Lowell - Offering settlement to mark as closed on credit file?

wood_for_the_trees

Hi - I had some wonderful advice here a couple of years back, and I'm hoping for some help figuring  out best steps forward again. 

Back pre-pandemic, I had defaulted debts totalling about £9000 across 4 collection companies. 2 of those companies agreed to close and write off my remaining debts around 2022 after my advisor submitted a DMHEF (medical evidence form), and one accepted a discounted full and final settlement a year ago. These all show as zeroed/settled on my credit file.

Lowell has been a bit more awkward. They also closed (definitely not paused/froze) my account after we submitted medical evidence and confirmed they would make no further efforts to collect, but have kept reporting it to Transunion as open and with a balance of £2991. When I've queried this with them, they've said something along the lines that "your account was closed as a gesture of goodwill but that does not mean the debt is not valid or owed', but have continued not to seek repayment. 

I'd be mostly happy to leave it there and let it drop off my file next year. However, I've just received a moderately sized inheritance, and the chance to buy the flat I'm currently renting (or else move out pronto, basically), so I may need a mortgage before the default drops off, and I'm worried that Lowell have left me in a weird limbo where it looks like I have more live debt than I do in practice. 

So - is it worth me writing to Lowell and offering some of the £3k to get them to properly mark it as settled,  so that a mortgage assessor would understand it? I can't really cover the whole £3k without eating into my deposit, etc - are they likely to go for the offer, or am I just flagging that my circumstances have changed? 

Or am I overthinking the whole thing (equally likely)?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

fatbelly

I would not be in a rush to offer Lowell anything.

Is it marked defaulted in 2020?

I would just let that drop off your file and ignore their letters

One ancient default and 3k of debts not a big deal. Money is better in your pocket than theirs

wood_for_the_trees

Sorry - to clarify - they're not sending me any letters. They're not attempting to contact me or collect at all, and to all intents and purposes they've written off everything I owed - they're just being a pain in the !!!!!! by refusing to report that fact on my credit file. 

I wouldn't care, but I'll be going for a mortgage before the default expires, and so any credit check still shows that I owe £3k that I don't - that's the concern. 

MeadowsVale

As already advised by others, I would just ignore Lowell and wait for the default to drop off your file next year. Why pay them nearly 3K when it really won't make much difference.

Find a decent mortgage broker that has knowledge of finding mortgages for people with old defaults etc and you'll probably be ok. It's really NOT that hard to get a mortgage these days unlike what some would make it out to be.