Utility destroyed my credit rating

QrizB

leyle88 said:

Im with edf for a few years now and pay the bill when I recieve it via post. 

Unrelated to the late payments, you've also been paying 6-8% more for your energy by paying on receipt of bill.

A switch to paying by direct debit would see you save this money as well as never missing another payment.

MEM62

leyle88 said:

I never agreed to them to make report to CRA. What can I do if I never agreed ?

I do not believe that your agreement is required.  

However, if you feel the information reported is incorrect and they refuse to amend it you can complain to the ICO.  If you have never been late with payments have they explained to you why they believe you have - i.e. statements, account history etc etc......? 

superbigal

So you did not make any payments in those 2 months ?    The bills will have been issued.   Will not be difficult for them to prove.

Nasqueron

To be clear, you only pay the monthly bill (that you know is due every month) when you receive the bill - I guess you mean physically in the post rather than electronically on the account? Doing it that way is a big gamble as the post can be lost or delayed, so you could well have paid late and they are correctly reporting it.

If you must pay it manually every month then get the bill on your account online but it's far better to have a direct debit so if it fails (other than for lack of funds) then you have the guarantee to back you up.

Firms don't need your permission to update your credit record, else people would just refuse it for firms they run debts up with to avoid any consequences. Your credit record is meant to be an accurate representation of your credit history which, if you did pay late because of waiting for the bill, is indeed accurate.

If your bill was issued say the 6th, delivered ideally by the 8th and due by say the 15th and you paid on the 14th even if you got the letter on the 13th that would be worth a complaint but if you got the bill on the 15th and went up to pay via the PO and it took a day or two to reach their account it would be correct you paid late.

ProcessMatters

This is unfortunately quite common with utilities and it isn’t really about fairness or whether you signed a contract.

Credit reference agencies don’t decide what’s “right” — they just repeat what a company reports. When they say “the details match”, it only means the company is being consistent, not that the data is correct.

Paying when a bill arrives or arguing consent usually doesn’t fix this. What does help is forcing the utility to show how they decided you were liable and why they marked payments as late — usually via a formal Subject Access Request.

There’s a clear, plain-English explanation on the site call explain my bill and debt 

Nasqueron

ProcessMatters said:

This is unfortunately quite common with utilities and it isn’t really about fairness or whether you signed a contract.

Credit reference agencies don’t decide what’s “right” — they just repeat what a company reports. When they say “the details match”, it only means the company is being consistent, not that the data is correct.

Paying when a bill arrives or arguing consent usually doesn’t fix this. What does help is forcing the utility to show how they decided you were liable and why they marked payments as late — usually via a formal Subject Access Request.

There’s a clear, plain-English explanation on the site call explain my bill and debt 

The payments were marked late because OP only pays when they get a physical bill in the post, meaning if it's delayed or doesn't arrive because RM lost it, then they don't pay and are correctly marked as unpaid. Sending a SAR is pointless, a letter is deemed delivered 2 days after being sent first class, you have to prove you didn't get it which is almost impossible