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Credit & Finance

Credit files, defaults, arrears, consumer credit, card disputes and routes through the FCA/FOS system.

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18 guides and resources.

Start with the problem you recognise. Related pages cross-link to templates, tools, official sources and escalation routes.

01

Credit files

What credit files contain, the role of CRAs and how lender-supplied account data is reflected.

02

Inaccurate credit data

Challenge entries that are factually wrong, stale, duplicated, wrongly attributed or inconsistent with the underlying account history.

03

Defaults

Defaults in practice: missed-payment markers, default dates, PRAAD, CCA notice confusion, disputed balances, debt sales and correction routes.

04

Default notices

Distinguish statutory Consumer Credit Act default notices from credit-reporting notices of intention to file a default.

05

PRAAD & credit reporting

The industry principles for reporting arrears, arrangements and defaults, including fair/accurate reporting and notice before filing a default.

06

Arrears

How missed payments are reflected and why arrears status is not automatically the same thing as a registered default.

07

Disputed balances

Why disputing a balance does not automatically erase it, but can have a significant effect on accuracy, complaint handling and evidence.

08

Consumer Credit Act

A practical map of regulated credit agreements, information rights, default notices and related protections.

09

Credit agreements

How regulated credit agreements are formed, documented and evidenced.

10

Device & handset finance

Separate airtime/service contracts from handset or device finance and identify which documents and regulatory regimes apply.

11

Credit-reference agencies

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion: statutory reports, disputes, notices of correction and data accuracy.

12

Notices of correction

The CCA route for adding a short explanatory statement to a credit file and its limits.

13

Debt collection

Debt collection conduct, disputed debts, evidence, communications and regulated consumer-credit expectations.

14

Affordability complaints

Complaints that lending was unaffordable or irresponsibly provided and the evidence typically considered.

15

FCA

What the Financial Conduct Authority regulates, what it does not resolve for individuals and where FOS fits.

16

Financial Ombudsman Service

The complaint route for many regulated financial products and services, including final-response and referral time limits.

17

Section 75

Section 75 in practice: deposits, part payments, BNPL, intermediaries, supplier insolvency, rejected claims and consequential loss.

18

Chargeback

Chargeback in practice: card-scheme conditions, deadlines, evidence, merchant representations, provisional credits and bank refusals.

Separate the problem

Credit disputes can involve the agreement, the account, the credit file and the complaint route at the same time.

The credit agreementUnderstand regulated credit and the statutory framework.The balance is disputedReconstruct charges, payments and the contractual basis for the amount claimed.A default has been recordedAudit the date, balance, payment history, notice, reporting framework and the evidence needed to challenge an inaccurate entry.The credit data is wrongChallenge factual inaccuracy and identify the lender, CRA, ICO or FOS route.

A single dispute can engage several frameworks. A statutory CCA default notice, a credit-file default under reporting principles and an inaccurate personal-data complaint are not the same thing. Keep the questions separate and direct each one to the body that can decide it.

ConsumerWise method

Do not start with the argument. Start with the record.

Credit disputes can involve several overlapping questions: the agreement, affordability, arrears, collection, credit-file reporting and data accuracy. Keep those questions separate so the complaint goes to the body that can actually resolve each one.

Evidence basics Build a chronology