Best Lowell Strategy

Secretk

My name is K and I’m 30 years old. At 18 I got my first full time job and was given credit cards and loans, by 19 I defaulted all of them and ruined my credit so I stopped caring about credit for many years after countless CCJ’s. 

Fast forward to last year after many years of having no credit available, I realised the CCJ’s were all gone and I might have a shot at sorting out my credit. 

There are 3 blemishes on my credit file that remain:

- £251 credit card default from July ‘23 now owned by Lowell

- £105 telecoms default from March ‘20 now owned by Lowell

- £193 insurance default from November ‘22 owned by Admiral

I have enough money aside to pay these off in full but would like to know if there is anyway to have the companies remove the reported defaults from my file or if I should just accept it and pay up. 

It should also be noted that Lowell have sent letters for years and the last one I opened also noted additional debts that I assume to be much older, will paying up on the ones showing on my credit file make them chase me for the rest?

I care about doing whatever will make my credit look best and appreciate any guidance

fatbelly

It's quite likely that Lowell own some of the ones that went to ccj but as you've found out, not all ccjs get enforced and if they are now more than 6 years old they would need permission from the court.

Do you need a clean credit file? Thinking of applying for a mortgage? 

Secretk

fatbelly said:

It's quite likely that Lowell own some of the ones that went to ccj but as you've found out, not all ccjs get enforced and if they are now more than 6 years old they would need permission from the court.

Do you need a clean credit file? Thinking of applying for a mortgage? 

I’m currently trying to dig out the old letter and see exactly what else they’re claiming. 

Yes I have recently been looking at mortgages and whilst I have been able to find offers, my interest rate is a bit crap due to these bringing my credit down by reporting every month that the default is still unsatisfied, so if there is a way to have them pulled off it would be great. 

If there isn’t a way to achieve that though then I’d like to just pay it off so time can start the healing process

sourcrates

You can`t get defaults removed, as they are a simple statement of fact.

They stay on your credit file for 6 years regardless of what happens to the actual debt.

The older they are, the less effect they will have on you, but for a mortgage application, you may have to wait until time heals your file for you.

Secretk

sourcrates said:

You can`t get defaults removed, as they are a simple statement of fact.

They stay on your credit file for 6 years regardless of what happens to the actual debt.

The older they are, the less effect they will have on you, but for a mortgage application, you may have to wait until time heals your file for you.

This was my understanding, however, every month Lowell are reporting the debt as unsatisfied and it looks as though there is an additional default date which I assume to be the day they bought the debt. 

I guess I’m trying to determine if I can go down the route of doing a “prove it” and seeing if I get anywhere or if I should not bother wasting months messaging them and just pay up the debts showing on my credit.

What do you think?

sourcrates

The date of default should not change, it should be the date the original creditor reported it as being, an account only defaults once, that default will be reported on a monthly update until 6 years expire and the whole lot drops off your file regardless of what you do.

If the date of default is way out, then make a complaint by all means.