Credit rating and HSBC

[Leftie]

Wondered if any of you 'Experian' types could answer this one:

My son left uni with the usual raft of overdrafts and loans last summer. Got an offer to do some teaching in Japan, so popped into his bank telling them he was going away for 12+ months, they were, quote, 'cool' about it.

His mother (my ex) didn't noticed letters arriving from HSBC for him (she says), and when she did it turned out they had been trying to contact him and had subsequently closed his account (the one with the overdraft).

I am thinking now that HSBC won't have simply walked away, they will have nailed his credit rating or started other proceedings. He now wants to do a masters I fear the money he needs won't be forthcoming because of his credit rating if HSBC have acted.

Had he told me I would have asked why the bank were 'cool' about him leaving the country with no definite return date and no agreement on clearing the overdraft.

Are HSBC likley to have started proceedings in this timescale?

They won't talk to me ( Data Protection etc) and he is having problems getting hold of them from Japan (probably hasn't tried too hard).

[Pot Bellied Fool]

They may well have hit him with a default notice but not all banks actually put info out to the reference agencies surprisingly (they usually do with loans, cards etc but less so with bank accounts).

1st thing, get a copy of his credit file. 'He' can do this online at experian & equifax. Don't sign up for the £x credit monitoring services, all you want is the £2 report on 'himself'. It may have to go to his address as per electoral roll though.

Secondly, get him to write a letter of authority authorising you to discuss his account with the bank and fax/post it over to you, then you should be able to get some sense out of HSBC on his behalf.

Cheers - PBF

[Leftie]

Thanks PBF

[UpTheIron]

Pete,

I had a different, but related problem recently. I was turned down for a mortgage application that was roughly 50% of what the lender provided as an indication for an agreement in principle.

I was advised that this was due to an impaired credit rating, which was news to me, never had a late payment / missed payment for anything, ever, and currently only have about £40k of debt against by current property.

A credit check found a defaulted credit card with a sum of £3,600 against my name. This was actually a mistake by HBOS, as they had incorrectly reported a clone card as a default on my part. To their credit, by the next morning this error was removed from my credit file, and HBOS within 24hrs I had a letter from them to give to my mortgage lender to explain all this.

I signed up to Experian - they do a 30 day free trial which allows unlimited access to your credit file, allowing you identify the problem, and re-access the report to check it was cleared - as long as I remember to cancel, I won't pay a penny for multiple reports.

However because of the stress it caused, I am tempted to pay the £60/year to allow me to monitor my credit file more closely.

[UpTheIron]

Also, in ref to PBF, my bank accounts are not shown on my credit file (any of them!), just credit cards, mortgage, etc etc, so it might make no difference.

It would of course still be worth sorting out HSBC, it is bound to catch him up at some point.

[Leftie]

I have the experian £4.99 a month thing and get alerts when someone is checking or updating my credit information. I am not convinced I need it, but it is a bit of peace of mind that i will be the first to know if there is any activity.

I think my son was writing to HSBC to clarify it and in the meantime I have offered m,yself as gurantor on the loan he needs for his course fees.

Thanks for your advice.