Cancelled mobile phone contract - Impact on Credit File

girlinabox

Good afternoon,

I'm hoping to get some advice please.

Back in November I applied for a new mobile contract with mobiles.co.uk/Vodafone.  The box arrived damaged so I returned it.  I also decided that I wanted to take my time and try and find a different deal.  The box was never opened and nothing ever activated.  

I received confirmation in December from mobiles.co.uk that it had been returned and successfully cancelled.  This morning I checked my credit file on my bank account and Natwest were stating I was minus 45 points for missing a credit card payment.  Odd.  I only have 1 credit card - with them - and no payments missed.  I logged onto Clear Score and they are showing me as missed payments to Vodafone for Feb and March!  I have never had any communications from them - no emails or letters.  I assumed everything was cancelled back in December.

I have no idea who to contact as I do not have a valid Vodafone telephone number or any account details! How can I get this rectified?

Just prior to this I had been looking at Martin's eligibility calculator for a new CC for doing a balance transfer as my Natwest one doesn't last much longer and there were some great deals being offered.  I was pre-approved for my card of choice.  Then, since the issue above, I looked again at the calculator with a view to applying, and I was now not only no longer being showed as pre-approved, but it said my chances were something low like 30% chance.  The only cards that I would be a good candidate for were the ones aimed at people with poor credit history!

Do I stand a chance of getting this rectified or removed?  I'm horrified that this has impacted me so negatively - and will likely get worse if they continue to keep saying that I am defaulting!

Also, oddly, Clear Score says my CS is 573 out of 1000,  the Natwest credit score is states I'm not on the electoral register, which I am, and shows my score as  578 out of 710, and Experian say 802 out of 999.  I don't really know what this means!  Other than I am really panicking that my previously clean and reasonable score has been affected so badly. I'm a bit stressed about it all.

Apologies for the wordy post. Thank you in advance for any help.

[Deleted User]

girlinabox said:

Also, oddly, Clear Score says my CS is 573 out of 1000,  the Natwest credit score is states I'm not on the electoral register, which I am, and shows my score as  578 out of 710, and Experian say 802 out of 999.  I don't really know what this means! 

The scores don't mean anything. Ignore them.

If any CRAs aren't showing you as being on the ER, query it, but check directly, not via NatWest.

You need to contact Vodafone to find out why missed payments are recorded 

girlinabox

Deleted_User said:

girlinabox said:

Also, oddly, Clear Score says my CS is 573 out of 1000,  the Natwest credit score is states I'm not on the electoral register, which I am, and shows my score as  578 out of 710, and Experian say 802 out of 999.  I don't really know what this means! 

The scores don't mean anything. Ignore them.

If any CRAs aren't showing you as being on the ER, query it, but check directly, not via NatWest.

You need to contact Vodafone to find out why missed payments are recorded 

Hello, thanks.  Ok so the scores don't concern me that much then.  But I cannot figure out how to resolve this incorrect missed payment thing.  Been on a webchat with vodafone for the last hour and 5 mins, it's hopeless.  They don't seem to understand, i don't have any account details to give them.  Is it worth me raising a dispute with Equifax?

[Deleted User]

Yes, you can dispute it via the CRAs.

[Deleted User]

Also, raise a formal complaint to Vodafone, provide the facts, dates and keep it all simple, no emotive language.

girlinabox

Deleted_User said:

Also, raise a formal complaint to Vodafone, provide the facts, dates and keep it all simple, no emotive language.

Thank you.  One of their customer service reps on Twitter helped me out via DM.  She confirmed that mobiles.co.uk did not provide them with my email address so I would not have been aware that they had billed me - they're handing it over to a specialist team to look into.  I will see what is said from that.  In parallel I will also ask the CRAs to dispute it ad get it removed.  Thanks again.

girlinabox

Hi there.  I just wondered if I could get another bit of advice following the above situation being resolved in my favour?  Vodafone have confirmed that the two missed payments have been removed from my credit file, and admitted liability of the issue that caused all of this.  They said it would take a few days to be updated everywhere.  My score already looks to have improved - but from what I understand score doesn't really mean an awful lot anyway.  But I have just done another eligibility check for a balance transfer credit card and the results are still poor - not as bad as they were - but still bad.  Should I try again in a week or so and see if things have changed back to how they were before Vodafone put these marks against me?  I can't see what else has possibly changed - my credit file looks very positive with Equifax and Experian.

[Deleted User]

You can try as often as you like. But you'll get more accurate results if you use a lenders' own checker.

Check to see that the data has been removed from all files.

FeaturelessVoid

Eligibility checks with soft searches typically use more dated information than hard searches which use real-time information.

I wouldn't count on their accuracy (any less than usual anyway) for a good couple of months.

Helloht

I had a very similar experience with virgin media - id set up a TV/broadband package back in 2013, then as soon as the installation guy arrived realised the house didn't have the right connection sockets so I let virgin know we wouldn't be proceeding and I went on my way with sky. 3 years later I'd signed up to equifax instead of my usual experian and found I had a default from virgin. It showed I opened the account never paid a single payment and it went into default after 6 months. It took a good year of contact with virgin but they removed the default in late 2016. Funnily enough fast forward 5 years I randomly get sent a check for £4.68 as an apology for their error