the arrears to date, and resume normal contractual repayments.

But doing the latter will see your account either marked as defaulted or have arrangement to pay markers added instead.

The arrears I mention will be the difference between the contractual repayment, and the amount you have been paying.

This is why you sign a credit agreement, it sets out what happens under certain circumstances, I suggest you read the terms and conditions, as it will be clearly stated how your account is dealt with if you miss contracted repayments, or enter an arrangement to pay.

Your file is marked correctly, as you are in an "arrangement to pay", so you have no cause to complain, granted its not what you wanted to hear, but stops you wasting time and effort on something you cannot change.

ChronicThinker

sourcrates said:

Its absolutely nothing to do with making your arranged payments on time, or the method you use.

Once you stop making the contractually agreed repayments, then you are in default of your agreement.

Unless normal payments are resumed, and any arrears accrued are settled, your account will continue to be marked in this way.

Any repayments agreed as part of a payment plan are not contractual, as you have broken the terms of your original agreement, so are marked as missed or late payment.


The only way to stop having your account marked as late, is either to settle the debt completely, including the arrears you have accrued, or just pay the arrears to date, and resume normal contractual repayments.

But doing the latter will see your account either marked as defaulted or have arrangement to pay markers added instead.

The arrears I mention will be the difference between the contractual repayment, and the amount you have been paying.

This is why you sign a credit agreement, it sets out what happens under certain circumstances, I suggest you read the terms and conditions, as it will be clearly stated how your account is dealt with if you miss contracted repayments, or enter an arrangement to pay.

Your file is marked correctly, as you are in an "arrangement to pay", so you have no cause to complain, granted its not what you wanted to hear, but stops you wasting time and effort on something you cannot change.

Yeah this makes more sense looking at some of the missed payments numbers and the extent of the arrears I was in at the time, and what the arrears were when the missed payment numbers weren’t there.

Could there be a chance the lender would (I suppose as a good will) change some of these missed payment marks on my credit file if I contact them and request it? After paying off my balance of course.

Or are they unable to change past reportings to the CRAs?

sourcrates

Your account has to be marked in some way, late payment is not the end of the world, the alternative is either a default, which is what essentially should have been recorded anyway, or arrangement to pay markers (they stay 6 years after the debt is repaid) so they want to be avoided.

You could complain, ask them to default you, and backdate the default from when you first got into financial trouble.

I can`t see you have anything to lose by doing that.

ChronicThinker

Great, thanks for the advice