Default on old mobile phone contract

[ALittleBitOfMagic]

Applying for our first mortgage so dh and I checked out experian credit reports . There is a defaulted account on DHs with an unsettled balance of £500 . As far as we were concerned the account was settled and closed , but apparently not . (So as not to drip feed the reason he didn't know was because he also closed his bank account and we opened a joint account at the same time)

So , anyone know what our chances of getting the company to remove the default notice ? Even if we could get it down to a missed payment that would help so much . His record is immaculate apart from this and it's bringing his credit rating down to "poor"

I have just been though this with a bank that shall not be named... Always giving you extra....

I got bank charges applied to an acc that was in credit and had asked to be closed, bringing it into an unauthorised overdraft and then the charges piled up to £569 mark. They admitted that they were in the wrong and refunded me the money last year.. Except I have just checked my credit rating the other week and it said settled, but with a default of £569. I rung up to complain again, and they said they have removed the default as I had asked for the account to be closed and it wasn't actioned.

• was it a contract phone?
• because he closed the bank acc, I'm guessing the direct debit wasn't changed over, therefore kept accruing charges to the network provider?
• did he cancel his contract properly?
• when was the default applied. I think it stays on for 6 yrs

Yes it was a contract . He lost his handset near the end of the contract . So he went into one of their stores and got it all cancelled . As far as he was aware it was done and the girl said you will have one final payment come out and that will be you . So that was fine after a month or so he went into the bank closed his account (to be fair he didn't actually check of the payment had came out he just asked if there were any pending DDs and was told no. He really should have checked and I'm so annoyed he didn't) This was only two years ago so we need to wait another 6 years because he will need to pay it to try and get it removed . I'm actually heartbroken I thought I was going to buy a house and maybe even be in it by Christmas

What is the £500 made up of? Is it several month?s bills or is it a final bill because of cancelling the contract early? I would contact the phone company for a breakdown of what the charges are first of all and if you haven?t moved house since then I would also question why your DH never received anything in the post about it? If the charges are genuine then your DH needs to pay it so it shows as settled on the credit report and you can also add a note to the report explaining what has happened to result in the default. In regards to getting the default removed, I don?t see the point in arguing with the phone company about that point until the bill has been paid.

It's because the last bill was never paid so the amount has kept accruing until the account was put into default. Yeah we are going to have to pay the 500 we will do it payday this month , but I'm hoping that we can get them to change the default .

If we were unlikely to get the default removed then we would fight the amount and fight to only pay the missed payment because if he had received a letter at the time that the payment hadn't went through , then he would have paid it at the time . But no letter ever came in so we just assumed it was cleared and unbeknown to us an owed amount was piling up and piling up and we would never have known had we not checked experia .

But if we wrote a letter explaining what had happened and pay the amount in full if it was likely that they would remove the default , then we will just do that .

I am confused why it accrued to £500 though? How much was the monthly contract? Most phone companies will diconnect the phone within a month of a bill being missed but it seems that they have continued billing you for months afterwards?

Yes lady that's what it looks like has happened .

He phoned them and asked for the bills to be resent and according to the bills they weren't paid for the last three months of the contract ... And he had been charged £300 early termination !! None of this was mentioned in the shop when he was in . There is no way he would have agreed to pay a £300 early termination he would have just kept the contract running until the end .

Again I know he has to take some responsibility for not checking bank statements but as I said we had just opened a joint account and because he had planned to cancel the contract at the end he was just putting money in his old account to cover this rather than change it . He thought he was doing the uncomplicated thing but obviously not

I have had the same problems with Three network, adding a default ruining my chances of getting a mortgage without any notice of the default been added😕

I actually can't believe companies are able to get away with this.

Click this link to sign the petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/120003/sponsors/mZRLh9mKmRTrot8NmHju

My petition:

Make Companies not regulated by the Consumer Credit Act send Default notices

Companies that are not regulated by the consumer Credit Act are able to report 'defaults' to credit reference agencies without any prior notice to the customer. 'defaults' remain on a credit file for 6 years often without the customer knowing, severely damaging ability to obtain credit.

Companies that are regulated by consumer Credit Act are required to send a Default Notice, giving the customer the opportunity to resolve the problem before sharing Default data with credit reference agencies. Companies not regulated by the consumer Credit Act such as mobile phone providers, internet providers are not required to send default notices before reporting defaults to credit reference agencies.