Updating my credit files / post IVA

[Neil.ni]

Hi all,

I hope this is of some use to someone - I thought I'd share my experiences...

Background

I entered an IVA back in Feb 2006 with 81k of credit card debt (no loans - purely and simply cc debt) spread over 18 credit cards - lunacy looking back now but what's done is done.

I used DFD for my IVA and to be fair they did take me through the process fairly painlessly - I know they get bashed a lot on forums like this but I honestly found them ok to deal with.

My IVA was completed successfully in early February 2011 and after a bit of soft nudging by me, DFD sent me my completion certificate by early April 2011.

There began my efforts to have my Defaults marked Satisfied. I had no CCJs just defaults as a result of the IVA.

8 of my debts were bought my Max/Eversheds. I have to say they have been very easy to deal with. In fact since I first wrote to my creditors on 13 May, within one week they had updated my files with all three main CRAs.

Of those creditors who did not sell my debts on, I found dealing with the likes of Natwest and Lloyds to be easy if a bit slow.

By far the worst organisation to deal with was Cabot and I've had to now refer that case to the ICO. In essence they bought a CitiFinance debt back in 2008 (some 2.5 years into my IVA and like all my debts was in the original proposal back in 2006) and marked by credit file at the time Default but set the default date to mid-2008. I've communicated with them on no fewer than ten occasions and still the default date remains incorrect - although has been modified to show Satisfied.

I found Egg to be very slow as have Capital One been. Egg just this week went Satisfied but Capital One state it'll be August before my files update to Satisfied.

In terms of dealing with the CRAs, my basic advice is forget it. They are no use whatsoever especially Callcredit - I'm sure their data is regarded as up to date if it's five years old. I wrote to them about this and they wrote back just saying "cant help, wont help, write to your creditors blah blah blah".

So, where are we now:

Well Callcredit is showing four incorrect defaults, Experian and Equifax only show the outstanding Cap One debt as Default which I have been assured will be resolved in the next month.

I applied for a credit card (just one, not 18!) and was politely told "thanks, but no" by Cap One, Barclaycard and Aqua. Vanquis approved me with a £500 limit which I am now using to get more green zeros on my file.

Finally, it's also worthwhile writing to the Insolvency Service to prompt them regarding the end of your IVA. Within a week of doing this they marked my IVA as satisfied with all three CRAs and removed my name from the public register.

Needless to say my debts remain on file until six years, so it'll be next February 2012 before I have no trace remaining on my file - assuming the ICO acts against Cabot.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask me any questions.

[plasticdaft]

A very handy post Neil and a topic often brought up on the forum.

How easy was it to complain via the ICO?

Paul

[Neil.ni]

A very handy post Neil and a topic often brought up on the forum.

How easy was it to complain via the ICO?

Paul

Thanks Paul.

In reply, it is very simple to complain to the ICO. They tell you what information they need on their website and I gathered up all correspondence, including my itemised phone bill, as evidence that I had done all I could to conclude the matter with Cabot informally.

I've had an acknowledgment from ICO but that's all at this stage. I wouldn't have gone to the ICO had I felt I could move forward with Cabot even slightly but they never once even acknowledged any of my communication with them.

[plasticdaft]

Worst nightmare post IVA is creditors being painfully slow in updating records. The ICO is a useful tool so fingers crossed you can get cabot sorted soonest.

Paul

[KAYKAY]

A very intersting post. I will need to do some chasing once I have my certificate. Although theoretically all my defaults should have now been removed as my IVA was agreed on 12th July 2005. Natwest are still showing on Experian and have the default date as 03/09/05 which is clearly incorrect given my Agreement date. The others have default dates of 30th July, which is wrong, but as it is only another week away, I will wait and see what happens.

[ginger3232]

Neil - hope you get it sorted out quickly.

It must be remembered that the credit agencies (some can/are helpful)role is to hold information,it has a legal duty to ensure the information is correct. They rely on the the information fed to them by the lenders.

So if the information is incorrect the first port of call is the Lenders themselves - by all means raise an objection with the credit agencies.

It save so much time and prevents letters being "bumped back"

[animaleyes76]

Just a quick question.

Imagine you don't update your credit file and just wait for them to "fall off" after six years, does it matter if you got them marked "satisfied" or not?

I'm guessing not as they won't be on your credit file anyway but just made me wonder.

I think i'm just gonna let mine fall off seeing as there's no chance i can get any UK credit anyway, living abroad. On the positive side I've got a Czech bank offering me a credit card here which i will definitely take up in 4 months time.

[ginger3232]

Usually thats the way, Animaleyes - however if the defaults dates are later than the IVA start date - when the IVA falls off the defaults wont. Thats why defaults after the iva date have to be removed or altered to iva start dates, So it all drops off.

However the negative bit - all the history drops off - so you wont have any credit history to interest any lenders - hence the rebuild time needed before main stream credit will be offered.

[animaleyes76]

I have a couple that are later than the IVA start date by a month or two but i guess i'll just leave them to "fall off" because like i say i can't get UK credit because I'm not UK resident.

The only thing that worries me is how can i rebuild my UK credit history (in case i come back) whilst abroad.... The only thing I still have is my O2 UK contract (which is perfect) and all cards etc need UK residency... unless I lie that i'm UK resident which to be honest is fraud so not really the best of ideas lol

[ginger3232]

Animaleyes - you may have found that even with a perfect credit rating - you would be refused - due to the Elect Roll.

Unless you are planning to come back here - perhaps you may need to deal with it if the time arrives including submission on the Elect Roll

[animaleyes76]

I'm just an impatient person and the thought of spending a year+ fixing my credit file on top of however many years I'm abroad is just a pain in the ..... lol.

My own fault though lol. Ah well. Sorry for hijacking the thread, at least it was (kinda) relevant

[tonyranks]

with two more payments to go, i have the default issue to go through because i have sent for my credit files and the dates are all over the place, a few are on the same date as the iva started but what concerns me is the internal 6 years after the credit file data with the banks you had the debt with in the first place, i was told to try for credit with a group i had no debt with, is this true??

[KAYKAY]

Personally, I am not sure I would want to become a customer of some of the banks I had a debt too. This is just a moral issue for me. I have been fortunate in having an IVA, as there is no way on this earth I would have been able to pay back all that I borrowed. (I did not think this at the time of borrowing, I took the credit in good faith with the intention of paying it back) However, as I have now had just short of 50% of my debt wiped off, I think it would be a cheek to go back to my creditors for their services.

[kallis3]

I certainly won't be going back to HSBC or Halifax! I'll stick with Nationwide for now. Had no problems with them to date.

[plasticdaft]

I really like co-op so will see how nice they are to me after my trust deed ends. They refused to open an ISA for me even though no credit is involved and I know some people in iva's have been allowed one so that annoyed me a little!!

Onwards and upwards!!

Paul

Lest we forget.