MSE News: 'Computer says no' address snag kills online discounts

senex

imcat wrote: »

It is not just flats that have this issue.

I frequently find my credit card rejected when online shopping simply because I have no house number and just a house name. I live in a detached house that exists in all Royal Mail databases but this does not help.

The rejection is caused by the PROTX s/w some retailers use to do address validation. PROTX will always return address validation failure if the validation settings the retailer are using have been set to maximum and no house number is present. PROTX recommend the settings are not set to max to avoid this but some still set it up incorrectly. O2, Jual Domestic are few amongst many I remember with this problem. The only way around the issue I have found is to use a debit card which seems to have a lower level of address validation.

I find the best place to check for the existence of a house number is your council tax record. I live in a converted barn to which we gave a name. Council gave it a number.

Getting your address logged with Royal Mail address management as soon as possible is important. I understand there is something like an annual issue of the full database and many companies buy it, or they are on a contract that gives them regular updates. It can take a little while for this info to feed through but we have never had a problem with this issue.

Worth checking your address is on the database as soon as you move house, whether it has been there a while or not. Wrongly delivered mail to us led me to discover that a neighbour's house, a barn that had been a house for 17 years, was not recorded with Royal Mail's main database.

If a company will not take a credit card because of an address difference, perhaps a debit card for smaller value purchases?

samizdat

The strange thing is, my flat has always had a separate listing on the Royal Mail database - until about a couple of months ago, when it disappeared. I am worried! I have filled out a Royal Mail enquiry form on their website. Is there anything else I can do? Why would this have happened?

My building is still listed, just not the individual flats.

coupleuk

Its not all bad news - we lived in a flat which didnt have its own dedicated address.

TV Licensing didnt know we existed.

:beer:

jumpedtheshark

When I was in this situation before with a mobile phone contract purchase, I explained it to the sales rep over the phone. They agreed to deduct the value of the Quidco cashback from the purchase price over the phone. Good customer service, and a fair solution to a problem not of my causing.

rainbow_carnage

We live at 59C Anyroad. That's the address on the rental agreement. We've lived here for eight years, and that's how we've always written it.

Whenever I try to use the find-address-based-on-postcode function on websites, the only options I get are 59 and 59A. The better sites give you an option of adding a flat number. In those cases, my address goes from 59C Anyroad to 59 Anyroad, Flat C. Post gets delivered either way, but for credit checking purposes, it's not the same address. We often have to jump through extra hoops to prove that we are who we say we are.

What makes it even more annoying is that the council has us at 59 Top Floor Flat Anyroad. That's different from everything else.

Fluff001

We often get higher premiums on things like Car Insurnace because the Post Office Quick Address System has us Down as living in Brighton, East Sussex. We actually live in West Sussex, nearly 10 miles from Brighton! Several Years ago I spoke to the post office to try and pursuade them to change our entry, but they said it is nothing to do with your geographical area, it's all about their Sorting Offices and Postal Delivery rounds. Apparently our mail gets delivered from a Brighton sorting office, so their data base puts us in Brighton, which is a higher crime area !!!

ukmonkey

Goodness me, what a poorly-researched piece of amatuer-journalism.

On the flat conversion front, I think you'll find that individual flats ARE usually shown on the RM system, as long as the local authority (i.e council) have notified them.

rockchick113

I've had a problem with royal mail address data base for 11 years now,I live in a old farm house with outbuildings and a derelict cottage.For insurance I need to apply in the farm name which on the deeds covers all building.But since the 1950s the local council give the address a number which royal mail use on there data base (I always use farm name and number on all forms/letters so local posties know who we are)What I'm getting at is that I miss out on any cashback deals on insurance I have to use the phone.

Allan87

I've just moved in to a purpose built block of flats and no company recognises the post code let alone my address - what to do?