CRA Why do I need to pay for my data ????

Curt.

DarkFallout wrote: »

The amount of incorrect entries and problems that I had for 10 months in this country with the useless CRAs is ridiculous.

So what are you disputing here, the quality of service in regards to the fee you pay, or the absurd argument above that they should not charge one?

Frankly speaking they should pay me for their enourmous stupidity, all the phone calls and e-mails that I did only to wait for weeks or for months to see the entries corrected.

Forget that question i just asked, evidently its not worth having a conversation with you.

Completely useless.

Those were the exact words i was going to finish with in response to you.

chexum

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

In the days before credit reference agencies, your bank manager would typically have conducted a fact-finding face-to-face interview, requested paper references, even consulted with your milkman!

That may be so, but I've seen how this worked in a country without CRAs - they just asked roughly the same details as we're all familiar with, and had the income statement certified by the employer (listing the last three months average only!). That was all. Even for credit/mortgage with a bank different from your current one. And if the bank said no, you just went to another one, without affecting your chances.

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

The £2 fee for a statutory report was set around 1997. It does not, in 2010, cover the cost of providing credit reports, so it's a great deal for consumers.

Maybe some companies could start reducing costs by not insisting to send a letter by post for reports requested online, even when the individual's identity was confirmed several times in the past years without any doubt present, and there were no changes since then.

It's certainly not what I had in mind when I heard that that "consumers can now access their statutory credit report online ". It's one of the best examples of following-the-law-to-the-letter while still making everything as difficult and inconvenient as possible.

And it could help the security of said report if the posted document did not contain everything needed to access the online report. Some people wanted online reports exactly because they are not sure what's happening to their mail.

digitalphase

I wouldn't mind paying a small fee to the CRAs for their service, if they didn't take so long to update their files. I know this could partially be blamed on other companies, but I think a lot of the fault lies with the CRAS.

I don't mind paying for a service which is competent. Unfortunately my recent experience of ID theft and having to deal with CRAs has led me to dislike them "just that little bit more". Afterall, it was the CRAs who allowed the search to be carried out, the false account to be opened. Oh, and it's the CRA (Experian, anyway) who STILL have not updated my electoral roll information.

I am not in anyway responsible for this record of "data about me", but yet it will affect my life if that data is incorrect. I then have to potentially suffer the consequences. All I can do is pay on time.

At the end of the day, we do not have to pay to view this data held on us. I don't like paying, but accept I have to.

sophisticat

zppp wrote: »

Oh and they don't sell data

Why then has my mother received marketing materials from a company who have obtained her personal details from Experian?

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

CRAs provide a very useful service to lenders and consumers

As I commented on my own thread yesterday, this what I thought Experian were there for, not to pass on personal details. Can I get a reply from the Experian rep?

adindas

They sell my personal data, making money from it.
I never give them permission to save my data/. Why save my personal information and sell it to other party ??.

When they make mistakes people suffer, as they will get trouble getting credit....

In opinion people should be able to see tieir own data without paying anything. £2 is significant for some people who do not want to support this organisation.

[Deleted User]

It...is...not....your....data.

It is data ABOUT you.

I have numbers stored on my phone but you can't come up and demand to have a look at whether I've stored your number correctly.

Fiddlestick

adindas wrote: »

They sell my personal data, making money from it.
I never give them permission to save my data/. Why save my personal information and sell it to other party ??.

It's not your personal data though - it's factual information ABOUT you.

adindas

I have read at least more than ten cases in this forum. The CRA making mistake with their records, the worng records could be how long they have been living, previous credit records, Banka/c tha have been closed have not been deleted, etc which result to rejection of main Credit/loan application, Credit Card.

The problem here is that the person can not see their data without paying to see for heir own data. So people can not check whether the CRA records that have been saved is correct or wrong and therefore do not have opportunities to ask for correction. Indeed £2 is small but for some people who do not agree with this concept of paying for their own data, a penny will make a difference.

In the US it is free, why here in the UK we need to pay ?.

Could we sue the CRA for the damage they cause for inaccurate record of our data ?? The damage here that we could ask is that compensation for main credit application, Credit card appliction, etc.

Thank you for your opinion

ADINDAS

Tixy

My opinion is that you are barking up a dead tree and flogging the wrong horse by keeping mentioning the fee. The fee is reasonable and far less than most organisations charge to let you see the information they hold in relation to you (just to re-iterate what has been said before not your data, data about you).

All sorts of things are free and legal in the US that are not in the UK, that hardly forms a good basis for an argument.

The information the CRAs store is that that is sent to them by banks/lenders etc. If the banks give them the wrong information then that is the fault of the bank not the CRA.
That said it is possible to complain to the Information commissioner about them if you believe you have a valid case, here is link http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/credit.aspx The information commissioner also produce a little leaflet for people who have trouble grasping the legal rights of the CRAs http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/credit_explained_leaflet_2005.pdf

Sue them? no.

exel1966

adindas wrote: »

Could we sue the CRA for the damage they cause for inaccurate record of our data ?? The damage here that we could ask is that compensation for main credit application, Credit card appliction, etc.

Thank you for your opinion

ADINDAS

But how do you know it's inaccurate recording rather than it being inaccurate data supply from the financial organisation ? You don't !
In theory the CRA's only record what they're told to record.

As for paying £2, I do think that is very fair and very reasonable. The CRA is not going to make any money on that and will probably make a loss from it, though charging £5.95 for a fictitious three digit score soon recoups any loss and bolsters the profits.