Not upheld: Credit file / adverse marker disputes complaint against BMW Financial Services (GB) Limited trading as Alphera Financial Services

Decision detail

Summary

Mr K complained that Alphera unfairly reported a default marker on his credit file following his failure to make payments on a hire purchase agreement from April 2023 onwards. In September 2024, when Mr K requested a payment freeze due to health reasons, Alphera offered to assess his options but required him to contact them. Mr K failed to engage with these offers despite multiple contact attempts by phone and email in November and December 2024 that explicitly warned of default risk. Although Alphera sent the default notice and termination letters to an incorrect address in January and February 2025, the ombudsman found the default was applied fairly because Mr K had received adequate notice through email and failed to mitigate his position by not engaging with the firm's earlier offers to discuss alternative arrangements. The ombudsman was not satisfied Mr K could have prevented the default based on his financial circumstances, noting his bank statements showed constant overdraft usage.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Alphera made an error in sending letters to an incorrect address, this error was not prejudicial because Alphera had made multiple attempts to contact Mr K by phone and email prior to the default. The emails sent in November and December 2024 clearly warned Mr K of the consequences of continued non-payment and urged him to contact Alphera to discuss alternative arrangements. Mr K failed to engage with these offers despite having the correct contact details. The ombudsman was not satisfied that Mr K had demonstrated he was in a financial position to prevent the default, as his bank statements showed constant overdraft usage and he provided no evidence of expenditure or how his wife's financial assistance would have worked. The ombudsman concluded that Mr K had adequate notice through email communications and failed to mitigate his position by not engaging with Alphera's earlier offers to discuss his situation.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website