Creditors finding OH through CreditExpert?

miss_marsters

Hi my OH has recieved a letter from westcott credit chasing him for an old loan but on the letter it says they got his details (this address as we had previously moved towns) from Creditexpert, which he had access a few weeks ago

Is this likely to be true? it seems pretty unfair that these agencies give out yourdetails i mean he isnt on the electoral roll or anything

Thanks,
Kayleigh

Hannah_10

Credit Expert are Experian. Experian are one of the three credit reference agencies in the UK. Those credit reference agencies role is to hold the credit files of consumers and to keep up to date records, they are mandated to do so by law. Those records can be checked by anyone you have credit with or anyone you have applied to for credit. So for example if I move house and tell only my bank, no one else, the bank have a duty to tell the CRA's and the CRA's will then update thier records and so it is available in accordance with the law for any creditor who wants to check back. Creditors will check the CRA's before the electoral role most of the time because it's a faster more up to date source and as you've realised staying off the electoral roll is easy.

I totally hear your frustration on this one, as I know what it's like to be hounded to the point of dispair. Just on a technical level though, nothing's been done anything but totally by the book, so sorry.

mr.ton

The credit reference agencies & the DCA's are best buddies with each other.
They are 2 cheeks of the same backside effectivley.
The CRA's are only too willing to help/assist the DCA's in any way they can and vise versa.

Tixy

If you obtain a copy of your credit report and give current and previous address it will allow lenders to connect you to old accounts you have at the previous address.

Its quite common for this to happen after you have requested your credit file, especially as you are not on the electoral roll, as there may have been no previous way for them to know your address.

When you take out a credit agreement you agree to let the creditor report to the CRAs and in doing so they can find out your address details.

mr.ton

miss_marsters wrote: »

Hi my OH has recieved a letter from westcott credit chasing him for an old loan but on the letter it says they got his details (this address as we had previously moved towns) from Creditexpert, which he had access a few weeks ago

Is this likely to be true? it seems pretty unfair that these agencies give out yourdetails i mean he isnt on the electoral roll or anything

Thanks,
Kayleigh

When was last payment made on this loan?
If it was before 28th July 2004 then it will be stat barred = end of.
Westcot are notorious for chancing their arm on stat barred debts.
Even so, they have no legal power to any money off you anyway - only a county court does & they can simply be told to go away.

RAS

How old is old?

If he has paid nothing in the last 6 years, this is probably statute barred.

WRINKLES

Credit reference agencies own some debt collection agencies, i think Wescott is owned by experian , CRA s, also offer debt collection to banks and other financial institutions, they perform services for DWP, Local councills and others , you would not dream of, so that is why i always tell people to send two pounds with a simple message printed asking for your report print your signature , send two utillity bills as id , never do it online as they want more information than you should give , if they send back demanding passport driving licence bank accounts , things with your signature on or evidence of how much money you have , then you know why beacause you are dealing with DCA s, they tried this with me i threatened legal action they sent my report return of post, make sure your two pounds is a postal order not a cheque , dont give them a present of your signature , treat them as you would any DCA.

miss_marsters

Hi, thanks for the replies,

I guess i couldn't actually believe this could happen just by checking a credit report :eek: but you learn something new everyday.

Nope this loan isn't over six years old he took it out 2005 and its for a fair bit of cash around £2,500 with TSB (he was pretty stupid and greedy when he was younger) luckily are finances arent connected.

What are our options? i thought he could just wait it out and go to court because we can't afford to pay it and he has CCJs already due to being terrible with credit and the bank just throwing cash at him :mad:

Any advice would be apperiated,

Kayleigh

P.S also he has no paperwork about this loan at all

Marisco

Hi MM, is there a possibility of writing to them with a repayment plan? Offer then what you can comfortably afford and see what they say.

Hannah_10

Ok, it only has another year to go to become statute barred, if he is interested in that route then there are ways to drag it out. Co-incidentally as you actually don't have any paperwork then those are things you need to do! In short, your luck may be in.

Many loans agreed before 2007 are not legal. Basically the lenders were breaking a law called the consumer credit act. As it's about 30 years old the lenders had no excuse, but they were greedy and didn't care who they stitched up. Generally 70% is estimated for what proportion of pre-2007 loans were done shadily but I have seen estimates of up to 95%. There were things they were meant to write on the paperwork that they accidentally-on-purpose left off. There were lots of times they didn't even get a signature from the consumer for the loans they had apparently given them. There were all kinds of ways that they cheated us and then fleeced us until it fianlly came to a halt in April 2007.

When you're brought up a good Brit you think surely not, surely our major banking institutions, Barclays, TSB, Lloyds, Halifax, pick a name... Sure they wouldn't cheat people and do illegal things? Well they did. They did it so much that there's more chance his loan was a scam one than a real one.

If it is a scam one there is sweet FA they can do to get thier money back. They can't get a CCJ, they can't balif you, they can't even send you letters if you tell them to get lost with the correct wording. Sound too good to be true? It isn't. They played dirty with everyone for years and then they got stopped. Send the right letters, go through the right process, and it's gone.

The thing is for you, even if it turns out to be a totally legal and fair cop- finding that out is something you have every right to do, no just society would expect you to believe just anyone who demands money. As you only have a year until it's too old to chase then finding out if it was ever legal could actually take you past that point.

Interested? You want to get a coffee (it's really long) and make your way to Niddy's thread called Unenforcibility and Template Letters IV. It's all set out there and MSE will help you through it if you go that way. As you'll find it's one step at a time, step one is the prove-it letter.

miss_marsters

Hannah_10 wrote: »

Ok, it only has another year to go to become statute barred, if he is interested in that route then there are ways to drag it out. Co-incidentally as you actually don't have any paperwork then those are things you need to do! In short, your luck may be in.

Many loans agreed before 2007 are not legal. Basically the lenders were breaking a law called the consumer credit act. As it's about 30 years old the lenders had no excuse, but they were greedy and didn't care who they stitched up. Generally 70% is estimated for what proportion of pre-2007 loans were done shadily but I have seen estimates of up to 95%. There were things they were meant to write on the paperwork that they accidentally-on-purpose left off. There were lots of times they didn't even get a signature from the consumer for the loans they had apparently given them. There were all kinds of ways that they cheated us and then fleeced us until it fianlly came to a halt in April 2007.

When you're brought up a good Brit you think surely not, surely our major banking institutions, Barclays, TSB, Lloyds, Halifax, pick a name... Sure they wouldn't cheat people and do illegal things? Well they did. They did it so much that there's more chance his loan was a scam one than a real one.

If it is a scam one there is sweet FA they can do to get thier money back. They can't get a CCJ, they can't balif you, they can't even send you letters if you tell them to get lost with the correct wording. Sound too good to be true? It isn't. They played dirty with everyone for years and then they got stopped. Send the right letters, go through the right process, and it's gone.

The thing is for you, even if it turns out to be a totally legal and fair cop- finding that out is something you have every right to do, no just society would expect you to believe just anyone who demands money. As you only have a year until it's too old to chase then finding out if it was ever legal could actually take you past that point.

Interested? You want to get a coffee (it's really long) and make your way to Niddy's thread called Unenforcibility and Template Letters IV. It's all set out there and MSE will help you through it if you go that way. As you'll find it's one step at a time, step one is the prove-it letter.

Thanks for the advise hannah, i've been on these forums a while and i was asking OH about paperwork, whether he signed anything etc. Of course he says he doesnt even remember signing but well could have :mad: and he has no paperwork on anything, he may or not have taken out PPI again he cant remember. I was thinking about sending the prove it letter, since if he cant remember the paperwork maybe their wasn't any?

I'd definetly want some kind of proof before we pay anything, i've told him not to acknowlege the debt at this stage, is this the right thing to do?


The actions of the bank are laughable, he went into the bank in 2006 for a account review and was offer 80 odd grand for a mortgage!

Kayleigh