Credit Reference Agencies

NickX

naijapower wrote: »

But behold, they have suddenly changed their package. They now use Call Credit instead of Experian. i.e. the credit monitoring service would henceforth be provided by Call Credit. This is poor value for money in my opinion as i believe no one uses call credit.

Its good value for money for Lloyds Banking Group as Call Credit will cost them substantially less than Experian or Equifax

never-in-doubt

naijapower wrote: »

Well done NID.

With reference to credit searches, is it true that most lenders are now using call credit.

I very much doubt this but this is what i was told by LTSB.
I have a their premier account and get charged £25 a month for so called 'benefits'.

One of the benefits was free monitoring of your file thru experian - unlimited reports, alerts etc.

But behold, they have suddenly changed their package. They now use Call Credit instead of Experian. i.e. the credit monitoring service would henceforth be provided by Call Credit. This is poor value for money in my opinion as i believe no one uses call credit.

When i queried with LTSB, i was told i was wrong and that infact most lenders have now decided to use all 3 CRA for credit checking purpose???
Very unbelieveable to me and it seems likely i would cancel my package account with them.....not worth it

Cheers matey :beer:

As far as I know most lenders still subscribe to either Experian/Equifax for main searches as the CC system is not quite up to date and with most lenders only recently reporting to them, this means they do not have as much history as the other main 2 CRA's so it would be a biased score and most people would actually pass the score and be successful for the credit product if the lender only searched CC...

Therefore, with that one scenario in mind I doubt it very much that LTSB or any main bank for that matter would solely use CallCredit (CC). In fairness I think maybe they search Experian first and foremost for all new customers and then maybe search CC when you want additional borrowing (so only for existing customers)..... this would be a logical thing to do.

cosmic_girl

Does info vary greatly from one CRA to the other or is it pretty much the same with all of them? I've got a monthly thing with Equifax and wondered if there is really any need to check the others often. Do they pass info between each other? cheers x x x

never-in-doubt

cosmic_girl wrote: »

Does info vary greatly from one CRA to the other or is it pretty much the same with all of them? I've got a monthly thing with Equifax and wondered if there is really any need to check the others often. Do they pass info between each other? cheers x x x

Nah the data is totally different nowadays cos a lot of lenders use specific CRA's to search. So you'll find that whilst most lenders share monthly updates with all 3 CRA's some do only search one or the other. A good example is Barclaycard use Equifax, so does Capital 1. On the flip side, MBNA and Halifax use Experian.

That said, some now search more than one CRA. Its always best to send off £2 to each CRA once every 6 months - no need for monthly monitoring, free or otherwise.

Jemma-T

Credit Reference Agencies

What is that supposed to be? Why do you use proper nouns? Are they registered somewhere as a legal entity as "CRAs"? You -and many many others here- make these scumbags private companies seem like some sort of legal authoirty with legal powers. They are no different to your local ASDA.

No reason why we can't have a thread like this for general info but please stop this nonsense where consumers start to think we need these parasites. They're only interested in prostituting your info which many seem to think is good to give them for free AND 'join' their club by signing up/paying for some sort of 'service'.

These companies do provide a needed service to companies but they seem to be interested in selling themselves to private consumers with scam adverts all over the Internet and gawd knows where else.

Just be aware people you do not NEED their service and they're essentially just car parking attendants. They may have yellow jackets, look official, ugly and abrupt but they are not required.

never-in-doubt

Jemma-T wrote: »

Credit Reference Agencies

What is that supposed to be? Why do you use proper nouns? Are they registered somewhere as a legal entity as "CRAs"? You -and many many others here- make these scumbags private companies seem like some sort of legal authoirty with legal powers. They are no different to your local ASDA.

No reason why we can't have a thread like this for general info but please stop this nonsense where consumers start to think we need these parasites. They're only interested in prostituting your info which many seem to think is good to give them for free AND 'join' their club by signing up/paying for some sort of 'service'.

These companies do provide a needed service to companies but they seem to be interested in selling themselves to private consumers with scam adverts all over the Internet and gawd knows where else.

Just be aware people you do not NEED their service and they're essentially just car parking attendants. They may have yellow jackets, look official, ugly and abrupt but they are not required.

Maybe you miss the point - I am No1 against these scum (as you call them) and am in the processing of suing Equifax, i've already beaten CallCredit and Experian.

Unfortunately your rant means little in the grand scheme of things - they will continue to process our data whether we like it or not, otherwise you cannot even get a mortgage - so you tell me then, how the hell does that compare to Asda? I think you need to learn the facts before preaching to me!

Maybe preach to others but certainly not to me!

Jemma-T

never-in-doubt wrote: »

... they will continue to process our data whether we like it or not,

That's got nothing to do with my post. And to be correct, they will continue to process our data legally and within the law. I have no problem who processes my data or who retains it as long as it's legal and they have my permission if required.

I just don't like the weight much of the people here give these people. Going to their site is no different that going to Argos.co.uk and reserving a pine chair. Except with Argos you get a pine chair. Information about you should be free and if you've been looking after your debt and credit then there's no need for these companies. Even if you don't look after your credit or debt you will know fine well what any 'report' is going to say. If you really have no idea then you shouldn't (and won't) get access to credit anytime soon. No need to pay parasite middle men.

Get a bit of paper and write down your finances. That's much quicker than these unneeded (by private consumers) companies.

This whole site has posts about credit card/pre-payment scams, free holiday scams, phone scams, credit fees refund scams -yet these companies selling you a 'reference' get some a healthly reputation and people seem to think it's good to sign up. They are scammers and we know that's a fact because they are wanting private consumers' cash for something the consumer already knows and possesses. And they send you nothing but ask for more payments in a few months.

That's a copper-bottomed scam.

never-in-doubt

Jemma - i'm like you, I hate them but what can we do? A few years ago they were outlawed but it backfired and we're back to square one, if not even worse.

To be honest we really need a multi millionaire to come along and take them on - half the data they share is libel, in my case Equifax added 51 defaults that isn't me and they refuse to remove them even though I sent a court letter proving I never lived at the linked address.

I am now suing them for a statutory £5k compo per incorrect entry (i.e. £5k x 51) and I gave them no less than 82 warnings of legal action - they even called me a liar in a letter.

I've got em by the proverbials but my main issue is the costs, I need around £40k - £270k to take them on and bankroll them so i've advertised for sponsor to fund me being I will win.

I want their blood - in fact I kinda hoped the Bradford riots would have trashed the joint but no such luck

Innocent_Guy

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