LycaMobile - Unlawful Default Registration

KnightRS

Hi everyone,

I am hoping someone can help with a serious credit file issue involving Lycamobile. They added a default to my wife's Experian credit report without any warning or notification and we only discovered it recently when it caused a mortgage application to be rejected.

The Beginning: October - December 2023

• Ordered two Lycamobile pay monthly plans (23 October 2023)
• Porting issues, overcharging, direct debit problems, and unauthorised termination of my service
• Sent formal complaint letter to Lycamobile (22 December 2023)

This was not resolved through formal complaints to Lycamobile and therefore we were forced to escalate the matter through CEDR.

The CEDR Process: March - October 2024

• Filed a dispute through CEDR CISAS (30 March 2024)
• Lycamobile repeatedly offered settlement, stating they had waived off the bills
• Lycamobile eventually offered GBP 100 compensation and confirmed all bills were waived
• CEDR closed the case as settled (3 October 2024)

At no point during this entire process was I told about any default on my credit file

The Discovery: May 2026

• Applied for a mortgage and was rejected
• Checked the wife's credit report and discovered Lycamobile had registered a default
• The default was registered on the file without any prior notification or default notice

We have never received any letter, email, or text warning us about a default.

Actions Taken Since Discovery

• Emailed CEDR to reopen the case, explaining the default issue
• Sent a new formal complaint to Lycamobile about the unlawful default
• Lycamobile has not progressed the matter or provided a substantive response
• Sent a Letter Before Action to Lycamobile giving them 14 days to respond
• Contacted Experian who have added a Notice of Dispute to the credit file
• Filed a complaint with the ICO regarding the inaccurate data processing

The Key Question

Our original dispute through CEDR was about billing issues. Through the CEDR process, Lycamobile confirmed they had waived off the bills and accepted there was nothing owed. So why was a default ever registered on the file in the first place and why were we never given any notice about it?

The further frustrating point is that we regularly checked our credit reports through credit report agencies, but this default was ONLY registered on Experian and therefore we never knew about it until our mortgage was rejected recently.

This is causing a huge amount of stress, especially because we were in a really good position to buy a house with interest rates generally being low and the housing market currently in our favour.

Any tips or experiences with situations like this would be greatly appreciated - I'm not sure if there is anything else I can do other than what I have already done so far.

Ayr_Rage

If you regularly checked your reports then why didn't you notice that one of the biggest, Experian, had a default from LycaMobile?

When exactly was the default placed on the file?

The default may not actually be illegal.

Nasqueron

The default was wrong and they should offer further compensation but this is not remotely unlawful

sourcrates

The provision of a mobile phone service is governed by the contract you agree too by use of said service, these are usually governed primarily by the consumer rights act 2015 and the communications act 2003.

Unlike credit cards and loans, which are mostly governed by the consumer credit act, and which requires the issuing of a default notice before an agreement can be terminated, that is not always the case with mobile service agreements.

The terms of your service agreement will be in the contract you agreed too, but as you don`t generally get a copy of that these days, you would have to request one to see exactly what specific terms were included.

I would say you have done all you can do by re-opening your original complaint, some mobile service providers have a long history of bad communication, terrible customer service, and issuing of defaults under dubious circumstances.