topic Re: Credit Score affected in Account and services

Credit Score affected

PA00 — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 09:53:56 GMT

I am in the process of buying a new property and was horrified to find my credit score had decreased by 122 points!!!! This morning.

This was due to a late payment by 3.

To explain the situation I have been with 3 since 2020. I have never missed a payment and I have used the same bank account throughout this time.
I upgraded my phone in April this year! Stupid mistake!!
They set up my new phone through live chat and I assumed that meant my details taken would be used for my airtime direct debit and my device direct debit. Once again WRONG!

I was on holiday and received an email about my device direct debit saying they’ll take the payment. Standard just assumed this would come out as normal direct debits do. I was furious to find an email on my return from holiday to see that they said I hadn’t paid…I looked on the app and my direct debit details were there..and this device payment wasn’t anyway to be seen. I panicked and made the payment manually thinking this wouldn’t affect my account. WRONG!!

I am trying to get a mortgage for my new property which I’m purchasing next month. I’ve called 3 and was told my direct debit hadn’t been set up for the device plan. This has now been set up but I will believe it when I see it.

My main concern is my credit score. I have lodged a complaint to have it removed with both 3 and Experian but have been informed I have to wait 2 weeks. I do not have much faith at all to be honest. I am completely devastated after being a loyal customer and never missing a payment in my life on anything.

I am absolutely disgusted and now I’m worried I won’t get my mortgage as a result.

Re: Credit Score affected

MZone — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:14:39 GMT

@Maxine are you able to help the above please.

Re: Credit Score affected

KateS — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 14:19:41 GMT

Hey @PA00,

I'm really sorry to hear you've had a missed payment marker applied to your credit file and understand how worrying this must be, especially while going through the process of obtaining a mortgage.

I'm going to drop you a PM with instructions on how to reach out to my colleagues, who will be able to help investigate this further.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Kate

Re: Credit Score affected

PA00 — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 19:51:33 GMT

Just to confirm I have also made a payment on the live chat Friday 7th for this months payment to then find I have now been marked as missed payment on Experian for this month!!!! Late payment and missed payment! I find it absolutely ridiculous! If this isn’t resolved by the weekend I will be going into store!

Re: Credit Score affected

BebetoHJ — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 20:49:56 GMT

I'm in the same situation, my broadband account is in credit yet my credit score shows a missed payment and my score has gone down dramatically!

Re: Credit Score affected

Star-Of-Hope — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:28:23 GMT

I am in exactly the same situation. Even though I have set up Direct Debit and my payments are always on time, Three reports every month a late payment on my Credit File, which is dramatically affecting my Credit Score

Re: Credit Score affected

Star-Of-Hope — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:29:37 GMT

Have you resolved something ?

Re: Credit Score affected

JonathanB — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 14:39:35 GMT

Hi @Star-Of-Hope,

I'm really sorry to hear about this. It'd be very odd for an account paid by Direct Debit to have late payments recorded as these are scheduled for your bill due date. If you have a Three Your Way device plan there will be two payments due one for airtime and one for the device loan.

Most credit reports will provide a reference for any late or defaulting accounts, so it may be worth checking for this to see if it matches the account number on your bills.

Either way, the best thing to do is to get in touch, let the team know the info you're seeing and they can query this with our credit team, and if we find an error this can be corrected.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Credit Score affected

Star-Of-Hope — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 14:16:43 GMT

Hi Jonathan, thank you for your comment. Even though I have made 4 complaints so far in 2 months, they still haven't resolved the issue, and there is still a late payment recorded on my credit report. In October, they recorded the first late payment, I contacted them, and they removed that late payment. However, the following month in November, they recorded another late payment on my credit file, even though I paid on time through direct debit. The late payments they are recording for no reasons are not for the device plan, but for the airtime plan

Re: Credit Score affected

JonathanB — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:17:39 GMT

Thanks for the further info @Star-Of-Hope, I've sent you a PM with more info on how to get this looked into further.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Credit Score affected

yoiain — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 11:20:35 GMT

I had a similar situation, still in the process of buying a house but it's been made unbelievably stressful because of Three incorrectly reporting 3 months' arrears on my credit file.

Due to some processing error on their side in July which meant the direct debit wasn't taken, I got a text in November 2024 apologising for this and saying they'd just add it to the November bill and no action was required on my side—seems fine, right?

Nope! Come December, days after having an offer accepted on a flat, my credit file showed two agencies reporting arrears, meaning I was getting every single mortgage in principle automatically denied, purely because of the error (my credit is otherwise immaculate).

Spoke with Three mid-December, who advised their credit team would investigate (bear in mind it's a back-end team with absolutely no way of putting their updates into writing), and that it "should" be cleared from my file in 30 days, but there were never any guarantees. Therefore, I spent the entire festive period in misery, not sleeping, stressed out of my mind thinking I'd lost my flat, all because of an error surrounding a sim-only phone bill (£10 btw).

I should add on that original phone call, they sent me to the sales department and spent 20 minutes trying to sell me more stuff hahaha!

Thankfully, today (day 32!), I've updated my file, and it's finally been corrected. I now am very short on time to convert the mortgage, and may have to move my completion date and be heavily penalised, but it did finally get sorted. I raised a complaint which may or may not have expedited this, so do keep that in mind.

Following this saga, I am planning on ditching Three as soon as possible, and cannot recommend them to anybody. The risk of this happening again is absolutely not something I would wish on my worst enemy, let alone myself, Advice: keep a close eye on your payments coming out on time, if your regular direct debit isn't taken on the correct working day, then it could be an issue on Three's end. Go and pay your bill in advance/manually to ensure you're on top of it!

Horrendous experience, hope you all get it sorted!

Re: Credit Score affected

Star-Of-Hope — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 23:01:03 GMT

I'm sorry to hear that you're dealing with the same issue as I am. Imagine this: in my case, I have set up a direct debit to pay my bills, and even though Three debited the money from my account on the due date, they still reported a missed payment on my credit file for no reason. Naturally, my credit score was significantly impacted solely because of their incompetence. After lots of long chats conversations, phone calls, and complaints, they finally removed the missed payments from my credit file.

I’m very curious to see what happens this month because so far, they’ve reported missed payments for both November and December. I want to see if the same thing happens in January. After all this hassle, even though I’ve been a loyal Three customer, I’ve sworn that once my contract ends, I’ll never renew with Three again and I’ll make sure to advice all my relative and friends never to make a mistake and sign a contract with Three who really don't care about their costumers.

Re: Credit Score affected

Star-Of-Hope — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 23:08:20 GMT

Re: Credit Score affected

Bs2025 — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 20:08:33 GMT

I am at the same boat as yours, how did you fix it?

Re: Credit Score affected

lisforlarna — Sun, 04 May 2025 07:39:57 GMT

I've had the exact same issue. 2 payments going out each month one for device one for air time. The £11 airtime plan has been noted on my credit file as missed! I've been with 3 since 2013, I am so upset. We are just in the process of looking for a mortgage and can't help but think 3 have ruined my chances now. How can they do this? Live chat tells me there is no one available to talk to me.

Re: Credit Score affected

PeteG — Mon, 05 May 2025 08:59:50 GMT

Hello there.

That's not so great. Was the £11 air time payment made late?

Pete.

Re: Credit Score affected

Luke77 — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 16:29:01 GMT

Found out earlier today the same thing has happened to me. I am furious. It's knocked my credit score down by a 100 points. My wife and I are looking at mortgages in a few months so this is a disaster. I have contacted Three and Experian but I doubt anything will happen quickly. We've been with Three for just a couple of months but with this and other issues they've got wrong, we're leaving as soon as our contract is up. A total joke of a company.

Re: Credit Score affected

JonathanB — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:40:24 GMT

Hi @Luke77,

I'm really sorry to hear you've had impact to your credit score. If this is down to a Three error then it should be corrected for you. It sounds like you've already raised this with customer services. It usually takes a couple of days for our credit team to review the situation, then they'll make amendments there and then.

Credit Reference Agencies usually update credit files once per month though, so it can take up to 30 days for amendments to reflect on your report.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Credit Score affected

Luke77 — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:37:03 GMT

My worry is why it happened in the first place and what's to stop it from happening again.

Re: Credit Score affected

Luke77 — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 13:09:05 GMT

UPDATE:

I have spoken to Three several times over the last month to be told repeatedly the issue would be rectified and the negative record on my credit file would be removed by the end of August. I've just got off the phone AGAIN after being told I have to wait another week. I told them I won't be calling after today and if it's not removed by a week today, I will take this further legally. The minute my contract is up, I'm leaving. And I would strongly suggest anyone looking to sign up to Three goes elsewhere.