This is a bit of a weird one, which I'm not sure what to do about!
I'm in the process of cleaning/correcting my credit file (and I'm almost there!), but I have an old Alliance & Leicester debt which is still on my file. Like many people I experienced financial difficulties during 2008 and an overdraft of £750 turned into £1400 due to charges and I'm pretty sure that the account was defaulted. However the account is now listed on my credit file as a Santander account and it does is not listed as a default. Instead from March 2008 to June 2010, every month is listed as being 3 months late, then for 6 months every month is listed as being 6 months late and then mysteriously in December 2010 the account is shown as settled with zero balance. I presume this is in some way related to the Alliance & Leicester being bought out by Santander in mid 2010.
Obviously I can request info from Santander to establish if there was a default and question them on the accuracy of my credit file, but what I want to know is what are the rules surrounding a delinquent account? If they didn't apply for a default, can a bank just keep an account open, owing money, as this would suggest that they could use this to effectively keep a debt "alive" forever. Having a default on your credit file is never a good thing, but if they had applied a default when the account was delinquent (which they may well have done, but it doesn't show on my credit file), then in a few weeks this account would be removed from my credit file due to the 6 year rule. Instead it is currently going to stay on my file until December 2016.
I'm in the process of cleaning/correcting my credit file (and I'm almost there!), but I have an old Alliance & Leicester debt which is still on my file. Like many people I experienced financial difficulties during 2008 and an overdraft of £750 turned into £1400 due to charges and I'm pretty sure that the account was defaulted. However the account is now listed on my credit file as a Santander account and it does is not listed as a default. Instead from March 2008 to June 2010, every month is listed as being 3 months late, then for 6 months every month is listed as being 6 months late and then mysteriously in December 2010 the account is shown as settled with zero balance. I presume this is in some way related to the Alliance & Leicester being bought out by Santander in mid 2010.
Obviously I can request info from Santander to establish if there was a default and question them on the accuracy of my credit file, but what I want to know is what are the rules surrounding a delinquent account? If they didn't apply for a default, can a bank just keep an account open, owing money, as this would suggest that they could use this to effectively keep a debt "alive" forever. Having a default on your credit file is never a good thing, but if they had applied a default when the account was delinquent (which they may well have done, but it doesn't show on my credit file), then in a few weeks this account would be removed from my credit file due to the 6 year rule. Instead it is currently going to stay on my file until December 2016.
Credit mark from written off debt, but account stayed open.
