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Case 16 of 19 · Level 1
A mortgage · a repayment holiday on a credit file
The holiday on the credit file
The file · about 5 minutes
The complaint
He lost his job and was struggling to keep up his mortgage repayments, so he asked his lender for a repayment holiday, and it was agreed. Soon afterwards he found two missed payments marked on his credit file. That worried him: he needed to apply for credit to help cover the family's expenses while he was out of work, and a credit file showing missed payments could stand in the way. He says the lender never told him the repayment holiday would affect his credit file.
The firm's answer
The lender says it would have told him. Its policy is to explain to every customer who takes a repayment holiday that the arrangement is recorded on their credit file, and it says that is what happened here.
Evidence in the file
Exhibit A · The arrangement
A mortgage repayment holiday, asked for after he lost his job and agreed by the lender.
Exhibit B · His credit file
Two missed payments on the mortgage, which he found soon after he applied for the repayment holiday.
Exhibit C · His complaint
Nobody told him the holiday would show on his credit file. He needs to apply for credit to help with the family's expenses while he is out of work, and he is worried the entries will count against him.
The recording of the call
On the call where the repayment holiday was discussed, the lender clearly mentioned that the arrangement would affect his credit file. Nothing in the call suggests he did not understand what he was told.
The lender's policy on repayment holidays
The lender's internal policy states that a repayment holiday is recorded on the customer's credit file.
A letter confirming the arrangement
Not in the file. No written confirmation of the repayment holiday is part of this case; what the file holds is the lender's policy and the recording of the call.
Uphold the complaint, or side with the firm?
The ruling
Given by the ombudsman
Not upheld
Why
The ombudsman looked first at the lender's policy, which said that a repayment holiday is recorded on a customer's credit file, and then listened to the recording of the call. On the call the lender clearly mentioned that the arrangement would affect his credit file. The ombudsman accepted that he had a lot on his mind at the time, having just lost his job, and that he might not remember the credit file being discussed. But nothing in the call suggested he had not understood what he was told. The lender had explained the effect of the holiday, so the entries on his credit file were not its mistake.
What the firm had to do
Nothing. The lender did not have to change his credit file or do anything more.
What an adjudicator takes from this. What a firm said on a call can matter more than what anyone remembers of it. Forgetting is not a failing: a call in the week you lose your job is easy to lose track of. But the recording showed the warning was given. Before you agree to a payment holiday or any other arrangement on a debt, ask how it will show on your credit file, and write down the answer and the date. An adjudicator looks at what was said, not at what was remembered.
Rewritten in our own words from a case the ombudsman published.
Read the guide: The FOS rejected your complaint. Here's what comes next.
What is fair and reasonable is a judgement. The ombudsman gives one; people who read the same file often give another, and this game is about how people weigh the same facts, not about being right. Built from cases the Financial Ombudsman Service and other bodies have published, and from Docketory's own files, rewritten in our own words with every name removed. Docketory is not connected with any of them, and this game is not advice on your own case.
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