Merligen Investments - default

[ody1977]

Hi... Thanks for taking the time to read. I will try and keep it brief and straight to the point.

 

I entered into a finance agreement on 21/11/2007 with Clode Retail Finance, now V12 Finance, (dabs: computer I think) for £1013. I kept up repayments of £26 a month until July 2009. Checking my noddle credit report it shows that on 26/03/2010 the account was ended and settled. This was after more than 6 months of non payment and it is now showing as DA (debt assigned) on the March 2010 entry. I assumed at the time it had been defaulted.

 

I have received countless letters over the past 3 years from numerous DCA's. One in particular I remember was PDP Management Services Ltd. I ignored them all and haven't received anything from any company in the past year.

 

I checked my Noddle report today and I now see a default has been registered on 11/03/2013 for £875 (the closing balance was £805) by Merligen Investments.

 

I have had no letters or contact from them at all. I am 90% certain that letters in he past from other companies mentioned it had defaulted in 2010. Can they do this? Is there anyway I can get this default removed or at least dated back to 2010?

 

Also... this only appears on my noddle(callcredit) report. There is no record of any of it on my equifax report and only a settled in 2010 with V12 Finance on my experian report.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Why did you stop paying? What correspondence did you enter into when you stopped? At that time there was £493 left on the account.

[ody1977]

Why did you stop paying? What correspondence did you enter into when you stopped? At that time there was £493 left on the account.

 

Sorry I forgot myself.. I think it was on Buy Now Pay 12 months later. So the end balance at the time I stopped paying was £805 and not as low as it would have been.

 

I stopped paying as at the time I was struggling with credit cards, loans, mortgage etc. I had to prioritise with what I could pay and keeping a roof over our head and food on the table was the priority.

 

I didn't enter into any agreement or have any contact with them. I just stopped paying and "buried my head in the sand".

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Well clearly then you defaulted on the account, so I'm not sure why you would think you could get the default removed. Look and see when the account is being reported to; whilst a new owner can continue to report the default they can't reset the date. But if you did as you say, your credit file is shot to bits anyway so why are you worried about this particular entry? You could SAR the original creditor to ascertain the actual date of default and go from there. But the default will not drop off until 6 years have passed (paid or otherwise).

[ody1977]

Well clearly then you defaulted on the account, so I'm not sure why you would think you could get the default removed. Look and see when the account is being reported to; whilst a new owner can continue to report the default they can't reset the date. But if you did as you say, your credit file is shot to bits anyway so why are you worried about this particular entry? You could SAR the original creditor to ascertain the actual date of default and go from there. But the default will not drop off until 6 years have passed (paid or otherwise).

 

Thanks for the reply brokebutnotbeatn. I don't think I've made myself clear sorry. I accept I have defaulted. I'm not disputing I've defaulted and not saying the default should be removed completely. I just wanted to find out what I can do to get them to change the default date back to when I thought it had defaulted, March 2010. Are they allowed to register the default 3 years after if the original creditor "forgot" to default the account at the time.

 

I know my credit was shot to bits at the time, but I have done my best to be squeaky clean over the past 3 years and have not missed or had any late payments on my agreements since. I was looking forward to six years being up and getting a clean slate. Seems the six year countdown has started again and all my hardwork trying to rectify by previous mistakes and come back to kick me up the a**.

 

I'm starting to think the original creditor never defaulted the account in 2010. So my main question is can a default be registered 3 years after the closed account by a DCA?

[brokebutnotbeatn]

The time to challenge the default date would be when the debt has become statute barred. So you need to understand when your last payment was as this is what sets the SB clock, not the date of default.

[ody1977]

The time to challenge the default date would be when the debt has become statute barred. So you need to understand when your last payment was as this is what sets the SB clock, not the date of default.

 

The last payment I made was in March 2009 which took my balance to £805. No payments were made from then and the account was closed on 26/03/2010 with a mark on noddle credit file as DA (debt assigned).

 

I'm currently looking at at getting a mortage and I have lenders who will lend to me as long as the defaults I have are over 2 years old. Which they were until this month and this has appeared from 3 years ago. So I can't just sit and wait to dispute it when becomes SB in March 2015.

 

I need to either get the default date moved to the date the account was closed (which I assumed this was the date they had defaulted it... seems they haven't by DA on credit file).

Or... get in touch with them and come to an agreement to pay the default and ask them to remove it from my file as it was issued 3 years after the account was 6 months in arrears and had been closed (ico guide says: "Accounts should normally be filed as being in default where those payments due have not been received for six months.") Also, I haven't received any correspondence from this Merligen DCA to inform me it will be defaulted.

 

Any ideas what my best cause of action would be to get this sorted?

 

Thanks

[brokebutnotbeatn]

getting defaults removed can be a long and hard battle. I might start 'in ignorance' with Merligen - in this instance hit the phone and say this has 'appeared' on your credit file, what's it about as you haven't defaulted on anything so are mystified and work backwards. This wouldn't be what I'd normally suggest but you have a different objective. I don't believe an account would have been sold on without it being in default so you should get to the original marker in which case you can get it as you say paid off and if not removed the marker date corrected. But you shouldn't do anything without getting it in writing. However, you might find the path a very frustrating one I'm afraid. There is a 'Credit Reference Agency' section. Look in there and see if Brigadier has any better suggestions.

[ody1977]

I've just sent an email basically asking them to amend the date to the original default date (if it was defaulted in 2010) or to completely remove the default as it was registered 3 years after (stating ICO good practice for filing defaults 3-6 months)...

 

Also mentioned haven't received no default notice or warning from them.

 

I will update thread on any replies...