Quickie regarding credit checks..

ferry

Hi all
Probably a silly question but do companies or even individuals have to gain my consent before doing a credit check on me?Or are some companies that are registered,say, in the Financial Services Industry cleared to carry out these checks without consent?

Might be unrelated but I've had an awful lot of junk mail come through my letter box recently offering me loans & CC's which I have 'already been pre-approved for',which I never used to get.

They end up in the bin anyway!

Cheers
Terry

holidayqueen

By applying for credit the company concerned has the right to see what kind of credit history you have. ( ie - ccj's, defaults, late paymnts, upto date with pays,settled accs, etc).

You could potentially be a risk to that company and they need to know that info.

CLAPTON

in general companies cannot access your credit records without your consent. when you apply for credit or whatever, there is something in the small print whereby you give them the authority to access your records.

Ali-OK

I'm pretty sure they won't have done a credit check for the junk mail that says "pre-approved".

I've had this before and found them to be from a company within the same group, ie. already had Barclaycard, got pre-approved for Monument. I'm guessing it's because they have my info and payment history on record, so therefore the risk is small to do this.

Just make sure you tear into small pieces or shred so someone else can't get hold of it and apply. (Me paranoid about identity theft..noooo!!)