Hello! Just wanted to check this out. Husband has loan with A&L & for first time ever, did not take out payment insurance. In 2005, out of the blue, husband was rushed into hospital for emergency op - no previous illness & totally unexpected. Following a further op, eventually went back to work 13 months later. During this period he had an arrangement with A&L to make reduced monthly payments which he made religiously. On returning to work he resumed normal payments with an arrangement to pay an extra amount each month to pay off the arrears accrued whilst paying the reduced payments. Again, he has paid this as agreed, every month on the dot. In the meantime, his credit card co. slashed his credit limit, his bank will not give him an overdraft - despite having had one for the last 25 years! - & we cannot even take advantage of special offers with cable tv which would reduce the amount we currently pay! All have said they can't do anything because of credit ref. so got copy of credit report & despite paying A&L as agreed, they have 'black listed' him. This seems very harsh considering the circumstances. If I borrowed money to pay off the amount of arrears remaining, would this then be removed from his credit rating? Or will it stay there for a certain period? He has always paid everything properly until this episode & it seems unfair that he is now penalised so much for an unexpected but genuine health problem which he has now completely recovered from. Any advice?

There is no such thing as a 'black list'

What exactly is on the credit file?

What do you mean by "black listed" him? Have A&L put a default on his CR file? or have they marked it as "reduced payments"?

Barracad is quite right - there is no such thing as a 'blacklist - your OHs cred ref file is simply a factual history of his credit agreements; any missed or reduced payments will be shown and A & L may still have issued a defsault notice as even with agreed reduced payments he would still have been in breach of the original agreement he signed.

Any adverse credit stays on his file for 6 years and only false or inaccurate information can be removed ( be wary of 'credit repair' companies who offer to remove defaults etc ).

It is possible to add a Notice of Correction to the file but there are differing opinions as to how weffective this actually is - it's a statement of up to 200 words which you can add to your cred ref file to explain a particular entry ( e.g. your OH could detail why he fell behind 7 the fact he kept up with the arrangement since 7 is now paying in full plus arrears ).

The idea ( I think ) is that while a computer is usually used by lenders to scan cred ref files they cna'tdo this with a Notice of Correction so any application would be looked at by a person. As I mentioned above there are different viewpoints as to how much this happens in practice but I'm not here to give an opinion on this just the facts!

Best of luck

Hello again! Thank you for your very helpful reply, Powelll, & sorry for not having replied sooner. I will be looking into things further & will have a think about whether to add a 'Notice of Correction'. Kind regards & thanks again.

There is no such thing as a 'black list'

 

What exactly is on the credit file?

Are you sure? I am fairly certain properties (but not people) can be blacklisted - I've encountered this at least three times. It's possible the address has been blacklisted.