Do defaults fall off a year ‘to the day’ or weeks later?

Scammie

Firstly, want to thank Sourcrates and many others for their advice. I have lurked on this forum and been reassured many times over the years . I’m now out of my DMP and have either settled my debts with full and final payments or hope to do shortly, (others cannot produce a CCA, which I didn’t expect, so encourage everyone to make that request!)

Anyway, my last default falls off 29 Jan. I have found a new build house and the builder wants contracts signed within 8 weeks of agreeing. So I would need to be applying for a mortgage at the very start of Feb.

I don’t want to go ahead if I can’t make that deadline in case it’s too early to apply for a mortgage (if my credit file hasn’t updated) But I’m also afraid I could lose the house.

I need to know exactly how long a bank can see that last default. Does it fall off 6 years to the day of default or weeks later? I read that it can take a month for the credit agencies to ‘purge’ their systems? Is it possible that a mortgage company can see something in the credit file for a few weeks longer, even if I can’t see it on my credit report?

MattMattMattUK

Scammie said:

Firstly, want to thank Sourcrates and many others for their advice. I have lurked on this forum and been reassured many times over the years . I’m now out of my DMP and have either settled my debts with full and final payments or hope to do shortly, (others cannot produce a CCA, which I didn’t expect, so encourage everyone to make that request!)

Anyway, my last default falls off 29 Jan. I have found a new build house and the builder wants contracts signed within 8 weeks of agreeing. So I would need to be applying for a mortgage at the very start of Feb.

I don’t want to go ahead if I can’t make that deadline in case it’s too early to apply for a mortgage (if my credit file hasn’t updated) But I’m also afraid I could lose the house.

I need to know exactly how long a bank can see that last default. Does it fall off 6 years to the day of default or weeks later? I read that it can take a month for the credit agencies to ‘purge’ their systems? Is it possible that a mortgage company can see something in the credit file for a few weeks longer, even if I can’t see it on my credit report?

So a few things, the first is that what you see vs the real time data is different, in reality none of us can tell you for sure if it is exactly to the day or not. Also any banking group you had the defaults on will keep them on record forever, so that will still be accounted for. 

However the key thing to think about is a default from six years ago is likely to make little if any difference to a mortgage application. Have you spoken to a broker yet as any good broker will be able to advise you of options, but I doubt six year old defaults are going to matter. Your issue is going to be the recently settled DMP depending on what that has left on your credit report, but again, a good broker will be able to advise you and I strongly recommend you speak to one rathe than applying directly with a lender. 

Scammie

MattMattMattUK said:

Scammie said:

Firstly, want to thank Sourcrates and many others for their advice. I have lurked on this forum and been reassured many times over the years . I’m now out of my DMP and have either settled my debts with full and final payments or hope to do shortly, (others cannot produce a CCA, which I didn’t expect, so encourage everyone to make that request!)

Anyway, my last default falls off 29 Jan. I have found a new build house and the builder wants contracts signed within 8 weeks of agreeing. So I would need to be applying for a mortgage at the very start of Feb.

I don’t want to go ahead if I can’t make that deadline in case it’s too early to apply for a mortgage (if my credit file hasn’t updated) But I’m also afraid I could lose the house.

I need to know exactly how long a bank can see that last default. Does it fall off 6 years to the day of default or weeks later? I read that it can take a month for the credit agencies to ‘purge’ their systems? Is it possible that a mortgage company can see something in the credit file for a few weeks longer, even if I can’t see it on my credit report?

So a few things, the first is that what you see vs the real time data is different, in reality none of us can tell you for sure if it is exactly to the day or not. Also any banking group you had the defaults on will keep them on record forever, so that will still be accounted for. 

However the key thing to think about is a default from six years ago is likely to make little if any difference to a mortgage application. Have you spoken to a broker yet as any good broker will be able to advise you of options, but I doubt six year old defaults are going to matter. Your issue is going to be the recently settled DMP depending on what that has left on your credit report, but again, a good broker will be able to advise you and I strongly recommend you speak to one rathe than applying directly with a lender. 

Yes, I won’t be applying to any of my previous lenders for sure! I was always under the impression that if I waited until all the defaults were off my credit report, I would be able to get much more advantageous mortgage rates.  So that’s why I was keen to wait until 29 Jan had passed. 

I was thinking of speaking to a broker, but I have had so many debts from all over that I’m quite limited as to which banks I can apply to . For example, Santander, Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Barclays,M and S. So don’t know if there’s much point. Plus it’s highly embarrassing to admit to the debts 

MattMattMattUK

Scammie said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Scammie said:

Firstly, want to thank Sourcrates and many others for their advice. I have lurked on this forum and been reassured many times over the years . I’m now out of my DMP and have either settled my debts with full and final payments or hope to do shortly, (others cannot produce a CCA, which I didn’t expect, so encourage everyone to make that request!)

Anyway, my last default falls off 29 Jan. I have found a new build house and the builder wants contracts signed within 8 weeks of agreeing. So I would need to be applying for a mortgage at the very start of Feb.

I don’t want to go ahead if I can’t make that deadline in case it’s too early to apply for a mortgage (if my credit file hasn’t updated) But I’m also afraid I could lose the house.

I need to know exactly how long a bank can see that last default. Does it fall off 6 years to the day of default or weeks later? I read that it can take a month for the credit agencies to ‘purge’ their systems? Is it possible that a mortgage company can see something in the credit file for a few weeks longer, even if I can’t see it on my credit report?

So a few things, the first is that what you see vs the real time data is different, in reality none of us can tell you for sure if it is exactly to the day or not. Also any banking group you had the defaults on will keep them on record forever, so that will still be accounted for. 

However the key thing to think about is a default from six years ago is likely to make little if any difference to a mortgage application. Have you spoken to a broker yet as any good broker will be able to advise you of options, but I doubt six year old defaults are going to matter. Your issue is going to be the recently settled DMP depending on what that has left on your credit report, but again, a good broker will be able to advise you and I strongly recommend you speak to one rathe than applying directly with a lender. 

Yes, I won’t be applying to any of my previous lenders for sure! I was always under the impression that if I waited until all the defaults were off my credit report, I would be able to get much more advantageous mortgage rates.  So that’s why I was keen to wait until 29 Jan had passed. 

It may have an impact, it may not because it is so old, a broker will be able to tell you for sure.

Scammie said:

I was thinking of speaking to a broker, but I have had so many debts from all over that I’m quite limited as to which banks I can apply to . For example, Santander, Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Barclays,M and S. So don’t know if there’s much point.

A broker will be able to help you navigate that process, they will have access to all the lenders so can what options are, they will know what different lender's reactions to DMPs are, you might even find that one of those lenders does not care about previous default as long as they are older than X years etc. A lender will make the process a lot easier and will also probably be able to get you a better rate.

Scammie said:
Plus it’s highly embarrassing to admit to the debts 

You might feel it is, but a broker is a professional and they will have seen people whose finances are vastly worse than yours, they will not care about what you did before apart from how it factors into getting you the best mortgage available. 

voluted

It's to the day, but you'd only be able to see that with a real-time view of your credit report.

stewartwilliams

I've two CCJs that were due to drop off on the 7th Jan.  Still showing on my Transunion report, although that was generated on the 3rd Jan.
Next update is in 2 days, so hopefully they'll be gone then.
(Last one wasn't showing 5 days after the 6yr date).

Real time updates I'm not bothered about to be honest.
Some reports automatcally update every 30 days, others every week.
Probably no point in paying anything for the sake of a few days.

That said, some things can take weeks to come off your reports.

Nasqueron

stewartwilliams said:

I've two CCJs that were due to drop off on the 7th Jan.  Still showing on my Transunion report, although that was generated on the 3rd Jan.
Next update is in 2 days, so hopefully they'll be gone then.
(Last one wasn't showing 5 days after the 6yr date).

Real time updates I'm not bothered about to be honest.
Some reports automatcally update every 30 days, others every week.
Probably no point in paying anything for the sake of a few days.

That said, some things can take weeks to come off your reports.

The live report (the one firms see) will show this, the free ones refresh less often but lenders don't check these