Default removal.

WindowWasher1

Hi, 

Lendable wrongly issued me a default , they emailed in writing and said they’d compromise and remove within 30 days if I made payment in full which I did. 

It’s now been nearly 3 months and still no progress . I’ve emailed 3 times and keep getting told they’re liaising with their internal teams. 

Can anyone advise next step please, it’s affecting my future plans. 

Thanks. 

MattMattMattUK

WindowWasher1 said:

Hi, 

Lendable wrongly issued me a default , they emailed in writing and said they’d compromise and remove within 30 days if I made payment in full which I did. 

It’s now been nearly 3 months and still no progress . I’ve emailed 3 times and keep getting told they’re liaising with their internal teams. 

Can anyone advise next step please, it’s affecting my future plans. 

Thanks. 

When you say "wrongly issued", why do you think that? If they wrongly mark a default on your credit fault then they are required to correct that, however as you mention they agreed a compromise if you paid within thirty days it sounds like you did have a debt in default. We're you, or were you not in default, or were all your payments fully up to date as per contractual terms?

WindowWasher1

I wasn’t up to date . 

They sent the letter of default notice to a previous address .  The plan was to be up to date before I got issued with a default. 

They issued a default , I complained . They compromised and said they’d remove within 30 days if I made payment outright - which I did. 

MattMattMattUK

WindowWasher1 said:

I wasn’t up to date . 

How not up to date were you? They almost certainly can put a default notice on your credit file though.

WindowWasher1 said:

They sent the letter of default notice to a previous address .  The plan was to be up to date before I got issued with a default. 

You gambled and lost unfortunately. 

WindowWasher1 said:

They issued a default , I complained . They compromised and said they’d remove within 30 days if I made payment outright - which I did. 

Credit file reporting must be factually correct, the report of a default is a fact and so removing it would be a breach of their reporting agreement with the CRA(s), it will not get removed. The customer service person might have said that to get you to pay, or they might have insinuated that they might be able to do something etc. but that does not matter, it will not get removed, the most you will get is an apology for poor customer service. 

WindowWasher1

‘ As a token of my apologies, and in recognition of the error which has occurred, I have requested for the default to be removed and have it only reported as in sustained arrears during this period. Once your short settlement figure has been paid, we will remove the default in line with the request within 30 working days of when the balance was repaid. ‘ 

there’s no insinuation on the above - they’ve confirmed they’ll remove the default. 

How can they get away with that ? 

MattMattMattUK

WindowWasher1 said:

‘ As a token of my apologies, and in recognition of the error which has occurred, I have requested for the default to be removed and have it only reported as in sustained arrears during this period. Once your short settlement figure has been paid, we will remove the default in line with the request within 30 working days of when the balance was repaid. ‘ 

there’s no insinuation on the above - they’ve confirmed they’ll remove the default. 

How can they get away with that ? 

It is unfortunately a customer service issue, but they will almost certainly say that it cannot be removed as it is a factual record.

It is not really about getting away with it, you defaulted on your contractual payments, therefore they are correct to report it. Now they should not have promised to remove it if you paid, the reality is that they should have said that you needed to pay, but the default would remain. 

WindowWasher1

I was in communication about a settlement hence not paying . If I’d received a notice and knew a default was incoming I’d be accountable.  

They’ve acknowledged it’s their error . 

They’ve acknowledged they didn’t sent the default notice to to correct address . 

They’ve gone back on their promise of removing it. 

It’s a joke and they shouldn’t be able to get away with it. 

MattMattMattUK

WindowWasher1 said:

I was in communication about a settlement hence not paying . If I’d received a notice and knew a default was incoming I’d be accountable.  

They do not have to notify you ahead of placing a default, there is no pre warning "default notice" in the way you think there is, a "default notice" is just a letter to try to get you to pay. You are accountable for not paying as per your contractual terms, that is how the law works.

WindowWasher1 said:

They’ve acknowledged it’s their error . 

They’ve acknowledged they didn’t sent the default notice to to correct address . 

They’ve gone back on their promise of removing it. 

They may have acknowledged the communication error, they may have acknowledged sending a letter to the wrong address, neither of those matter. They have acknowledged a customer service minion saying something that was incorrect, but none of that really matters. The default marker will not get removed, because it is factually correct. 

WindowWasher1 said:

It’s a joke and they shouldn’t be able to get away with it. 

Many people feel the same about those who do not pay their debts on time.

You seem to be ignoring facts and getting overly emotional about this. The reality is you were in default, you failed to pay according to the contract you agreed, that has been factually reported to the CRAs. There may have been some communication issues with the lender, but that is largely an irrelevance as is not the root cause. 

CliveOfIndia

WindowWasher1 said:

They’ve acknowledged it’s their error .

But if you were in fact behind with your repayments, then it's not an error - it's simply a factual record of the events.

WindowWasher1 said:

They’ve acknowledged they didn’t sent the default notice to to correct address .

Did you notify them of the change of address when you moved?

WindowWasher1 said:

They’ve gone back on their promise of removing it. 

As noted by the previous poster, this is undoubtedly poor customer service.  However, if the default was recorded correctly (i.e. you did indeed default), then there is no way they can remove the record from your file.  To do so would render the entire CRA process worthless.

ManyWays

In practice, lenders have a great deal of freedom to remove defaults, whatever the credit reporting guidelines say.

They said in writing what they would do and it was on that basis that you agreed to repay the debt in full (which may have caused you some difficulty?)

I suggest you make a complaint in writing to them (email is best), ask for the default to be removed within a month and for compensation of £50 for your hassle, attach a copy of what you had previously been told and say you will be asking for additional compensation if this has to go to the ombudsman.

MattMattMattUK

ManyWays said:

In practice, lenders have a great deal of freedom to remove defaults, whatever the credit reporting guidelines say.

They said in writing what they would do and it was on that basis that you agreed to repay the debt in full (which may have caused you some difficulty?)

I suggest you make a complaint in writing to them (email is best), ask for the default to be removed within a month and for compensation of £50 for your hassle, attach a copy of what you had previously been told and say you will be asking for additional compensation if this has to go to the ombudsman.

They are not going to remove the default, they have their money, the default is factually correct. By all means waste everyone's time going to the Ombudsman, but the Ombudsman will not state the default marker should be removed and will likely just say that a (non financial) apology should be issued for the communication errors.