www.iva.co.uk

Hi all, as a long time reader of this forum, I thought it was time to post. I finished my IVA in February 2012 successfully with a F&F.

I've never had any intention of getting out of the fire and rushing to start another, but I decided to obtain my credit files to see what it looked like, you know - the place you so didn't wanted to go anywhere near as you didn't need them to tell you how bad it really was.

Anyway, I'm finally sorted with my credit files, its taken months to get the information corrected and at some cost too, but I now know that 6 years from day 1 of the IVA, my file will be fully clear.

Here's my advice.

There are three credit reference agencies in the UK,

Experian - (Credit Expert) www.creditexpert.co.uk
Equifax www.equifax.co.uk
Call Credit www.callcredit.com

You have a legal right in accordance with the Data Protection act to obtain information they hold about you. Each of them will try sell you some kind of formal monitoring service, or monthly subscription, normally with the first month free.

If you have not taken up their free offer, I would suggest you save this until the IVA is complete. You may need it to check the information has all updated.

Instead, opt for the statutory £2 report. You can get your credit file instantly with Equifax and Call Credit (Experian will snail mail you a PIN to go online and obtain the report) - likely to be punishment for not taking their premium service!

Two very important marks on your credit file that you can check whilst in an IVA are the default date and the IVA start date. You must ensure both of these dates are set correctly. Getting these set correctly sooner rather than later will ensure that if debt is sold, its not a nightmare getting the old company to fix it!

Your IVA will remain on your credit file for 6 years from the start date.

Your defaults will remain on your credit file for 6 years from default date.

I would recommend...

1 - Obtain your statutory credit reports from the three agencies.

2 - Check the dates on the file are correct, and that no default dates are showing after the IVA start date.

3 - Ensure all your credit agreements within the IVA are showing as defaults, otherwise this will add another 6 years poor credit post IVA unless fixed.

4 - Sale of debt, most likely your creditors have sold their debt to another company. Ensure that the original debt has been reported as "settled". The new creditor will be reporting their own record.

5 - Remember the default date is not always the date you get the notice of default letter, its normally 28 days later. Check with your creditor if you think the date is incorrect.

6 - If something is wrong, its likely to be wrong on all 3 of the credit reference agencies (but not all creditors report to all 3 of them, so don't worry if you cannot locate the same information on another report). Always approach the creditor reporting the information first. If they agree to fix it, they will fix it on all the reference agencies. If they are unhelpful, you will need to log a complaint with each of the agencies.

Finally - persist! - If you feel the information is wrong, chase, chase and chase again. They are time bound to correct information. Ask them for the service level timescales when making the complaint. Keep full notes on what day you called, who you spoke to and what was agreed. Trust me, you will need every detail discussed if you need to esculate the issue.

Most important - Once you get a nice and clean credit report your proud of - don't mess it up again!!

I'm happy to help anyone stuck with this big brothers! its taken up most of my free time for the past few weeks!!

Good luck everyone.

Really helpful post, I have just ordered my report and wouldnt of had a clue what I was looking for

Totally agree, great post. I had a real battle with one of my creditors whose data was wrong, took around 9 months of letters to and fro and I eventually got help from the ICO as I complained to them that the company in question were ignoring my requests. I'm still in my IVA but am happy that at the end all the data will be correct.

So is it worth doing all of this once the IVA has finshed or is it worth doing this now while you are still in a IVA

Wait until you have finished. Until the end your creditors can continue to default you every month if they so desire

Personally, there is no harm in getting the dates checked on your credit file whilst in the IVA. You can then follow this up after the IVA by ensuring they are all showing as settled.

I also think it's worth doing now as it can be time consuming to resolve. As long as they mark your default date on or around the IVA start date. Most of mine are within a month so I'm not fussed about it being the exact date, even though technically that's what date they should use.

I'm being defaulted every month by a couple of mine so will wait until the end as they'll just carry on. Once I've finished then the data controllers will be getting a letter.

I wouldn't bother doing it until the IVA is finished to be honest. Even if a default is corrected there's nothing to stop a creditor changing the entry again.

I was being defaulted every month too right up until last month but as long as the original 'date of default' is correct these dont matter.

Six years after the 'date of default' they will all disappear naturally, so there is no harm in getting the date of default corrected now if it is wrong.

Hi all. Some very sound advice on here - thank you!! I'm at the start of an early closure with F&F, so I have a way to go, but plenty of time to get my head round it! X

Hi bry995
Many thanks for taking the time to explain this somewhat tricky procedure so clearly [:)]
We have made this topic sticky as it is so useful

I'll be back to this post in a couple of years when I'm cleaning my file! x

Great guide! And great idea admin to make it a sticky [:D]

Really useful information and hopefully i shall be using this guide in a few months time, i know it can take ages to sort out as someone that i know has now been out of their IVA for 3 years and said that it took ages to do this, so am well prepared for a time consuming but worthwhile clearing out lol. x