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[rmuirhead]

Hi can anyone help?
I was a mobile broadband customer and my contract came to an end in November last year after a two year contact. I contacted them in October and paid the final balance of Nov and Dec and they informed me they would close my account. Before this I paid my bills each and every month.
I have recently been looking into a mortgage and obtained a copy of my credit file from Equifax. It is showing as a default of six pounds from 02. I am devastated I do not know what to do about this or even where to begin.
I have never received any notification for the outstanding amount. I am distraught and I have spent most of the evening in tears not knowing what to do and how long and if this will be able to be resolved.
I spoke to someone in customer services who said they have sent emails and letters and that they have also made debt calls. I have never received any such thing as I would immediately of paid it if I had. It is less than six pounds why would I not pay it? The only thing she said was we've sent the notices it's not our fault if you've not had them. I've never received anything from them and if they have emailed and sent letters she said they had done both then I would have thought I would receive one of them She said if I pay the amount and we will update your credit file. She said they would update it as settled. This will make no real difference to my credit rating and I will be unable to get a mortgage or anything for the next six years. This is seriously going to affect my life and it just doesn't seem right when I have been a customer on mobile and mobile broadband for such a longtime and always paid my bills.

PLEASE CAN ANYONE HELP I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO?

[perksie Level 58: Overseer]

The amount here doesn't really make any difference to O2, it's an outstanding amount, it's possible you stopped the direct debit before the final bill was issued.
If you pay the £6, O2 will amend your credit record to show there is nothing outstanding and you should be unaffected with regard to future credit.

[rmuirhead]

That's not correct if my credit file is amended to show the £5.84 has been paid. My file will remain with a default notice showing and will prevent me obtaining a mortgage and other credit in the future. The registration of this notice is in no way proportionate to the future impact on my life.
I did not cancel the direct debit early because when I called I was informed that there would be nothing left to pay. I don't even know where the amount had come from. Looks like I might have to contact the credit referral department and if no success there the the information commission, financial ombudsman or the small claims will have to help me instead. I'm simply not prepared to accept a default notice on my credit file it's going cause me financial loss in the long run as I will have to pay higher interest rates when borrowing. In fact I found some interesting guidance from the information commissioner they state where a default notice has been registered for such a small amount it could be argued that the default notice should be removed because it is not a true and accurate reflection of a borrowers credit history as they would be likely to have paid the amount had they know about it.
The most frustrating thing is that I have never received any request for payment. If I had I would have paid it in the same way I've paid all my bills with them as a mobile and broadband customer over the past five years. There is simply no logic to this.

[perksie Level 58: Overseer]

Taking out a mortgage will be based on your credit, savings and earnings activity now, it's unlikely to be refused because of a single missed payment.
You can ask for a note to be added to your record explaining that the default is in dispute.

[southerner]

A Default Notice is a lot more serious than a missed payment - it's basically taken as a sign that the the company have given up hope of getting the money back, and it's a stepping stone to debt collection agencies. So unfortunately even if you pay it off now, it'll stay on your credit file for the next 6 years.
Best hope as perksie says is to contact one of the credit reference agencies and ask for a note to be added to say it's under dispute - think it's called a Notice of Correction.

[perksie Level 58: Overseer]

There's a lot more info here which may be useful:
http://www.desktoplawyer.co.uk/dtl/inde ... 6333D76562

[rmuirhead]

Thanks for the advice will do some more research. 02 representatives don't seem to understand how serious a default notice is although seem to issue them so freely. Sent a letter to credit referral department a registered a dispute with equinfax so will have to see where we go from there. Will be publicising this as much as possible.

[rmuirhead]

I visited a mortgage broker tonight and he was pretty clear that the default will affect the rates and terms of a mortgage I would take out so the impact is pretty serious of it's not removed. Its going to take a pretty long time to sort this out and if I suffer financial loss in the interim then I'll have to consider how to recover any financial loss from 02.