Default wrongly applied to my file? What do I do now?

Twins

Hello all, I'm desperate for some help.  I believe a default has wrongly been applied to my credit file and if effecting my reportage application.

To cut a long story short, I had some credit difficulties some years ago and went into arrangement to pay with Santander on a credit card and my overdraft.   These go back to 2011.  

I have now paid these off in full.   One was settled last week which via Westcot and evidence given to the bank for the for this.    The other I paid in full on March 21.  When I spoke to Santander this morning they said a partial settlement flag had been added in 2018 to my credit card account couldn't tell me why because I was making payments as normal still.

This could be the default that my bank are seeing and are questioning?  All Santander have said is that they will raise it with their complaints team but may take weeks to rectify.  In the meantime, I may lose my new house application as we are already 2 months down the line and our sellers are getting impatient with waiting.

Is there anything else I can do to sort this?  I'm desperate! Thank you

Exodi

You should look into your credit report yourself to see exactly what the default is and when.

You can do this for free with MSE Credit Club, Credit Karma and ClearScore - these are the three main credit referencing agencies.

Defaults disappear off your credit file after 6 years, but please don't be mistaken in thinking that paying a default makes it instantly disappear, it just changes its status.

sammyjammy

What date was the default applied?

Twins

Exodi said:

You should look into your credit report yourself to see exactly what the default is and when.

You can do this for free with MSE Credit Club, Credit Karma and ClearScore - these are the three main credit referencing agencies.

Defaults disappear off your credit file after 6 years, but please don't be mistaken in thinking that paying a default makes it instantly disappear, it just changes its status.

Hello, thanks for the reply.   

I have my credit file from Equifax and there are no defaults listed at all, that is my issue.   I am not sure what default the mortgage lender is looking at because my debt originally defaulted in 2011 so those debts have all dropped off my credit file.   When I spoke to Santander all they said was yes it is an old debt and they had added a partial settlement indicator in 2018 which wasn't right as I was still paying the debt - I'm wondering if this is what the mortgage company are seeing?   But my file is clean.   I hope that makes sense?

Ebe_Scrooge

Twins said:

Exodi said:

You should look into your credit report yourself to see exactly what the default is and when.

You can do this for free with MSE Credit Club, Credit Karma and ClearScore - these are the three main credit referencing agencies.

Defaults disappear off your credit file after 6 years, but please don't be mistaken in thinking that paying a default makes it instantly disappear, it just changes its status.

I have my credit file from Equifax and there are no defaults listed at all, that is my issue.  

You need to check all 3 of your files (instructions on how to do this can be found here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/ )

Some lenders report to all 3 agencies, some only report to one or two.  So it's possible that the default is showing on one of the other 2 CRAs, but not Equifax.

Twins

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Twins said:

Exodi said:

You should look into your credit report yourself to see exactly what the default is and when.

You can do this for free with MSE Credit Club, Credit Karma and ClearScore - these are the three main credit referencing agencies.

Defaults disappear off your credit file after 6 years, but please don't be mistaken in thinking that paying a default makes it instantly disappear, it just changes its status.

I have my credit file from Equifax and there are no defaults listed at all, that is my issue.  

You need to check all 3 of your files (instructions on how to do this can be found here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/ )

Some lenders report to all 3 agencies, some only report to one or two.  So it's possible that the default is showing on one of the other 2 CRAs, but not Equifax.

I have, I have checked Experian, Equifax, Credit Karma, MSE etc etc... ALL of them show no defaults 

Ebe_Scrooge

That sounds odd.  The free reports you see are not updated in real-time, unlike the paid-for reports a lender will see.  But if it's something from 2018, it would be visible to you.  Is it possible that something new has been reported in the last few weeks (so you're not seeing it yet)?  I'm just wondering whether the Santander default is a red herring, and there's something entirely different that they're seeing.

What did your mortgage lender actually say was concerning them?  Might be worth giving them a call and speaking to them.  I know they can be very cagey about such things, and often will not disclose the reasons for their decisions - but it's got to be worth a try.