Repayment
How to build a repayment plan you will actually finish
Most repayment plans fail for behavioural reasons rather than arithmetic ones, and the fixes are mechanical rather than…
Ross Cadogan
Disputes writer, The Credit Question
Ross writes about file errors, disputes and the statutory processes for fixing them.
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16 articles
Errors & Disputes
Mistaken identity and how credit files get mixed together
Files are matched on name, date of birth and address, and when two people share enough of those the data can merge.
Errors & Disputes
A paid debt still showing as outstanding
One of the most common credit file errors is also one of the most damaging, because many lenders screen on outstanding balances…
Errors & Disputes
Duplicate entries after a debt is sold
One debt should appear once. When a sale leaves two live records, your file overstates what you owe and lenders act on it.
Errors & Disputes
Your data rights over a credit reference agency
The agencies hold personal data about you, which in many countries gives you rights that are stronger than any consumer credit…
Errors & Disputes
Fixing one agency does not fix the others
Credit reference agencies hold separate files from separate sources, and a correction at one is invisible to the rest.
Repayment
Insolvency has different names and different consequences everywhere
Formal debt solutions vary so much between countries that the familiar terms carry almost no transferable meaning.
Repayment
Enforcement after a judgment, and the limits on it
A court decision that you owe money is the start of a separate process, and that process has boundaries worth knowing in advance.
Errors & Disputes
A missed payment marker the bank caused itself
When a payment fails because of an error at the lender or the bank, the resulting marker is inaccurate and can be challenged.
Errors & Disputes
The address on your file that was never yours
Files carry linked addresses, and an address you never lived at can drag another person financial history alongside your own.
Errors & Disputes
An arrangement to pay is being reported, and often wrongly
Agreeing to pay less than the contractual amount creates a specific file marker, and lenders frequently apply it incorrectly.
Errors & Disputes
A closed account still showing as open
An account you closed years ago can sit on your file as live, consuming assessed capacity and occasionally carrying a balance you…
Errors & Disputes
Disputing an entry when the lender no longer exists
Firms are wound up, merged and sold, and an incorrect entry from one of them still has to be corrected by somebody.
Errors & Disputes
Insolvency records that outstay their period
Public insolvency entries have defined lifespans, and entries occasionally persist past them or record the wrong dates entirely.
Errors & Disputes
Court records attached to the wrong person
Public judgment data is matched to individuals by name and address, and that matching goes wrong in entirely predictable ways.
Errors & Disputes
When the dispute fails and the entry was right
Most disputes that fail do so because the data was accurate, and there is still a useful set of moves left after that finding.