Never had skycard but have £4000 balance on Equifax history

miketf

Hi I am going for a mortgage at the moment and have done an equifax search because my bank says I owe more that I thought on credit cards. I have found that I have a skycard from 2003 updated in 2007 with me owing close to £4000. I have never applied for a skycard and have never been contacted by them for the payment of the £4000 so I am confused as to what is happened.

Any advice would be great.

Many thanks.

Joe_Bloggs

You may have been the victim of identity fraud. Experian, Equifax etc can help you sort this out. CIFAS has a lot of useful information. There may be better ways of proceeding given the personal knowledge of those on the MSE forum..
J_B.

andyroberts1967

I've had something similar in that we had a postcard (not a letter!) from a debt collection agency called Allied International Credit, saying we owed over £2k to LTSB, and to call them (AIC) urgently, although the name wasn't quite right (I don't have a middle initial, and the name on the postcard did).

Anyway, I called them to say there was no way this could possibly be to do with us, and the Scottish guy I spoke to basically as good as called me a liar and said that I was trying to slip out of a debt I had run up. He also asked me for DOB information which I was uneasy about giving, so I told him to put it in writing to me along with a copy of any credit agreement which I would have had to sign to get any credit from LTSB.

Next thing I got was an urgent final reminder, no copy of any agreement with it, so I thought I'm not going to bother contacting them again, so I got straight on to LTSB, who put me through to their debt recovery department, who said something along the lines of "oh this happens a lot, it's someone else's debt, and it's been transferred on to your credit file" - they said that they could fix this for me, but I want to know how it got there in the first place, and how they have the right to do this. If I hadn't ordered my credit file I would never had known I had a debt registered against my name/address.

I was turned down by Nationwide yesterday for an overdraft increase, and the email said that they had found adverse credit information on my file (it can only be this!), so I am so annoyed about this. I think LTSB or Experian should sort this out for me, and also let any/all organisations know that have enquired about us, that the original information they gave was false.

If anyone has any further ideas, please feel free to PM me at any time.

Many thanks

Andy

Joe_Bloggs

I would like to concur with Alx B and andyroberts1967.
I will highlight a potential scam.
The problems start when a debt collection agency tries convincing you that you are the person that owed them money by means of a popular bank selling your debt to them.

A great many people have trouble in dealing with their finances. They may be vulnerable to pressure to make them feel that they have to comply with the debt collection agencies wishes. The debt collection agencies may try threatening to exert pressure through the credit reference agencies in such away that spoils their credit rating. Alas the weak,fearful and mentally fallible give in and hand over their money without justification. This pays for the profits and the public relations campaign required to justify the situation to public etc.
J_B.