Credit Reference Agencies - Who uses who? discussion area

edwinab

as a recent arrival from australia watching daytime tv, i was inspired by martin to apply for a 0% credit card, intending to stooze. sadly i was rejected by 2 companies, before i stopped applying :rolleyes: . now i am getting direct mail from the likes of vanquis. i assume they've gotten my info from experian (based on info i've googled about how they get addresses to direct mail to), or how experian shares my info with agencies i've not applied to? does anyone know who else can get this information about me, without my consent? i have another worry which is that we're about to move, and once our redirection runs out, if these direct mails keep coming, someone could apply for credit in my name. what can i do to prevent my info from being passed onto other companies?? any advice would be appreciated

Mrs_B_12

MSE_Dan wrote:

Just a quick note to say that Amex have now confirmed that they use all 3 CRAs, depending on the circumstances and customer.

The Table should be updated tomorrow

The table still hasn't been updated and I wish I'd read this before my husband applied to Amex!

jay78

edwinab wrote:

now i am getting direct mail from the likes of vanquis. i assume they've gotten my info from experian (based on info i've googled about how they get addresses to direct mail to), or how experian shares my info with agencies i've not applied to? does anyone know who else can get this information about me, without my consent? i have another worry which is that we're about to move, and once our redirection runs out, if these direct mails keep coming, someone could apply for credit in my name. what can i do to prevent my info from being passed onto other companies?? any advice would be appreciated

This can't be right. Experian can't share information unless you've instructed a company to do so. I'm assuming it's the credit card companies that share the information. For example, when I was turned down by Capital One, I started getting mail shots from Vanquis.

edwinab

I got that info from the Guardian who said :

'To find customers, Vanquis will trawl through the files of private credit rating agency Experian - it holds data on almost everyone in Britain - to identify individuals rejected by other lenders often because they have run into debt problems in the past.'

If the info was shared by a bank, can you do anything to stop them from passing your info onto others?

bert&ernie

Experian don't use the Credit Bureau data for finding prospects, however it does offer services that allow you to pre-screen prospects against the bureau files. Experian do also supply marketing data, but this is separate to the credit bureau. See the correction issued by the Guardian:

"The credit-rating agency Experian holds records of county court judgments, made available to banks and other credit institutions when an individual applies for credit. However, it does not permit institutions to search its database for individuals with such judgments and use the results for marketing purposes, a procedure we suggested in the report below."

http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,1456,1411444,00.html

I would imagine that Vanquis find prospects from a variety of marketing data sources, but will pre-screen these potential customers against the Experian bureau.

Experian_company_representative

bert&ernie - you are absolutely right.

edwinab - you can register for free with the mailing preference service to stop unwanted direct mail. Simply visit https://www.mpsonline.org.uk

James

Mrs_Smith_6

You have HSBC down as using Experian, but according to experian they've only recently started using them. Before that I think they used Equifax, and may still do, as until recently my HSBC accounts had no history on experian, but my history goes back 6 years on Equifax

john1002

IF needs to be updated as they use experian as well as equifax. It should also be noted sainsbury use halifax as do IF and they mainly use experian.

E_R_A

Anyone Know why credit reference agencies do not amend the records when a discharge from bankruptcy happens. Or why the financial institutions do not amend their records as settled.
I thought that by sharing anyones information so easily and freely that at least credit reference agencies should keep up to date with the records instead of charging the person to correct information.

BASFORDLAD

Agencies Dont charge people to change incorrect information or out of date information.