When do Account Fall off your Record?

[kiri260180]

I have a query, I have a default placed on on my account by Vodfone for £91 which I am not actually sure is correct as I could have sworn I paid the account but as it is back in 2000 I have no way of proving this.

 

Anyway the problem is that I have not had any contact with them in the last 6 years but they placed the default in 2005 which I never received.

 

They are reporting each month to the CRA to keep the account open I am guessing to prompt me to pay off the money so that I can get an end date in there to get it off my record.

 

Does anybody know how best to go about getting this removed - I thought I might go to the CRA and ask for it to be removed but they probably wont as there is no end date.

 

Any help would be apreciated

[Guest grizzleguts]

Hi Kiri, you need to SAR Vodaphone, and make sure that in the SAR, that you request a full statement of account (the laws & timetables are available in the template library).

Once you receive your statement of account you will need to find out when you paid the balance off (with a bank or card statement), or if the balance is made up of penalty charges like non DD fee, or late payment fees.

Once you have your evidence, copy it, and send a letter of complaint to Vodaphone (via recorded or special delivery), telling them to remove the item, hopefully they will come to their sences.

If they fail to remove the item, it will stay there for 6 years from the date they issued it, and technically, when the 6 years are up, if they say there is still an outstanding balance they can renew the default, this is not the same as only being able to default once on an account.

So removing it will have to be done in a specific way:

1) write of to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), and make a complaint, sending them the evidence you have collated.

2) ring the CRA and ask for the correspondance of the regisrty trust (I Have it somewhere but cannot find at present), send the evidence to them, they govern the register of credit entries, and a dispute to them is a legal one.

3) apply for a new bank account, and when you get a refusal letter, use this as evidence, to mount a charge for defemation (in accordance with the defemation act 1996 available free from Home - Statute Law Database the charge would be for personal and financial distress, due to the untrue entry/charge against your name, and as an extra a breach of the Data Protecion act 1980, and breach of the consumer credit act 1996, which states the laws governing debt collection especially account defaults.

If it gets to this stage, you are welcome to PM me for Particulars of claim etc.

[kiri260180]

Thank you so much for all that info - I will gt onto sending out the SAR then.

 

I just didn't want to admit any liability at this stage but I guess an SAR doesn't do that.

 

Thank you again and I will post how I got on.

 

Kind Regards, kiri260180

[Guest grizzleguts]

No, your right a SAR is not debt acknowledgement, in fact asking for a full statement of account, is part of the disputing process, when you do not get helpfull info from DCA's or lenders.

[mfpa]

and breach of the consumer credit act 1996

 

Just curious why the CCA is relevant to Vodafone, as they do not provide credit services?

[fredbassett]

rather than go through the hassle of a S.A.R, the easiest way to get Vodafone to investigate the account is to raise a Data Dispute/Consumer query with one of the Credit Reference Agencies who ill then contact Vodaofne on your behalf. Why waste £10 with a S.A.R when the Credit Reference Agencies will raise a dispute on your behalf. The other course of action would be to right to Vodafone, enclosing an up to date copy of your credit file, highlighting the entry concerned and ask them to investigate the default.

 

Defaults are held on your credit file for 6 years from the date of the default regardless of whether they are subsequently paid.