Default Help - Red/Lowell and 3Three

[xkwisit2001]

Hello all,

 

I am new to this website to seek advice from you all regarding my default problem.

 

In March 2012 I had a letter from Red/Lowell telling me to pay £150 for an old debt I had with Three Mobile back in 2010.

 

I had then paid off the debt immediately online and that was it, I didn't receive anything else from them.

 

Today I have checked my Experian account to find that there is a Default on there from Lowell which is shown as 'Satisfied'.

 

I am now aware that I shouldnt have accepted the payment without asking the default to be removed in return but this would be too late.

 

Now I would like to know what the best procedure is to getting this Default removed, IF I am able to as I didn't receive ANY letters whatsoever saying there will be a default placed on my credit report in Lowells name from them.

 

I have noticed on some other threads people have sent a SAR request to Lowell along with a £10 postal order to retrieve all the information and if there is no default notice, get this removed by sending a default removal letter template due to them not even sending a letter of warning that it would be placed there or a letter stating it is in place.

 

For me, I want to ensure that I hit this at the best possible angle without any mistakes so could someone kindly let me know the best possible steps to getting this removed as I dont want to mess this up.

 

I may have hit the nail on the head with what I said I had already researched but I just want to be sure because some people send out CCA's first but I am just not sure at all

 

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[ims21]

It is more likely that Three Mobile placed the default and Lowell merely substituted their name when they purchased the debt.

 

What date is on the default marker?

 

Was there indeed and outstanding amount to Three for which they defaulted you?

 

There will be no point in sending a CCA request for a mobile contract as no credit agreement will exist.

 

If you are contemplating a SAR then it would go to the original creditor i.e. 3 rather then Lowell.

[xkwisit2001]

Hi, yes there is a default date of august 2010 on the lowell record which does show on my credit report. I have read that lowell tend not to receive all the details from the OC so it may be possible for me to try and get the default removed by them. The amount I initially had to pay was around 120 and then three added an early termination charge to the account. (this is a contract I cancelled due to someone stealing the phone and running up the bill to £120 and then I had problems with them saying I didnt report the incident on time).

 

Surely there must be a way to remove this with it being such a small amount?

[xkwisit2001]

Anyone?

[ims21]

Hi

 

Sorry you have been missed.

 

As said, I think that it would have been the original creditor (OC) that defaulted you and when they sold the debt to Lowell they simply substituted their name as the new debt owner.

 

Now if it was a third party who stole your phone and ran up the bill then this might give you some leverage. Having said that, the timescales and apparent delays may not be that helpful to yuor cause (sorry to be blunt but best to be honest with you).

 

Can you tell us the details of the complaint/correspondence you had with the OC about this. For example tey said that you did not report the theft in time...can you give details of the timeline of events and what correspondence/communication actually took place?

[xkwisit2001]

Thank you for your reply.

 

This happened christmas eve in 2009, I had been out to a bar where my phone was taken from my coat. The next day was obviously xmas so I left it till boxing day to tell Three and I went into a store and they gave me a new sim card and blocked the old one.

 

To that point I thought there was a code on my old sim but it didn't have one, it had a lock on the phone only.

 

I was moving on a short term basis to germany (1 yr) in the january with my girlfriend as she is german. So prior to moving I had opened up a german bank account and left enough money in my UK bank account to pay my final bills before I left.

 

Now this is the tricky bit, on the 29th December 2009 I called to let them know I wanted to cancel my contract as I was moving to germany and was happy to pay the cancellation fee which should have been £30 as my tariff was £15 per month and I had 2 more months to go till the contract finished so they basically gave me the long talk and tried to keep me as a customer but I ended up going ahead with the cancellation and then they told me I had to pay £150 to cancel.

 

I had then queried why the bill was so high and they told me it was for my recent call charges on 25th december to south africa which were around £118?????

 

I let them know that my phone was stolen on xmas eve and I had gone into the Three store and reported it on the 26th but they had then straight up told me that I still had to pay it as I didn't report it within 24 hours... are they for real?

 

I checked my contract terms and then I declined to pay for it as there was nothing in my contract saying I needed to report it within 24 hours so I filed a complaint with Three.

 

On the 2nd Jan I moved to Germany and I asked my parents back in the UK to look out for my post of which they did and they would let me know each time I received mail. I did not hear from Three for a few weeks and in Feb they sent a letter telling me to pay the £150. At this point, my complaint had not been looked at by Three so I was still not going to pay till it had been sorted out.

 

This went on for months on end and it wasn't actually sorted till I got back to the UK in the September. Three had passed the debt onto a debt collector and I did the silly thing of just paying them when I got back as I could not be bothered with it going to such lengths.

 

My complaint was never actually sorted by Three and more recently I tried to apply for credit and was declined due to me having a 'Default' on my account of which I didn't even know about!

 

I got my credit report from Experian and it showed that Lowell had updated a default on my account in September which was from the August of 2010 (Three).

 

I did not receive any letters to say I would have a default placed on my account as I checked all post when I came back to the UK so what I would like to know is... Do I have a case in getting it removed???

 

Sorry for the long story but I want to ensure you understand the full situation.

Edited January 10, 2013 by xkwisit2001

[locutus]

Simple and blunt answers

 

You are liable for calls until you inform the network of the theft.

 

You agree that they can share your data with the credit reference agencies, and as the account is not "credit" (ie the sale of money) they do not need to abide by the regulations set out in the consumer credit act. Three report the payment details and if the CRAs files show 8 missed payments others view that as a default on your file.

 

Now the debt has been sold to Lowell, their name is substituted on the default.

 

 

 

My opinion is you will have a heck of a fight to get this removed. I think it will take court action, and I don't think their is much legislation in your favor :/

 

You could contact the CRAs and tell them this was incorrectly placed on your file and maybe there is a chance that you could get this removed. Also you could tell Lowell that the default is incorrectly placed on your file as you didn't run up the bill and you paid your cancellation fees, and you paid them promptly when they got in contact. Try that approach, and let us know the replies you get

 

Other than that I think you will have to grin and bear this for the next 3 years