My credit was rubbish because during my 20s I spent like a twat on cards and ended up defaulting on them.
I'm now late 30s, and 3 years ago, I wanted to try and improve my credit rating a bit more.
Clearscore are the credit report company I use as it was the first free to use one, and it recommended me a credit building card with the new to the market 118118money. It had really good rates so i took the plunge and applied.
I was accepted and offered a £400 limit which I accepted, planning on having it for emergencies only anyway.
When the card came through, the limit was chopped in half to £200, so I contacted them by phone and they denied all knowledge of the £400. I just thought it didn't matter as it was for emergencies and I couldn't prove what had been offered anyway.
The lady I spoke to did say if I kept the card payments up, plaid over my minimum by at least £10 and didn't go over my limit they would increase it after 3 months.
So I religiously kept up the payments, never late, always early. I used the card a couple of times for small purchases which I wanted some insurance on if the item was a dud.
No increase.
I queried again after 8 months by email to be told no, no increase. They again denied the lady told me I would get one if I followed what I had done.
My credit rating actually went down not up.
But I kept up payments, never late. Never over limit.
2 and a half years on they finally offered an increase, to £600. Minimum went from £8 to £15 a month flat fee.
Again, have paid it plus extra. So I pay £25 a month.
I get texts reminding me 7 days until minimum. Got one on the 11th January, saying " your minimum payment of at least £15 is due in 7 days, pay now to avoid a credit strike".
So I paid my £25 on the 11th.
On the 19th, day after payment was due, got a threatening, "late payment, pay £15 NOW"
I went on live chat as you can request a transcript and was assured the woman spoke to the tech team and they said as I paid before the 17th it was a glitch. The payments were up to date. Requested a transcript but didn't receive.
Got more texts and again, went on live chat and no transcript. The second person escalated to complaints, I did at that point say I would expect a good will payment as to be honest the whole situation has been shoddy throughout (they were hacked last year for a month, no compensation, no apology).
Complaints team said I paid £15 less than my minimum and my minimum was £40.
At no point have I been told it's gone up, and the text they sent said £15. My account page on the 20th until this afternoon said payments are up to date.
I screenshot the text and the app saying payment was up to date but they said that doesn't prove anything and they will not discuss further. They refused to send me the chat transcript that proves I've been told I owe nothing. They said go to Ombudsman but they won't hold off on harassing calls and texts, they will put a default mark on my credit file. The Ombudsman could take months!
After speaking to another chat agent today as I told the company in that case I won't discuss on the phone as I have no proof for Ombudsman of what is said and they've lied before, she said would tell them to email me. She admitted they still have the chat transcripts. She also said she could see it said payments are up to date and there hasn't been an increase in minimum. I pointed out that I've paid the same amount for months, if I was meant to pay £40 I would be further in arrears than £15.
Now, suddenly, my app is showing my payment is late.
I've still not had the transcripts. They've not emailed.
What can I do? I don't want to be back to square one, but I've paid what I should. They're effectively bullying me to pay what I don't owe due to a glitch. I'm basically being penalised for paying early!
Should I just pay it? I would never have agreed to the increase if the flat minimum charge was £40, I would have probably tried a balance transfer to a new provider.
Apart from the Ombudsman, who could investigate quicker? 118118 are refusing to reopen the investigation when they literally sent two standard prewritten it's your fault not ours emails, totally ignoring my proof?
Any advice would be great please.