"Settled" on Credit Report

uniteddw

Hello everyone,

I have a question which will take some explaining, so please bear with me!

I had an overdraft with Halifax of £500 in 2005. I moved house in August 2005, and sent a letter to them saying that I was moving. I had every intention of paying this off, but Halifax did not register the change of address (for what ever reason) and I subsequently forgot about it.

I then started writing to all of my creditors to reclaim charges in mid 2007 which released the hounds...

I received a letter from a DCA stating that I owed £702 to Halifax and the debt had been sold to them. I challenged this with Halifax, who were rather forceful in their reply saying that they had sold the debt and any correspondence relating to the account should be directed to the DCA.

I challenged the amount (as it was made up of a lot of new charges that I'd not been informed of - because Halifax didn't have my right address) with the DCA who agreed a partial settlement of £316.

This was agreed to be a full and final settlement of the debt.

I now have a default registered on my credit file because of this, with the word "settled" next to it. All other cleared debts have the word "Satisfied" next to them.

This is the only "smudge" I have on my credit file.

(Still with me?!)

My question is; What can I do to get rid of the default (if anything), and how can I change the "Settled" to a "Satisfied"? Is this even possible?

It's getting to the stage now where I'm willing to pay the difference between the £316 and £702, if this means I have a clean file.

Any help most welcome.

Thanks in advance

Oh, and thanks to everyone for the great advice on this site - I've managed to get all charges back on my credit cards to date totalling over £1000!

~Beanie~

I'm pretty sure you can't get rid of it - you did default after all. Even if you paid the difference it won't change the fact that you had an OD which you didn't pay for 2 years. It will stay on your file for 6 years from the date of default.

**Amy**

Hi

Im no expert but i think you get "settled" when you have a default (as you didnt pay it back etc.) when you finally pay it off. This will stay on there for 6 years.

Im not sure if you could challenge Halifax to get them to take the defaults off as long as you have evidence you told them about your change of address.

Im sure someone more knowledgable will be along soon.

x

Jvic28

I'm not sure of the answer exactly but I do know you will not be able to get rid of the default. It will stay on your record for years even when it shows as satisfied. Not sure why it says settles instead of satisfied. Maybe because you didn't pay the full amount. It worth contacting them and asking them to ammend the information on your credit file to Satisfied.

x

fermi

To be honest, that's not a bad result for your credit file.

They would have been entitled to mark it as partially settled/satisfied if they really felt like it.

fermi

**Amy** wrote: »

Im not sure if you could challenge Halifax to get them to take the defaults off as long as you have evidence you told them about your change of address.

The problem with that is that it was clear that Halifax, for whatever reason, did not register the change of address.

In that case the onus is on you to get back to them and tell them. Instead it was just "forgotten" about.

uniteddw

Thanks everyone. really appreciate the frank and honest answers!

The real pain is that I'm trying to refinance my debts to get lower interest rates - 32% currently on my MBNA credit card, 27% on Cahoot and 23% on Egg...

Because of this default (admittedly, my fault) I'm unable to do this.

Any thoughts on how I can get round this?

Thanks again!

darcyvuqua

did you get the cards after your default was registerd and a default will fall off 6 year from the date it was put on your file not 6 years after you pay it off!

fermi

Experian: Your credit report explained

"A settled account is one which you have made all the necessary payments to and which has been closed. We keep a record of settled accounts for six years from the date they were settled. The status code shown on your credit report against a settled account refers to the period before you settled the account.

Here is an example of an account that has been settled.



An account ‘in default’ is one where you have not been able to keep to the terms of a credit agreement. We keep a record of these accounts for six years from the date the lender decided you had broken the terms of the agreement (the ‘defaulted’ date). The lender will have told you that the account was to be classed as being in default.

The details about that account will show how much money you owed when the agreement was broken and how much money you now owe. It will reflect any payments you have made to the organisation since the agreement was broken. When the account is paid in full, the information will be updated to read ‘Balance Satisfied’."

From: Experian sample report

An example giving an entry that was defaulted and later settled, so marked as satisfied.



So looks like settled is a "result" really.