False credit history

Kungfu

I had a 5 year term loan with Bank of Scotland Ireland. When they went under their outstanding loan debts were taken over by Bluestone Asset Management and from then on my monthly loan payments went through to VHP, who are the debt collectors for Bluestone.

Since Bluestone took over from BOSI I did not receive a single statement of outstanding debts or payments regarding the loan. It wasn't until last April, when I set out to contact Bluestone/VHP that I finally got in contact with them by email. I later received confirmation from them that there were only two further loan payments plus one last payment of €75 left on the account. These payments went through.

I thought that this was the end of my debt to Bluestone, so went online and cancellled the Direct Debit relating to the loan. That was in June of this year. Since then I have received no word from Bluestone/VHP. Not even a closing account statement.

Last week I went to my bank and applied for a personal loan. In my loan application I stated, quite truely, that I had no current loans outstanding other than my mortgage.

Today the bank phoned me and told me that when they had run a credit check with the Irish Credit Bureau it appeared that I did have an outstanding loan which was unpaid.

I checked my bank account statemants online and found that, as I already knew, the final payments on the loan had gone through.

I contacted Bluestone by email to enquire as to why they had not notified the ICB of this fact. Bluestone replied that they are not regulated by the ICB. Strange then how they had registered my loan debt with the ICB to begin with. Although this may have been done by BOSI, I would have thought that Bluestone, in taking over the debt, would have done the right thing and notified the ICB that the debt had been cleared. Instead they have left the debt on my credit history as outstanding. They say that they will send me a letter confirming that the loan has been paid in full. However the damage is already done. My bank refused my loan application based upon the "fact" that I had omitted this "outstanding loan" from my application and that I was in default on the payments regarding the VHP loan.

I have contacted MABS for advice and they have responded by email. They will be in contact. However I am curious as to how Bluestone/VHP can operate in this coutry as a financial service (ie debt collection/asset management) and not be answerable to some authority.

Surely the Financial Regulators/Financial Services Ombudsman have some authority in this matter?

Anyone

Well, firstly the ICB is not a regulatory body. They are a company owned by the major financial institutions in Ireland.

As far as I know, debt collectors are not a regulated entity either. The central bank would have no authority over them

My guess is BoSI registered the debt when you initially took it out with them.
After that it appears to be a mess, I'd request a statement of payments as well as a letter. It may be a case that you have to prove to the ICB that the debt is gone, and that you have paid the agreed installments.

wmpdd3

Bluestone seem to be a total mess, they have given me three different amount owed in the last 2 weeks, this was after they spent 3 days trying to locate my loan (previously a credit card).

The funny thing is Bluestone are BOS, they share offices and as directors. One operator told me he was just logging on the the BOS system.

Kungfu

I have emailed Bluestone and asked if they can't just inform the ICB as they are supposed to be handling this business for Bank of Scotland. They had said they would send me a letter stating the debt to have been paid in full.

MABS also got back to me and have advised that they have been seeing a lot of this and that when I get the letter from Bluestone I should attach a copy of it to a letter to Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh telling them that the debt has been cleared and that I wish them to notify the ICB in this regards. I have been advised to tell Bank of Scotland that I will check my credit rating in 4-6 weeks and that if the matter hasn't been rectified that I will report the matter to the Financial Data Commissioners.

Trish56

Kungfu, Get a copy of your Credit report from the ICB http://www.icb.ie/
Then get a letter from Bluestone confirming receipt of the payments that are shown to be outstanding on the credit report and also print off your bank statements also evidencing the payments..... Firstly contact the ICB and supply them with letter and bank statement and ask them to up date your ICB and confirm to you when it is updated.
Then contact your bank and also provide the letter and supporting bank statements. If they do another Credit Check it will should show a clean sheet.

It's important that you do the above if not those payments shown to be outstanding will stay there and will affect your credit history.

Kungfu

Thank you. Trish56,

Sounds like a plan. I will follow those steps. Have received a short letter from Bluestone but it gives little detail other than the account number.

I will email them asking for statements of payments made, at least from the time that they took over from BOSI and I will contact Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh for other statements.