Equifax - how to amend data on credit file

steve1500

Do not forget that the Data Protection Act applies. One of the DPA principles is that Information shall be accurate and up to date. If an organisation is breaching that principle then the individual has numerous options open to them. Go to the Information Commissioner www.ico.gov.uk or the people that told the credit reference agency. Don't for get that you can claim compensation for damage or distress under the Act. Getting you credit rating messed up would in my opinion certainly fall under damage distress.

lisyloo

Getting you credit rating messed up would in my opinion certainly fall under damage distress.

I think you will find it extremely hard to get financial compensation.
Proving that you might have got credit without a mistake is next to impossible.

But I would agree that there are routes to getting the mistakes amended and the CRAs should be criticised and reported if they are making things difficult.

achilles1

darkblue wrote: »

I'm signed up to their credit watch service and it has a built in email facility. I asked to remove a bad linked address and they did it within 24 hours and provided me with a free report to show it.

It is good to know that they resolved your linked address problem quickly but in my case the 11 days quoted for a response elapsed and know they are telling me that they have "...28 days to respond".

If this is the case then why tell people that they will respond in 11 days?

Experian, on the other hand, only take 2 days to reply to emails.

achilles1

steve1500 wrote: »

Do not forget that the Data Protection Act applies. One of the DPA principles is that Information shall be accurate and up to date. If an organisation is breaching that principle then the individual has numerous options open to them. Go to the Information Commissioner www.ico.gov.uk or the people that told the credit reference agency. Don't for get that you can claim compensation for damage or distress under the Act. Getting you credit rating messed up would in my opinion certainly fall under damage distress.

Thanks Steve, I totally agree. Do you know by the way what is the legal framework that sets the rules that the CRAs must abide by? Is it the Consumer Credit Act? I would be interested to know what the legal rules are.

Tixy

Legally they have 28 days to apply. The law they act under isn't part of the consumer credit act (as the CRAs don't lend money) - see this link http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/credit_explained_leaflet_2005.pdf page 19 onwards for what to do if they haven't responded in 28days and how to complain to the ICO.

steve1500

Just to add a few years ago my wife tried to take out a contract for a mobile phone. She failed the credit check. We got her file from Experian. Another mobile phone operator had placed an adverse reference against her file Saying she owed them money. We wrote to them at the address they provide to the ICO. Bless them they replied to an old address even though our letter had the new address, so we never even got their response which was basically sod off.

Took them to court under the 4th principle of DPA - Accurate & up to date, distress was failing a credit check in carphone warehouse on a saturday afternoon, plus the ability to get other credit i.e. 0% finance = monetry damage.

The settled out of court, wife got some nice new clothes

achilles1

I finally got Equifax to remove the incorrect linked address from my file, so a result!

Thanks to those who have helped.

jonny1983_2

achilles1 wrote: »

What is unreasonable, is that Equifax keep information about us forever, regardless of how old or inaccurate it might be. You could move to a new address over 10 years ago but Equifax would still show it as a linked address. They would also keep adverse data on your file for more than 6 years in breach of the legislation. They then make it very difficult for people to correct these errors.

Experian seem to be more proactive in the quality of the data they maintain in their systems. In future, I would only apply for credit via lenders who use Experian for searches and not Equifax.

I agree - i have been trying to make a change to my credit file for the last month. Experian made the change with 14 days ago -Equifax still waiting and the worst thing the lender as got back in touch with Equifax - so just waiting on them to update its a joke