Experian CreditExpert reclaiming article

Called on Wednesday. Guy on the phone very friendly and checked my account and saw that I had it for over a year.

Took my details and said they'd be in touch.

Got an email on Thursday with goodwill gesture of £88.

Refunded into my bank on Friday.

The amount of of financial recompense was small. I was only a member for 5 months in 2012 (after falling into the intended trap and forgetting to cancel after the trial period. When I realised the 'products' 'didn't offer that much to justify a recurring monthly subscription of £15 I cancelled my account.

When I read of this wheeze in MSE last week, it was outrage rather than £30 part-refund that made me lift the phone and call them. The person who answered was guarded his responses, and was practiced in replying to anything awkward by keeping silent. I received the same information that he said they had a 'team' of people working on this. Which in practice means issuing goodwill refunds.

It "wasn't possible" to be transferred to the team in question and complain directly. I expect they fear their switchboard would melt. He said he would note my concerns, and true to his word, I got an email 5 minutes later and it had been passed to 'the 'team'

An envelope arrived yesterday after only 6 days containing a cheque for £30.02 and a letter asserted that encashment of it "Will be deemed to have been accepted in full and final settlement of all and any claims that you have made about the identity fraud expenses insurance that we included in our CreditExpert product for customers joining between 12th January 2011 and 28th July 2014."

They also acknowledge that the payment sum can be rejected - and you will have 6 months from the date of the later to refer complaint to the FOS.

I'm just going to cash it as £30 worth of principle it's back in my account and not theirs.

Understandably, the letter makes makes no reference to Experian accepting any alleged liability. "It was sold clearly and fairly as we believed." The calculation of £30.02 had the 8% interest added on. Reading through previous postings it seems a far assumption that they have established a common precedent in making common refunds of the £5 +8% for each month subscribed.het didn't contest and the refund came through swiftly.

I think it will now be very difficult (beyond establishing a closing date to register a claim) for them start to make arbitrary decision to stop the season of 'goodwill'

My advice would be to phone directly (as soon as you know the number of £14.99 payments sent to Experian from your own bank records) and state firmly that you have checked your records and would like (not demand) a refund.

Whether or not the investigation defines their present goodwill into something less altruistic remains to be seen, but I hope the credit reference agencies cease trying to milk every drop of value from their prized cash-cow databases. Perhaps it will be consumers who turn away as more people question the worth. Funnily enough, I've just received an email notification from Experian as I type with the heading "There has been a change in your credit file!" So I take that back - there's still a way to go. What might be next...credit ratings for cats cats and dogs to aspire to??