Not upheld: address update failure and account default complaint against NewDay Ltd (trading as Aqua)

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs C complained that NewDay failed to update her address after she moved, causing her to miss correspondence about increasing arrears, which led to her account defaulting and unfair interest charges. NewDay provided call recordings from August 2021 and February 2022 in which Mrs C confirmed the address on file was correct, and had no record of any address change notification. The ombudsman found no persuasive evidence that Mrs C notified NewDay of an address change and determined that Mrs C's continued payments until November 2023 showed she was aware the account remained active. The account defaulted due to non-payment after November 2023, following proper default procedures, and the ombudsman concluded that as account holder, Mrs C bore responsibility for monitoring the account and maintaining payments regardless of address changes. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found no persuasive evidence that Mrs C notified NewDay of an address change at the relevant time. The call recordings from August 2021 and February 2022 showed Mrs C confirming the address on file was correct, making it reasonable for NewDay to rely on that address. Even if there had been an address issue, Mrs C's continued payments until November 2023 indicated she was aware the account remained active, and she should have contacted NewDay if she wasn't receiving correspondence at her new address. The account default resulted from non-payment after November 2023, not from any failure to receive correspondence. As the account holder, Mrs C bore responsibility for monitoring the account and ensuring contractual payments were maintained, regardless of address changes. Interest was charged in line with the credit agreement terms and stopped upon account termination.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website