Trapped by Virgin Money and credit file lies

projectreset

LivingOnCredit said:

Isthisforreal99 said:

LivingOnCredit said:

Isthisforreal99 said:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Virgin have done nothing wrong here, they are obliged to report the facts and the facts are you did miss payments and are in arrears. The alternative would have been an arrangement to pay marker which is equally damaging to your credit rating.

Think you need to speak to one of the debt charities to explore options.

I think I'll have to. It's so deeply depressing that, by marking my file this way, they are pushing me into bankruptcy or IVA. If they stopped marking my file, I could restructure my finances, remortgage and get back in order. But with almost 12 months of "unpaid" on my file, I'm trapped. Makes me wonder if it would've been better for me to have gone bankrupt ages ago and kept my salary instead of paying it to Virgin!

They have to mark your file that way, what you have paid since you missed the payment is going to those missed months and so you are constantly in arrears. In retrospect you possibly should have defaulted and not paid and used that money for the mortgage which is your priority debt. 

As a homeownwr you need to be careful when considering bankruptcy. Is there any equity in that matter.

Yeah, loads of equity in the house - over £200k. Somehow, that doesn't seem to factor with the lenders. They seem far more concerned about the 11 months of "unpaid" on my file. And I now have a considerable salary but it goes out every month servicing debt. I have kids and it's our only home, so I don't think they can touch the house if I go bankrupt. But of course I won't base that decision on an online forum (no matter how well informed you all are!).

I would echo the advice of others to speak to a debt charity. If you say that your considerable salary is being eaten up by debt repayments though, I think you'll struggle to get another mortgage even if the credit report situation gets under control, as when the lenders do affordability checks and they see your salary being eaten up each month, they won't look on it too favourably. I suspect that you'll need to get the credit report in order, get the arrears paid off, then wait a few months before applying for other mortgages. This does unfortunately leave you in a difficult position with the large monthly mortgage payments. Your best bet to get this down I expect is to speak with Virgin Money and see if they can overlook some of this, as a valued customer, and get you onto another fixed mortgage arrangement.

Let us know how you get on.

ManyWays

Please do post on the DFW board https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

It is likely that a debt management plan (DMP) would be a good option for you now (and it may well be that it would always have been a better option than remortgaging to clear unsecured debt). 

A DMP will NOT prevent you getting another mortgage fix when the current one ends

retiredbanker1

Do a statement of affairs and head off to the Debt Free Board.

Contact one of the free debt charities for advice.

It might be if your debts are unpayable that a DRO might be best - or sell your house to clear the mortgage and if you have enough equity all of your unsecured debts.
Forget what Virgin have put on your credit files - they will not alter them - you need to move on to find a solution.

dumpster_fire2025

Who is the credit bureau who are marking this as "unpaid?" It is typical for a credit bureau to use 0 to mean "up to date", 1 to mean "1 month in arrears" etc.

Even looking at Clearscore and Credit Karma which are more "consumer friendly" interpretations of credit files they don't use the term "unpaid" they use the term "Missed payment."

Either way you won't get out of being shown as having missed payments until you are less than one month in arrears. I understand your interpretation of it and it makes a certain amount of sense, unfortunately so does theirs.

LivingOnCredit

dumpster_fire2025 said:

Who is the credit bureau who are marking this as "unpaid?" It is typical for a credit bureau to use 0 to mean "up to date", 1 to mean "1 month in arrears" etc.

Even looking at Clearscore and Credit Karma which are more "consumer friendly" interpretations of credit files they don't use the term "unpaid" they use the term "Missed payment."

Either way you won't get out of being shown as having missed payments until you are less than one month in arrears. I understand your interpretation of it and it makes a certain amount of sense, unfortunately so does theirs.

You're correct - it's missed payment, not unpaid (my wording). Other reports show a consistent 2-month arrears. Thanks for the advice.

sourcrates

You say you`re struggling to make your mortgage repayments, it would help to know what other debts you have, as your mortgage is a priority debt, if you are paying loans and credit cards instead of your mortgage arrears, then that needs to stop.

Unsecured credit, be they loans or credit cards/catalogue accounts, whatever, are all non priority debts and you should stop paying them if you are behind on your mortgage.

They can wait for payment, the worst a creditor can do is a CCJ at an affordable monthly payment, not paying the mortgage means you could lose your home, and please forget all thoughts of bankruptcy, in your position its the worst thing you could do.

Granted your mind and thoughts are all over the place with this, so you need to take a calm and reasoned approach to it, slow things down, nothing happens quickly in the debt collection world, a statement of affairs posted on debt free wannabe is a good first start.

See you over there.