Experian Credit Report- Duplicated entries?!?

tressls

Hi
Sorry if this is the wrong forum but I hope someone will move it if so!

Right... story is, my OH recently applied for car credit to trade in a car he already has on finance for a bigger car. There was £1600 negative equity added on to the cost of the car and other bits (warranty) etc. so he was applying to borrow £8000. Anyway, despite having a decent credit report (so we thought) he was refused from all the lenders they tried.
Ordered his experian report, got it today.
Everything seems ok. Addresses, electoral role etc.
Thing is, there are 36 credit account entries (C1-C36). 17 of these are duplicates of the first 17 (so C1-C19 are ok, then C20-C36 are repeats of C1-C17).
Same with previous searches. There are 24, but it is really 12, repeated. Exactly the same order.
All seems to be ok. Some of those 19 accounts are settled (old car finance, phone contracts, a store (Next) card we never knew we had (they refused inital credit then months later decided we could have a small limit but we had moved and didn't find out until I saw a credit report last year).
All account statuses are '0' - up to date. A couple of those (catalogues) have a couple of status '1s'- payment up to a month late- because we had payment arrangements set up for these. There are a few 'Us'- not sure why.
It seems all ok in general. He has a lot of credit but mainly small bits and bobs and 2 main ones- a 5yr loan due to be paid off Dec this year. And the current car finance which has another 3.5yrs left. Oh and a credit card which is ongoing while we pay it off basically. Other bits are sofa finance, and 3 things from Currys. All with fairly low balances. And 2 mobile contracts- again nothing major, and short-term.
Anyway.. I digress....
Not saying he SHOULD get credit but am confused as to why even the credit companies for those with bad credit refused him. Not sure if it's cuz of the current financial situ, negative equity or what.

But am worried and confused as to why 17 out of 19 things on his credit file are repeated, and ALL the previous searches?

Any ideas guys, also if this could be places in a better forum please point me in that direction!

Ta x

Treadway1

It does seem strange that the items are duplicated. I checked my report online recently with Experian and everything there was mentioned only once, so it sounds more like an error than standard. I would suggest either phoning Experian and ask if they could explain or Im pretty sure theres a way to send an online form to query an entry.

Other than that, it could well be that because it is showing your OH having so many credit accounts (Albeit duplicated ones), that is the reason he has been refused. Even if you pay all your credit agreements off promptly, a company may well still refuse you, if it deems you to have too much credit available.

As I say though, its bets to contact Experian and query it.

Best of luck.

YorkshireBoy

Have you recently moved house, or is your address listed twice...perhaps slightly differently?

Lenders certainly look at the number of active accounts, as well as debt and available credit (does he close down old unused accounts?), and if they can't determine that his are duplicated then that's the likely reason he was refused.

The 'U' signifies the lender cannot supply a status code for that particular month. See http://experian.metafaq.com/resources/experian/Downloads/Credit_report_explained (foot of page 11).

On a general point, I hope his job is secure because he does seem to like his credit (and doesn't seem overly concerned about the negative equity in his current car). None of my business...just an observation.

I agree the best approach would be to contact Experian. If you have a paper report it will show an 0870 number. Use www.saynoto0870.com to find a freephone number, but be prepared for a long wait for the call to be answered...unless they've improved since last I rang them.

tressls

Hi, thanks for the replies. I have submitted a couple of online queries about the Credit Account info and searches, probs going to ring them Monday though to avoid waiting. I really hope it's not the reason.. in fact then again, if it can be fixed I sort of hope it is then we have an explanation.. but then how long would it take to be fixed and then how long to wait before applying again?

Argh... I am so impatient and can't wait til Monday (case of having to as lines only open Mon-Fri 9-5 I think)!

Haha... the thing about his credit fetish.. if I am honest the poor buy had not much really- just a loan and a small c.card paid monthly in full, small overdraft and a phone contract! But since moving/having a child etc. it's built and built. Mainly because I have really BAD credit (stupid stupid me... another story.. but anyway that was before we met, nothing linked etc). The bits and bobs he has are mainly things I pay for but in his name (catalogues, couple of low-balance store cards we are just paying off).
The car thing.. well we had old cars until a couple of yrs ago when after a strong of bad luck with cars, the one we had was wrote off by joyriders smashing into it. This was 2 wks before we went away and we just got fed up of old cars needing repair and drinking petrol, so we looked at newer ones and ended up with the car we have now. Fantastic car but with baby number 2 we would ideally need a bigger boot as we serioulsy can only fit the new pram in with no parcel shelf, godknows about any luggage/shopping! So we thought about a bigger one, despite knowing we would have -equity. Not the best idea but we thought it'd be ok and then got rejected, hence the reason for this question and for us checking his report (again!).
I don't mindf the car thing.. can manage like others do but it is annoying to not know why....

Anyone know what happens if Experian say 'oh sorry our mistake'- can we put a note on file to explain to people? Can we apply for credit again soon? If so, from the same companies?

Not desperate to get into more debt this day and age but just in case...

Thanks again... and does anyone know how I get notification when someon replies to threads so I don't miss anything?

xx

Hibs1875_2

I had problems with my entries being repeated twice - it was due to a variation of my address being held on file for RBS as they formatted it differently - up shot was that everything else duplicated. I complained about it and they said it was fine and that lenders didn't see that information. I said I was concerned about it since my amount of available credit etc was double what it really was - in the end I just cancelled and went with equifax instead!

YorkshireBoy

tressls wrote: »

Fantastic car but with baby number 2 we would ideally need a bigger boot as we serioulsy can only fit the new pram in with no parcel shelf, godknows about any luggage/shopping! So we thought about a bigger one, despite knowing we would have -equity. Not the best idea...

Back in 1990 we had a 2 door Fiesta and 2 kids. When No 3 came along (unexpectedly) we kept the Fiesta for a further 2 years rather than get into debt. Yes it was awkward...pram and baby gear in the boot (parcel shelf removed) and 3 suitcases on a roof rack when driving the 360 miles to Cornwall for our holidays. However, and crucially, we had no debt...let alone negative equity. Just pointing out it can be done, but you've got to want to do it. Something to think about perhaps?

Anyone know what happens if Experian say 'oh sorry our mistake'- can we put a note on file to explain to people? Can we apply for credit again soon? If so, from the same companies?

Obviously the best thing to do is to wait to see what Experian say, because it's clearly their fault...as it's highly unlikely (in fact nigh on impossible) that *all* your lenders have reported the accounts twice.

You could put a notice of correction on your file, but I suspect that won't be necessary once Experian have found out what's caused the situation.

tressls

Thanks again guys!

Yeah I hope it is straight forward... I have just ordered his Equifax file too, to check that out. Are there any more companies I should check?

Yorkshire Boy... yep I see what you are saying about the car... that was our solution anyway, get a roof box (no roof rack... seen the other half tie stuff to one before which promptly fell off.. eek!). It is a lovely little corsa and cheap to run, so not a huge prob to keep it. After all some people don't have cars.. I didn't growing up (me and mum only) and was just fine. I know it is a bad idea really but once I get niggled by something I have to solve it.. it is not even so much the car credit now as just why he was rejected by even the higher interest companies that car place used! Grrr!

Hope to get it sorted...

Anyone know how long NOC's take to go onto the account when you do it online? Just did 2- one for the Credit Accounts, one for the Previous Searches. It does say 'enter which entry it relates to eg C1, C2' but with there being several I listed all the duplicates entry numbers, seperated by commas. I put a note saying I would like lenders to be aware that xxxx are duplicated entries of xxxxx, please take this into account until this matter is resolved, I have contacted Experian about this blablaabla. That ok?

And how long do you reckon it will take to 'sort' (if this IS causing probs- not so sure after reading the reply above Yorkshire Boys 2nd reply.. sorry can't remember name.. the one who said Experian said lenders wouldn't see that etc)? EG For entries to be removed, notices applied etc?

Thanks again xx

YorkshireBoy

CallCredit is the 3rd, but least used, CRA.

You do know that a NOC means every application you make will be referred for manual scoring by an underwriter?

To be honest I wouldn't have done that yet, at least not until I'd spoken with Experian and had also checked the other two CRA's...after all, you're not going to be applying anywhere else until you get this issue resolved are you?

When you're declined for credit you can generally get an idea of the reason why from the lender, either verbally or in the letter they send.

tressls

Oh pants.. oh god I will have to get OH to ring experian monday and sort it out.. wonder if they will remove the NOCs? WHY do i rush into stuff!!! ARGH!

No, not be applying elsewhere yet!! Just too impatient for my own good.

tressls

ARGH!

Does anyone know how I can contact Experian- I have an 0870 and 0844 number, both of which gives me no option to speak to an anctual person!

YorkshireBoy

See post #3.