Ongoing default

satsuma03

Hello,

My husband had an Argos card back in 2015, he purchased some furniture for our new house on a buy now pay later then obviously (and stupidly) forgot about the pay later part. He isn't very tech savvy and never thinks to check emails. It wasn't intentional to miss the payments but stupid none the less. 

In Feb 2019 the account was in arrears, and it then defaulted in June. By July my husband had set up a repayment plan and (again stupidly) agreed to pay the minimum each month so the debt is still on going. 

Every month since July 2019 a default has been recorded on his credit file despite never missing a repayment since. At no point was it explained to him that a default would be recorded on his file until it was settled in full and had it been I'm sure he would have payed the balance a lot sooner.

Do companies have a duty to explain how repayment plans will affect your credit file going forward? Is there anyway we would be able to have the defaults (other than the initial default) removed as payments have been kept up to date? 

Were coming up to remortgaging and had no idea this was happening! He otherwise has a glowing credit file and never missed any other payment. 

Brie

Any possibility of clearing it before the remortgage, maybe by a few months?  This way it would at least show as having been cleared in full and therefore not an ongoing debt that needs to be considered on top of the mortgage payments.  

MorningcoffeeIV

satsuma03 said:

Is there anyway we would be able to have the defaults (other than the initial default) removed as payments have been kept up to date? 

No. Once defaulted, the account stays defaulted. 

If he can afford to pay it off, he should do so. It's self evident that spinning out the repayment time of a defaulted debt would never look good.

sourcrates

Its not a string of defaults, as you seem to think, an account can default only once.

What you see each month is the account status update, in the UK defaults stay on file for 6 years, regardless of events after the fact, and no matter what payment arrangement is then agreed to.

His default will automatically be removed in July 2025.

It`s all covered in CONC 7.3 FCA Handbook -

CONC 7.3 Treatment of customers in default or arrears (including repossessions): lenders, owners and debt collectors - FCA Handbook

It will also be explained to a lesser extent in the terms and conditions written on the back of the consumer credit agreement he would have signed, or contained within a digital version thereof.