What is a clean credit file? It’s probably best to explain this by example. Let us say the date of the IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) was 1st April 2005 and discharged on 21st November 2011.

Before Clean up
Experian (or CreditExpert) 		After Clean Up
Experian (or CreditExpert)
Entry Number: C3
Name and address: MR FRED R JONES
10, LOWER ROAD, HIGHER TOWN, BANKRUPTCY CITY, DE3 TED
Date of birth: 02 February 1957
Company name: BARCLAYCARD
Account type: Credit Card / Store Card
Started: 22/01/2003
Default Balance: £3,582
Balance: £3,582 :
Defaulted On: 15/08/2003
Status History: (brackets indicate most recent status) [8]
   
Entry Number: C9
Name and address: MR FRED R JONES
10, LOWER ROAD, HIGHER TOWN, BANKRUPTCY CITY, DE3 TED
Date of birth: 02 February 1957
Company name: BARCLAYCARD
Account type: Credit Card / Store Card
Started: 22/01/2000
Default Balance: £3,582
Balance: Satisfied
Defaulted On: 01/04/2005
Status History: (brackets indicate most recent status) [8]
   

Now with Experian this will mean that the account will come off the system 6 years from the default date

If the default date is LATER than your IVA commencement date, or the account is NOT marked as satisfied (including partial settlements) then is it INCORRECT and you will need to follow the advice in this post and amend the letter to suit the needs of the IVA:

CallCredit

This is the least used of the CRF,s and they sell their information to a lot of the pay for your credit file companies, such as Annual Credit Report, Check My File.com, etc. CallCredit is notoriously incorrect to say the least, so will form a separate section that will cover them and the main companies that they also sell to; so there will be several examples.

At present I urge people correcting their files to concentrate on Equifax and Experian and I will do an update when I get certain information back from CallCredit and the companies they sell to.

How Much Does It Cost Getting Them Updated?

Honest answer is very little:

You need to obtain your reports, which can be done on line or by post, the cost of the statutory report is £2
The cost of a recorded letter to each of your former creditors and/or debt buyers
After 2 months you need to check them again to ensure that the former creditors / debt buyers have updated
The cost of posting a complaint to the ICO if the former creditor doesn’t up date

So basically not a lot and hell of a lot cheaper that the companies that charge for this will charge you.
In my case I had 18 creditors so the total cost for me (using statutory reports) was £23.20, which was about 1/3 of the cost.

How Long Will It Take Getting Them Updated?
From the time you receive your CRFs’ and send your formal request for the creditors to update.
Allow 28 days (plus about 14) for the files to update.
If they have NOT been updated after 2 months then raise the complaint to the ICO

The ICO is SNOWED UNDER so you need to allow them around 60 days.

Why Should I Bother?

Once the accounts are marked as satisfied and the account is correctly closed with the creditor / debt buyer.

They can’t sell it on to another debt buyer, so you won’t get hassled in the future

There have been instances of this happening 4 – 5 years later where the files have not been cleaned

Your CRFs will automatically clean after 6 years from default/settlement date, so you will have a squeaky clean file from then. – There have been MANY instances where former creditors only close the account off several years after your discharge, thus knackering your CRF’s for many many years. In effect creating a very bad CRF for a lot longer than 6 years and in the worst case I have heard off a full 11 years!

Your accounts will be marked as settled in the meantime, which ADDS to your credit score