The money was provided by the lender as a sort of internal consolidation loan... He had another loan , big overdraft, and credit card that I think we're slightly in Arrears or similar so they closed his cc, removed his od, and put it in one place but no contracts exchanged hands when this happened. Surely the lender have an obligation to prove s.87 was followed and that a valid, correctly executed agreement exists? If not, what would you recommend as a defence? Any suggestions welcome

I haven't had sight of it yet, I'm going to see my friend on Thursday to give him a hand but from what he said it is recent as apparently he has until 16th June to respond? I think they mean if he doesn't make contact by 16th June the will "un-suspend" the AOE order? Would that make the order less than 30 days old perhaps issued on 16th May? Will know for sure on Thursday but that's what I'm assuming for now

... Just done a bit more research and I would say that perhaps the best way to approach this is write to the court stating "I" wish to apply for the judgement to be set aside on the grounds that: "I" had been unaware of the proceedings due to the creditor not corresponding with me at my current residence "I" have a real defense and potential success in winning the case as I have no recollection of said alleged debt existing and believe that no valid agreement under S 78(1) of the consumer credit act exists, and that S.87 was not followed in sending a default notice prior to termination of the account / commencement of action. You think that'd do?

Hi All! Wondering if you can help. A friend of mine recently received a "Suspended attachment of earnings" order which an old creditor he had forgotten about obtained in his absence at an address he has not resided at for a year now. He has never seen sight of any paperwork until after the judgement was obtained and the solicitors ran a trace finding his current location. Obviously he would like to apply for this to be set aside due to his never having sight of the court summons or other pre-court papers from the creditor and their solicitor. I've had a look around and seen that there's a chance (but not particularly massive one) that this could be grounds for the order to be set aside, but I've been trying to search / navigate this site to find thorough details / letter templates / guidance / etc but it's all a minefield to me and can't find what I'm looking for... probably doesn't help that I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for... Any advice as how best to proceed? Thanks in advance

Experian and Equifax report Arrangements to Pay differently. It has a more detrimental effect to your Equifax score than your Experian score, because Equifax consider an arrangement to pay as akin to a late payment, but experian don't. If shouldn't matter though because the account should be marked as settled with all three credit reference agencies (Equifax, Call Credit, Experian). If it shows as outstanding with any of the three, you should raise a Notice of Dispute direct with that CRA to have the data corrected

I remember when I applied for an MBNA card many years ago and they turned me down because my cards were too close to their limits. I can see their point though, if you have a card with a small limit, you should be able to clear most of it each month. Keep in mind MBNA / Virgin normally accept people with whom they feel comfortable handing out £2500+ limits to. It might be worth considering an RBS Group card like the Tesco credit card as they can be more lenient and have a rate for risk policy so they may just give you a higher interest rate (still WAAAAY lower than Crapital 1) rather than saying no. I'd wait a few months before applying though as two credit card applications in quick succession mighn't look great. RE: Vodafone, thanks for any input you can offer - I suppose I should SAR them to try and find as many discrepancies as possible and pull them up on every single one. As it stands I've sent their compliance team a letter demanding removal of the default on the basis that 1) a final reminder / paper default notice was never issued and 2) the DCA agreed to remove the default notice altogether if the balance was cleared in full (which it was). Just waiting to see what they come back with... ... Good luck with Tesco when you decide to re-apply (as I say, try to wait for as long as you can bear to) ...

Also do you mind sharing a little about the default removal with Vodafone? As I'm trying to get the same done for my other half at the moment

DON'T trust the credit score figures you get from Experian. They are nothing more than a marketing gimick. The same can be said for Call Credit. Every creditor has a different score sheet and will give you a different score based on the same information, depending on what their score sheet weights the most / least. I (others may disagree) have found the Equifax score to be very useful. Not because the score itself is accurate, but because it gives very useful guidelines in regard to what is positively and negatively affecting your score. If you've had missed payments / arrangements to pay in the last three years you'll have great difficulty getting a card like Virgin / MBNA. Check to see what Equifax say and go from there

Were you short of the minimum payment because the PPI hadn't been cancelled as agreed, or because of an error in judgement? You could possibly argue the following points (IN WRITING): 1. The account was not 30 days overdue, and as such the information they have reported to the credit reference agencies is incorrect. The [1] on your credit files suggest "One month in arrears". You did not fall this late. 2. The account was not underpaid, but paid in line with what you were told would fall due as a result of your cancelling the PPI. The error in payment amount was not yours, but Halifax's. You should also mention that as the error(s) fall solely with Halifax, that they are under legal obligation under the Data Protection Act 1998 to correct the errors with all three credit reference agencies within 30 days as the data is misrepresentative of the truth, unfair, and inaccurate. You could also say in your letter that failure to rectify the issue within the prescribed time frame may result in action being brought upon them for defamation of character and enforcement made through the regulatory body (Information Commissioners Office). Good luck, and keep us posted P.S: The address to write to should be the one on your Experian report under "Profile Information"

I couldn't see whether this question had been covered before so I'd better ask. My other half has three satisfied defaults on his credit report, from Three, O2, and Vodafone. I've SARed all of them and none of them ever issued a paper default notice, three and O2 never even sent a reminder or final notice. It has been suggested elsewhere that it is illegal to record a default marker against an account that is not subject to the Consumer Credit Act, however I doubt the reliability of this suggestion. However, what regulations are there surrounding Telecommunications providers and Defaults? They aren't regulated by the Consumer Credit Act therefore are under no obligation to comply with it. They are merely regulated by OFCOM and the ICO in regard to the way they handle data. I ask, because my other half has never defaulted on a credit agreement. He's come close, but always rectified the issue when he gets a reminder or final notice. He's not missed a payment or been late on anything on over three years now and the only thing stopping his credit file from being immaculate is the defaults from mobile providers. He owes very little (just one credit card about £900) and doesn't have many accounts open (just enough to keep a decent history of paying on time). As soon as we noticed the defaults on his credit report, he called them to satisfy the accounts straight away - there was never intention to withhold payment, he just forgot how many concurrent contracts he'd (stupidly) taken out and they never reminded him to pay! Any advice you could offer would be muchly appreciated!!

There have, yes. The account defaulted in Jan 2003. Has been paying bits & pieces on and off since. Not a lot. Here's the first letter we sent: In response to the letter from Barclays I've sent this one to RMA: And this one to Barclays: Is this all OK? Doing the right thing? Hints & Tips appreciated!!

Helping a friend. Has old Barclays default consisting of Barclayloan and Overdraft, defaulted over six years ago so no longer affecting credit rating but still large outstanding balance. CCA'd DCA (RMA) and they forwarded the request to Barclays. Had a letter from Barclays today saying "We are unable to proceed with the request as the sort code and account number are invalid, please provide correct" blah blah blah RMA just wrote an account number and sort code on the CCA request we sent them and forwarded it to Barclays. What do you think is the best way forward? It seems to me that RMA bought the debt from barclays a few years ago but messed up by sending the request to Barlclays when they should have sent a deed of assignment and their copy of the original credit agreement? Any letter templates? I don't think the generic one applies in this instance, does it?

Credit score of 85? I presume that is a typo? I have a credit score of 450 and I have only just been discharged from bankruptcy. Anything under 560 is considered "Very Poor" I think you might want to check that. Also if you have been approved for a mortgage, and your credit score is now acceptable, you should close your vanquis account and open a credit card account with a respectable card company. Vanquis will keep increasing your limit and offer lower APRs and "Upgrade" you to "Gold Status", earning your trust and respect, so you go out and make a large purchase because they offer you a lower apr, and BANG! They increase the APR exponentially and you are paying nearly £100 a month in interest alone. I've had first hand experience of this with my OH, who was started on £250. Credit limit increases and APR decreases kept coming and coming until it looked like a good deal, so he spent a bit, and WHAP! 69.9% APR thank you sir! Like I say, play with fire you will get burned, make sure you have a DD set up to pay the full balance on your Vanquis card until you get a better deal elsewhere. Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS ON THE MORTGAGE! GOOD LUCK! :)

Thanks Randee. Unfortunately as my OH still has one outstanding default getting credit from elsewhere is nigh on impossible. Black Horse recently said NO to a Personal Loan, Capital One said YES but not with a big enough limit to transfer the balance, and Aqua Card said NO. That's three credit searches in six months so we'll give it a rest for now until there have been no searches in six months. That's another important tip to note also Randee - NEVER apply for credit more than twice in any six month period or your credit score will be seriously damaged. It can be more than halved with excessive applications. Anyway, I hope someone can provide some tips for dealing with Vanquis and getting the APR down / interest refunded!!

Can you guys help? OH has a Vanquis card has done since Dec 2007. Has £2,000 credit limit and £1,200 balance. They increased the APR to 69.9% for a few months and after complaining it is back down to 59.9% APR however the interest is still excessive and I witnessed a phone call back in Febuary wherupon my OH was told by Vanquis that the APR would be reduced to 39.9% APR along with a "Gold" card and the higher, £2,000, credit limit. The credit agreement states the APR is variable between 19.9% APR and 59.9% APR. In increasing the APR to 69.9% they breached the credit agreement, correct? Am I also correct in assuming that whilst they have not refunded the overcharged interest, they remain in default of the credit agreement? Or does lowering the APR back to 59.9% alone resolve the default? What can we do to clear the balance without paying so much interest? The account has been run flawlessly and stopping paying is not an option as my OH has worked very hard to improve his credit rating exponentially over the last couple of years and we don't want to put that effort to waste. Transferring the balance away is unfortunately not viable either as although his credit score is much better than it used to be, he still can't get a better deal, because of one last outstanding default and it's swings and roundabouts as to whether to plough the money into clearing Vanquis or the Default. Cap One offered a classic at 34.9% but only a £500 limit so not enough to transfer the balance, so we cancelled the application. I'd offer to transfer it myself but with my poor credit history I'm not eligible for a better deal, either. Any letter templates or regulations you could point me to would be very much appreciated. All we want to do is clear the balance in a respectable manner in line with the 39.9% APR that they promised when they upgraded the accuont in February. Thanx in advance!