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Defaulted Vodafone account on my credit file

marekk
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hi,

 

I have recently applied for a mortgage and to my surprise the application was declined. Reason - credit check fail. The thing is that I have never missed a payment on anything and so my financial adviser told me to get my credit report from experian and find out what is causing the issue. What I discovered is that Vodafone recorded a default on my account that I believed has been closed in November 2012 (the default is for huge £14). The contract has run out at that time and so I contacted Vodafone and told them to close the account and that I'll be moving my number to O2 and so I did. As far as I was concerned my Vodafone account was settled. Vodafone never contacted my about the £14. If they did I would have paid it. Even if the payment was to be one month late it would not damage my credit profile. Is it even legal to default my account without some sort of communication to let me know? 

Straight after I got my credit report I called Vodafone and paid the £14 over the phone. (the account will soon show as settled but the default will stay) I asked them if I can get the default removed from my credit file and they couldn't tell me so they asked me to wait and that they will be in touch within 5 days. Yeah right... I called them again after 5 days and asked them to remove the default. I was told that it cannot be done because I did not pay my bill for 10 months. I was furious after the phone call. How can I pay for a bill that I dont know even existed?

 

I would really appriciate some help with this matter. I know that some people have been successful with getting the default removed.

 

 

459 REPLIES 459

Hi,

 

I seem to be having a similar issue.

 

I have a Vodafone account visible on my credit report which shows payments haven't been made since December.

 

I had registered for a new contract with Vodafone in December as a new customer, but Vodafone weren't able to port my number over from my old contract. I had the new contract cancelled within 14 days and have confirmation from the supplier (mobiles.co.uk) that Vodafone had officially cancelled the account.

 

Now I've had my first mortgage application declined, which will end up costing me several hundred pounds.

 

I contacted Customer Service via 191, and they've told me to call back tomorrow. 

 

What can I do to get this resolved ASAP? My purchase of a property may fall through if this takes much longer.

 

 

claremansfield3
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hi,

 

I'm also facing similar issues. I've just found our dream house to which we made an offer on. We then applied for a mortgage for it to be declined because of a "flag" on my credit file for Vodafone. I have no idea what this is and I haven't been a Vodafone customer for over 2 years.

 

So I found this thread on Google and spent about 45 minutes on the "Credit line" number I found in this thread. Eventually they told me they couldn't locate my account (I don't have an account?) on any system and advised I go in to store as they can help. So I leave work early and spend about 30 minutes in store to be told they can't help me either. They advised me to write a letter. I don't know why this will make a differance, hence why I'm here.

 

Can anyone from Vodafone help me? I'm extremely distressed.

 

Thanks, Clare.

kids
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

It is only the Credit File Support Team that can sort this out for you but while you are waiting you should put a Notice of Correction on your credit file so that lenders can see your explanation as to why the flag is appearing.

 

When you closed your Vodafone account did you receive a final bill showing a £0.00 balance and a "Sorry you are leaving us" letter? Until you have those two item you cannot be certain that there are not some charges outstanding and if you cancelled your Direct Debit assuming all was clear and Vodafone were unable to collectct the money they would have put a default marker on your credit file.

 

  1. What is a Notice of Correction?

A Notice of Correction is a short explanatory note (up to 200 words) you can add to an entry on your credit report to explain the background to that information for example, the reason for a late payment. Anyone searching your credit report in the future will see the Notice and they must take account of it when you apply for credit. (This might slow down your application)

  1. How do I leave a Notice of Correction?

Simply send a letter to the Credit Reference Agency with the wording you would like to add to your file and your full name and address. Please remember to sign your letter.

Please remember that the Notice of Correction can't be more than 200 words long, defamatory, libellous, incorrect or frivolous. The note will remain on your Credit file until you ask for it to be removed

Hi Guys

 

I've been through a lot of the replies here which have been helpful.  I'm in a similar position.  

 

Firstly, last September (2015) I moved networks across to EE from Vodafone.  I made my final payment on my account, left the DD open and then cancelled it six weeks later.  Roughly three months later I got a phone call from debt collectors claiming I owed Vodafone £30 for a final bill which is overdue from September.  I called Vodafone, who apologised profusely and said there was a mistake and they hadn't shut my account down, this was the fault of the operator I spoke to at the time.  They then texted me and said sorry again and that my account had been credited and the credit default removed.  

 

Fast forward to two weeks ago I tried to open a credit card account and was denied as I had a bad credit history, which couldn't be the case.  I check Equifax and sure enough, Vodafone have continued to bill me from September 2015 and I'm seriously in default.  So I telephoned Vodafone again, whom again apologised profusely and assured me this would be taken care of in seven days.  It's now been nine days, and I still have a bad credit history because of this mistake.  

 

I am pretty furious with this and I'm wasting time phoning Vodafone again and again for a mistake they made last year.  I am unable to achieve finance on anything.  

 

Is this something for the Financial Ombudsman?  As nobody at Vodafone is doing anything to rectify this.  

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Swerve

kids
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@Swerve550 The first thing to do is to get a Notice of Correction on your Equifax file so that anyone looking at you file can see your reason the default is there.

 

One of the Vodafone team that monitor these boards will see you post and be able to advise you the best way to proceed with getting the default marker removed if it proves to be a Vodafone error.

 

Thanks for the advice @kids but a notice of correction won't clean my credit file entirely.  I'll continue calling Vodafone, whom have yet to do anything useful.  

 

I'll also have to take to Twitter to publicly make people realise Vodafone do this.  The customer service level is shocking as I have been told time and time again it is their fault and they will fix it, they have also promised call backs which haven't happened.  

 

Pretty bad stuff from Vodafone when changing networks should be seemless.

 

Swerve 

kids
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@Swerve550 You are correct re the Notice of Correction but any lender searching your file must take the Notice into account when reaching a decsion.

 

It is better that anyone searching your file sees that there is a possible error by Vodafone on the file rather than just seeing a "default".

 

As you will have seen from other posts on these boards from people with the same problem whilst it should not be the case it can take a lot of time (and energy) to get the marker removed.

 

 

 

 

Sfransz
1: Seeker
Hi, I had a similar problem after moving to o2 it was impossible to pay my bill as in effect my account had been removed from the system, 20+ emails sent to Vodafone + 20 odd calls without being able to pay. Finally I went to the shop and made a scene until they contacted some department in HQ that would take my payment. I now have a default on my account even though it is settled. You can't log in to my account on Vodafone website. Would be great if I could prove this to Vodafone and have this removed, at minimum settled

Manjula1983
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Helo team,

My vodofone account number is 690241824.
I got this broadband connection in sep2014 and I had signed this contract for 1 month and after one month i cancelled the direct debit on my own as i wasnt aware of the policy in UK that we need to call up customer service to cancel the contract. I moved to different address due to some issues on my old house and vodofone kept sending the outstanding bill letter to my old address which i didnt aware of. After 2 months i got call from collection department asking me to pay 260pounds and i got shocked to hear that. Finally i paid back all the outstanding amount in 3 installments. I thought that problem is resolved . But when my employer did credit check for me yesterday, i got shocked and score was very poor and the reason for bad score is vodofone defaulter thing is still reflecting in the report which i paid back 1 and half year back. I might loose job now as my credit score is very poor. Can you please remove my name and adrress from the credit file please. It is very vert vert urgent as my employer asked me to leave to india now as client is not taking me into the projects due to this issue. Please please resolve the issue ASAP.
Thanks inadvance!
Manjula
My contact number :[REMOVED BY MODERATOR]

 

[Moderator Note: Removed personal details, please refer to our Community Guidelines]

63johnw
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion
Hi. If the default was correct, and from what you have said it was as you didn't follow the correct procedure and did owe the money, then the default can only be marked as settled and will remain on your file for 6 years, it can't be removed.