Default preventing me getting a job.

A question about : Default preventing me getting a job.

Hi guys,

I gave the forum a quick search but couldnt really find an answer I was looking for.

As the title says I would like to remove a default from my credit file as this is preventing me changing career and getting a job in investment banking.

I had defaulted on a Littlewoods account, I think it was approximately Ј700.

I started to pay back the account because someone from Lowell contacted me about the account. At the time I assumed this was just a group as i knew Littlewoods and Very are pretty much the same company. I never realised the account had defaulted until recently when checking my report and it preventing me getting a job.
The default is settled and i have contacted Lowell to try and get them to remove the default as I hadnt realised it was a default account. No luck.
I contacted Equifax and disputed it on the grounds that I dont ever recall seeing a letter that the account would be put in to default and they never followed the correct procedure. Lowell's reply was as they purchased the debt from littlewoods they have no need to send a letter as it would have been sent from there.

Now my question is, as they purchased the debt from another company do they have to follow a procedure and do i have anything against them? Has anyone ever had a similar situation with any success?

Like i said i have paid it all off and not looking for money back would just like this default removed if possible to try and get me a job in finance.

Thanks for all your help and advice.
D

Best answers:

• A company will issue a default notice via letter after you have missed payments and fail to bring the account up to date, this is usually also issued by the initial company you have the account with.
  The second company are only involved as the debt has passed onto them and so it would have been Littlewoods that issued the default, Lowells are correct in their information.
  Not wishing to sound harsh but Littlewoods are generally quite relentless in contacting customers who are in arrears and as you paid the outstanding balance acknowledging there was a debt, whether you remember seeing a letter or not, as long as one was issued to the address they had on their records, this is considered to be correctly served.
  The account may be settled but if you broke the terms of the agreement in the first place by not keeping the account up to date and a default notice was issued then this generally will only drop off after 6 years.
  However others may be able to offer better advice.
• It's a shame Lowells bought the debt because I would imagine it would be much easier to persuade a company like a catalogue or mobile operator or something to remove a default than a debt collection agency. DCA's probably get sick of people asking for defaults to be removed
  If they've said no there isn't really much else you can do unless you can find evidence that the default notice wasn't served properly or you didn't owe the debt in the first place for some reason.
• Thanks for the replies.
  If i did somehow manage to get littlewoods to show a sign of goodwill would it be a letter from them that would get the default removed? As it shows as a default from Lowell im worried that even if they did say they would take it off it would have no effect because it isnt an account with them?
• Ok so no point in writing to them. No way of saying Lowell didnt follow correct procedures, or had no right to purchase the debt?
  I did think it would be a long shot but thought maybe someone had been in a similar situation and could shed a bit of light. I will have to suffer the consequences of my idiocy.
  Thanks for all your help