How to remove an incorrect default from credit reports

Bridlington1

Good evening.

Since December 2022 I've been trying, without success to get an incorrect default from Barclays removed from my credit reports. So far the following have occurred:

In September 2022 I rang Barclays to book an appointment to open my first current account with them in order to get my hands on the rainy day saver. As I am a second year student I was ineligible to open their standard bank account so had to open their student additions account. When on the phone to them trying to book the appointment I asked them if it was possible to switch a student account I already held at TSB to Barclays through the CASS, which they said I would be able to do that at my appointment. I booked the appointment for 7/11/22. 

On 7/11/22 I was told at the appointment that they couldn't switch the TSB student account to Barclays through the CASS and that I would need to manually close my TSB account instead, but that they could still open the Barclays student account with blue rewards there and then so long as I closed the TSB account later on and brought them proof that the TSB account had been closed. I went straight to TSB after the appointment and returned half an hour later with proof of account closure, which they uploaded onto their systems. The account was opened with no arranged overdraft limit as they wouldn't let me have an arranged OD until my first student maintenance loan payment was paid into it.

The following week I set up direct debits with moneybox and Paypal on Barclays and opened and deposited £5k in the rainy day saver.

On 25/11/22 I received 2 texts from Barclays telling me that they'd cancelled the 2 direct debits. Upon visiting a branch I was told that they'd closed my accounts and to return the on 28/11 to get the money that was in the accounts back, which I did.

On 1/12/22 I received 4 emails from Paypal saying they'd been unable to transfer the money from my account as the Barclays account had been closed. I logged into my online Paypal account, noticed that the balance was showing as -£2 so immediately deposited £2 into it by open banking to clear the balance.

I made a complaint to Barclays regarding the account closures that week, which I now accept that Barclays was within their rights to do.

On 9/12/22 I noticed that the Barclays account had been marked as defaulted when checking my Transunion credit report. See:


The Barclays account had been in credit or at a nil balance for the entire time that it was open so the next day I raised a dispute through credit karma and on 12/12/22 received a response saying that the information would remain on my credit report and to contact Barclays to get it removed.

I visited a branch on 12/12/22 and got them to add the incorrect default to my existing complaint.

A few days later the default began showing on Clearscore:

On 25/1/23 a case handler from Barclays rang me to say that they wouldn't be upholding the part of the complaint regarding the account closures but would look into the default if I provided evidence from my credit reports of the default, which I provided soon after I got off the phone to them.

On 30/1/23 I heard from Barclays again, this time they told me that they did not put any default markers on my credit reports as there was no overdraft or loan to default so would close my complaint. They also told me to contact the credit reference agencies with the final response letter and to contact them again if the credit reference agencies couldn't remove the default.

On 5/2/23 I contacted both Equifax and Transunion (via credit karma). Transunion told me to contact Barclays as they were only showing the information that Barclays had supplied to them and Equifax told me to raise the dispute via Clearscore instead, who then raised the issue via Equifax, who told me to go to contact Barclays as they were only showing the information that Barclays had supplied to them. I responded to Equifax saying that I had already contacted Barclays, who had told me to contact them.

On 3/3/23 Equifax replied, supplying me with a full copy of my credit report and told me that Barclays had told them to tell me to ring Barclays's "Advocacy department", i.e. the complaints number I had rang back in December. The  credit report shows the following:

On 6/3/23 I telephoned Barclays, who told me that they would reopen my complaint and to provide more evidence of the default. I sent them a copy of my full Equifax credit report about 10 minutes after the phone call.

On 15/5/23 after hearing nothing from Barclays for 2 months I rang them for an update and was told that there were no updates on my complaint and they couldn't confirm if they'd received the copy of my credit report yet but that they'd send a message to another department asking for an update and to call them back in a week.

On 19/5/23 I rang them again, this time I was told that my complaint was waiting to be assigned a case handler and that they confirmed they had received the copy of the credit report I sent them in March. They also told me that I should ring them again on 24/5/23 if I had heard nothing from them by this point.

This morning I rang them again and was told that a note had been put on the system to say that if I ring them again that I was to be told that Barclays could not remove the default because they hadn't placed the default on my reports. They also said that the person who handled my complaint in January would ring me within 24 hours. I have so far yet to receive the phone call, though to be fair they have until around 9am tomorrow before the 24 hours are up.

So the situation now is that there is a default from Barclays showing on my TransUnion and Equifax credit reports (nothing has appeared on Experian), which both myself and Barclays accept should not be showing on my reports. Barclays are insisting that they did not put the default on my credit report and that I should contact TransUnion and Equifax to get it removed. TransUnion and Equifax are saying that they are only showing the information that Barclays has given them and that I must contact Barclays to remove the default from my credit report.

If Barclays didn't put the default on my reports and neither did the credit reference agencies then who did and how do I get it removed from my credit reports?

Any advice and suggestions would be much appreciated.

sourcrates

You cannot default a current account with no borrowing facility, especially when you don`t owe any money.

Barclays are passing the buck, the CRA`s do not create the information they show, they simply display what creditors tell them, so how Barclays can suggest that the CRA`s are responsible is frankly ridicules.

Assuming that is the final response from Barclays, your options now are to escalate the matter.

Defaults come under data protection, so the remit of the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) and would be your next port of call.

You might want to submit a complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) at the same time.

cymruchris

As above - that's what I'd do too. Post-bankruptcy when ensuring all information on my credit file was correct, every single financial institution that I contacted EXCEPT Barclays worked with me to update any errors. Barclays however was an absolute headache to deal with similar to your experiences above. I didn't give up though and got there in the end, but it shouldn't be so time consuming when it's clear from the evidence shown on their own systems and that of the CRA reports that an error needs correcting.

Bridlington1

Many thanks for the suggestions, the ICO certainly seems like a good shout. Since Barclays have reopened my complaint, would I need to wait for them to send me a second final response letter before taking this to the ICO and FOS, or would the letter they sent in January suffice?

Also how long does the ICO usually take to get these sorts of things resolved? I know it took around 3 months to hear from the FOS regarding a recent case I took to them so would we be talking a similar sort of timescale here?

sourcrates

I have never personally used the ICO but from what I have read, they appear to take a similar length of time to the FOS.

ForumUser7

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN5212007.pdf

This is not the exact same circumstances as your case, but in this instance, "Barclays applied a default marker to Mr B’s current account in December 2015 because an incorrect code had been used. This was an administrative error on the part of the bank and Barclays has accepted responsibility so there is no dispute here." I feel this may have happened with yourself, and hopefully when a fresh pair of eyes looks over their files it'll reveal all.

Have you filed a SAR with Barclays?

To echo others, ICO and FOS are an important next step - you must refer these as soon as possible - it'd be a shame to miss the deadline.

ForumUser7

Casskale said:

sourcrates said:

You cannot default a current account with no borrowing facility, especially when you don`t owe any money.

Barclays are passing the buck, the CRA`s do not create the information they show, they simply display what creditors tell them, so how Barclays can suggest that the CRA`s are responsible is frankly ridicules.

Assuming that is the final response from Barclays, your options now are to escalate the matter.

Defaults come under data protection, so the remit of the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) and would be your next port of call.

You might want to submit a complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) at the same time.

(Removed by Forum Team)

I feel like it is near impossible for OP not to win - the sequence of events does not really impact the key issue, but I'd say given how long the case has been ongoing for, a sequence of events with that level of detail is impressive and demonstrates clear and admirable record keeping.

The crux of the issue IMO is that OP's credit report shows a default from Barclays.
Barclays confirmed they have not defaulted the account.
Therefore OP is not at fault.
CRAs don't make things up, therefore Barclays must have reported this information, especially given the same appears at all 3.
FOS will get to the bottom of it, I hope, but @bridlington1 you must look at decisions from upheld complaints to work out how to phrase it, so that they don't just refer you straight to the ICO.

cymruchris

Casskale said:

sourcrates said:

You cannot default a current account with no borrowing facility, especially when you don`t owe any money.

Barclays are passing the buck, the CRA`s do not create the information they show, they simply display what creditors tell them, so how Barclays can suggest that the CRA`s are responsible is frankly ridicules.

Assuming that is the final response from Barclays, your options now are to escalate the matter.

Defaults come under data protection, so the remit of the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) and would be your next port of call.

You might want to submit a complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) at the same time.

(Removed by Forum Team)

You have every right to a different opinion being a forum as it is - but you could be nicer about it - that's a pretty rough bit of commentary there.

The OP hasn't mentioned being overdrawn - and from the timeline given I don't think that would be possible - and I'm sure the OP can confirm that. If the account hasn't been overdrawn, then no money has been owed, and no default could be applied. 

Yes, accounts with overdrafts can have defaults if people borrow money and then don't pay it back - but
unless the OP says they were overdrawn at any time, that's not the case here. 

Bridlington1

ForumUser7 said:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN5212007.pdf

This is not the exact same circumstances as your case, but in this instance, "Barclays applied a default marker to Mr B’s current account in December 2015 because an incorrect code had been used. This was an administrative error on the part of the bank and Barclays has accepted responsibility so there is no dispute here." I feel this may have happened with yourself, and hopefully when a fresh pair of eyes looks over their files it'll reveal all.

Have you filed a SAR with Barclays?

To echo others, ICO and FOS are an important next step - you must refer these as soon as possible - it'd be a shame to miss the deadline.

I filed a DSAR with Barclays in March, around the time I filed the DSARs with LBG.  I can't seem to find anything on it regarding the default though.

Casskale said:

sourcrates said:

You cannot default a current account with no borrowing facility, especially when you don`t owe any money.

Barclays are passing the buck, the CRA`s do not create the information they show, they simply display what creditors tell them, so how Barclays can suggest that the CRA`s are responsible is frankly ridicules.

Assuming that is the final response from Barclays, your options now are to escalate the matter.

Defaults come under data protection, so the remit of the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) and would be your next port of call.

You might want to submit a complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) at the same time.

(Removed by Forum Team)

I can't remember the exact date I first complained to Barclays but I know it was definitely between the day I got my money back from the branch to the day I checked my Transunion credit report (so between 28/11/22 and 9/12/22), though I'm pretty certain it was in the same week as I'd received the emails from Paypal though so I believe it was between 28/11/22 and 2/12/22.

I made it clear that it was a complaint and received a final response letter in early February dated 31/1/23:

ForumUser7 said:

Casskale said:

sourcrates said:

You cannot default a current account with no borrowing facility, especially when you don`t owe any money.

Barclays are passing the buck, the CRA`s do not create the information they show, they simply display what creditors tell them, so how Barclays can suggest that the CRA`s are responsible is frankly ridicules.

Assuming that is the final response from Barclays, your options now are to escalate the matter.

Defaults come under data protection, so the remit of the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) and would be your next port of call.

You might want to submit a complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) at the same time.

(Removed by Forum Team).

I feel like it is near impossible for OP not to win - the sequence of events does not really impact the key issue, but I'd say given how long the case has been ongoing for, a sequence of events with that level of detail is impressive and demonstrates clear and admirable record keeping.

The crux of the issue IMO is that OP's credit report shows a default from Barclays.
Barclays confirmed they have not defaulted the account.
Therefore OP is not at fault.
CRAs don't make things up, therefore Barclays must have reported this information, especially given the same appears at all 3.
FOS will get to the bottom of it, I hope, but @bridlington1 you must look at decisions from upheld complaints to work out how to phrase it, so that they don't just refer you straight to the ICO.

The default only appears only on Equifax and TransUnion. Experian doesn't show it, though my Experian credit report also doesn't show the Barclays account full stop.

cymruchris said:

Casskale said:

sourcrates said:

You cannot default a current account with no borrowing facility, especially when you don`t owe any money.

Barclays are passing the buck, the CRA`s do not create the information they show, they simply display what creditors tell them, so how Barclays can suggest that the CRA`s are responsible is frankly ridicules.

Assuming that is the final response from Barclays, your options now are to escalate the matter.

Defaults come under data protection, so the remit of the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) and would be your next port of call.

You might want to submit a complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) at the same time.

(Removed by Forum Team)

You have every right to a different opinion being a forum as it is - but you could be nicer about it - that's a pretty rough bit of commentary there.

The OP hasn't mentioned being overdrawn - and from the timeline given I don't think that would be possible - and I'm sure the OP can confirm that. If the account hasn't been overdrawn, then no money has been owed, and no default could be applied. 

Yes, accounts with overdrafts can have defaults if people borrow money and then don't pay it back - but
unless the OP says they were overdrawn at any time, that's not the case here. 

The account was never overdrawn and I have the account's only statement to demonstrate this:

Bridlington1

Well I've just telephoned Barclays to find out why nobody has rung me as promised and was told that the last note on their system was saying that I must go to the credit reference agencies with the final response letter and get them to remove the default, so it appears they weren't going to ring me anyway.

Needless to say I shall now take the matter to the FOS and ICO.

cymruchris

Bridlington1 said:

Well I've just telephoned Barclays to find out why nobody has rung me as promised and was told that the last note on their system was saying that I must go to the credit reference agencies with the final response letter and get them to remove the default, so it appears they weren't going to ring me anyway.

Needless to say I shall now take the matter to the FOS and ICO.

You've put a lot of time and effort into this which shouldn't have been needed, and the costs that Barclays are incurring through all of your interaction for a straightforward mistake that needs correcting are mounting. In the grand scheme of the business for them, it's next to nothing, but it all adds up and hits the bottom line. They close branches to cut costs, yet carry on doing things like this that ultimately cost them £££'s and customers which in turn end up on forums like these showing them in a negative light. Good luck with the next bit - and please do come back and update us as to how you're getting on.