Alina lowered her monthly payments to a debt buyer for a short period of time. She wasn’t aware it would have a negative impact on her credit report until she applied for a new loan/credit card.
What happened
Alina’s debt was sold to a debt buying company. She made an agreement with them to pay a lower amount each month for a brief period of time.
When Alina made a new application for a loan/credit card, it was rejected by the lender. She found out that the debt buyer had reported her lower repayments as missed payments, which showed on her credit report.
Alina was unhappy and felt the debt buyer hadn’t fully explained the impact of reducing the repayments, so she made a complaint.
The debt buyer said in its final response that it hadn’t done anything wrong. Alina then decided to bring her complaint to us.
What we said
We asked Alina and the debt buyer for information and evidence to help us investigate what happened.
After reviewing all the evidence and files, we agreed with Alina that the debt buyer didn’t explain the implications of reducing the repayments, so we uphold Alina’s complaint.
The debt buyer agreed to waive the current arrears, which totalled to £500. We also told them to extend Alina’s agreement on reduced payments for an extra three months and remove the missed repayments from Alina’s credit report.