Successful court action for default removal

[Mihail]

Yes I might be confusing the two.

I am opposed to the six year period of banks recording negative information called defaults on a CRA record for something as minor as a £20 payment 2 months late on a credit card bill.

Recorded defaults which make it very difficult to apply for further credit, overdrafts mortgages etc.

Sledgehammers used to crack nuts springs to mind.

[spraiser]

Well done for taking your case to court. I am now embarking on a similar journey and welcome any advice (In particular the level of damages I can obtain - my costs have already run to several hundred pounds).

 

Below I summarise by way of my "Vent". I hope to start to make subsequent statements somewhat more objective in readiness for court. I have also contacted the IC, OFT (Not their bag), and the FO. Read if you like - any suggestions greatly appreciated.

I'm contacting you because I am drained of energy forreasons I shall detail below. Whilst they may have a personal slant, there areseveral objective points which I feel may be in the public interest followingmy own experience. I shall try to be brief and base the story on my ownexperiences: -

Outline - The arbitrary submission of damaging and incorrectinformation to credit reference agencies and the difficulties in correction(compounded by the dark arts of credit scoring), breaches of the DataProtection Act and lack of cohesion and accountability.

My story goes something like this . . . .

I have not had credit for a long time and so in 2009 beganefforts to improve my credit rating. A couple of unsuccessful applications forsimple Bank current accounts and a credit card were declined. I signed up formy credit file from 3 providers (CreditExpert, Equifax and Call Credit).

I discovered several mistakes comprising: -

1.) Orange Mobile Phone reporting a missed payment. I hadleft orange after my contract expired. I requested a final bill. I was sent afinal bill but shortly afterwards advised it was incorrect and to ignore,another would be sent in due course. I asked Orange to confirm that this wouldnot go on my file(s) and told it definitely would not. The new bill was sentand paid. The credit files showed a missed payment. I contacted Orange. Orangerectified my credit file within 1 month (The next update).

2.) HSBC. I had a basic bank account with HSBC. HSBC hadreported on my credit file that I had missed payments. Other “Basic Bank Account”providers (such as the Coventry Building Society and Santander do not reportsuch accounts to any CRA’s). I asked HSBC which payments were missed and whythey were reporting a basic bank account (On which no borrowing facility wasever allowed) to credit reference agencies. I was told that I had not madepayments to the TV licence. I explained that the payment had been made by othermeans due to bank errors. I also pointed out that the accounts to be paid werenot in my name and that they did not know whether or not the payment had beenmade (which it had). I also pointed out that they simply refused a directdebit. My account did not go overdrawn (no borrowing facility is available onBasic Accounts – that is the purpose of such accounts. I asked HSBC what the purpose of creditreference agencies was. I was told that Direct Debits had not been honoured andthat this was an informal request for an overdraft and that I had missedpayments which were requests for credit. I pointed out that the account thatwas missed was the TV Licence, that it was not in my name, that it had in factbeen paid manually, that it was not a credit agreement and that had it been acredit agreement it would have been missed by the person in who’s name theaccount was in. I further pointed out that it seemed unfair to report myaccount as missing a payment AND that of the actual person in who’s name theaccount was (double whammy). I also pointed out that at no time did my accountgo overdrawn, I could not apply for credit on an account that offered no suchfacility and that I did not miss any payment. Nevertheless I was told this wascorrect. HSBC sent a copy of my account terms and conditions and denied that Ihad a Basic Bank Account or that they existed. My cheque book states("Basic Bank Account"). My terms at the time (my account was closedin 2008) state that "On accounts on which you may borrow money we mayreport to CRA's . . . if you do not makegood your account within 28 days. As stated THIS WAS NOT AN ACCOUNT ON WHICH IMAY BORROW MONEY. EVER. Further, my account never went overdrawn and I neverborrowed money from the HSBC. I did not request to do so either. I pointed out that an entry stating DDNH orDirect Debit Not Honoured may be appropriate for current accounts as thisaccurately reflects the situation. However on basic bank accounts no report toa CRA should take place as THERE IS NO CREDIT. (Other Basic Bank Providers donot report accounts to CRA's). The fundamental issue (which may lead toretrospective correction of several hundred thousand accounts operated by theHSBC) is that non-credit matters should not be reported to CRA's. HSBC forseveral months simply stated they were correct. Having raised a comprehensiveset of questions to the HSBC they have now delayed their response simplystating that The HSBC legal team are investigating my complaint (afterpreviously closing it with an arbitrary statement “It is correct”). This mattercontinues at the detriment to my credit score. It is a breach of the DPA and contravenesthere own T&C’s as well as the Consumer Credit Act (They have no procedurefor informal overdraft requests yet insist I made one? Imagine if you willbuying an apple and orange from the local grocer in Long Eaton Town centre,finding out you had no money, fortunately you are with your friend who offersto pay for your fruit but then discovers he has no change on him either, so youpop the said fruit back (missing out on an important 2 of 5 a day for now),proceed to ASDA (who take cash cards), have your fruit paid for by your friendand happily ingest your fruit. (I do prefer to shop local where possible butyou get the point). Imagine now if you will that the first grocer contacts theCRA and states that the Friend has “Missed a Payment” AND that he applied forcredit with the Grocer, causing damage to the 3rd parties creditfile? This is what the HSBC said. What is more there statement that I “Appliedfor an informal overdraft” is quite ludicrous. Apart from the fact that theydon’t exist (legally) they said that this was the same as missing a payment.Yes that’s right. Applying for an illegal (non-compliance with CCA 1974) non-existentoverdraft in an informal manner is the HSBC claim the same as missing a paymentand is reported to CRA’s as such. Now I know banks have had a hard time of thingslately, but the HSBC have weathered the storm surprisingly well. Why are theyreporting non-credit matters to CRA’s incorrectly? To extend the analogyfurther if it needed more extension, My wife would like to borrow £12 from you.That’s all. Now this statement Jessica is enough according to the HSBC for youto now contact all CRA’s and state that I (not my wife – it was not a jointrequest) have missed a payment and I (not my wife) have made an informalrequest for an overdraft from you. I know you are busy so I shall move on butyou may sense my frustrations.

3.) Most serious of all Royal Bank Of Scotland. I shall tryto be brief on this as it has been what can only be described as a debacle. RBSreported that I had a loan with them with an outstanding balance. The loan wassettled in 2000. RBS refused to speak with me asking that I got the CRA's tosend my query. I did and the RBS stated that the information on my file wascorrect. RBS failed for months to find my account details stating they wouldnot be able to talk to me without an account number and sort code. They told meto get this from a Branch.

The Branch told me they had no idea what I was talking aboutand to call customer services back. I told the branch (In Long Eaton) I knew asmuch, especially as the loan was taken out online over 10 years ago and hadbeen paid off! Throw in dozens of phone calls (one for 6 hours that endedoutside business hours. I was told to call back in the morning by which time allmy details had vanished (like an old oak table . . . ) calls, calls and more calls (massive phonebills), promises, hanging up, further denials, further suggestions, and what canonly be described as a near perfect ability to do anything remotely resemblingthe faintest brush of help I began to despair. I told the RBS that they put theinformation on my file and that they should find my account details and correctthe matter. I pointed out that the account had been settled 10 years ago butstill no joy. This was over 12 months ago. My CRA's reported back to me thatthe information was correct (As stated by the RBS) and that I should contactthem on the number provided. I did this to be told again and again "Wecan’t find you. . . . We will call youback" etc. They did not (I did not have a feeling of great surprise).

It was pot luck, one day they would find a couple ofdetails, another they would deny me ever calling. Eventually I spoke to someonewho by pure chance seemed to care about his role. he was able to find myaccount quite quickly and said he was rather perplexed that others had found itso difficult. I will add at this juncture a similar person had found my account13 months prior and promised to update it - the account had been updated but tosay that I had been paying the loan every month for the last 10 years at £308per month - more incorrect information (I hadn’tpaid them just shy of £37,000 for a £15,000 loan that was taken over five yearsand settled in 2 back in December 2000!)

Anyway said person said it would be sorted. Needless to sayit has not been corrected yet. Dozens of hours of my time has been lost tryingto correct the mistakes of the financial institutions. It has made me unwell,my last phone bill was for £240! (Even though spend check was on the accountthat should have stopped it going over £50 but that is in itself another storyof despair - (turns out they (the telephone company) had applied spend checkthat "sometimes works and sometimes doesn't" but the level was set at£9,999,99.99 which even by my standards is a little excessive for 1 month onthe phone!)

What’s more I have had incorrect information on my file allthis time resulting in declines for even simple credit and more to the pointjust plain old wrong information on my files. To add insult to injury, not onlyhave I had to pay dearly with my time and phone calls and "Bad"credit profile, I have had to pay the credit reference agencies every month inmy futile bid to get my files correct (the CRA's all three of them have beenabsolutely wonderful in providing no assistance whatsoever with very much a"Not our problem" approach. I am aware it is not their problem, itremains very much my problem.

There is no help for someone of my simple nature who in anold fashioned way just wants his files to be correct. I am a victim driven todespair - picture if you will The Fugitive. I am continuing my search for theone armed man who may be able to shed light the matters above but I feel aloneI will simply be swept aside as the strength to carry on abandons me.

I cannot be the only one (certainly as far as basic bankaccounts are concerned it has been suggested that if what I argue is correct itwould affect several hundred thousand accounts going back 6 years), and so Ithrow myself on your just and impartial expertise to contact me and hear moreabout my plight so that together we may encourage the CRA's and financialinstitutions to take their responsibilities in such hard times more seriouslyand stop riding roughshod over the DPA and the little guy like me. Just becauseit may affect several hundred thousand of the customers of the HSBC is not inmy eyes a suitable excuse to carry on such practices.

Also it would be nice to know that I am entitled toreasonable costs back which I have incurred just trying to "Clear myname"!

If you have read this far, I thank you for your patience andfeel a little better that I have been able to put in albeit ranting words myexperience for at least one other to share. I hope you take the decision tolook at this further, but if not remember, it was not me, it was the one armedbank!

Mr Simon

[spraiser]

ooops

Edited March 29, 2011 by spraiser
Accidentally posted twice.

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

This is in no way a criticism of your post but by eck it was long People will do as I almost did and give up half way through

 

What I would suggest is to leave the post above where it is and start two separate threads for HSBC and RBS. Trying to deal with two separate issues on one thread is nigh on impossible.

On each thread bullet point what you have done so far (complaints?) and try to remove emotion from the posts

 

Once peeps have a clearer view of where you stand, I'm sure there will be more help.

I'll keep an eye out for your posts and help if I can

[spraiser]

Thank you for your advice. I was ranting at that stage, so I will do as you suggest and gather my thoughts in an objective way. Thank you once again - I will post soon.

[spraiser]

Hello - for what it's worth HSBC have now agreed to correct my file. Voda have credited my bill. RBS remain quiet. I have been v busy past 2 weeks, but once I sort RBS I will post to explain the steps I took in detail. 2 down one to go! Keep the faith. . . .