Capital one default after delaying the acceptance of final settlement

Foodwizardry

Good morning,

This is bugging me and I feel that Capital one didn't act as responsible as the should have, any advice will be welcome.

In August 2019 my other half, who earns much more money than me regularly as a carpenter, got ripped off by a cowboy building company, costing us 9k in total. I threw any money that we had to keep up with payments but by November 2019 I realised that I can't sustain the household.  I have been in touch with all the credit cards, car loan etc companies and everyone was understanding and helpful, apart from capital one. 

I called then on a regular basis, certainly not ignoring any of my debt commitments and they tried from the get go to get me to agree to some sort of repayment plan, which in the way they presented it, just sounded sketchy and no other company said anything similar.

I ended up being able to borrow money from my dad but since it didn't cover the whole amounts I owed, I sent final settlement letters, Amazon and Vanquis immediately accepted a 70% payment and closed the account. While they are showing that I was in arrears, no defaults were placed on my file. 

Capital one, declined the letter, again asking me to commit to something like an IVA, which I didn't want and by that time the stress of it all made my hair fall out in patches. 

I wrote to them again, explaining the situation and what it causes my mental and physical health, after which they finally sent me a letter in April 2020 to accept and I paid the debt in May the following month. The letter said that the account will be settled and nothing more will happen.

Then suddenly my capital one account completely vanished from my credit file until  in September 2020 when I realised that Capital one sold on the remaining balance of my debt, after a long back and forth and me sending all the documentation the debt agency vanished from my account but capital one appeared back, showing a default in May 2020 now on my file. 

I then contacted the Ombudsman and capital one finally closed the account and shows it as closed and satisfied, plus sending me a cheque for £100. However, I then realised that they also marked my account in default in May 2020. When they finally updated my account, there must have been some notification been sent to my bank as they suddenly lowered my credit limit on the only credit card I kept, which then raised my credit usage and adding another negative effect on my file. 

I haven't had a missed payment since and am back on track but I feel that Capital one is still in the wrong and the default obviously impacting my credit score. Is it worth contesting the default? Since it was in May 2020 in the height of the corona virus, some of the rules changed, so did they act as responsibly as they should. 

It's bugging me as the company has enough negative press about their practises and I wonder what my chances would be to go back to the Ombudsman and contest the default? If anyone can advise on this, I would be really grateful

UPDATE: Just looked through all my credit reports again and on clearscore the default is recorded on 29th Dec 2019, however, since they just put my account on as settled, I can't see any of my payment history, the first settlement letter was sent in November, the one they accepted was sent in March 2020 literally days before the first lock down

MorningcoffeeIV

A Dec 19 default is  good result - the May date is more realistic, being 6 months after you stopped paying. Ask them to align all your credit files with that date.

Foodwizardry

MorningcoffeeIV said:

A Dec 19 default is  good result - the May date is more realistic, being 6 months after you stopped paying. Ask them to align all your credit files with that date.

Thansk so they can just default my account still for December 19 after I spoke with them and they put the account on hold and also sent a settlement letter? Still doesn't seem right to me after all other companies have just closed the accounts

MrSilk

Foodwizardry said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

A Dec 19 default is  good result - the May date is more realistic, being 6 months after you stopped paying. Ask them to align all your credit files with that date.

Thansk so they can just default my account still for December 19 after I spoke with them and they put the account on hold and also sent a settlement letter? Still doesn't seem right to me after all other companies have just closed the accounts

Yes, you still defaulted on your agreement by being behind on your contractual payments and paying a partial settlement.