Credit File wrongly shows default leading to mortgage getting rejected

[Ragamuffin]

Hi,

My wife had bought a phone on loan from O2 in Apr 2017 and within the cooling off period paid the balance owed to O2 and bought the phone outright. Later she observed the monthly fees being debited from her account. She contacted O2 service centre who owned to the mistake and credited the account immediately. 

Cut to Sep 2019, we apply for mortgage for our dream house and get rejected. the reason being my wife's credit report shows £10 owed to O2 since Jun 2017. We have contacted O2 support centre and they have confirmed that there is no record of any outstanding. However to get the issue recetified have asked us to contact creditfilereferrals@o2.com. We have dropped a note to the team yesterday and received auto response that we will get response in 3 working days.

Based on feedback, seems like it is going to take some time to get the issue recetified. I will be grateful if some one from the community can help in expediting review of my wife's case. I can PM the details. Looking forward to support from the community. Thanks!

Regards,

VB

[jonsie]

@Marjo   @Martin-O2 ??

[MI5]

@Martin-O2 ?

[Benlfc]

I am not saying I have any expert knowledge as to the ins and outs of mortgages although I have one myself, my first impressions are that there isn’t a chance someone would get rejected for any sort of credit because they owe a company £10 regardless of the length of time it’s been owed, to save time and effort and get it resolved on the credit file sooner rather than later anyone would just pay the £10 to clear it and then if they were that bothered they would fight for the refund back once they had obtained the mortgage, if you can’t make payment because O2 have no record of it then the only option would be to use the email you’ve been provided but that isn’t why the mortgage has been declined

[Ragamuffin]

Hi thanks for your response. We checked our credit report and that is the only adverse remark and we believe it to be reason for the mortgage rejection. The credit checks by Banks go by certain logic and the decision is not based on the magnitude of the default. £10 vs £10000 I think the outcome will be the same. Regarding clearing the outstanding, there isnt one as per their system. And even if there is, by paying it now the record of default will not be taken out of the credit report for 6 years. As mentioned earlier, O2 has agreed that it is a mistake on their part to have it as outstanding when there wasnt one. When asked to provide written proof of it to show to the banks, the support team member asked us to contact the credit file referral team. We have dropped mail to the team, but need support to expedite the review of our case.

Regards

VB

[Benlfc]

I didn’t mean to sound abrupt or anything, I get what your saying but I just can’t see a default for £10 having any massive adverse affect on your application, I know if it’s an error you can have it removed before the 6 years but when I obtained my mortgage 6 years ago mine and my partners credit files weren’t the best and we were declined by one bank but accepted by another, that could be another thing you could do and try another bank I don’t know your position of course just trying to give my experiences

[Martin-O2]

Thanks for the mention on this one @jonsie, @MI5. 

@Ragamuffin I can escalate this for you and see if we can speed up the response given the time sensitive issues around your mortgage application. I'll send you a private message so I can get some details. 

[Ragamuffin]

Thanks @jonsie, @MI5.

Thanks @Martin-O2, I have sent the details through Private Message.

Regards,

Vinay

[Martin-O2]

Thanks for the quick reply @Ragamuffin! Received and replied. 

[Martin-O2]

This should be sorted for you now @Ragamuffin! Please check your messages for details.