Credit Score affected

[PA00]

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. 

[yoiain]

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! 

[BebetoHJ]

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!

[Star-Of-Hope]

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

[JonathanB]

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

[Star-Of-Hope]

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 

[JonathanB]

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

[PA00]

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! 

[Star-Of-Hope]

Have you resolved something ?

[KateS]

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