Hi, just wanted to vent a little.
We recently got refused a mortgage. Did a deep dive, and it turned out that it was due to a life-admin screw-up whereby I’d changed bank accounts and an old car insurance direct debit hadn’t been transferred across to the new one. It was our fault, but I genuinely thought the account was settled.
I paid it immediately upon discovery. Turns out the company had emailed me twice in three months, to an old account I never check, and then defaulted me with several credit agencies, resulting in me essentially losing thousands of pounds because I couldn’t get the mortgage deal I was after. All over a missed termination fee that I was totally unaware of.
I took to Reddit for a bit of legal advice and was piled on by countless sanctimonious, angry folk who were quick to tell me it was my fault and that I didn’t have a leg to stand on. They were almost gleeful, with zero empathy or acknowledgement that the consequences of our screw-up were disproportionate.
They all seemed to enjoy telling me I was fucked, it was my fault, and that the company was completely in the right.
Anyway, all I was after was a bit of advice, and I was basically told I was an entitled dick, that I needed to take responsibility for my actions, and that I wouldn’t get anything other than six years of bad credit – and rightfully so.
Disheartened by this, I sent an email to the company, calmly stating the facts, not expecting anything to change. I just received an email from the insurance folk saying that they accept the outcome was disproportionate and that they should have made more of an effort to get in touch before defaulting me. They also offered me £100 compensation.
Anyway, just wanted to share this and highlight how these armchair Reddit legal experts, with their skewed, condescending and misanthropic worldview, have really made me appreciate Lemmy and reaffirmed my decision to stay away from that dreadful platform.
If you want the blemish off your credit reports, talk to the company again and tell them you’re going to dispute those and would appreciate it if they didn’t respond to any inquiries. That might work and is the only way I can think to have that removed aside from waiting seven years.
Sorry, I didn’t explain it very well - the default is being removed as well as getting compensation. I wrote them an honest (albeit lengthy) email.
This is a direct quote from their response:
'I’ve reviewed the outstanding balance and can see it relates to the twelfth and final payment for your 2025-26 policy. This remained unpaid after the Direct Debit instruction was cancelled, which resulted in the payment being returned to you. I’ve also reviewed the correspondence we sent after the payment became overdue. The balance itself was valid, and we’ve contacted you by email in line with the communication preference held on your policy. However, whilst our emails explained an outstanding amount was due, they didn’t make it clear a missed payment could lead to information being recorded on your credit file. I don’t think we provided enough information for you to fully understand the potential consequences of leaving the balance unpaid."
I guess my point was that these dreadful people who masquerade as experts are just tiny, bitter individuals whose advice should be avoided at all costs.
It’s wild to me that a customer agent paid by the very company that raised the default had more empathy than the ‘community’ of self-proclaimed experts I saught guidence from.
I’m glad to hear that! I mean the part about the default being removed and not the part about keyboard warrior assholes.