Debt in dispute....late payment markers

barbiedoll · 14 May 2018 at 4:39PM

We’ve been having a long-running battle with Hoist, over an old CC debt, which we’re paying via Stepchange.

They have added interest to the debt, despite it being sold on from Marbles to Hoist. They never acknowledged letters asking them to cease interest charges, especially as they shouldn’t be charging interest (debt was sold on, in full) so we sent a CCA request, which they have never complied with. We carried on paying, despite a letter telling us that the debt was now “in dispute” and that they were suspending collection activity.

3 months ago, we decided to stop paying Hoist, in order to decrease our other debts more quickly. This has resulted in late payment markers on our credit reports, it appears that they never defaulted the original debt, despite having 3 months of “token” (£1) payments which were over 8 years ago. This debt should have been long gone from our credit reports by now, like the others.

What now? I’m going to write to their complaints department, stating that as the debt is in dispute, there should be no LP markers as we are not required to pay until the dispute is settled. How do we get the LP markers removed? Can we do so?

sourcrates · 14 May 2018 at 5:26PM

They can only add interest if the original agreement allows them to do so, and you are not able to check your agreement as they have not complied with your CCA request.

They can however still report to your credit file, despite the dispute, they are separate issues, although it appears this debt should of been defaulted a long time ago.

So essentially they are attempting to find the CCA from the OC, which may take some time.

You should write and make a formal complaint that the account should of been defaulted, tell them when, and if you have no luck after exhausting there complaints process, get the ICO involved.

barbiedoll · 14 May 2018 at 5:42PM

Thanks SC, the CCA request was sent over a year ago! They clearly can’t locate the paperwork but they’re so annoying to deal with. They never acknowledge letters, even when sent as “complaints”

We’ve been disputing the interest charges since the debt was sold on, we’ve just had enough, hence the decision to stop paying.

Our credit files are otherwise clear, despite us still plodding through our DMP, every other creditor stopped interest and charges and our balances are reducing nicely, one of which will be paid off at the end of this month :j (Original balance was actually more than the Hoist one)

Is it worth offering a nice, low F&F? Can we still try to get the default date changed if we do this? It’s taken a lot of hard work get our credit files nice and clean again, I’m not letting them mess it up for us!

sourcrates · 14 May 2018 at 6:09PM

You can do yes, but make sure defaulting and backdating are agreed as part of any deal you may strike.

Debt in dispute....late payment markers

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free