I was refused two weeks ago credit on a camera which was buy now pay 2009!  They gave me details of where to go and how to get my credit rating etc.  I couldn't understand it as I've always paid on time etc. and had only signed up for something on credit in November with no problems.

When I looked into my credit rating there was one with a bad rating of 8 on it!  It was British Gas for £42.00 from 3 years ago!  I remembered this because at the time British Gas owed me quite a bit of money on my gas bill and it was my electricity bill that was the £42.00.  I had discussions on the phone about it over about 4 months and in the end they said that they couldn't credit the electric one as it was a different subsidiary so I ended up leaving British Gas and paying the electric bill at that time.  They never took me to court or anything like that but this is the only red mark on there!  There are six other payments that I've kept up at the time regularly with no problems for 30 times this amount!!

How long does this stay on your credit rating for?  I think it's disgusting when it clearly shows that I'm usually a good payer and because of one extremely small amount which I was in dispute with at the time I'm now a bad risk!!!

Unfortunately any blemishes like that (I think it might be classed as a default being 8) will stay there for 6 years from the date the default was registered, then it will drop off.  Have BG marked the account as satisfied and put the balance at £0?

It's marked as satisfied, but no it still has the £42.00 on it, I think!!!  Bit cheeky when they actually owed me as a company a lot more than that.  Can I put how much they owed me at the time as a red mark against them????

If you have all the evidence and paperwork then challenge it with British Gas ;-)

I would certainly contact British Gas and try and have it removed, threaten to take them to the Regulator. This will not mean every company will refuse you credit, some are far more strict and only accept 100% 'clear' customers, others are less strict, depends a l;ot on the interest rate they charge, generally the lower the rate the clearer they will expect the history to be.

Ahh Barry, that could be it as it was a 0% interest rate.  Interesting.  I'm just going to wait now and hopefully I'll be able to pay cash shortly for the one that I want.  OK so it will be a few months before I can afford it but I suppose I can wait!!