Punished for DMP

If you're paying less than the contractual amount then you should have been defaulted, with the entry dropping off six years later.

There's a principle that someone who has been making payments should not be more harshly treated than someone who has not paid. If they have just been putting Arrangement to Pay markers on, then you should complain.

The ICO say this

CRA Arrangements to pay - fairness of them registering a default

As stated in the old default guidance, where an arrangement to pay breaks down, a default may be filed when the total value of the arrears is equivalent to three monthly payments under the original terms. However, this should not result in the customer being placed in a worse position than someone who had made no effort to pay whatsoever.

Whether an individual has been left in a worse position or not is something that we will have to consider on a case by case basis. However where we feel that the arrangement to pay has left the individual in a worse position than someone who simply stopped paying, we would normally consider this to be unfair under the first principle and ask the lender to amend the default so that it was the same as if the individual had simply stopped making payments without entering the arrangement to pay.

From what you say, it may well have been better to go bankrupt 4 years ago and accept a 3-year IPA. But you are where you are and you posting this may well be helpful to others.

Hi,

grant1wish wrote: »

I have just come across this via a link added to a recent post on the DFW board.


All of my accounts bar one have been defaulted, all in a similar timeframe meaning they will drop off my file in about 6 months.


HSBC however didn't on my overdraft. They only defaulted the account 3 years ago so this is still on my account until 2021!!


After reading your post can you advise how and who I should make a complaint to. I have contact HSBC multiple times but they will not budge, even though they defaulted the loan and credit card much earlier.

Use the guidance found in the DebtCamel article - What should the default date for a debt be?
https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-default-date/

If it were me, I would make an official complaint in writing to the lender (or DCA if the debt has gone to a DCA). If that doesn't work (after 8 weeks), then complain to the FOS.


Edit: Wait for other members comments as I am not 100% certain...

Hi - Am just quickly reading but I have had exactly the same problem with Barclaycard and Santander. BC did not default me and marked my account as AR and Santander marked my payment up to date but that I was on a DMP. I wrote to both of them as per Debt Camel's advice and in the following terms:-

"Please find attached a copy of my most recent credit report together with a copy of my report dated ...... of which page 12 and 13 refer to the debt with yourselves.

I entered into a Debt Management Plan via Stepchange in ...... which is ongoing and in which all payments are up to date. Having checked my credit report I have noted that you have not defaulted my account in relation to this DMP despite selling my debt on to a debt agency namely ..... who is now collecting payments.

The OCI advises that as a general guide defaults should be recorded between 3 – 6 months after the arrears were first incurred . All my other creditors have defaulted me within 12 months of entering the DMP which has resulted in the correct entries being on my file for the correct amount of time, namely six years, and I would ask that you consider amending my record and recording a default at the correct time on my file and notifying ..... of the same.

Obviously the failure to record the default has an adverse effect on my credit rating as the debt will remain on my credit report now six years from the date that the debt is paid in full ...... which is due to be 2021 and therefore will remain on there until 2027. Had you recorded a default on my account at the correct time the debt would have fallen off my credit report at the correct time in .....

I look forward to hearing from you as to whether you are willing to amend my records and mark the account as if the matter was defaulted at the correct time."

I emailed it to the complaints department and the CEO of each Bank and I got a fairly quick response, my credit file was immediately rectified and it was removed(as the debt was over 6 years old). BC just removed the account altogether (which meant that the DCA they had passed it to could not report on it) and Santander removed the reference to DMP altogether. I also received £500 compensation between them which nicely went towards paying off my debts.

Definitely worth trying to clean up your credit file now. Good luck

Don’t hold out too much hope of HSBC backdating your defaulted overdraft!
They only defaulted ours five years into a six year DMP and when we complained to the FOS they sided with HSBC saying that they had been fair!!