Credit searches by Aviva Central Services

Former_MSE_Dan

chris-j wrote: »

Thanks Dan but have to say this is not reassuring. ONLY Aviva show as credit search, others just general insurance. So Avila or callcredit saying it does not count means nothing - if that's the cases why show it as credit.
Fault also lies of course with comparison sites since what is point of asking if you pay annual or monthly if they are going to just show both anyway (resulting in Aviva doing a credit check).
All I can say is glad I have this years insurance sorted and next year I will just spend a bit more time checking the companies I want directly and Aviva will not be one of them.

Hi Chris,

Callcredit/Noddle are by far the smallest credit reference agency - otherwise I would agree with your point about this not occuring with other insurers. If one insurer was sticking out on Experian/Equifax as registering differently, this would be much more of a worry.

Dan

Theblueone

Checked my call credit report and Aviva have done another search obviously the 'renewal' search that others have found.

I was completely n*ffed off about this so have sent Aviva an email and they have responded to say they will look into it but I don't hold out much hope of getting it removed, but will post back any reply.

I also sent an email to confused.com to express my displeasure at this practise.

I got a response today to say it is in the terms and conditions on the site that this could happen so basically if you sign up to it that is what happens.

They also say that it's doesn't affect your credit rating as it is an insurance check not a credit check, I still do not accept this as it shows up in the credit searches section on the report and again like call credit, this company are not the ones extending the credit are they so their opinion doesn't really count.

However they did also state that they are currently looking into revising their privacy policy as it is not entirely clear at first glance and their revised policy will make this more prominent!!!!

Therefore they stated they had upheld my complaint and have completely deleted my account and details from their system so at least it won't happen again.

At least they are listening to consumers and are prepared to review their policy wording to add more clarity based on people's comments so lets wait and see.

I have also emailed go compare and I am currently awaiting their feedback.

Hope this assists other forum readers.

Thank you

Roger1

Roger1 wrote: »

I know [Experian] want to push their more expensive services, but offering online viewing of the £2 report without making it clear that it would take 4 days is dismal. So I don't know yet whether there are any spurious so-called 'credit' searches from Aviva at Experian.

It gets worse!

The code arrived today, just the 6 days then. It's not just Aviva. My report includes the following credit searches - note the comment from Experian.

Experian wrote:

AA INSURANCE SERVICES
27/02/12
INSURANCE QUOTATION
Insurance quotations arenot shared with other lenders for credit decisions. This search may have beencreated by a price comparison website who generated on behalf of multiplelenders, however the individual lenders will be shown.

RBSPLC IRO CHURCHILL PARTNERSHIPS
08/09/11
INSURANCE QUOTATION
Insurance quotations are not sharedwith other lenders for credit decisions. This search may have been created by aprice comparison website who generated on behalf of multiple lenders, howeverthe individual lenders will be shown.

SAGA 08/09/11
INSURANCE QUOTATION
Insurance quotations arenot shared with other lenders for credit decisions. This search may have beencreated by a price comparison website who generated on behalf of multiplelenders, however the individual lenders will be shown.

ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC
08/09/11
UNRECORDED ENQUIRY
P6
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC
08/09/11
UNRECORDED ENQUIRY

Needless to say, this is all news to me. I have not knowingly done or sought business with these operators, nor have I used price comparison websites this year and probably not last year. And why is a so-called 'Unrecorded enquiry' recorded?

The other curious entry was recorded confirmations of a financial link with Mrs Roger - which I don't deny. They date from 1999 and are confirmed by a bank we left well over 6 years ago and a building society no longer in existence whose mortgage we paid off well over 6 years ago. Doesn't the 6-year limit apply?

There's more to this business than we thought.

izools

MSE_Dan wrote: »

Hi all,

We've been working to get some clearer answers on this issue for a few weeks. It always seemed odd that request for quotations would result in 'application searches' - the ones that affext future ability to get credit - rather than a 'quotation search' - which don't.

We now have confirmation from Callcredit that Aviva quotations do not result in application searches, and they say "The actual footprint alone will not negatively affect the consumers ability to obtain credit. Overall credit performance and affordability is the key to determining an individual’s credit score."

We will be putting together a story for the main site to help clarify this in due course.

Dan

Are call credit saying these are soft searche?

If they are, then why do they say "(Credit)" in the Applicaiton Type?

Either they are full searches,

or Call Credit are misleading customers by stating the Application Typs is "(Credit)".

izools

Roger1 wrote: »

It gets worse!

The code arrived today, just the 6 days then. It's not just Aviva. My report includes the following credit searches - note the comment from Experian.

Needless to say, this is all news to me. I have not knowingly done or sought business with these operators, nor have I used price comparison websites this year and probably not last year. And why is a so-called 'Unrecorded enquiry' recorded?

The other curious entry was recorded confirmations of a financial link with Mrs Roger - which I don't deny. They date from 1999 and are confirmed by a bank we left well over 6 years ago and a building society no longer in existence whose mortgage we paid off well over 6 years ago. Doesn't the 6-year limit apply?

There's more to this business than we thought.

Do yourself and Mrs Roger have any joint financial products? I.e. bank account, loan, mortgage, insurance, or do you hold any joint assets i.e. outright owned home etc?

If you do then the association stands past the six year marker when someone made the association.

If you don't then you can request a notice of disassociation where you are recorded as financially independant from the individual

JimmyTheWig

Roger1 wrote: »

It gets worse!

The code arrived today, just the 6 days then. It's not just Aviva. My report includes the following credit searches - note the comment from Experian.

Needless to say, this is all news to me. I have not knowingly done or sought business with these operators, nor have I used price comparison websites this year and probably not last year. And why is a so-called 'Unrecorded enquiry' recorded?

Roger, this is fine.
Assuming that you used price comparison sites on these dates (or in a year previous and haven't unsubscribed) then that explains why they were done.
While "Unrecorded" may be a silly term for it, I believe it just means that it won't show up to anyone else looking. The same is true for the insurance quotations, as they say.

So as far as I believe, if you apply for credit from somewhere, these searches won't show up and so won't affect you.

The ones people have a problem with are the ones that say "Credit", which appear as though they would show up.

Roger1

Thanks, izools and JimmyTheWig for your reassuring comments.

I guess I'm learning all the time. My CallCredit and Equifax searches show no financial connection, and the Experian connection is based on 13-year-old information. There are probably many of my age who no longer have that connection or have a different connection, so I wonder what use that 1999 information really is (albeit that I could correct it).

Like others, I still have the Aviva 'credit' searches problem, though.

Roger1

I've had a response from Noddle - snailmail first class and giving every appearance of being an individual letter. It includes:

Noddle wrote:

After investigation, Aviva has not authorised the removal of the disputed search footprint therefore it must remain on your credit record. They advised that this search relates to quotations you have obtained from the Money Supermarket website and appears to be genuine. They also advised that although Aviva are not on these sites, companies which are underwritten by Aviva are.

So Aviva persist in 'credit' searches which are not credit searches. :mad:

I wonder what the Aviva company representative has to say about this.

Also, can the formal link between moneysupermarket.com and MSE lead to constructive help to end this abuse and delete non-credit 'credit' searches?

AMG762

I used moneysupermarket.com over a year ago for last times renewal quotes.

I emailed moneysupermarket to be removed from there database and request no further searches be completed of my credit files.

I received a reply from my un-subscribe request with a reference number from moneysupermarket.

6 weeks after this i have credit searches from Aviva on my callcredit file (although Aviva have since agreed to remove them)

and also the following searches appeard on my experian file:

- RBS PLC (Search dated 23/05/12)
- Liverpool Victoria (Search dated 23/05/12)
- AA Insurance (Search dated 23/05/12)
- AGP (Search dated 23/05/12)
- Royal and Sun Alliance (Search dated 23/05/12)

Aviva confirmed this was a result of moneysupermarket renewal searches.

Experian have also confirmed the above 5 searches were as a result of moneysupermarket renewal searches.

Experian have written to Liverpool Victoria who have refused to remove this search saying its authorised by moneysupermarket and has to stay.

I have previously emailed moneysupermarket asking them not to search my file for renewal quotes, and they have ignored my request and completed at least 6 searches in 1 day!

I bank with Barclays who get regular feeds from experian and set the pre-approved offers around this. The only changes on my files have been these insurance searches. For many months prior to these searches i was pre-approved for a £13k loan, now i am not pre-approved for even a penny? I dont believe in coincidences.

Experian_company_representative

Very unlikely that Barclays would even see insurance quotation searches, let alone use them to calculate creditworthiness. This would go against industry guidelines.

James Jones