TheDean Vs Telewest

[TheDean]

Hi all,

I am new to the site and all this so be patient with me.
What is my situation? Well, If you're sitting confortably, then I'll begin...

About a month ago I applied for a loan to consolidate 2 credit cards (one with a £1,500 limit and one with a £500 limit - both maxed out).
This loan, and two others were all rejected due to my poor credit score. I had no idea at this point why I had such a poor credit score.
I checked my score through Equifax and was given a score of 259. I was totally shocked...the fact that I was classed as VERY POOR!
I believe this score is almost entirely due to my 'satisfied default' placed by Telewest. This and also I have not been on my electoral register for 3 years :o
And so the battle begins - To clear the default from all CRA's and polish up my credit history! Of course there are still a few late payments on there which are totally fair enough. I actually don't believe that being 3 weeks late on a phone bill actually harms your credit rating that badly.

Which way to go?
Which one of Surley's template's should I use and who should I send it to? Should I be targeting Telewest directly or the three individual CRA's?
I will keep this thread fully updated with all letters (which hopefully you will help me out with?!) and all info sent and recieved from and to Telewest.

Cheers,

TheDean

[TheDean]

Ok,

Letter drafted from Re: Formal notice to desist from processing or disclosing personal subject data - That's the Surly letter whith x's replaced with Telewest.

I have given them 5 working days to respond as per the letter says (with the banking code bit taken out). I'm posting it either tonight at 5pm of Monday morning either way they'll have to be quick sharp about replying

[breadline]

Hi Dean
Sat here at 4am drafting a letter to telewest non compliance of Subject Access Request,
Subject Access Request's dig up lovely dirt i would suggest anyone do them on any company that plays dirty.

Any way Ive also got a satisfied default but what amazes me is i have been a customer for the passed 4 years while its been on there.

But i suggest you analyze your bills carefully, telewest charge ahead of use, so when you want to leave you have to pay ahead and they pay you back, problem is most people leave on bad terms and say no way thats huge amount I'm not paying it, i will pay what i believe i owe, so the remainder ( of which you dont owe) stays on there until the following month, you get a late payment fee as you are disputing the over charge.

Some of the service charges come off next month but your late fee charge stays, this continues for 3 months until they threaten debit collection and by the time the account gets that far, the small amount you believed you owed and so paid has kicked in, your actually debit is cleared and what you are defaulted for is their late payment fees which they applied to your account against an amount that you never realy owed.

Hope that make sense.

BL

[TheDean]

Ok,

SB's big letter sent recorded delivery on Friday evening (they should recieve it today). This then gives them 5 working days to respond.

Also - after reviewing my credit file I notice that they placed the default onto my account after only two months . Presumably I could write to the Information Commissioners Office's office and get him to act on my behalf as his guidelines state that a default should only be placed onto a persons credit file between 3 and 6 months of late payment.

I also never recieved a default notice and I actually think I never signed a contract with Telewest in the first place - If this is true would the account be completely invalid?

[Tinkerbelle]

Originally Posted by TheDean

Presumably I could write to the Information Commissioners Office's office and get him to act on my behalf as his guidelines state that a default should only be placed onto a persons credit file between 3 and 6 months of late payment.

Where have you seen this?
Can you point me in the direction please?
Thanks.

[TheDean]

I read it somewhere here....Why am I talking poo?

[Tinkerbelle]

Originally Posted by TheDean

I read it somewhere here....Why am I talking poo?

I don't know if you are talking poo

I'd just like to see that valuable piece of evidence if it is available.

[pford]

Think you will find it is in this document from the Data Protection Registrar

http://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/...ondefaults.pdf

ye i no its out of date

[Tinkerbelle]

Thanks!

If they haven't bothered to update it then, we go with this one eh!

[TheDean]

that link doesn't seem to work for me....

[TheDean]

Ok all,

After sending SB's big letter Telewest had 5 working days to respond. They have failed to do so. What should I do next? Help really appreciated...

[dayglo]

well, all I can do is offer my thoughts based on my experiences so far in terms of removing defaults.

as a reminder - in august this year I had four settled defaults.

1) London Scottish (DCA) - 6 years is up in 4 weeks
2) Moorcroft (DCA) - 6 years would have been up next January
3) NatWest - placed a default (now satisfied) in 2003
4) Vodafone - placed a default (now satisfied on 2004

I sent the S10 & 12 Notice accompanied with SB's long letter. I received negative responses from all 4.

London Scottish - I'm not going to take any further as it will disappear before court action has run it's course.

Moorcroft - They have removed it following a second round of correspondence (basically turning the SB letter into a LBA) I reckon they only removed it because there was hardly any time of the '6 years' left

now the big 2.

NatWest & Vodafone.

I complained to the Information Commissioners Office - fat lot of good that did, it actually resulted in their new ruling that Section 2 Paragraph 6 applies (although note Section 10 say only paras. 1-4 can apply!)

Forget the Information Commissioners Office - they are not your friends.

I filed 2 x N1s against Vodafone & NatWest.

They both filed defences. NatWest then wrote a letter offering to remove the default. Of course I accepted this and it's gone.

Vodafone have not sent an equivalent letter. I filed an AQ at court today with a cheque for £100.

My learning from this so far?

No-one is likely to remove a default without beginning court proceedings.

File an N1, hand over £150 and keep your fingers crossed.

Telewest have been rubbish at complying with deadlines and court timetables. You may get lucky and they don't defend in time or acknowledge your claim.

That's my experience anyway.

Good luck.

[TheDean]

Thanks for your help Dayglo,

They are yet to respond to my claim, and I believe I gave them 21 days. I will send them a reminder letter tomorrow I think, sent recorded delivery of course! The 21 days will still keep ticking and if they fail to respond in that timeframe what should I do? File an N1? Isn't that £150? Do I get it back if I win or they don't want to go to court?!

[dayglo]

it's £150 to file an N1 non-monetary claim - yes you get it back if you win.

[TheDean]

So in your experience N1's are the way to go? I think I may have to do that then...

[dayglo]

well, there are a small number of firms that have removed defaults following the long letter. The vast majority have not.

In my experience - out of 4 defaults...

1 was removed by issuing N1
1 is going through court - they are refusing to remove it and defending
1 was removed following the letter and several follow up letters (there was only 3 months left of the six years - I think this had more to do with the removal)
1 is still there, 6 years are up on December 2nd

[breadline]

Hi Dean
I cant add much to this im afraid, i havent got that far yet ive been busy with my lads bank stuff.
I have sent a LBA which i think is timed out.
I will not be far behind you when you do this,but the money is what holds alot of people up im sure and teh companies know this.


have a ponder over it all see how you feel, and get it all mapped out in your mind.

So am i right in thinking you are going for a default removal and damages, while adding in that they limited your acess to information to aid you to complete your request out of court as they didnt responde to you S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) and so causing a waste of court time.?

This is what i want to do but i am in desperate need of reading up abou it for the wording, however i log in here and thats it my nights gone

Bl