Notice of default and notice of default sums

PinballWizard

Hi,

Hope you can help me in specifying exactly what is going on. 

I have some car insurance with Admiral, setup in March. 

I have paid the car insurance successfully monthly, until the next payment due date which was the 04/05 - in which the payment was unsuccessful because I had moved a sum of money to a savings account and as I was distracted as caring for a member of family who had a stroke at the time. My fault. 

Admiral then emailed me on 10/05, with:

Email header: 'Important Information about your policy'

With 'Your Direct Debit instalment of £xx.xx due on 04/05/2024 has not been paid as we no longer have a live instruction to pay by Direct Debit.'

'Any late or missed payment is a breach of your credit agreement and a formal Default notice will be issued on 13/05/2024 in line with s.87(1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 which will formally explain what will happen if you fail to make the payment.'

Still dealing with family member until then, so i registered that I needed to pay:

3 days later the 13/05, i get the default notice email with email header ''Important Information about your policy'

With, this time in the email:

Notice of default and notice of default sums

We refer to your consumer credit agreement ******* relating to an insurance policy with Admiral. Your bank/building society could not pay your Direct Debit instalment of £xx.xx due on 04/05/2024.

We are writing to you to inform you the options available to you. This notice is given in compliance with sections 86E and 87(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

Please contact us to make payment or provide new payment details, you have 14 days from the date of this letter to do this. If you have any questions about your Agreement and/or insurance policy, please call us. 

Default notice – Served under s.87(1) Consumer Credit Act 1974

Well, obviously this frightened me to death and I paid immediately, and reset up the DD. Also, a big fact in this is that I did not cancel the original DD, which is something they did off they're own back. Also there seemed to be no 'Default Sums' either which were 0. I have received the formal Default Notice letters and Default Sums letter in the post today. 

The questions that I have are:

-What exactly goes on my credit file now? I cannot determine if i have a default (surely not after missing 1 payment and paying within the 14 day period)? Or is it just a missed payment. Is there any way to dispute this? What gets registered with the credit agencies?
-This seems very aggressive, and I have no black marks anywhere i.e. missed payments at all either on this or other insurance? From what I read, this sort of thing happens from 3-6 missed payments over a longer period of time - it has basically been 9 days since missed payment to payment and reset DD schedule.
- Also, do I complain, it was they who cancelled the DD schedule? It doesn't seem right, I am getting 'told off' for not having a schedule setup for something they cancelled?

Can you help me determine some answers to this so hopefully subdues a little of my anxiety.

Thanks. 

Nasqueron

A default is typically, but not always, issued after a few missed contractual payments - a good rule of thumb is 3-6 but it's not mandatory. They are doing exactly what they have to do by the book - allowed you a few days to make it, then send notice of default, then allow 2 weeks to make up the payment 

  - however if you paid in the time they quoted, they may just register it as a late payment instead, or not at all.

I don't see what you would complain about - you know you missed the payment because you didn't have the funds available. You could use the family stroke issue for a bit of sympathy but equally it is your responsibility to have funds in the account and you chose to move them out knowing you had DD coming so they have to treat it all properly.