A woman from Hampshire was left stunned after her mortgage application was rejected due to an outstanding £3.99 delivery charge she had forgotten to pay. Kelly Miles, 33, discovered a 'big red mark' on her credit file when she and her former partner attempted to purchase a new home. The missed payment, stemming from a buy-now-pay-later scheme used a year earlier to buy an iPad mini as a birthday gift, was the sole reason for her inability to secure a mortgage.
The Unpaid Fee
Ms Miles had successfully repaid the £500 cost of the device within the stipulated six-month period. However, the small delivery fee remained unpaid, leaving a significant blot on her financial record. The delivery charge for the iPad had been omitted from the repayment plan, resulting in a six-year mortgage block.
Ms Miles, who works as a charity manager and lives in Portsmouth, Hampshire, said: 'Young me decided I wanted to get my ex-partner an iPad mini and I bought it on a buy now pay later. That part of it was fine, it was on a six-month agreement and I paid it in six months.'
She explained that the issue came to light when their landlord served notice on their rental property. 'We wanted to buy so we went ahead and put the mortgage application in, which is when we discovered this big red mark on my credit file. It turned out the iPad mini that I'd bought on buy now pay later had a £3.99 delivery charge to be sent to me, which apparently I didn't pay at the time of purchase. But I never had notification of this – I don't remember seeing a single letter.'
Impact on Mortgage Application
Ms Miles described feeling 'disappointed' and 'frustrated' when she learned about the mishap. 'I was really surprised – it didn't spring to mind at all. I had to do some investigating through my file to find out what it was. I was frustrated because it was out of my control, I couldn't go in and suddenly edit it or something. I was disappointed and I was annoyed in the sense that someone could put that mark against my name without me having any knowledge or awareness of it.'
As a result, her ex-partner had to buy the house without her. The experience has made her more cautious with credit and wary of buy-now-pay-later schemes. 'Before then though I was never in any debt – this was the only buy-now-pay-later thing I'd ever bought, so I almost had no reason to check my credit score regularly. We're looking to buy next year so I'm very conscious of my credit score at the moment and making sure that there's nothing creeping up on there. I'm not someone who's in debt so you would always automatically assume that your credit score must be good, but it wasn't.'
Advice to Others
Ms Miles is now urging others to check their credit scores regularly, especially after taking out new financial products. 'You need to check quite soon after you've taken it out how that has been placed onto your credit file – checking that the information on there is correct. I check my credit score at least once a month now.'
