Hi Almostthere,

I'm sorry to hear of the difficulties you are facing trying to obtain your discharge certificate and for you to move on and put the Trust Deed behind you.

I can't offer much advice other than keep on at your Trustee for this. You could send a letter of complaint and advise that you have completed your part of your Trust Deed and it is unfair to be kept in it for the period which you have due to a backlog. I can understand a couple of months but to have paid your last payment in November and we are now in June and to still not have received your Form 5 I don't think is fair.

Keep on at them, perhaps daily/weekly calls/emails/letters and you may find your case is prioritised to the top of the backlog.

I'm in the same boat 2 months since equity was paid off but due to Santander not seeming to put in pod they are waiting for them for months now so mine could take years at this rate at least I'm not paying them any more ,unfortunately any windfall coming up in the future's going to go to them

If they are holding back on the form 5 and you won 2k on the Bingo, why would anyone tell them the won that amount. I am hoping I don't have issues when I come to the end of my TD, I think some of these companies are reluctant to discharge, they agreed to help people for a certain length of time, let's get these people discharged so they can move on with their lives.

Because there's an integrity and honesty issue poprey? And because you'd quite possibly make things much worse for yourself right when you're about to be discharged?

There won't be any reluctance to discharge.

It comes down to the resources available to do that task, and the priority with which that task is treated by individual firms.

I do sympathise with your feelings in one major sense though. It seems to me that people who complete their obligations should be able to expect a relatively prompt discharge in return for all of their efforts and the fees that the trustee has collected.

Thanks TDA, as I stated before, maybe there are more that I'd done more promptly than others, and maybe I am just reading the parts that are having issues, just hope people get there issues sorted out, it is so easy to gall I to debt in this country, that is the issue, I am just looking at when its time to look for discharge myself, am I going to face issues, but with my last statement, if some are waiting 6 months for form 5 after completing their obligations without any issues, just wondering why it would take so long for discharge.

I think the reason for delay poprey will be one, or a combination of both, of the following:

1 - The firm has insufficient resources to processes discharges quickly.

2 - The firm assigns a relatively low priority to processing discharges quickly.

The idea that some trust deed providers are in some way "reluctant" to discharge people, with the implication that there might be "something in it for them" by causing such a delay, doesn't stack up for me.

Thanks everyone - apparently it's in the post. When do you suggest I look at my credit rating and working through building that? Now or when I get the form?

Ps this forum is an excellent resource! So helpful to talk to people in the same position.

Hopefully many creditors will update the credit file without the need for any prompting - but I think it may take them a month or two based on what others have said on here.

Hi Kevin

It seems to me that two main separate processes go on here (for the purposes of this topic).

1. Form F5 individual discharge. The creditors are not really interested or they do not know. They wait for their money.
Not one of my creditors was interested and I had to produce a copy of Form 5 to prove discharge and dates. How would they know that the individual has been discharged? Do Trustees send a copy of Form 5 to all the creditors? I understood they did not.

2. Payment of creditor dividend and Trustee Discharge.
If it is going to happen this is likely to be when the credit files may be updated when the payment and closure of account permeates the organization.

In my experience, individual discharge makes no difference to the creditors and file. There seems to be a gap between the individual being discharged and the creditors being notified he/she has been discharged.

All that said, it depends how close one is to the 6 year point how soon you want to start getting things corrected. It would seem to be easier after the dividend has been paid, however, if you get the correct department and send a copy of the Form 5, then the creditors will update from there - not all at the same speed and with the same enthusiasm or accuracy I have to say from experience.

Thanks for the info Firewalker.

My TD was set up in December 2011 so a while off my 6yr mark. My main concern is getting a mortgage. That's the one and only point I am aiming to succeed after all this is done and dusted. Realistically I know it won't happen anytime soon however if I can help speed up the process in anyway I will. To be honest I will need to look through the forum and find out where I start. I thought my trustee might provide some advice but I basically got my discharge form with a covering letter.

Hello Almostthere

You have plenty of time.

Do you have a credit reference account (like Equifax, Experian or Noddle)?

If not, I would suggest you try Noddle which is free, or Checkmyfile which is free for a month and £7.99 after that.

Noddle deals with records held by CallCredit and Checkmyfile shows the results from Experian, Equifax and CallCredit.

Check your Trust Deed discharge is showing up to date.
Check each of the creditor entries to see what date they have as default.
If the date is different to the date of the start of your Trust Deed, that is what you need to get changed. I have some within a month and did not bother pursuing those.
Check each of the Reference Agency records - they are not always
the same.

The address and contact number is at the bottom of those records so you can copy or print the information.

When you have all that to hand, you can either phone or write to them.
There are template letters on this site you can use. If you can telephone and then send a photocopy of your Form5 to them, they should update the records.

Sometimes it takes a few contacts with them to get it changed. Sometimes they argue it is the date they were told it defaulted or the Trust Deed became protected. That is not the case. it is the date of the Trust Deed to match the date on your Form 5 (start date).

Try stage one - checking the records to see how much work you have and see how you get on. If necessary you can come back to the forum for the letter template.

Good luck. Once you try one you will get the hang of it. I found it difficult to get to the correct address and departments so the contact information on CheckMyFile should be helpful.

Hi Almostthere.

I see that Firewalker has provided you with some useful information.

For background, most trust deed providers will not engage substantially regarding credit ratings during/after protected trust deeds.

Most firms would consider that this subject sits outside of their area of responsibility. Equally importantly, they'll have little or no training, experience or qualifications in this area. Any information that they were to provide to you would therefore not necessarily be of much value anyway.

Thank you both - great start and I really appreciate the advice. I joined noodle last night and as expected there are a few defaults against my rating. Some on the companies, I am not aware of, however I am assuming that this is debt that has been sold on. Is it just a case of looking them up on google or is that what you're referring to Firewalker when you talk about CheckMy File.

Thanks again

sorry 2 more questions:

My balances are still sitting where I was when I entered the TD - should these be at zero?
And is it acceptable to send a photocopy of my discharge form?