To locate a defaulted account on your report follow these steps:
- Log into your ClearScore account.
- Select the ‘Report’ tab and you’ll find a section called ‘Changes to your report’.
- These changes should let you know what will appear on your next credit report.
- Alternatively, you can scroll down to the ‘Insights’ section of your report, where you’ll find out which factors are affecting your credit score. If there’s no longer any information about defaults in this section, this indicates that they're no longer having a major impact on your credit score.
- You should also be able to find any defaults in the 'Closed' section of the 'Accounts' tab on your credit report.
- If you look through the 'Payment History' for each account, you'll be able to see when this account was settled/defaulted.
Bear in mind that missed payments and defaults will stay on your report for 6 years from the date the account was settled, written off or defaulted (whichever happened first). However, some data providers (banks, lenders etc.) will share this information with Equifax for slightly more or less than this time.
It’s also important to note that if an account has been included in a bankruptcy, IVA or DMP, the lender should have marked the account as ‘in default’. These will also appear on your report for 6 years.
If you’d like to clarify any of the defaults on your report, you may be able to add a Notice of Correction to the defaulted account, to see if this is the right action to take, check out this FAQ.