Credit cards

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Whilst I agree that these sort of firms with the PPI claims and suchlike are ***** (you sign it, you deal with it in my opinion) how would it be giving you a bad credit rating? Surely the debt would simply be marked as "Settled" and the credit file wouldn't say whether this was a cash payment or a court case so the overall effect would be a better credit rating (assuming you're paying your other bills on time)

You take a gamble that the company will not challenge your appeal, if they do you could be liable for costs and this will be marked. The easiest way for it to be marked is what someone mentioned earlier within any contracts they can close all/any accounts s long as they give you 30 days notice. This will then get your next application for credit refused which in turns starts a downward spiral.

 

[Dominoid]

But that's what I don't get, there's no place in the Equifax/Experian records held for court case records of that type. If there was a CCJ for non payment of an overdraft or loan balance then that could get marked as a default, if an account was closed for defaulting then that can be recorded and if the claim was decreed to be fraud then it'd get recorded by CIFAS, but if an account is closed because the bank merely no longer want your business, it's marked as "settled" or simply "closed" The overall effect to the credit score in those cases wouldn't be detrimental and you can just move on to another bank. This was in fact exactly what I did after a series of mistaken charges from Alliance and Leicester resulted in me threatening them with legal action via the ombudsman. Perhaps if you had a credit card as well as a loan and an overdraft with the same bank and couldn't afford to repay them all within 30 days then you could be f***ed, but does anyone keep all their stuff with the same company in this day and age? Not that I'd condone trying to wriggle out of a credit agreement of course, just playing devil's advocate.

 

[Mammoth]

When the FOS was swamped with overdraft charge refund complaints a couple of years ago, certain banks didn't like the outcome, not to mention the case fee they had to pay for every adjudication, win or lose and all overdraft charge refund complaints were followed by account closure notices from the bank. As anyone with a few direct debits who has tried to change accounts knows, it can be a proper pain in the arse. As the complaints were about o/d charges, it is fair to assume many of these people were owing to the bank. Probably screwed some students after a quick buck aswell!

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

But that's what I don't get, there's no place in the Equifax/Experian records held for court case records of that type. If there was a CCJ for non payment of an overdraft or loan balance then that could get marked as a default, if an account was closed for defaulting then that can be recorded and if the claim was decreed to be fraud then it'd get recorded by CIFAS, but if an account is closed because the bank merely no longer want your business, it's marked as "settled" or simply "closed" The overall effect to the credit score in those cases wouldn't be detrimental and you can just move on to another bank. This was in fact exactly what I did after a series of mistaken charges from Alliance and Leicester resulted in me threatening them with legal action via the ombudsman. Perhaps if you had a credit card as well as a loan and an overdraft with the same bank and couldn't afford to repay them all within 30 days then you could be f***ed, but does anyone keep all their stuff with the same company in this day and age? Not that I'd condone trying to wriggle out of a credit agreement of course, just playing devil's advocate.

I believe when you open a new account, you are also asked if you have had any previous accounts and any credit refused. Many banks will open you account even if your credit score is poor, if you run your account well and they see a profit in you, it will not be many months before they will offer you credit and multiple products based on your time with them alone.

There are loads of loopholes and credit scores are based on a lot more than if you have challenged technical rulings, if you own property, are on the electoral register and have never missed a payment over years for example.

The initail question was about these big claims handling buisneses that charge you money to do things you could do yourself with minimal research, without really advsising you of all the consequences.