Hello cjdl and welcome to the forum.

Firstly congratulations upon having completed your trust deed. Your comments that the trust deed was a good decision, that you became comfortable with the restricted budget during the course of the trust deed, and that you have used the experience to better manage your finances in the future will be extremely reassuring to readers who are considering the trust deed option currently.

Questions about credit ratings are quite common on the forum and all of the "experts" here usually preface their comments with the fact they we are not experts on credit ratings. However we'll certainly share what we do know and other visitors may add their thoughts and personal experience as well.

I don't think that there is any set date that a "default" could or should appear on your credit file.
However I think that you could contact these creditors now (one by one) and request that the status of the defaults be updated to "settled" given that the money is no longer owed.

There are some credit cards, albeit with very high interest rates, available to people with damaged credit. So long as the bill is paid off in full each month though it should be possible to avoid any interest charges. Perhaps a card like this could be used for a single supermarket shop or tank of petrol each month for example? Such a car would help to rebuild credit for anyone for whom this is a priority.

Mobile phone contracts have been mentioned here as being useful for rebuilding credit as well.

In terms of a mortgage you'll be aware that the requirement for larger deposits has been a key feature of the change in the mortgage market over the last few years. Saving the biggest deposit that you can will be as important as the credit rating side of things.

I hope this information is useful to start off with and, as mentioned before, others may have some extra information to add as well.

Hi Cjdl

Congratulations that you completed your Trust Deed and that's great to hear that you have learned to live without credit and within your means!

In addition to TDA's helpful comments above, you can also add a Notice of Correction to your credit report. You will be able to explain your circumstances surrounding an entry on the report.

Keep up the good work!

Julie

Hello,

Thanks for your quick reply - I thought some positive comments would be good as often you only see stories from people who feel it's all been a huge mistake/disaster 🙁 which certainly wasn't my experience.

I'll definitely be writing to them to request they update the status, I'm just confused about the default dates... my understanding of the whole process is that once in a (protected) TD - lenders can take no further legal action... defaults are 'legal action' so they should (IMO) not be dated later than the TD. As to when it will come off of my file, I'm thinking it's 6 years from the default date, rather than 6 years from the TD (or PTD) date - but who knows !?

I'm aware of those 'credit building' cards but I think I'm just going to go to the bank (RBS) and ask them to open a classic card with a small limit (think their limits start at ?ú300) and use it as you suggest (although likely for train tickets and cigarettes) then repay in full each month. I just don't want to do it while my credit file is still littered with all of this (effectively redundant) adverse information, as it'll likely result in a rejection.

I work for a phone company so already have a contract mobile (no credit check required for staff which was handy) and also the usual home utility accounts.

RE: Mortgage Deposit, I have some savings... actually this may be a useful story:

When I entered TD, I decided that if I was going to be skint, I might as well be really skint - went part-time @ work and went back to Uni. My IP advised that Student Loans are NOT counted as income for purposes of a TD, so I lived mainly off my p/t work earnings and stuck most of the student loan away in an ISA. Result being that when I finished TD, I have a degree, enabling me to get a better job, and some decent savings tucked away !

Also, when the banks crashed and interest rates went through the floor, I converted my ISA to a Stocks/Shares ISA and bought bank shares - which are now starting to turn a (tax-free) profit - so in a couple of years when I'm looking for a mortgage I should have a decent deposit.

Quick note about Student Loan - although this, technically, is debt - most people (myself included) wouldn't consider it 'real' debt - the amount taken off of your salary (by HMRC) is miniscule and the interest rates are nominal, plus it's never 'repayable on demand'.

Anyway, I'm rambling now - thanks for your advice - I look forward to any more suggestions, and I'll draft up some letters to the old creditors.

Thanks,
Chris.

quote:

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Originally posted by Julie Heaton

you can also add a Notice of Correction to your credit report. You will be able to explain your circumstances surrounding an entry on the report.

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Hi Julie,

Thanks for your comments... I had thought about that, but I've heard that it can be a bit of a waste of time as it effectively gets disregarded - or can be seen as 'making excuses'. I don't really have an excuse anyway, I was just VERY silly with money when I was younger and went a bit mad with credit cards and the like.

Also, as i'm getting close to that 6 year period - all of these accounts should be completely removed from my credit file - so would it be better NOT to have the NoC as the adverse informatino will be removed soon anyway ?

Cheers,
Chris.

Hi Chris,

I don't think that a Default Notice could be described as a legal action, it's more a precursor to allow legal action should the creditor choose (which obviously they could not because of the protected trust deed) and also serves to alert other lenders to the non-payment of the debt.

You are correct about the date the Defaults will no longer appear on your credit file, anything on there stays there for six years.

Marking a default as "settled" will be beneficial in terms of your credit status. Our resident mortgage broker (Graeme Leckie) has written about this previously and you may wish to look up some of his previous posts in terms of your future mortgage requirements.

A low-limit card from your own bank sounds a very good option if they are prepared to provide you with one.

It certainly sounds as though you have put a lot of thought into your future after the trust deed and I wish you well with your plans.

Just to clarify for you further, cjdl. Being in a protected trust deed does not stop a creditor taking legal action as such (although as tda says, a default notice isn't really legal action anyway). Creditors are not able to take enforcement action (eg wage/bank arrestments, petition for sequestration) so it is pointless them raising a legal action and obtaining a decree from court because they cannot use it to get their money back.

In terms of date of default, usually this takes place before or around the same time as a trust deed is signed, but not necessarily - it depends really on how quickly creditors serve these notices once the account in question meets the criteria to be classed as in default.

Hope this helps clarify matters a little, though I realise it is of little use to you in trying to get your credit record cleaned up!