I was under the impression hat it is 6 years from the date of default that is registered on your file for that debt - which should be close to the date of the trust deed being signed.

Keep us updated Headwire? it would be good to know whether my understanding is correct.

I'm a bit confused as to which date I should be calculating the 6 years from, I was granted the trust deed on 22nd March, however the date beside my signature is 9th May with the trust deed becoming protected on 14th May. Which of the 3 is regarded as the starting date? I had a further look at my credit file which shows my trust deed as starting 22nd march 2012 and some of the default accounts have the default date as april and another in august

Hi Headwire,

I think it's when the trust deed started; when it was signed. This matches your credit file.

Regards the default notices, you'll want to consider whether it's worthwhile for you to contact creditors who dated default notices after that date and require them to amend them.

Thank you for the advice. I've sent letters to the creditors asking to amend the default dates so I'll see what happens and keep you updated. I'm hoping to apply for a mortgage so I'm trying to make sure my credit report is as healthy as possible, perhaps once the trust deed as fallen off it will be enough to secure a mortgage without worrying about the defaulted accounts that are still showing.

I guess the August one may be the most useful to address?

You have the option to complain if things don't move swiftly in the way that you want it to. This forces a matter to be dealt with within a strict timescale and usually involves an empowered person dealing with your concern.

Quick update on this. Three of the defaulting accounts which were all from the same creditor have now had the date changed and have been removed from my credit score, so it looks like creditors should be recording the first default as the same date of the trust deed starting. Still waiting to hear back from the last creditor. Although these defaulted accounts have disappeared it hasn't improved my credit score which I find quite strange, I would of though removing these would have a significant affect on my overall score.

Hi Headwire,

Three things I'd think about this:

1 - The longer ago something happened the less of an effect it will have on your credit score. This might partly explain why little has changed.

2 - You still have a defaulted account on your credit file, which might be what's holding your score down. Maybe it doesn't make a huge difference to the score whether you have one or four defaulted accounts there? Either way it's showing a (previous) problem.

3 - The score is kind of irrelevant anyway. Lenders come up with their own score. If they have a criteria that they're not going to lend to anyone with a defaulted account on their credit file then your credit score makes no difference.

If you are using a free site like Noddle they update scores once a month. Noddle are the harshest so you may have 1/5 from them until all defaults clear.

I assume you have looked at all three free services Noddle, ClearScore and the MSE Credit Club, they will cover Call credit, Equifax and Experian just to make sure that you capture everything. Different Creditors use different reference agencies.

As mentioned don't worry about the score, just focus on getting it as clean as it can be as lenders will use their own scoring criteria anyway