Hi everyone,

Received a letter from The PRA Group this morning, kindly complying with their "Legal obligations" by sending me a statement of my account with them for the year.

This is an old Barclays Bank debt which defaulted back in 1991! Unfortunately I was made redundant at the time, fell into debt and lost my home.

To be brutally honest, I'd completely put this period behind me and eventually got back into shape. I even have my mortgage and bank account with Barclays now.

What concerns me a bit is a line in the letter threatening a black mark with the CRA's. Is this just a threat as the original debt defaulted and was on my credit report for over 6 years. I understand it's well past the Statute Barred period.

Should I keep the home warm by throwing this letter on the fire?

I've been rejected twice this week when trying to remortgage. Both The Skipton Building Society and NatWest refused because of Payday loans on my credit file. The last one was over 15 months ago.

PDLs are apparently advising that the repayment of a PDL within the contractual period will help your credit rating. This appears to be inaccurate.

 

Main stream lenders are viewing the use of a PDL or short term loan as a negative. That at some point you have , even temporarily, had a financial hiccup.

 

Have you taken out a Pay Day Loan - repaid it within the contractual period and now find that you have been denied mainstream lending at preferential rates, or has your mortgage application failed because in the past 6 years you have needed to find short term borrowing.. fast !

 

Please post a summary of your situation below.

 

Most of the articles I have found, warning of this problem, are from 2012

I read this article and thought it smacked of inaccurate journalism.

Experian can only add credit file information from Payday loan companies if these companies use Experian for credit search purposes and report payment history details to them.

If they are just used for a search, then banks will see someone has applied for a loan but not if it's been granted, as with any other search from any company. Experian holds search data for 12 months as does I believe Equifax, after which it will drop off the report.

Callcredit already reports on Payday loan companies such as Quickquid. Search details are held for 2 years with Callcredit and payment history for 6 years.

The banks are being disingenuous. I've used Quickquid quite a few times over the years and because my history with them is good, pay £7 interest per £50 borrowed. Still quite a lot but the convenience and rapid payment into my account (10 minutes) is worth it.

I acknowledge the problems start if you can't pay back at the end of the month and continually 'roll over' and suggest this is one area where the powers that be could look into regulating.

I've just had a letter this morning from Lowell Portfolio stating they are passing their debt to Fredrickson's for collection. I can't wait as this is the seventh agency that has tried to collect it.

It stems from years ago when I was persuaded on the phone by 3 Mobile to extend my contract at the "incredible rate" of £10 per month as I was a "preferential" customer. No paperwork was issued but when I decided to cancel three months later, they wanted £206 in cancellation fees. Suddenly the special £10 a month was a promotional discounted rate and the full rate would apply as I was cancelling. I tell every collection agency I have no intention of paying, offering £70 (£10 a month for seven months that was remaining on the contract). I want them to sue me in the County Court so I can get this off my plate as avoiding the incessant telephone calls and letters are an annoyance. Aside from caving in and paying, is there no way to stop these creeps? In their eyes, they are right and stuff what anyone else may say.....

I recently received a copy of my credit report from the three major agencies and noticed Welcome Finance had me down as paying the last payment of my loan three months late. The issue happened when the final payment was put in a suspense account and they kept chasing me for it despite being paid. I had to send bank statements and numerous letters before it was corrected.

I contacted Experian and got a letter back saying they had spoken to Welcome who agreed it was an error and their entry was amended to show no late payment.

However, I received a letter from Call Credit today saying after speaking to Welcome, the entry was correct and will stand.

I'm confused. Any ideas what I should do next??

Someone told me Experian should automatically inform the other two agencies of the error. Is that right?

Firstly, there is no subsequent defaults (or should I say there shouldn't be!) you can only default an account once. What company is listed on your credit file for this account, Bank of Scotland, Blair, Oliver and Scott or Westcot. Whichever it is, you need to write to them, with the proof of settlement and ask them to update your credit file.

 

They might update the file with "Partially Settled" considering you only paid about 75% of the balance, but like you say it should drop of the file in July 09 anyway!

I was really interested with your comment (only one default can be issued on an account), and not wishing to hijack this thread, but I have a default for £125 (Halfords/HFC) over charges applied to the account when I moved bank, and it was passed to a DCA who after some correspondence defaulted the account again!! After more correspondence, the original default was removed and the new one issued some 15 months later.....Should I persue it??

I really want to go for unlawful charges from RBS but I have a "One Account" which as you may know combines everything together including the mortgage. Has anyone out there got any experience of how RBS reacts in circumstances like these?

Reading todays Daily Mail (21st March) it suggests unfair fees for not paying by DD may be an illegal charge in a similar way to bank charges. Worth looking into.

My own story of woe concerns the Talk Talk phone account. Twice they've taken the monthly fee twice (hope that makes sense) and would only roll over the credit against the following months fees. So I canceled their DD and guess what, no free broadband unless I reinstated it. Come back BT, all is forgiven!!

There is a very informative website here: Remove Default Notices on a Credit File - We show you how

Have a look, it may be of help.....

I've sent them a CCA letter last week, only because I'm afraid they'll write again via my employers.

Do you think i should do more?

AIC - Allied International Credit - For refusing to negotiate in writing, calling 4 times a day at least, then finally (so far) writing to me via my employers, but conveniently omitting my name from the address so my boss opened it...... Oh did I mention the debt is 8 years old?

Hi everyone,

I'd really love to claim my charges back, especially as RBS increased them fairly recently from £20 a time to £29 when others were decreasing theirs!!

Anyway, my issue is I have a "One Account" which you may know basically combines the mortgage and other loans into a super sized secured bank overdraft. If I go for them over their charges, are they likely to close the account and ask me to repay on demand what is owed??

Anyone else in a similar situation?

Many thanks.

Having just received a 3rd letter from Transport for London since November, telling us we have yet again been charged the full daily cash fare for not either touching in or out when using the tube, I wonder if anyone else is having similar issues.

I've been "done" twice, and my wife once, different Oyster cards, and all we do is travel the same journey to and from work every day. Never been an issue before they started this new "charge" in November, something tells me I may not be the only one.

We are both absolutely certain we complied at the barriers; and if not, how did we get either in or out of the stations??????

Thank you so much for the suggestions.

One thing I may not have made clear is I wrote to all the credit card companies enclosing written and signed authorisation from my sister for me to act on her behalf.

Capital One were the only company who would not deal in writing and to this day have not acknowledged any correspondence sent to then. They will only deal over the phone, and as they get a guy's voice when the account is in a ladies name, the whole process, despite pleading from me, comes to a halt.

They insist in speaking on with my sister, who was neither capable or in a frame of mind to speak coherently.

I will try what you suggest and see what happens.

I am desperate to help my sister, who has been through an absolutely torrid 12 months losing both our father and her son in a terrible vehicle accident.

She was in hospital for 5 months and during that period I took it on myself to look after her financial matters and keep things steady until she got back on her feet.

Every one of her creditors except Capital One were fantastic, freezing accounts for 6/9 months and being really understanding. However, to cut a long and sorry story short, her 2 Capital One credit cards with piddly £200 quid credit on each soon doubled and more as they wouldn't help at all.

Firstly they refused to speak to me as I was not the account holder, and despite writing letters confirming I was dealing with her matters, my requests were ignored. The 2 accounts were then passed on to a company called Debitas, and the constant phone calls to her in hospital on her mobile and at home started. Again I wrote asking all dealings to come through me, but to no avail.

Now debt collection companies and a solicitor has become involved.

Today, a claim form from Bryan Carter Solicitors has dropped through her letter box. Interestingly they have only claimed £165.00 of the £497.00 debt, but added £70.00 in charges. We are both at a complete loss what to do. By a horrible coincidence, it's the anniversary of the accident next week and couldn't come at a worse time.

Any assistance would be appreciated.