Late Payment

Krusters

Hi, I closed my energy acc with British Gas as I moved house in December 2022 and was told to wait for my final bill but not to cancel my direct debit. Due to postal strikes combined with Xmas volume and several bank holidays, the final bill only arrived in the first week of Jan. I called and paid the £600 in full as soon as I received the bill, however I noticed when I opened it that the deadline to pay the bill (generated on 16th dec) was 30th dec 2022. Thus BG have marked this down as a missed payment, which is adversely affecting my credit score. I contacted BG several times and was told they would removed the missed payment marker from my credit file. It didn’t happen, so numerous follow up calls were made and each time I was told it would be removed. Now they flatly refuse to remove it as it is a missed payment, despite my not having received the final
bill until after their deadline. They told me raising a dispute to OFGEM won’t change the outcome. So am stuck with a missed payment marker on my credit file for the next 7 years. I’ve had no missed payments on any other commitment ever. Is there anything I can do to rectify this? If I request to add a note to my credit file I’m under the impression it wont serve to alter the impact on it that this is having on my credit rating. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks

[Deleted User]

Krusters said:

Hi, I closed my energy acc with British Gas as I moved house in December 2022 and was told to wait for my final bill but not to cancel my direct debit. Due to postal strikes combined with Xmas volume and several bank holidays, the final bill only arrived in the first week of Jan. I called and paid the £600 in full as soon as I received the bill, however I noticed when I opened it that the deadline to pay the bill (generated on 16th dec) was 30th dec 2022. Thus BG have marked this down as a missed payment, which is adversely affecting my credit score. I contacted BG several times and was told they would removed the missed payment marker from my credit file. It didn’t happen, so numerous follow up calls were made and each time I was told it would be removed. Now they flatly refuse to remove it as it is a missed payment, despite my not having received the final
bill until after their deadline. They told me raising a dispute to OFGEM won’t change the outcome. So am stuck with a missed payment marker on my credit file for the next 7 years. I’ve had no missed payments on any other commitment ever. Is there anything I can do to rectify this? If I request to add a note to my credit file I’m under the impression it wont serve to alter the impact on it that this is having on my credit rating. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks

The first thing that you cannot do is escalate your complaint to Ofgem as it doesn’t deal with consumer complaints.

You need to follow BG’s complaints procedure in full and then you can escalate your complaint to Energy Ombudsman Services. EOS will look at your complaint (so it needs to be written out very clearly - stick to facts and avoid all emotion) and BG’s customer file. It will then rule on your complaint. 

Questions on credit markers are best asked on another forum.

Mstty

Raise a complaint with British Gas and don't let them close it, if they do ask them to reopen it or issue you a deadlock letter.

Please read this process

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/how-it-works/process

Ectophile

You can contact the credit reference agencies to put your own marker on your credit file saying that the late payment marker is incorrect. How much good that will do is anyone's guess.

The more fruitful route is likely to be a formal complaint to British Gas.

Brie

My understanding is that an update to your credit rating can take up to 3 months.  Furthermore it may be immaterial as many financial institutions take no notice of your score and make their own assessment based on other information.

MWT

Brie said:

My understanding is that an update to your credit rating can take up to 3 months.  Furthermore it may be immaterial as many financial institutions take no notice of your score and make their own assessment based on other information.

They do not pay any attention to the score, they do pay a lot of attention to the events recorded there such as late payments and defaults.

One late on its own is not likely to cause much damage, but if there are others then it does add up...

macman

No lender can even see your credit score: it's a fictitious number that you can ignore.

Spoonie_Turtle

macman said:

No lender can even see your credit score: it's a fictitious number that you can ignore.

In the OP they don't actually refer to their score, rather their credit file.  Are they not two different things?  (Genuine question.)

Edit: missed it previously but I have now seen one reference to their score in the post, apologies.

powerful_Rogue

Spoonie_Turtle said:

macman said:

No lender can even see your credit score: it's a fictitious number that you can ignore.

In the OP they don't actually refer to their score, rather their credit file.  Are they not two different things?  (Genuine question.)

They are indeed.

Credit Score - Made up by the credit reference agency. Only you and them can see it and has no bearing on any credit applications made.

Credit Report - This is the important one that shows all your accounts and their status - Payments made, Late payments, Defaults, CCJs etc. Can be seen by you, the credit reference agency and any company that does a credit search.

Spoonie_Turtle

powerful_Rogue said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

macman said:

No lender can even see your credit score: it's a fictitious number that you can ignore.

In the OP they don't actually refer to their score, rather their credit file.  Are they not two different things?  (Genuine question.)

They are indeed.

Credit Score - Made up by the credit reference agency. Only you and them can see it and has no bearing on any credit applications made.

Credit Report - This is the important one that shows all your accounts and their status - Payments made, Late payments, Defaults, CCJs etc. Can be seen by you, the credit reference agency and any company that does a credit search.

Thanks, that's what I thought.

I've now just seen one reference to credit score in the OP's post, which I'd previously missed.

Krusters

Yes, apologies, I had lazily interchanged “credit file” and “credit score” in my OP. What I want is for BG to remove the marker from my credit file, so that prospective lenders aren’t penalising me for an adverse credit history for the next 7 years. I did raise a complaint with BG, each time I called to follow up on the complaint and chase removal of the marker, as they had promised, I was told the complaint had been closed as resolved, despite my not having been contacted or updated in any way to advise me of this. So each time I called I had to raise another complaint, repeated this process for several weeks until yesterday, when they told me categorically that the marker cannot be removed, since as far as they are concerned the Dec payment was missed and the matter is closed.