Will a 'failed' Direct Debit payment affect credit rating?

[ehyouwhat]

Morning all,

My OH got a letter through from Vodafone yesterday, stating that they had attempted to collect her monthly mobile phone payment via Direct Debit but had been unable to do so. The letter states that her mobile phone service has been temporarily suspended, and that she has seven days to bring her account up-to-date before the account is permanently terminated and her account passed over to debt collectors.

Now this obviously scared my girlfriend a little bit, but not least because she actually cancelled her phone contract a number of weeks ago. The contract 'ended' on April 1st but she wrote to them in February telling them she didn't wish to continue her contract beyond the end of the contracted time. Vodafone definately received this letter because they wrote back, stating that they were "sorry" she was leaving Vodafone. In this letter Vodafone said that my girlfriend has forgotten to sign her cancellation letter, and that she needed to call them again to confirm her identity. She did call them and was told her request had been confirmed - she was ensured her contract would end on April 1st, and that her last Direct Debit payment would be taken on 23rd March (she wrote these dates down in her diary).

Now I have no doubt in my mind that, on contacting Vodafone, they will admit that they have made a mistake - we have copies of every bit of written correspondance between us, and furthermore my girlfriend checked her online account in early April and found that her contract had "ended". So I'm pretty certain that Vodafone will know and admit that they were in the wrong in sending the letter.

My concern is whether they did indeed try to get a payment via Direct Debit last month. The Direct Debit had been cancelled at the end of March, so any attempt to get more money was obviously going to fail. We mentioned this situation to someone and they said that a 'failed' Direct Debit would affect my girlfriend's credit score - not by much, but still affect it in a negative way. Does anyone know if this is true?

I will be writing an extremely snotty letter to Vodafone in the next couple of days (this isn't the first problem that my girlfriend has had with them - far from it!) but my tone will be even more aggressive if it turns out my girlfriend's options for future credit have been harmed because of a mistake by Vodafone.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers!

[rich1231]

Same issue with Voda a few years back.

Contract ended but they continued to take money without consent.

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

[ehyouwhat]

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

[rich1231]

ehyouwhat said:

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

depends, if it was a mistake on voda's part... which they make millions of, then yes it will vanish

[SS HSV]

ehyouwhat said:

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

Yes it will stay on your record. I have been trying to remove a CCJ which was there from a tenenat some time back. Although I have written to the agencies Equifax and Experian, the judgement is against my address and not me personaly. Both of these agencies have marked this as 'satisfied' but the record of it is still there and will continue to be these for another four years (six years before removal).

[Mr MoJo]

SS HSV said:

ehyouwhat said:

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

Yes it will stay on your record. I have been trying to remove a CCJ which was there from a tenenat some time back. Although I have written to the agencies Equifax and Experian, the judgement is against my address and not me personaly. Both of these agencies have marked this as 'satisfied' but the record of it is still there and will continue to be these for another four years (six years before removal).

I've just gone through a similar experience with a CCJ.

Having applied for a mortgage recently I was shocked when I discovered a CCJ was registered on my credit record.

A good friend of mine (who also happens to be my solicitor) got on the case. After applying to the county court the judgement has now been completely removed from my name.
If you approach whoever registered the judgement they can agree to withdraw it (usually as long as the debt is settled, which in my case was a few hundred pounds and not mine).

OK so I had to pay the debt and a relatively small legal bill, hoxever my credit record is now completely clear again. (I may have thought twice if the debt was into thousands and belonged to the other person in question).

When I first discovered the CCJ I approached Citizens advice who advised it could not be removed and would, as you stated above, remain for 6 years. It's amazing what a good solicitor can achieve. If you havn't already I would get legal advice on it and as long as you are willing to clear the debt (albeit not yours) it is possible, contrary to popular belief, to completely remove it through the courts.


eta. The question regarding the missed payment is far less serious than a CCJ, all that will show is a rolling credit history of the Vodafone account for, I think, 12 months. These rolling histories are scored from 1 - 3. If you miss one payment it will show 1, then if you miss another it goes to 2 the next month. Once you are up to date it returns to 0 and so on.

Edited by Mr MoJo on Sunday 13th May 13:38

[King Herald]

ehyouwhat said:

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

We had the same with NTL, when they failed to ask for a Direct Debit payment, blamed us, then sent the debt collectors round without even contacting us. Nothing went on our credit record.

[rich1231]

SS HSV said:

ehyouwhat said:

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

Yes it will stay on your record. I have been trying to remove a CCJ which was there from a tenenat some time back. Although I have written to the agencies Equifax and Experian, the judgement is against my address and not me personaly. Both of these agencies have marked this as 'satisfied' but the record of it is still there and will continue to be these for another four years (six years before removal).

Read the OP ...

A CCJ will stay on record..

A made up nonsense missed payment will not

[bga]

rich1231 said:

SS HSV said:

ehyouwhat said:

rich1231 said:

It wont harm the OH's credit rating, as even if voda reproted to Credit reference agencies, you can dispute it and have it corrected.

Does this 'correction' completely remove the failed payment on her credit history, or rather just put a 'note' on it to explain the failed payment? I've heard that if there is a note on your history, any application for credit has to be viewed manually by someone, which in turn means credit applications can take much longer.

Yes it will stay on your record. I have been trying to remove a CCJ which was there from a tenenat some time back. Although I have written to the agencies Equifax and Experian, the judgement is against my address and not me personaly. Both of these agencies have marked this as 'satisfied' but the record of it is still there and will continue to be these for another four years (six years before removal).

Read the OP ...

A CCJ will stay on record..

A made up nonsense missed payment will not

Yep, happened to me a few times and credit history has been changed to completely remove the late payment. If Nationwide can do it for a missed mortgage payment (their fault) and AA can do it for a loan (again their fault) then it will be easy for Voda. I never even had to write to them, a call to their credit control departments was all it took, confirmation letters arrived soon after & payment history was fixed a couple of months after that.

Worse case scenario, a single late payment is unlikely to tip a lending decision.

[ehyouwhat]

bga said:

Worse case scenario, a single late payment is unlikely to tip a lending decision.

Fair enough, and especially as my girlfriend has a perfect credit history thus far. But that's the point, she has worked to make sure that everything she has ever owed has been paid on time and in full. It is therefore unfair that Vodafone can simply make a mistake (which they obviously have) and that this can have any kind of detrimental or negative effect on her credit rating, no matter how little or insignificant the overall result is.

Thanks for all the comments on this everyone, I'm still going to write a very snotty and rude letter to Vodafone (my fourth since she started her contract 19 months ago!) and I shall make sure I tell them in no uncertain terms to make any record of the missed payment dissapear!

[bga]

ehyouwhat said:

bga said:

Worse case scenario, a single late payment is unlikely to tip a lending decision.

Fair enough, and especially as my girlfriend has a perfect credit history thus far. But that's the point, she has worked to make sure that everything she has ever owed has been paid on time and in full. It is therefore unfair that Vodafone can simply make a mistake (which they obviously have) and that this can have any kind of detrimental or negative effect on her credit rating, no matter how little or insignificant the overall result is.

Thanks for all the comments on this everyone, I'm still going to write a very snotty and rude letter to Vodafone (my fourth since she started her contract 19 months ago!) and I shall make sure I tell them in no uncertain terms to make any record of the missed payment dissapear!

You are right - it's not something that she should have to put up with.

You can try the snotty letter but that might just make you look a knob (which I'm sure you are not!). Having experienced this sort of thing with other financial product providers a case of stating the facts and requesting that they be amended immediately has had the desired results. As a customer services bod which would you rather sort out first? It's unlikely that the person who made the cockup in the first place will be dealing with the complaint. Then again, a rant at them may be cathartic.

[ehyouwhat]

bga said:

Then again, a rant at them may be cathartic.

Indeed it would be, my blood is boiling at the moment because Vodafone have made bodge after bodge after bodge.

I'm always quite clear in my letters that I'm not blaming any specific individual, and I'm certainly not blaming whichever soul is reading the letter. However I have found in the past that a certain amount of 'being a knob' seems to do the trick in terms of getting a response, and I'm happy to live with that to be honest.

The problem is that, somewhere along the line, one person or more is not doing their job right. I can accept that happening once - we all make mistakes after all - but mistakes have been made time and time again with Vodafone, and it's just not acceptable. The more people tell them that it's unnacceptable, the more they might listen. Ultimately of course the best way of showing your dissatisfaction with a company is by voting with your feet, and this is something that my girlfriend had already done (or tried to do).

There's a particularly nasty tone to the letter my girlfriend was sent though. It states that "despite numerous attempts we have been unable to contact you" - well as far as I know, telepathy isn't recognised as a proper form of communication, and we're assuming that telepathy was the method used because we certainly did not receive any communication via the landline telephone number registered with them, the postal address registered with them or the email address registered with them! It's not a nice feeling to have someone try and accuse you of something...it's not even a nice feeling for me to have someone accuse my girlfriend, let alone me.

Anyway I know I'm ranting now - that's how pi$$ed off I am about it - so I'll shut up and get that letter written!

Edited by ehyouwhat on Sunday 13th May 20:47

[Daveycrockett]

ehyouwhat - As luck would have it (possibly not mine) I work for a certain mobile phone company, in the correspondence team. As call/text charges are billed in arrears this payment may have been for usage for the final month.

One direct debit failure will not affect your gf's credit rating. I'd just ask what the balance is for, if it's correct, settle it. TBH the targets for dealing with letters are so tight any letter will be skim read anyway.

Hope this helps

[ehyouwhat]

Daveycrockett said:

ehyouwhat - As luck would have it (possibly not mine) I work for a certain mobile phone company, in the correspondence team. As call/text charges are billed in arrears this payment may have been for usage for the final month.

One direct debit failure will not affect your gf's credit rating. I'd just ask what the balance is for, if it's correct, settle it. TBH the targets for dealing with letters are so tight any letter will be skim read anyway.

Hope this helps

The payment they're asking for was not for the final months payment - they were pretty clear that this would be taken on 23rd March (it was taken on 26th March, but close enough). Likewise the payment does not match with any call/text charges in the final month, as my girlfriend had been using her new contract (O2) for a couple of months.

The letter they sent though is quite obviously written with the belief that my girlfriend is still 'in contract' - it states that her mobile has been "temporarily suspended" and that she can reactivate it by making the payment, not something she's likely to be bothered about given the fact that the Vodafone SIM has been in a drawer for the last ten weeks.

In their letter Vodafone gave my girlfriend seven days to make the payment - in our letter we've given them fourteen days to initiate a remedy, whether that be an apology or anything else. We've also contacted the credit reference agencies and asked them whether the failed DD payment will leave even the slightest trace - if it does then we're perfectly prepared to take things as far as they need to go. Technically, any trace that might be left by this could be classed as a libelous form of defamation. It might seem petty, and in some ways it is, but it's just not on for a company to take as many liberties as Vodafone has tried.

[seano]

ehyouwhat said:

bga said:

Worse case scenario, a single late payment is unlikely to tip a lending decision.

Fair enough, and especially as my girlfriend has a perfect credit history thus far. But that's the point, she has worked to make sure that everything she has ever owed has been paid on time and in full. It is therefore unfair that Vodafone can simply make a mistake (which they obviously have) and that this can have any kind of detrimental or negative effect on her credit rating, no matter how little or insignificant the overall result is.

Thanks for all the comments on this everyone, I'm still going to write a very snotty and rude letter to Vodafone (my fourth since she started her contract 19 months ago!) and I shall make sure I tell them in no uncertain terms to make any record of the missed payment dissapear!

As others have said, Vodafone will be able to get the record of this 'missed payment' removed from her credit bureau records (Experian, Equifax and Callcredit). Until the payment history for her account is altered, then it is possible the error may have a very minor effect on her credit rating. Most credit applications will look at payment history in some way and although unlikely to tip a credit decision either way, it is possible. I'd get it sorted as soon as possible - before Vodafone report a second missed payment to the bureaux. Once the payment history has been amended, there will be no detrimental effect in the future.