Paying off a small debt advice needed please ?

[mrmr22]

Hi,

 

I got into financial trouble back a few year ago. I basically got a debt of about £384 with a catalogue, worried with the debt at the time i never paid and ignored it. it was only about £289 but since then they obviously added fees etc.

 

This is about 2-3 years ago. I decided i want to pay it, it's all that i have left in my savings, i regret not paying it and was stupid but i have learnt from it.

 

I have had 0% finance on credit cards and have always paid in full and have always had a credit card that has always been paid in full with my bank that i have been with for 5 years.

 

I also have a £2500 overdraft that i have never used but its there incase of emergencies. I also have a Mint card that i had 0% APR for 15 months and back last November paid off in full.

 

In total i got about £6000 credit available to me althou i don't use it, all i do is sometimes buy shopping on credit card and pay in full before due date to help keep improving my rating.

 

I always pay my bills in full on time apart from this one catalogue.

 

I notice on my credit report from annualcreditreport that there has been defaults every month showing from November 2008 to December 2009.

 

Not sure what default means exactly but must mean i obviously not paid.

 

As it has effected my credit rating i want to get back on track as everything shows good apart from this I am not sure the best way to approach the company and pay the debt, i have had letters off them in the past but ignored them and have since moved.

 

I am hoping to ask them if i pay in full can they remove all the defaults from my credit report and just make the account show settled. Would they do this? how should i approach them about it? i mean they may say yes they will request it to be removed but might not.

 

Can anyone help on how i should go about this. Biggest regret i have ever done as apart from that my credit is great.

 

Also when a company does a search wheter it be for finance like loan or anything like that or similar can other lenders see that? reason why is i got searches still showing from 2006, how long do these searches stay on profile? i am concerned as if other lenders can see them they may think i have applied for different loans etc when i never did they was either quotes or declined previously.

 

I am very scared to contact them incase they refuse payment and instead send baliffs or send me to court instead of accepting payment from me. It was MarshallWard Catalogue but on credit report it shows as Phoenix Shop Direct so not sure who to contact.

 

Thanks

[kwaks]

Pay it off and the credit report will show it as such, however will still show the defaults leading to the settlement. Better than the currrent situation.

 

If you are looking to improve your credit rating for a specific reason then you need to also look at the other things mentioned. If you have an unused overdraft & multiple cards with a zero balance this can work against you. If you don't need the overdraft of that size then reduce it, if you don't need multiple cards then cancel some.

 

At the moment lenders would see you as potentially running up that 6k available debt without any further credit checks being done.