Termination Notices

How did you get one of these on your credit file?

Termination Notices are a kind of entry on your credit file, generally placed there when you fail to pay a smaller debt such as that owed from mail order catalogue purchases.

Considering the (usually) small amount of money owed, it's not worth it for the creditor to get into expensive recovery action, and so once inexpensive options such as threatening letters have failed to get the debt paid, they simply write it off and enter a termination notice onto the debtors credit file held by the credit reference agencies.

How hard the creditor tries to recover the debt before placing a termination notice varies from company to company - it can happen surprisingly quickly with little in the way of payment reminders or warning letters, particularly if the debt is small.

An inspection of your credit file might well turn up one of these entries that you weren't aware of, and which might be causing you credit difficulties - but they can be removed.

If you write to the company you owe money to and offer to pay off the debt, they may well agree to retract the notice from your file. If this is successful, they'll tell you how and when they want the debt repaying.

Once you've cleared the debt, ask them to send you a letter declaring that you no longer owe them any money, and that they're happy to have to termination notice taken off your credit file.

Once you get this letter from them, send copies of it to the credit reference agencies, and they should then take the appropriate action and wipe the notice from your credit record.