Default Notice help

[UK_Chris]

Hi all,

 

I'm hoping someone here can help me. Recently I've applied for a few things which required credit checks and have been refused on all of them, even though the most expensive one was a £15 a month phone tariff.

 

To find out what was going on I used checkmyfile to get me my credit reports from all agencies. All came back fine, apart from Equifax. Equifax has a default notice against me from Decenmeber 2005. It's from a student bank account I had with natwest. Apart from this Default in December 2005, and then a settled/satisfied in Jan 2006, there is no other information recorded against this account.

I'm now in the high earner bracket, have no debt, and yet I can't get a £15 phone tariff!

 

In december 2005 (my last year of university) natwest contacted me stating I hadn't been paying into my account regularly enough, and so they were closing down my overdraft. They wouldn't accept any monthly payments and stated my only option was to pay the overdraft off in full, or have the debt sent to debt collectors.

 

There was no way I could pay the debt off, and they wouldn't be reasoned with, so I had to tell them to send my debt to the collection agency.

 

I set up a payment plan with the agency and quickly paid this off.

 

I don't recall getting any default notice or being told I would recieve one.

 

Is there any way I can sort this out? It's seriously affecting my plans, and I'm planning on attempting to get a mortgage in the near future which I have a deposit for.

[Alphageek]

You will need to send a DSAR to NatWest to gather the necessary documentation to determine if they registered the default against your CRA files lawfully.

[UK_Chris]

Hi Alphageek, thanks for the prompt reply!

 

Natwest closed my account in Jan 2006 - when the Satisifed was put against the default. Would they still hold the required information?

If so, would I need to find my account number from that time?

 

Is a DSAR as the note from this thread?:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/190251-subject-access-request-template.html

 

Sorry if these are basic questions, this is all new to me.

[Alphageek]

The account number should be visible to you on checkmyfile and, yes, you will need to quote it when sending your subject access request. The one you linked to is ok with the proviso that if you have moved address since dealing with them, you will need to alter the final paragraph. Send your request via Royal Mail Signed For delivery service and include the fee of £10.00 - when they reply you should have all the info you need to determine if the default was lawful or not.

[UK_Chris]

Sadly, the Default has little information against it in the report:

 

Account holder name: Mr Christopher xxxxxxxx

Date of birth: xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Company type: Bank

Account type: Current Account

Last updated: 18th June 2008

Current balance: Account closed on 07/01/2006

Credit limit: Not Applicable

Opening balance: £0.00

Account start date: 25th September 2002

Regular payment amount: Not Applicable

Number of repayments: Not Applicable

Repayment frequency: Monthly

Worst Status: Default

 

Is this something I should flag up with Equifax?

[Alphageek]

If you can find the account number, you should quote it. They will only write back and tell you they don't have enough information to locate your account. You could try quoting your name, address and the opening and closing dates but I think they would just try to fob you off until you locate the account number.

[UK_Chris]

I'm not sure I have any details from that far back, but I will have a look. I do have all the letters from the collection agency, would they have any record of the account number? If so, would they actually give it up?

[Alphageek]

You could ask them nicely if they could help you.

 

As you have satisfied the debt in their eyes, they just might be amenable and tell you the NatWest acct no.

[UK_Chris]

Thanks for all the help Alpha! I'm going to give them a call today.

 

More more question.

 

I've now recieved my credit score from Experian, Callcredit and Equifax:

 

02-09-2009 Experian 578

02-09-2009 Callcredit 748

02-09-2009 Equifax 498

 

Why are the scores so vastly different? As Equifax has a Default recorded, I can understand why that is so terrible. But Both quifax and Experian, when checking through my history with them, have no recording of my credit history over the past 3-4 years.

Callcredit have, which is why my score is decent with them.

Is there anything I can do to rectify this? It seems a bit crazy that all my credit and payments over the past 3-4 years have been ignored by 2 agencies.

[UK_Chris]

I called the debt collectors regarding the account number, but they couldn't help. They did give me a number and client reference for natwest collections department though and so I called them. And what a hastle!

 

The guy I spoke to was reluctant to give me the information, asking me why I wanted it and what I would do with the documentation when I sent for it.

He also read out what was on their system and none of it made sense.

 

In June 2005 natwest honoured a rent cheque for 1800 even though I was at the limit of my overdraft. Student loans company hadn't paid the money in yet, so I expected it to bounce.

According to them, this resulted in a default notice being sent out. I called them (true), but they say I told them the transaction was fraudulent, and so my account was put on hold for 30 days - this was extended to 90. This was then sent to a debt collectors in July, and my Default in December.

What happened was they honoured a cheque, I called and asked them why they did this - expalined my situation about student loans, and then they gave me some time.

I covered this debt and everything was fine and the debt was not to my knowledge passed on to a collector.

In Dec 05 natwest called me saying I broke my terms and conditions by not paying into my overdraft for a set period, and demanded it back in 30 days, or I took out a manged loan (min £50) repayment, or debt collectors. I went the collector route and paid it off.

So the only record they have of a default was from the June time for an ammount I actually paid off!

I'll write to get all documents, but from that phone conversation, it makes no sese at all.

[UK_Chris]

Sorry to keep bothering you guys.

 

I've now written a SAR but I'm uncertain if I should put a time scale in i.e. please reply within 30 days etc.

 

Is this what should be done?

[avatari]

No, legally they have forty days to respond. It's up to them if they want to take up to this time, you requiring/requesting an earlier timescale will have no effect and won't benefit you in court (should it go that far) should they not respond in your desired timescale.

 

Hopefully they'll come back sooner!

[UK_Chris]

I've finally received the requested documents from Natwest - although the default notice itself hasn't been included.

From reading through the records of contact on their system, it all seems a bit of a mess to be honest, so it would be great if anyone could help me in sorting it out.

 

Here are the relevant enteries from their records:

 

20/04/05 Ad-hoc letter Default Notice MTA Nottingham

 

20/04/05 Ad-hoc letter Cr Ref Letter- Nottingham

 

20/04/05 Review formal demand sent £1972.34

 

24/04/05 Call from customer still having problems with student loans company. Have advised cust of default period, cust to call, states he will be able to borrow outstanding amount.

 

24/06/05 Formal Demand sent

 

27/06/05 ***Important Read*** Customer called to advise that transactions on his account he considers fraud. ACTION TAKEN CUSTOMER TO GET CRIME REF NO, POLICE DETAILS FIVE SPECIMEN SIGNATURES, HIGHLIGHTED TRANSACTIONS SOME FORM OF ID.

 

25/11/05 Other relevant Info no usage on account since September

customer hasn't proviced crime reference number as requested continue with recovery

 

15/12/05 Link to Agent Primary Collect Wescot

 

29/03/07 *** Important Read ***

 

27/05/08 Manual Diary Entry Agents closed F&F paid

 

03/09/09 Explained that defaulted as claimed fraud when received formal demand at CMS June 2005. No response received to his fraud claims and so file went to agents. Customer wants a copy of default notice and fd, exlained unknown if we can copy but will try.

 

As mentioned in my OP, my credit record shows the default applied in Dec 2005, and marked as satisfied in Jan 2006.

 

Heres a bit of background info:

 

On Jan 19 2005 I was within my OD limit (£1500). I hadn't yet received my student loan, and my landlord attempted to cash a cheque for £1,260. Even though I was at my limit, and the bank wouldn't normally honour even £10 over the limit, they actually let the cheque go through. This put me at £2,843.45 OD.

 

By May 12 2005 I was back within my agreed limit (£1497).

 

The calls I made to them did not state I believed fraudulent transactions against my account. I actually questioned why they would honour a cheque of 1200 over my OD limit. THe agreed to give me some time to sort this out - which I did.

 

Later in the year I was told they were sending my account to Wescto because I hadn't used it for 3 months, and so broke my agreement with them.

 

As you can see from the diary of events, they are stating the default was applied due to not providing a crime number. Even though at that point I had paid back the £1200 because my student loan had come in. I didn't even state fraud, I think this is something they did to put a hold on any action.

 

Taking into account the above, is there anything I can do to remove this default?

[UK_Chris]

Does the lack of replies mean I have no hope of clearing this default?

[avatari]

Chris

 

a) CRAs only report what is provided to them by their client financial institutions. None of them are 'ignoring' your recent good credit history: many banks/credit providers etc only report to one or two of the three CRAs, and it may be this is the case with your bank(s). The only way to increase your vsiibility with all the CRAs is to use financial instruments supplied by companies that report to them.

 

b) never say never, but I suspect that you may need to find some way of proving that you never notified fraud if you are to argue this out with Natwest to your satisfaction.

 

The only other option is to find some technicality that would allow you to successfully mount a court action to have the default removed: in your case, I wouldn't have a clue how to proceed but there are many on here who may be able to help - at leat this reply will bump the thread.