Experian - Be Warned

wisecat

We have been denied credit due to the fact that our house is not registered to us, a mistake by Experian.
After contacting our voting register to find out if there was any block on our house, which was a no, just the normal marketing block, we explained what had happened and were told that Experian have full access to the full register details.
So we needed to contact Experian, not an easy task, 1st you have to register giving them your credit card details to get a reference number before they will even talk to you. Then, as long as you are prepared to wait you (at 5pence a minute) you will get through to a person who doesn’t want to talk to you as you don’t have your pin number yet (up to 5 working days). We don’t want a credit check we just want the correct details passed onto the loan company.
When you explain that the details they have supplied to a loan company are incorrect they stated that they have 28 days to respond to our queries, remember that you have 30 days for a free trail and can only talk to them when you are registered. Note this has taken you 45 minutes on the phone at 5 pence a minute.
So you hang on and demand that its their error they need to sort it now, eventually they conducted another check which confirmed that we don’t live where we are (don’t know who does). After further discussion they have promised that someone will call back within 24 hours.
After the call to Experian we again contacted the voting register to rechecked, the council voting register clerk rechecked and stated ‘ you have been correctly registered on this current register since December 2011 and that all credit reference agencies including Experian have been sent the full details.
Now what do we do?

daddycee

Hi all,

I guess I should have posted this a while ago but a few years ago I to use Experian to get my "Free" credit report but after a while the began to continually take money out of my bank account and trying to get through them was like trying to get blood out of stone.

This went on for 4 months and would they answer the phone. Noooooo!

Regards

littlelotto

Hi there, I have also used experian in the past and cancelled my free trial knowing that I would have to pay if I didn't. BUT it took four days and 61/2 hours on the phone to do it along with emails saying that as i had spent so much time on the phone, that an email to customer services would suffice as intention to cancel, which they replied to and flatly refused.
That was 5 years ago, i am now using them to try and improve my credit score and it has failed miserably, even with their help. I have gone from an ok score to very poor, after following THEIR advice.
I have a double barrel last name, and they insisted I fill out an AKA form, also know as, because their computers might not pick it up, which i did, big mistake.
I was told i was overdrawn on my credit card, which was affecting my credit rating, so i paid it off, big mistake, now i wasn't using my credit, penalised for that, got an even lower score.
they had incorrect information on me, saying i owed £566, it had been paid off for 3 years, I HAD TO UPDATE THEIR INFORMATION, !!!!!!.
I then found out that i had an account which was creating a problem for me, turns out MBNA OWED ME £1.27, and it was affecting my record because it showed as outstanding, so i got them to pay it off and then had to phone experian and let THEM KNOW.
NO ONE REGULATES EXPERIAN, BUT EVERY BANK USES THEIR SERVICES, WHICH CAN BE CHECKED THROUGH GOOGLE, they need to be stopped.
I have a friend who has declared himself insolvent in 2005, wrote off £32700. 19 months ago he was declared bankcrupt, wrote off even more. He's just bought a £240000 house with his new morgage.
I however, had £22000 debt, which I have methodically paid off, even doing whilst the bank penalised me with their charges to the tune of £7700, which I didn't collect on, and I owe no one anything, except the taxman. But my credit rating is very poor. I haven't missed a payment in 3 years, I have a disposable income of almost £1700 a month, but I cant get a loan for a car, with an interest rate better than 46% because of my experian credit report. EXPLAIN THAT, because i've phoned them 3 times and they can't......

Buzby

How can your private info 'be checked through Google'?

The DPA prevents this, and only firms subscribing to their very expensive service will get access through a secure portal.

rb10

littlelotto wrote: »

Hi there, I have also used experian in the past and cancelled my free trial knowing that I would have to pay if I didn't. BUT it took four days and 61/2 hours on the phone to do it along with emails saying that as i had spent so much time on the phone, that an email to customer services would suffice as intention to cancel, which they replied to and flatly refused.
That was 5 years ago

Five years ago things may have been different, but you can now cancel by email.

littlelotto wrote: »

I was told i was overdrawn on my credit card, which was affecting my credit rating, so i paid it off, big mistake, now i wasn't using my credit, penalised for that, got an even lower score.
they had incorrect information on me, saying i owed £566, it had been paid off for 3 years, I HAD TO UPDATE THEIR INFORMATION, !!!!!!.
I then found out that i had an account which was creating a problem for me, turns out MBNA OWED ME £1.27, and it was affecting my record because it showed as outstanding, so i got them to pay it off and then had to phone experian and let THEM KNOW.

If this is the case, then you cannot blame Experian. They can only report the information they are given.

If Experian showed your MBNA balance as outstanding, then this will have been what MBNA were telling them.

littlelotto wrote: »

NO ONE REGULATES EXPERIAN, BUT EVERY BANK USES THEIR SERVICES, WHICH CAN BE CHECKED THROUGH GOOGLE, they need to be stopped.

Your credit files cannot be checked through Google.

Many banks use Experian, but not 'every bank'. Some use Equifax and/or Callcredit.

littlelotto wrote: »

I have a friend who has declared himself insolvent in 2005, wrote off £32700. 19 months ago he was declared bankcrupt, wrote off even more. He's just bought a £240000 house with his new morgage.

I expect there is more to this story than meets the eye.

littlelotto wrote: »

I however, had £22000 debt, which I have methodically paid off, even doing whilst the bank penalised me with their charges to the tune of £7700, which I didn't collect on, and I owe no one anything, except the taxman. But my credit rating is very poor. I haven't missed a payment in 3 years, I have a disposable income of almost £1700 a month, but I cant get a loan for a car, with an interest rate better than 46% because of my experian credit report. EXPLAIN THAT, because i've phoned them 3 times and they can't......

If you had £7,700 of charges on your £22k debt, then there must have been missed payments at some point.

Any missed payments will remain on - and damage - your credit file for six years. This is probably the reason why you can't get a car loan.

You say you've phoned 'them' three times ... is this Experian or the car loan provider? Experian won't be able to help - they aren't the ones giving you credit, so don't make the decisions.

anoncol

rb10 wrote: »

Five years ago things may have been different, but you can now cancel by email.

I could NOT find an address to cancel just last month. I had to ring up to cancel. Where on their website does it have an email for cancelling?

rb10

anoncol wrote: »

I could NOT find an address to cancel just last month. I had to ring up to cancel. Where on their website does it have an email for cancelling?

Log into your account, go to Contact Us.

katejo

No you cannot cancel by email as they ignore all emails ! I got a credit report from then in feb 2013 . I then cancelled by phone and got an email to confirm this . A few weeks later they tried to take a payment from me which fortunately failed as the card had been stopped for an unrelated reason . They then pestered me for payment . I sent them several emails with proof of my cancellation but they ignored them completely. In the end I had to ring again .

Not_my_real_name

Exactly what is a "Statutory Report" and where does one get one from?

Sorry but some of us are new to all this!

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

xkpa

Not_my_real_name wrote: »

Exactly what is a "Statutory Report" and where does one get one from?

Sorry but some of us are new to all this!

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

It is one time credit report which contains all your data and costs 2 pounds. You can order it from Equifax, Experian and Callcredit. Last time when I did that with Experian, they send letter with a code to my address. With that code I was able to check my Statury report online. Hope that helps.