Eon Reporting To Equifax

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  • TrueBlue2012
    TrueBlue2012 Posts: 6 Forumite
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    jalexa wrote: »
    How did they obtain your Date of Birth?

    Security question when I called originally.

    I never chose eon. I'm in a new house which had it when I bought.
  • TrueBlue2012
    TrueBlue2012 Posts: 6 Forumite
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    The ico say that we have no rights if its part of a contact. One I was never party to. Maybe the home builder had such a deal. I didn't.

    .ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/personal_information/sharing_my_info.aspx
  • spiro
    spiro Posts: 6,403 Forumite
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    edited 6 November 2012 at 7:55AM
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    TrueBlue2012 wrote: »
    The ico say that we have no rights if its part of a contact. One I was never party to. Maybe the home builder had such a deal. I didn't.

    .ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/personal_information/sharing_my_info.aspx
    When you move into a property you become a customer of the existing energy supplier (gas & elec) on their 'Deemed Contract' which is normally their standard pay on bill tariff (most expensive) for which you can find the t&cs on their website. I suspect if you read them you will find data sharing is included.
    IT Consultant in the utilities industry specialising in the retail electricity market.

    4 Credit Card and 1 Loan PPI claims settled for £26k, 1 rejected (Opus).
  • Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc
    Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc Posts: 6,558 Organisation Representative
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    TrueBlue2012 wrote: »
    Actually you can't just go and report data about people because you feel like it. I'm issuing injunctive relief orders via eon solicitor with a claim of just over £5000 because they have no right legally or otherwise to suddenly share data.

    Oh I will add I've been an eon customer for around 10 years and categorically never signed anything giving my permission to share my data. Their CEO tried to say "we did it on all accounts and the ico said we could" yet I've also got a letter from the ico denying this. The ico state all firms need to notify customers of their intention which was never lol

    As such I've refused to pay any bills. A year later and 0115 8434352 rings several times daily adding to my harassment claim.

    E-on are the pits. Absolutely dire and Conmen to boot.

    Avoid like the plague.

    Hi TrueBlue

    I'm sorry you're unhappy with our policy of sharing information with a credit reference agency.

    Whilst I can't comment on individual cases, I can say that the possibility of us sharing information with credit reference agencies has been in our customer's terms and conditions for a long time now.

    I can also confirm, our policy has gone through and been approved by the ICO.

    As far as we're concerned, our actions are above board and legal.

    I think it's also worth mentioning, we don't just share payments information of customers who don't pay, we also share info on those who do: so those who pay promptly receive monthly positive entries on their credit reports.

    Malc
    “Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • jalexa
    jalexa Posts: 3,448 Forumite
    edited 5 November 2012 at 5:30PM
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    TrueBlue2012 wrote: »
    Security question when I called originally.

    I never chose eon. I'm in a new house which had it when I bought.

    The reason I asked that question was that AFAIAA it is needed for E.ON to "report" and also for the associated pre-contract "credit check".

    Perhaps some of the recent posters (including Malc:)) have a short memory, or perhaps the previous answer has changed, but a few months ago there was a thread regarding E.ON credit checks.

    Unlike an "elective" tariff, for the circumstances you found yourself in (i.e. E.ON as incumbent supplier), E.ON could not refuse supply on a deemed basis and assuming only that you maintained the account in good order, there would be no grounds to impose pre-payment meters. I recall the thread was akin to extracting teeth, but we (Malc included:D) got there in the end.

    If E.ON induced your DOB as a "security" question (perhaps for online or telephone purposes) and then relied on that as "identity" for data sharing purposes, I would argue that was a breach of data protection. *If* that holds, then spiro's "implicit in deemed contract" argument fails.

    Good luck with your action (though I advise that you resume paying your account).
  • mcbob_2
    mcbob_2 Posts: 34 Forumite
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    I can also confirm, our policy has gone through and been approved by the ICO.

    Have they actually done this (e.g show us the proof) or is this by omission - e.g they have seen what your're doing and are happy not to intervene.

    either way Eon are sailing very close to the wind....

    I still hold my view that they are not authorised to report their energy contracts as "credit" without going through the correct CCA route.

    - They are called CREDIT reference agencies for a reason.

    - A contract for energy is legally not credit, nor has it ever been, despite what the Eon salesman will tell you.

    Sadly I suspect they will continue with their dubious practices until they lose in court, or get to the point where they will settle. It just makes business sense for them to work in this way.
  • spiro
    spiro Posts: 6,403 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
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    mcbob wrote: »
    Have they actually done this (e.g show us the proof) or is this by omission - e.g they have seen what your're doing and are happy not to intervene.

    either way Eon are sailing very close to the wind....

    I still hold my view that they are not authorised to report their energy contracts as "credit" without going through the correct CCA route.

    - They are called CREDIT reference agencies for a reason.

    - A contract for energy is legally not credit, nor has it ever been, despite what the Eon salesman will tell you.

    Sadly I suspect they will continue with their dubious practices until they lose in court, or get to the point where they will settle. It just makes business sense for them to work in this way.
    If you look here (http://www.scoronline.co.uk/principles/) you will see the big energy suppliers are represented and that the principle appears to be that you put in as much as you take out so if energy companies are doing credit checks then to balance this they should provide credit data.
    IT Consultant in the utilities industry specialising in the retail electricity market.

    4 Credit Card and 1 Loan PPI claims settled for £26k, 1 rejected (Opus).
  • jalexa
    jalexa Posts: 3,448 Forumite
    edited 6 November 2012 at 10:54PM
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    E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »
    I can also confirm, our policy has gone through and been approved by the ICO.

    As far as we're concerned, our actions are above board and legal.

    BTW I'm not challenging the second quote here.

    The first quote however can hardly be relevant to the issue of energy supply since the ICO does not regulate energy supply. I'm personally relaxed about "reporting", however I believe pre-contract "credit checks" disadvantages the most vulnerable customer groups. Therefore a discriminatory competition issue.

    I'd like to see E.ON (and fellow energy "credit-checkers") thrown out of the market, but that will be for Ofgem, not the ICO.
  • TrueBlue2012
    TrueBlue2012 Posts: 6 Forumite
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    spiro wrote: »
    When you move into a property you become a customer of the existing energy supplier (gas & elec) on their 'Deemed Contract' which is normally their standard pay on bill tariff (most expensive) for which you can find the t&cs on their website. I suspect if you read them you will find data sharing is included.
    Thanks. However just because they say they can share info, doesn't mean I have agreed to it. Sitting tenant or whatever doesn't matter. I must agree, surely?

    If not why do we need an ICO or even a DPA?
  • TrueBlue2012
    TrueBlue2012 Posts: 6 Forumite
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    mcbob wrote: »
    Have they actually done this (e.g show us the proof) or is this by omission - e.g they have seen what your're doing and are happy not to intervene.

    either way Eon are sailing very close to the wind....

    I still hold my view that they are not authorised to report their energy contracts as "credit" without going through the correct CCA route.

    - They are called CREDIT reference agencies for a reason.

    - A contract for energy is legally not credit, nor has it ever been, despite what the Eon salesman will tell you.

    Sadly I suspect they will continue with their dubious practices until they lose in court, or get to the point where they will settle. It just makes business sense for them to work in this way.

    Well lets start a super-complaint using which or the likes? Aren't they usually good with this? But I totally agree, E-on never had any authority to share my data and hence I feel abused because technically they just did it based on something in their terms that I have never agreed to, I just kept using them because they never gave me any hassle but now...
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