Barclaycard / Egg default - SOLVED

Hi all

I'm posting this in the hope it may help someone else in my situation. I spent two days trawling this forum and it was immensely helpful. Thank you.

I had an egg card from 2004. In 2011 I lost my job and stupidly stopped paying. I was young and very stupid. Last payment to Egg was in November 2011.

Obviously a default was logged and when I got back on my feet I decided to try and pay the debt back. However, in this time Egg had transitioned to Barclays and when I called Barclaycard they had no record of my ever having an account - nothing at all. Over the following six years I repeatedly called but same result.

I knew I stopped paying and the default was issued in Feb 2012 so I resolved to wait until Feb 2018 for it to drop off. Boyfriend and I saved for a house.

When we applied for mortgage, as high earners with two AIPs in place, we were refused. Looked at my credit file and saw Barclaycard has incorrectly reported the default date as December 2012 - 7 months until drop off. Told no lender would touch us for a 95% mortgage with a live default.

What I did was this:

The Indian call centre is respectful and prompt. They just simply don't have access to the right computer systems. It's not their fault, so don't yell at them tempting though it is. They gave me an address to write to and advised it would be 28days to get a response. We'd lose the house in that time. Iasked for a supervisor, who again could find no record of me, and I repeatedly and firmly said I needed to be put through to someone in the UK in the data control department.

Once transferred, I gave them every bit of information I knew down to the date of last payment and all former addresses. He couldn't find me either. But he did say that it was somehow being reported to Experian etc and spoke to his colleague in the reporting dept. From there, she was able to find me.

Then, I had to explain that ICO guidance says default should be reported 3-6months from last payment date and that consent had to be acquired from me (particularly now with GDPR) and could arguably not be considered to exist. She spoke to her manager and they agreed.

Next she said my best bet was for her to put me through to complaints, but the UK arm of complaints (again, nothing to do with call centre, UK has a different system). The guy was brilliant.

Critically for anyone else in this situation - the law has changed. They now have the power to refine default dates and push them back where there is evidence a customer was in financial distress prior to default. In my case, explaining I'd lost my job was enough. He agreed to remove the default from my credit file on the spot and on my request emailed me to confirm this would be done, and when to expect it reflected on my credit file.

It CAN be done. Don't be fobbed off by well meaning but ill-authorised people telling you that you have to write. There are departments who can help but there is no direct number for them and you won't find one. Stay calm (I did cry a bit) and firmly reiterate you need to speak to someone in the UK. Wether we get a mortgage remains to be seen, but at least this is over.

Anyone else in this situation very best of luck.