Ok, I'm getting the idea. I wont hold my breath then.

Oddly enough I've still not received any answer from Vanquis. I've sent a complaint to FOS so I will be hearing something soon - I hope.

Just an update to my situation. I received what looks like a stock "your complaint is being passed to the relevant dept" letter in reply to my formal complaint. I'll update the thread on receipt of their reply. Cheers.

I was also invited by Vanquis, in their reply, to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman should I not be happy with their decision. Should I also contact them or wait to see how Vanquis handle my next letter?

I've just checked my records & the due date of the payment that was late was 21st Feb. The min payment was £22. I sent a payment of £80 which was confirmed as received by Vanquis on 28th Feb which was when I realised my error. A little bit of a hair trigger I'd say. I'm coming to believe this lot are the Ryanair of Credit Card companies. Maybe that's unfair on Ryanair though. I'll send the letter of complaint tomorrow. I just hope it gets to someone who can see how silly this is.

Thanks for the reply. My apologies. Of course late payment markers are not defaults. Bad choice of wording. The letter I received was from a "customer action team representative" who asked me to write back to her if I wanted "clarification" but I will indeed follow your advice & address my reply to the data controller. Thanks again.

Hi all. I never have liked direct debits. I prefer to make payments when it's convenient for me. Unfortunately my system came a bit unstuck a couple of months ago as I realised I was late in making a payment to Vanquis for my credit card bill. I immediately sent 2 months worth of payments but by then it was too late. They had recoreded a late/missed payment on my credit file which saw my already not brilliant credit score plummit even further. I wrote to them explaining that recording this default on my credit file is telling other companies that I may be or about to be in finacial hardship & that was the prime reason for recording a default whereas the reason I was late in making the payment was pure oversight. I pointed out that I've been with them for a number of years, never missed any payments, have received numerous limit rises & have generally been very well behaved. Unfortunately they were unmoved & their reply simply put was that they were entitled to screw with my file & felt that it was the right thing to do. Now, I'm not disputing my late payment & the fact that yes, they are entitle to sabotage my credit file but I really don't think it was the right thing to do at all. I can point out that I received no reminders but that is beside the point. It was my own fault. I can't see how I can convince them to change their minds. I'm more annoyed with myself as I was improving my rating slowly after years of being classed as a bad risk so I guess I'm just venting. I'm now trying to raise enough funds with which to pay off my balance then I won't need to contribute to their profits or deal with them ever again. Rant over

Yes, all 3 accounts were aquired by Link in 2001. I don't recall if I've received discount offers from Link in the past but if that's important I can check that out but if I have said previously that I have then I must have done. I have always grouped the 3 accounts together as that is what Link as always done. I had previously been paying these accounts until I discovered this wonderful site. That may now work against me I guess? In Oct 2010 they sent me LBA's for all 3 swiftly followed by actual court action with just one of them. With the help of some of the members of this site, the case was set-aside which is what Link eventually applied for after some document swapping. now I am left with the 2 accounts that Link's letter is now referring to. I've fended them off for a long time as they've always failed to satisfy my CCA request. These accounts are not listed on any credit reference file & I've never SAR'd any of the accounts. They recently restarted their campaign with what looks like reconstituted agreement. I pointed out that they are not enforceable & now it looks like they're stepping up a gear. If you need further details I will need to dig into my files at home. I'm currently at work & don't finish til tomorrow morning.

Hi Guys. I've been fending off Link for quite some time. I did manage to get one CCJ attempt struck out but they still hold 2 more accounts and they are not giving up without a fight. I had been paying to all 3 accounts until I found this site. They have sent me reconstituted credit agreements for both these accounts & pre contract application forms. Both accounts were from MBNA credit cards. I replied to these efforts by saying that while the reconstituted agreements may have satisfied the CCA request, they were still not enforceable in court. This is their response : We note from our system records that you previously disputed the exact same issue regarding the credit agreements. We had made our position clear in our letter dated xx/xx/xx. We confirmed that the documentation sent was regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. We will not enter further dialogue with you regarding the agreements as we had already issued our final response on the matter. It is nonsensical that you would make payments on an account which is now disputed. Please contact our office with your payment proposals to settle the outstanding balances to avoid any recovery action. Interesting that they are saying that I have more or less accepted they have a valid claim as I have already made payments to them. Do they have a point? Could they use that in any court action? Any thoughts on this matter & a possible course of action would be gratefully appreciated.

Hi all. As I've had many credit problems in the past, one of which resulted in a CCJ, I was only able to get credit cards with high interest rates. I guess I was lucky to get any at all. Now, before long, the balances of all these 4 cards began to grow until it became clear that I needed to do something about it. My CCJ has now dropped of the record because of it's age and I decided to apply to my bank for further lending on my mortgage as I have quite a bit of equity in the property. I was able to secure £6500 from my bank & immediately paid this towards my credit card debt which totalled £10,000. I have now fully paid off 2 of the higher interest cards and have a balance of £3500 shared between the other two. My question is this: If lenders check my credit file they will see that I have borrowed £3500 from a possible £10,000 available. I would obviously prefer to cancel the 2 cards which now have zero balances but if I do so my file will show that I have borrowed £3500 from a possible £5300. Will this look worse as I will be using a bigger percentage of what is available to me? One obvious plus point is that I will be reducing my credit card accounts by two but after years of having a rubbish credit rating I'm very keen to improve this where I can. Apologies if this is posted in the wrong section. I'm very interested in seeing what everyone thinks. Thanks

Great tip. I'll get onto them on monday. All 3 credit angencies show my file to be clean so I need to know where the hell they got their info from.

I've checked all 3 & none of them show a CCJ.

Hi all. I've been looking to pay off my credit card balances & some months ago contacted LloydsTsb to enquire about borrowing against my mortgage as I have plenty of equity in my property. I was told that they would not agree to further lending if I had a CCJ on file which I did. Now that the CCJ was entered over 6 years ago I checked my credit file with 2 CRA's & the CCJ no longer shows on either so I thought I'd try again. I've just been told by one of their operators that they won't help me as their credit check has shown a CCJ on my file. How on earth can this be? I think my file has only been free from the CCJ for a week or so but clean is clean right? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

It looks as if the consent order did the trick as I've just received a letter from the court saying the case has been dismissed with no costs awarded. I'm delighted with this & many thanks to all who took time out to help me. It's much appreciated.

Cheers for the info. Much appreciated.