Late payments and credit files question?

[rapidophile]

Hi All,

Quick question to ask if I can avoid getting a late payment strike. Want to know the law/guidelines if anyone is wise to the black arts of credit scoring.

Situation:

Just moved to a new apartment at start of December and first payment was due to come out of my account on 25th Dec.

For some unknown reason my Bank wouldn't process the new standing order from estate agents, due 'security checks' and sent me a letter asking me to contact the bank to varify the request before they would complete request. Not too much of a problem, except they sent the letter to my old address and I had moved, so didn't get it.

I only got this letter today, with Christmas and NY holiday, I haven't checked my bank statement or had any of my old mail (till today when I picked it up) so was oblivious to this situation till today. Plus the estate agent is closed till tomorrow.

I realise this is my responsibilty to ensure bank has set it up and keep on top of it, but at the same time I have filled in the the forms and done everything I was suppose to in good faith, never had the bank do anything like this before. My main concern is that I want to buy this year, so don't want anything affecting my history, hard enough getting credit at the moment.

Obviously I have written to the estate agents via email tonight to let them know what has happened, offered to take in the letter as proof, send payment online first thing in the morning or even draw in cash and give to them tomorrow which is the most I can do to rectify the situation.

Question?

Are the estate agent legally bound to mark my file with a late payment strike? Or can they make a case by case judgment if I show them the letter?

Is there a set time (x number of working days / weeks or a month) that makes a payment worthy of a strike.

Will the holiday / bank holidays closures be taken into consideration?

I'm I worrying over nothing?

Thanks in advance,

R

[davidjpowell]

It's very unlikely that an Estate Agent will be able to touch your credit file.

[rapidophile]

They do run credit checks on your when you move in, its done by a third party agency normally.

There are several clauses in my tenancy agreement that refer to late / missing payments.

Although I just managed to get them on the phone and they let me know that if a tenant was in arrears or continually late with rent, it would be made avaliable for other agencies through credit referencing agencies. Plus also they have to write it down on your reference should you rent again.

Thanks for response, looks like I got away with it this time.

Last time Barclays managed to cancel a direct debit order to my creditcard company which to this date I have not been able to establish why, and the credit card company marked my file with a late payment strike, despite the fact I had cash in the account because I was unable to prove it was Barclays and I got fed up with speaking to their call centres in India who seemingly get repeating the same answer (not the one to my question) again and again till I gave up.

Considering a move to another bank soon....