Will a Satisfied CCJ Affect Your Credit Score?

Debtors need to ask the important questions when dealing with aggressive creditors such as if your rights are getting violated and . The latest records indicate that the courts issued more than 214,000 county court judgments (CCJs)for over £468 million in debts. A CCJ is detrimental to your credit score, and you can lose up to 250 points, especially if you fail to satisfy it promptly. Finding out issues with CCJs can be challenging. Luckily, DoNotPay is here to help. Read on for deeper insights.

What Exactly Is a CCJ?

A County Court Judgement (CCJ) is a legal order issued by a court to pay back the money you owe. In most cases, you'll get a CCJ if you fail to respond to a creditor's plea to clear what you owe.

A CCJ contains the following details:

The amount you owe
The amount to pay in full or in instalments
The window period for payment (deadline)
Which party to pay

When you get a CCJ, it's registered by the court and recorded on the Register of Judgments, Orders, and Fines for six years. You'll have 30 days from the date of your court claim form being served to settle or dispute the CCJ. If it's not disputed, then it will be registered with the courts at this point. Having a CCJ appear on your credit report isn't good news if you plan on applying for financing in the future. Even if you satisfy the

Will a Satisfied CCJ Affect My Credit?

Answering if a satisfied CCJ will affect your credit isn't as straightforward as you'd hoped as it depends on certain circumstances. A satisfied CCJ will stay on your credit score for six years.

However, if you clear your debt/satisfy the CCJ within 30 days of the court judgement, you can use a legal method to get it removed early. Contact the court with proof of payment from your creditor, and you'll satisfy the CCJ without any impact on your credit score.

On the other hand, if you satisfy the CCJ after 30 days, you can still write to the court with proof of payment and have the CCJ marked as 'satisfied.' However, it'll stay on your record for six years but will show you cleared the debt.

Can You Get a CCJ Removed Early?

Even a . That's why you'll want to know if there is any way to get it removed from your credit report. The answer is yes, but not as easy as you might think.

In some cases, the court will allow a CCJ to be set aside or even cancelled. This means that the court will state that the judgement was made incorrectly, and it won't appear on your credit report.

You can apply for a CCJ to be set aside if:

You never received the claim form sent by the court (known as Form N1)
The claim form was sent after 14 days of you being told about the claim against you
The claim was served at an old address of yours when you weren't living there anymore
You didn't get enough time before the hearing date to fill in and send back your defence form (Form N9)

Alternative Ways to Resolve Your Complaints

A satisfied CCJ will affect your credit record. However, if the creditor violates your rights in the process of satisfying the CCJ, you can lodge formal complaints.

When you fail to reach an agreement, you can:

1. Contact a Financial Ombudsman

A financial ombudsman is an impartial party that helps solve customer complaints against creditors. If you have hit a deadlock, the ombudsman takes over the case and reverts within ten days.

You can reach the ombudsman through:

Phone:	0800 023 4567
Email:	complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Social Media:	Facebook or Twitter

2. Alternative Dispute Resolutions Schemes (ADR) With the FCA

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) oversees creditors in the UK. When the FCA receives your complaint, it may initiate mediation, negotiations, conciliation, or arbitration before the matter escalates further. If the creditor is a member of an ADR scheme, the scheme will handle the case.

3. Small Claims Court

As a last resort, you can sue the creditor in small claims court and get compensated.

However, the total amount you can claim in England and Wales is £10,000, Scotland is £5,000, and £3,000 Northern Ireland.

How Long Can Debt Collectors Collect Debt From Me?

Under normal circumstances, a creditor is limited by the Limitation Act of 1980. According to the Act, the creditor cannot chase your debt after six years or 12 years (mortgage) since the last time you acknowledged or paid the debt. After this period, the debt becomes statute-barred - you don't have to clear it.

However, a CCJ is a special circumstance that throws any limitations out the window. If you have a CCJ against you, the creditor isn't limited on how long they have to chase the debt. Regardless, they must seek the court's permission if the time limit has passed. Don't get comfortable with a statute-barred debt; else, you'll find out if a satisfied CCJ affects your credit score the hard, hard way.

How to Settle a CCJ

The only way to settle a CCJ is to clear your debt with your creditors. While a satisfied CCJ will affect your credit record, it's better to clear your debt as you have a better chance of accessing credit that way.

Once you clear the debt, your creditor writes to the court and asks for the CCJ to be set aside. They'll present proof of full payment, and the CCJ should be marked as 'set aside' on your credit report and should no longer affect your future applications for credit cards or loans.

How to Get Debt Payment Assistance

Clearing your debts isn't always the best option and some circumstances might even lead to you getting a CCJ. But what if you can avoid this? Before learning if a satisfied CCJ will affect your credit, you can seek debt assistance to avoid the CCJ altogether.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) - you agree to clear the debt through an insolvency practitioner.
Administrative orders - if you owe less than £5,000, you can seek an administrative order to restrain the creditor from taking any action against you without the court's permission. This buys you a bit of time to clear your debt.
Debt Management Plan (DMP) - you can agree with your creditor to make regular monthly instalments of the amounts you can comfortably afford.
Breathing Space (Debt Respite Scheme) - calls off the creditor and any further action for 60 days. You get space to plan and seek debt advice.
Debt Relief Order (DRO) - this order temporarily stops your creditors from taking any action against you if you owe less than £30,000, you have less than £2,000 in assets, and less than £75 disposable income.

Get Debt Help With DoNotPay

Like you, more than 8 million people in the UK with bad debts wonder, will a satisfied CCJ affect their credit?. Now, that's a billion-pound question.

DoNotPay has the answers you seek in just a few simple steps:

Search “debt collection” on DoNotPay.
Answer a series of questions about the debt collectors, including when you were contacted and how you were contacted, so we can determine if they have violated any debt collection laws.
Decide which course of action you want to take based on our guidance, such as filing a debt verification request, demanding for the collectors to stop contacting you, or reporting them to a professional trade association.

Get Rid of Other Creditors

Our capabilities also involve dealing with numerous creditors and lending institutions. As the world’s first robot lawyer, we'll help you understand if and how a satisfied CCJ will affect your credit.

Our responsibilities extend to handling:

DoNotPay Can Do So Much More for You

Thanks to DoNotPay, you now know if a satisfied CCJ will affect your credit score. We understand you may have various other questions that need reliable answers.

Our versatile platform can provide solutions to:

and take advantage of sound legal assistance without breaking your bank.