While the credit repair industry is under siege from the media I wanted to share a story that shows what effective credit repair can do for people. Credit repair really can change lives
We were recently approached by a young couple that had put a deposit on their first home. Like most young people about to purchase the first property they were very excited and couldn’t wait to complete the purchase and move in. They had gone to their bank to arrange the finance not thinking for one minute there would be a problem. Both had good jobs and had no reason to think they had any issue with their credit history.
They put in their application however instead of being approved their bank manager said there was a problem with one of the credit files and he was not going to be able to approve the finance. This came as a huge shock, the bank manager said there was a telecommunication default listed two years ago and unless this could be sorted he would not be able to approve their loan.
They contacted Veda Advantage and arranged a copy of their credit files. They could see that one of them had a default to a telecommunication company that happened while they had been on holiday. They had never been contacted about this default and were completely unaware of this until now. As they had never been contacted by the credit provider they thought this default was not right and they contacted the Telecommunication Ombudsman for help. The Ombudsman looked into the matter and said they could not help as they said the credit provider had done everything correctly with listing this payment default.
They were devastated, their dream of buying their first home had turned into a nightmare. They had put a deposit on this property and if they could not complete the purchase they were at risk of losing this money.
The couple had seen Clean Credit on Today Tonight and decided to call. After talking with them we also felt there were grounds to contest this listing and agreed to help.
We contacted the telecommunication company and asked to review all the related documents. We reviewed the original credit contract, the associated bills and demand notices. After conducting an investigation into the process followed prior to recording this default we were able to identify an error and on this basis have the default removed from the credit file.
With is, default removed their bank manager was able to approve the finance and our clients were able to complete on the purchase.
I am not in any way questioning the efficiency of the Ombudsman however this was not the first case we had taken on after the client had been to the Ombudsman but had not had a positive outcome and yet we had been able to remove the negative credit listing.
While the Ombudsman does provide a free service to consumers I feel sometimes people do need the help of a reputable credit repair company to really try for them and act in their interests.
I think that the credit repair industry and the Ombudsman both have a place and both are capable of genuinely helping people and changing lives.
John Dickinson