Financial Associations

[Craig123]

Hello

 

I recently obtained my credit report for the first time in many years and note that my wife is showing as a Financial Associate. However we have never had a joint loan, mortgage or credit application.

 

Several years ago I worked away for quite a while (at the time my wife was my girlfriend) and just in case of emergencies I added her onto my current bank account so that she could make withdrawals over the counter if she needed to. She never had a debit or cash card for the account, didnt even have the need to withdraw cash when I was away, and when I returned home I never thought to remove her name from the account. Bank statements were addressed to us both but she never used it and never paid anything into it etc.

 

The problem now is that I went bankrupt nearly 3 years ago and at the time this bank account was overdrawn and therefore included in the bankruptcy. It was only me that went bankrupt my wife was not included in this. I am now discharged.

 

At the time of going bankrupt the bank contacted my wife demanding that she paid them for the full overdrawn amount, plus interest and over limit admin fees. We disputed this saying that at the very least that we were not liable to the charges that they added on after the bankruptcy date and they told her that they would get back to her. We never heard from them again, have never paid anything to them and I even received a statement from them some time later showing the full balance and a credit entry for the full amount bringing the account to zero - i thought that it must have been them transferring the balance to some kind of bad debt account and that the matter was closed.

 

However I have noted now that on my credit report that bank account is showing as 'not updated' every month and is therefore still open and detriment to my credit rating. All other credit agreements that were included in my bankruptcy are showing as 'settled' as they should be, so I want to contact the bank to request that they update this with the credit reference agencies so that I can start to build a solid credit file so that in the future we can be successful in obtaining a mortgage.

 

However I am worried that by contacting them it will trigger a demand for the money again which we can not afford to give them. There is also no evidence of this bank account or the overdrawn balance etc on my wifes credit report.

 

So my questions are -

 

1. Can or will they request payment of the overdrawn balance if I do contact them asking them to update the status with the credit reference agencies
   
2. Is there a time limit/cut off after which point they cannot demand the money
   
3. Can my wife and I disassociate ourselves financially with the credit reference agencies as we have no joint credit agreements (or at least none excluding the disputed bank account)
   

Many thanks for reading and any advice that can be offered

 

Regards

1. 
   

[sir_gilmour]

Hi Craig123

Welcome to The Consumer Action Group.

 

 

I am just letting you know that as you haven't had any replies to your post yet, it might be better if you post your message again in an appropriate sub-forum. You will get lots of help there.

 

Also take some time to read around the forum and get used to the layout. It is a big forum and takes a lot of getting used to.

 

 

Once you start to find your way, you will soon realise that it is fairly easy to get round and to get the help you need.

 

It can be bit confusing at first.

[MARTIN3030]

Hi Craig and apologies for a late response.

Under the statute of limitations act 1980,any debt becomes statute barred after 6 years which means that legally,providing there has been no payment or admission of liability (except in the case of Mortgage arrears and charges ) there is no legal avenue for a lender to pursue.

Credit reference agencies are obliged to record accurate data,and deal with any complaints.

They will maintain that they cannot remove or amend entries without a lenders permission,however they are responsible for entries that appear since they remain a party to the data they are processing on their systems.

Linked financial associations can appear from an endless number of sources,these days with so much data collection and sharing,it is likely to be reported if there has been instances.

I would suggest that you take this up with the CRA concerned and demand that they take steps to investigate your concerns.You are also entitled to add a notice of correction on your file free of charge,and while this does not really improve things,it is a good thing to be using in any defence later should you find the need to escalate this to a legal route.

I suggest you give them 14 days to respond,they can take this up with the bank on your behalf.

I would not worry too much about the bank responding adversly,since they are likely to know where you are if they wanted to contact you.

If the CRA fails to resolve your complaint,and you can show that these entries are clearly affecting your ability to obtain credit or services that you would get if the entries were not there,then you can file a complaint with the Information Commissioner,or go further and issue a summons for Court order to force compliance.

The IC would expect to see evidence that you had tried to resolve this,and ask for copies of the CRA response.

So put something in writing,and keep a copy.

Make sure you get proof of delivery (recorded is best)

I will move your thread to the Credit Reference Agency forums.

If you have any questions then feel free to ask.

 

If any other members have thoughts on this then add them too.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

All you need to do with the CRA's is to send them formal notice of disassociation

and ask the to remove it.

[Craig123]

Thanks everyone. We'll contact the CRAs tomorrow to sEe if we can get ourselves dissassociated.

 

Looks like we may have bigger problems on my wifes credit report - having just reviewed it there are a lot of credit applications on there over a long time scale that she definately hasnt made but using a slightly different variation to our current home address......

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

You must make sure all correspondence is HEADED FORMAL COMPLAINT and addressed to THE COMPLIANCE MANAGER.

[The Debt Star]

TBH they process financial diassociations fairly promptly

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi Craig,how long ago were all those searches made and are any of them linked to companies showing reports on you wife's

report. If these are fraudulent they must be reported to The Information Commissioners Office asap, notified to the CRA's

you really need to check Experian, Equifax, and Call Credit to see if they all hold the same data.

As to the lenders etc. who have made the searches it could be useful to contact them with the information too.