CIFAS ENTRY

a.rickards

Hi there,

i have recieved my credit reports from both Experian and equifax.

on my file there are 2 CIFAS entries due to the previous occupiers of the property.

i have written to both companies stating that the people stated on my credit file have no link to myself or the property anymore.

Barclaycard have removed the listing from Experian file but not equifax.

also Lloyds TSB are refusing to remove the listing for 13 months!!!

i have never had problems with my credit. however, since this i have not been able to get a credit card or renew any credit agreement. although it is stated that the entry should not effect me, i have no other explanation.

can anyone help !!! :-[

hopefulfooluk

Hi,

CIFAS is I believe one of the only things that is associated with an address as well as an individual. So if someone has made a fraudulent application with your address somewhere on it, or they have been traced to your address at some point, the CIFAS warning will be put on your file as you live at the protected address.

Believe it or not this is a good thing, as it means that any application for credit involving your address has to be double-checked by a person. Unfortunately sometimes this isn't possible due to time constraints - especially in busy credit card companies - but nevertheless the organisations assessing your applications are not allowed to decline you on the CIFAS alone. So it may be the time thing - they simply don't have the time to check the application out fully - or you may have just failed their customer profile this time around.

So don't worry about it - it may be a pain in the behind while it's on there, but it's far better to have a CIFAS on your file than have someone impersonate you and rack up huge debts..... because that's what it's designed to protect at the end of the day - you. And I doubt Lloyds will remove it until the 13 months is up 'cos they don't want to lose out because of a fraudulent application that is made somewhere along the line, that they could have avoided by seeing the CIFAS.

Hope this helps,

Chris

a.rickards

thanks chris,

i understand what they are trying do but as you can imagine the whole thing is driving me round the bend!!

aiden

Sub_2

I'm afraid I disagree somewhat with Chris, a CIFAS warning is not designed to protect *you*, it is designed to protect the credit companies. Their protection comes at your inconvenience and expense.

Of course they won't tell you this, they'll spin the situation and use their most reassuring voice to inform you "oh it is for *your* protection sir, it is actually a *benefit* to *you*".

Bullsh*t.

I had a CIFAS warning placed on my file for a year too, and it was a real pain in the !!!!!!.

Couple of years back I was surprised to receive a letter from Egg which told me my application for a credit card had been accepted and if I would kindly sign the enclosed form they would send me my new card. Now I hadn't applied for an Egg credit card so I rang and told them of course. They were generally helpful and I ended up speaking to their card fraud department and we went through some of my own personal info. The bloke found it did not tally with all of the application data. In the end it turned out someone had got some of my details and was using a similar address to mine to make an application in my name. Thankfully my local postman was bright enough to know where I lived and delivered the acceptance letter to me instead of the fraudster. Egg cancelled everything but they placed a CIFAS warning on my address and this caused a lot of trouble for me for the year it was there.

Whilst every lender will officially tell you that they do not decline applications because of CIFAS flags the truth is that it does happen. Maybe not all of them, some will be more responsible than others, but you *will* be viewed with suspicion. I actually once ended up talking on the phone to a guy in a credit card application review deptartment and he as much as told me, off the record, that CIFAS flagged applications almost always got junked by his firm. It seems some lenders just don't want that kind of risk.

Whenever I made a credit application during the year the CIFAS warning was on my file I had to jump through hoops to prove who I was. Letters back and forth providing all kinds of documents, long delays while info was processed and double checked by humans etc.

Fair enough I realise there has to be some way to try and prevent this kind of fraud but the CIFAS thing seems to penalize the innocent party. The fraud warning should go on the credit file of the person attempting the fraud, but of course the credit companies usually don't know who that is, so they flag you, the victim, instead. Just doesn't seem fair to me.

You might want to find out if the CIFAS warning on your file is marked as a catagory 1 or catagory 2 warning, one is much worse than the other from a lenders point of view. I forget which was which now but the different catagories I think give an indication if they think *you* were actually the fraudster involved.

Anyway, if I were in a similar position in future I would think very carefully about what to do. Informing a credit company about fraud in your name *will* damage your standing in some circumstances and I wouldn't be so fast to blow the whistle again. I think there are better ways out of that mess.