Checkmyfile.com is a SCAM

ronnielsen

First of all let me say how much I have enjoyed this site. I only wish I had a bit more time to search this site in order to educate myself on all things financial. I am sure I would save myself a lot more money.

My problem is with the advice given in terms of credit reporting and specifically the service provided by www.checkmyfile.com. My partner and I have been using their services for well over a year now. We have always paid for a 3 agency report with analysis. Now from https://www.moneysavingexpert.com we have learned just how important it is to be on the electoral role and we have always paid our bills on time.

Whenever we have got reports back from www.checkmyfile.com the experian report shows we are not on the electoral role, we have no accounts, no searchs, nothing.
When I first contacted www.checkmyfile.com about this they told me that experian must not hold any information on us. Now I must admit I didn't really believe them but, since Martin is the money saving expert I let it slide. He wouldn't pass on bad advice now would he?

A couple months later I did the whole thing again. I thought maybe experian is some huge corporate monster and it might take them weeks to get even a pencil sharpened. Lo and behold the exact same thing, as far as experian is concerned we don't exist or so I was again told by www.checkmyfile.com. Now this time I thought enough is enough and I went ahead and joined experian credit expert online. I paid their membership and awaited the generation of my report.

Let me tell you I was blow away by how much information they held! I then contacted experian and asked why my information didn't show up when I used https://www.checkmyfile.com. They explained that they had heard this complaint alot and the fact is they can not actually provide an "Experian Credit Report".

Now I was mad. I called https://www.checkmyfile.com and demanded a full refund. Again they tried to use the old excuse again. When I explained I was holding an actual "Experian Credit Report" in my hand there was silence on the other end. Then I was told to read the fine print and in there it would explain that they could only search one address and they used public information provided by experian. I then said why on my report form does it say "You have not been matched on the Electoral Roll at any address". Then I was put on hold. The advisor then came back after speaking with the manager. I was told "I am sorry, I spoke with my manager and we can't give you a refund you should have read the fine print".

Now Martin I am in a good financial situation. I would imagine that most of the people out there that use their service may not be as lucky as I am. You know more than most that the pennies do add up. They charge £19.90 for this service and as you have pointed out you can get your actual reports for a cost of £6 plus postage. To me this doesn't seem like good advice and I don't think you should be providing their link in your advice. This is a clear example of a company misleading their customers.

Experian_company_representative

Experian only provides publically available information to the checkmyfile service - which is the information that should be identitical on all three agencies anyway. If you want your full Experian credit report, you should go to Experian directly. There is a warning on the checkmyfile site, but from what you say you were misadvised over the phone. I think you need to phone them again ask to speak to the manager.

tin

That does sound to me very much like a con! They are saying experian must hold no data, yet actually can't get the data?? Hmmmmmm