Debt!!!!!!

[marmitemania]

Hello everyone. Ive not been on for a little while as I have been rather busy. I am looking for a bit of advise. I am looking at taking on another Mortgage now I have sold the house my ex wife an I owned. cutting to the chase I have a perfect experian credit report apart from a joint argos card we had on which she defaulted on but has been paid off. The problem is we had a joint account and she ran a overdraft debt up on it over the last 2/3 years and she has only just cleared it now. this has wrecked any chance of me getting a mortgage as my score is now 489. the crux of it is I havent touched that account since we seperated and have no transactions going in or coming out of it. Can I prove the debt has nothing to with me and can I have it removed from the report? ignore the grammer Im writing this under stress. Thanks for any help.

[alorotom]

You can get any underwriting dept within a lender to manually assess your rating and put the justification to them for review ... I've found this very hit/miss in the passed when I had similar with my ex-wife who had zero financial management ability and had all manner of debt linked to me

[seyre1972]

All you can do is ask for a note to be attached to the your file (I had to do this after being refused credit check on a mobile phone 20+ years ago)

Long and short of it was I'd been working abroad, just prior - so electoral register was showing I didn't live in the flat I had bought.

Had the note attached - and sorted my issue out

[marmitemania]

Thanks chaps. There is hope then? It was £2000 max.

[Rewe]

Give them a ring. I was in exactly the same position a few years ago and called them explaining the circumstances. I can't remember the exact process but they basically removed any financial ties to my ex wife. They did say that I may need to do the same with any other agencies as well.

[Welshbeef]

No.
At the time you were a husband and wife and as such if you didn't know she was running up debts in joint account then you don't have control nor checking.

But 429 isn't bad.
Have you checked the report to see if there are simple things to fix which will help the score instantly ie electoral role.
Thereafter keep spending on credit card but pay it off in full every month to build um

[marmitemania]

thanks again for input on this keep it coming if you have any experience. Thank you.

[Defcon5]

Welshbeef said:

But 429 isn't bad.

Depends what it's out of

[drainbrain]

Defcon5 said:

Welshbeef said:

But 429 isn't bad.

Depends what it's out of

Experian's 999. 429 would be 'very poor'.

Edited by drainbrain on Sunday 23 July 20:08

[Nickyboy]

Surely if it was a joint account regardless of whether it's now settled you are jointly liable for it, i know it sounds harsh but that's surely a risk of a joint account.

[Welshbeef]

drainbrain said:

Defcon5 said:

Welshbeef said:

But 429 isn't bad.

Depends what it's out of

Experian's 999. 429 would be 'very poor'.

Edited by drainbrain on Sunday 23 July 20:08

Ah yes that's not great.

OP along with the advice already given have you considered a credit builder credit card? Yes they have crazy 35% APR but set up the direct debit to pay it off in full every month.

Question is when do you need the credit report to improve by?