Coming back to "life" after more than 6 years AWOL

[River Phoenix]

Has anyone done this ?

For long after the 6 year minimum, you've kept your head down, under radar, moved a few times perhaps and have had zero contact with the credit card people.

You know a few went to CCJ but those are way past 6 years as well and strangely, some never bothered to go CCJ at all. Of course, you don't know who owns the debts today and as far as you are concerned, they are all long past time barred, though you understand the CCJs could come back to life but it would take a visit to the judge to do so.

You've existed on an old bank account with a few "different" details, opened in days of yore when no ID was needed. Your credit file has never been pulled and you have no idea whether you have a file now or not as you would never have to introduce an old address. You are on the electoral roll but hundreds of miles from your debt laden past.

The trouble is that you would like to resurface. The prospect of a mortgage a couple of years down the line (never missed a payment on that one) might be nice but before that, you'd have to introduce your income to a bank and what with all the mergers, you have to be very careful who you talk to.

Barclays stands out as a place where you have never had an account. Most if not all the others got hammered along the way.

So what to do ? If you pull your credit file then surely that information starts to fly down the airwaves and into the computers of all your old creditors. OK, so all they have is a first and last name and a date of birth and no means of matching addresses but can they make a connection and if they do, what happens then ?

Do you write back or simply ignore ?

What happens if nothing happens ? Can you really relax because you cannot do another disappearing act. That just isn't possible now. But if you keep off radar forever, you have to either save up enough to buy a house outright or lose out on never owning another property.

Essentially, you're scared of screwing up. You've been undercover for so long that it isn't normal not to be sceptical and defensive but you'd like a normal life now.

Can it be done and if so, what should you look out for ?

[SXGuy]

Re: Coming back to "life" after more than 6 years AWOL

Well firstly, CCJ's or not, they are off your credit file after 6 years.

Other debts not ackowledged or paid in 6 years are statued barred.

Therefore, checking your report, or applying for a mortgage is fine, if a few old debts surface, a simple letter explaining statue of limitations, will make them go away.

Not read 1 post where someone has had trouble getting a 6+ year old debt closed using the statued barred letter, unless its disputed that a payment was made within 6 years.

So personally, i dont see a problem.

As for CCJ's, as you say, they would have to reapply to the courts, even if worst case they did, and succeeded, you would technically have an acceptance for a mortgage long before that, so again, cant see an issue.

[River Phoenix]

Re: Coming back to "life" after more than 6 years AWOL

Well firstly, CCJ's or not, they are off your credit file after 6 years.

Other debts not ackowledged or paid in 6 years are statued barred.

Therefore, checking your report, or applying for a mortgage is fine, if a few old debts surface, a simple letter explaining statue of limitations, will make them go away.

Not read 1 post where someone has had trouble getting a 6+ year old debt closed using the statued barred letter, unless its disputed that a payment was made within 6 years.

So personally, i dont see a problem.

As for CCJ's, as you say, they would have to reapply to the courts, even if worst case they did, and succeeded, you would technically have an acceptance for a mortgage long before that, so again, cant see an issue.

The worry is that there would be a period after resurfacing before getting a mortgage, during which a good credit history was being established. This would be at least 12 months and possibly as long as 36 months and it is during this period, where history could revisit.

Despite being time barred (under the 1980 Limitations Act I understand), what is to stop institutions passing around information, using services such as GAIN (Gone Away Information Network) and similar ?

Could this not scupper matters ?

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Coming back to "life" after more than 6 years AWOL

The worry is that there would be a period after resurfacing before getting a mortgage, during which a good credit history was being established. This would be at least 12 months and possibly as long as 36 months and it is during this period, where history could revisit.

Despite being time barred (under the 1980 Limitations Act I understand), what is to stop institutions passing around information, using services such as GAIN (Gone Away Information Network) and similar ?

Could this not scupper matters ?

No because after 6 years the accounts would be statute barred and hence not liable for repayment. Of course any defaults may be different to the actual SB date - lets assume you last paid in January 2006; but the lender defaulted you in October 2006 - although it'd be SB (in line with Limitations Act 1980 as you correctly state) in Jan 2012 - it would still be defaulted until November 2012.

Make sense..?

Gain/Share etc would be irrelevant after the 6 year default period as the account(s) are removed in full from the credit agency database.

[SXGuy]

Re: Coming back to "life" after more than 6 years AWOL

The worry is that there would be a period after resurfacing before getting a mortgage, during which a good credit history was being established. This would be at least 12 months and possibly as long as 36 months and it is during this period, where history could revisit.

Despite being time barred (under the 1980 Limitations Act I understand), what is to stop institutions passing around information, using services such as GAIN (Gone Away Information Network) and similar ?

Could this not scupper matters ?

I get what you are saying, but surely all that will happen is a lot of hassle? they cant do any more to the credit file to not allow anyone to obtain credit?

So you go to a broker, he searches for the best deal, finds out, gives them your details and income, they do a search, and accept in principle. If its someone like northern rock, i hardly imagine they would have any connections to previous debts?