Advice on credit repair please !!!

ali82

Hi, I am new to this site and need some help!

I have recently graduated from uni and now really need to sort out my financial situation.

During my last year at uni I was really struggling for money, I was working part time bringing home £200 per month and had my student loan of £3000 per year (£1000 per term), but whenever I got an instalment it went just like that due to me having to pay bills that I had missed payments for before and this left me again with no money. I didn't waste my money like other people my age do (23), and even started selling items I no longer used on ebay to raise some extra money.

Basically I was always missing payments and went over o/d limits a few times and have now really messed up my credit rating, last year it was 'good' now I think its more like 'poor'. I was also sent about 2 or 3 default notices (I didn't know how serious they were at the time but now I do) but I paid the amount they asked for by the time they asked for it (how will this affect me).

I know that I have to now just pay my repayments on time and stay within my credit limit but how long do you think this could take as I would like to get sorted so I can eventually buy a place of my own once I have saved enough money.

Any constructive advice would be much appreciated!

Joe_Bloggs

Somewhere I read that the average age of a first time buyer was 34 so don't beat yourself up. The debts with the student loan company will look after themselves.I think they can take money from your bank account so beware more overdraft charges.
Specify your debts your income and outgoings and come up with a budget. Come up with a career plan to make the most of your talents. Stick with this site. More people in or just out of your situation will offer advice.
J_B.

peawack

Hello Ali,
First thing, don't panic ! I have recently come back from the edge of a financial abyss, and I know how you feel. When you are under that kind of pressure you start to think irrationally, and the feeling is that it will never get better, but it does !
My first step was to save a small amount each week with my local Credit Union. After a few weeks I borrowed twice the amount I had saved with them and kept it as a fall-back fundfor when I struggled to pay a bill on time. If you don't miss your bills you won't be penalised any further and you can only go up from there ! The credit Union will not demand quick and expensive re-payments if you tell them you want to spread the payments. You can carryon paying in to the C U while you repay so you are soon ready to borrow your money back again to put to some prudent purpose. And so it goes on...
Good luck

mattp_3

Hi,

Information will remain on your credit file for 6 YEARS - this applies to default notices and missed payments - so you need to ensure you keep up those repayments as best as possible.

Once you have settled a debt, then write to the company and get them to close the account and inform the credit reference agencies, otherwise the information could stay on your credit file even longer.

file_wizzard

R.e the Default notices, firstly you need confirm if these are actually logged with the credit reference agency’s, or were just internal notices sent out by the bank / lender to scare you into paying ! , get hold of all of your credit files from the main 3 agency’s this will tell you if they were actually logged or not.

If the defaults have been registered with the agency’s to try get these marked as satisfied by paying them off, or even better still removed, until you do this you will have little or no chance of obtain further credit, especialy a mortgage.

You say you recall receiving the default notice? What did it say? Was it in compliance with the recommendations of the Consumer credit act?

i.e did it state exactly how much was owed and why? Did it explain to you in plain English what you needed to do to resolve the situation?, If it didn’t comply to these points you may well have a good case to request that it is removed from your credit files and hence wont cause you a problem anymore !

Contact the companies concerned and request that the provide a “data copy” of the notice, NOTE: this is NOT a statement of account, or a letter just saying how much you did / do owe them! It should be a copy of the original default or termination notice.

If they can not provide this they must by law remove the default notice from your files, if they refuse to respond, or exceed the 28 day response time write to the credit reference agency’s and log a data dispute, they will then investigate the validity of the data and if appropriate remove it on you behalf.

If none of this works there is a 3rd option to force removal, but wont go into details right now!!

Hope the above helps, if you need any further info feel free to ask

ali82

At the top of the letter is said served under section 87 of the consmer credit act 1974

The letter said (in the middle section)
"if the action required by this notice is taken before the date shown no further enforcement action will be taken in respect of the breach"

As the amount was only for a small amount I paid it before the date shown so does this mean that it has not been logged on my file? I will get the copies of my file but i think they were not logged and were sent out to scare me into paying.

I am now paying my bills on time, how long do you think it could take to get my rating back to what it was 1 year ago (good, or better than what i think its at now-poor) 6 months, 1 year, 6years?! I was too worried before to find out for sure but now i need to sort it out.

Thanks, Alison )