Old debt advice please!

Joshyplops

Hi all, I’m looking for some advice please about a very specific situation I’m in in regards to a debt. I’d really appreciate any help or advice from anyone who knows the answer or has been in the same situation.

I took out car finance in 2015 with a company called moneybarn. I returned the car in 2017 almost at the half way point and was left with a debt of almost £4000 as a result.

 Since this, I didn’t make any other payment. I was actually never chased for payment from them either. 

I believe due to the time that has passed that it is statute barred.. however this is where it starts to get complicated: the debt is listed on my credit report as U. There are no missed payments listed and no default marker.

I complained to them recently and said I thought they should’ve added a default when I first handed the car back and stopped making payments. (I did this because after 6 years believed the debt would “drop off” my credit report)

 They disagreed and so I forwarded it to the financial ombudsman. After initially agreeing with me they changed their mind and then sided with the company.

So now I have this debt that is almost 7 years old on my credit report still.

 My question is - with it listed as U (and updated every month by the company) will this debt ever drop off from my report or will it stay there forever? What can I do?

 Thank you so much in advance for reading.

stu12345_2

U is unclassified, meant the creditor hasn't updated it , it is neither a good or bad thing.

but it will stay there, 

here is how long things should stay on report.

fatbelly

Have you exhausted the process with the FOS?

If so, they will have to start a court claim. It could be interesting. This is the sort of case that the courts were warned about when they made their decision about the default being the cause of action.

The response at that time was that customers are protected by the Unfair Relationship provisions. But that's a difficult argument

sourcrates

Or a more likely scenario is they will sell the debt to a bottom feeder debt purchasing company who will try to extract the money from you by lies and intimidation.

If that happens to be the case, please post back for advice on how to deal with them.