Cached CRA details?

pvt

Some time ago I had an in branch appointment with a business advisor at a high street bank. The purpose is unimportant.

During the meeting he was able to call up credit reference agency information about me on his computer, and discussed certain aspects of it with me. The information was current, and was definitely from a CRA as I did not bank with that company at that time (so it couldn't possibly be from their own records).

I had recently been a victim of ID fraud so at that time had online subscriptions to all three CRAs. Over the next few weeks I checked Experian, Callcredit, and Equifax regularly online and was curious that no "enquiry" was ever recorded as being made by this bank.

I was under he impression that ANY access of information from a CRA, even by the CRA itself, has to be recorded on the file. This clearly wasn't.

Does anyone know if CRAs provide some of their larger clients with copies of their databases that the clients can access independently of the CRA? Or is there some other way that information was accessible without it being recorded on one of the CRAs databases?

ChiefGrasscutter

Yes,
Lloyds Bank have some sort of direct real time access into the CRA.
I've had it used on me to verify my ID by telephone to check it was indeed me doing the transaction.
I was asked several questions from my CRA file.
Interestingly the way it was done suggested (to me anyway) that the lloyds rep did not have full unrestricted access to the CRA file. I was being asked multiple choice type questions from the CRA computer relayed to me by the lloyds rep and me giving the reply which the lloyds rep then presumably typed into his computer link back to the CRA.
After several questions/answers the CRA computer system then reports back to the lloyds rep that my ID check has passed. In this way the lloyds rep on the phone to me never actually get to know which one of my answers was correct and which wrong - they only got the final result.

YorkshireBoy

Lenders take a monthly feed* from the CRAs, which does not leave a 'footprint'.

I'm not sure whether the information they (your bank) held about your credit file was a month old, or whether they have some other 'instant access - no footprint recorded' way of getting live information?


* Google 'delphi experian' and 'consumer indebtedness index' for more information.

pvt

Thanks Lawngroomer,

That's interesting stuff. In my case the bank involved was Barclays.

But it wasn't as you described, he had full access to lots of CRA information such as CIFAS entries, ER details, details of fraudulently set up credit accounts that hadn't yet been removed, credit application searches, my genuine bank current accounts, and also my Notice of Correction. It was full on access.

pvt

Yorkie,

Ahhhh! That's it. Yes, I could accept that the information was up to a month old, though it wasn't much older than that.

This really surprises me! Does that mean that any bank employee could access such information and there is no audit trail back to the data holder? Do I not have a right to know under the DPA who has accessed sensitive information about me?

YorkshireBoy

pvt wrote: »

Yes, I could accept that the information was up to a month old, though it wasn't much older than that.

I have a vague memory of being asked to confirm certain information on my Equifax report (possibly when I applied for a Barclays product several years ago), and I remember it not being absolutely up to date.

Does that mean that any bank employee could access such information and there is no audit trail back to the data holder?

If you mean data subject, ie yourself, then yes, it would seem so.

Do I not have a right to know under the DPA who has accessed sensitive information about me?

I'm no expert, but maybe you only have a right to know if something directly affects you, ie a search is recorded?

Clearly, as can been seen by delphi and CII mentioned above, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes!

chambta

pvt wrote: »

Yorkie,

Ahhhh! That's it. Yes, I could accept that the information was up to a month old, though it wasn't much older than that.

This really surprises me! Does that mean that any bank employee could access such information and there is no audit trail back to the data holder? Do I not have a right to know under the DPA who has accessed sensitive information about me?

In the branches of the bank I work for absolutely not.

YorkshireBoy

chambta wrote: »

In the branches of the bank I work for absolutely not.

OP's meeting was about business banking though. Do you, personally, deal with business banking at your branch or just personal banking?

coolesticeking

I had a 10p fraud on my debit card with Lloyds TSB and to unblock it I had to answer 'extra' questions like this.

I didn't have a clue why though - I just got on with it, still don't know if I should have been worried or not.

pwuk

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Lenders take a monthly feed* from the CRAs, which does not leave a 'footprint'.

I'm not sure whether the information they (your bank) held about your credit file was a month old, or whether they have some other 'instant access - no footprint recorded' way of getting live information?


* Google 'delphi experian' and 'consumer indebtedness index' for more information.

YorkshireBoy I must admit having now Googled the above I am left quite staggered. Scoring techniques which I thought were just being introduced seem to have been being discussed since 2004! The data is very useful, particularly levels of indebtedness, debt servicing ratios etc.

The webpage http://www.crc.man.ed.ac.uk/conference/archive/2005/presentations/russell-paul.pdf is very interesting as is http://www.experian.co.uk/business-services/application-decisioning.html?cat2=credit-risk-management Staggering really but this will lead me to calculating my own debt level ratios and drawing comparisons agains income and expenditure.

Thanks for the pointer.

chambta

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

OP's meeting was about business banking though. Do you, personally, deal with business banking at your branch or just personal banking?

Only on the personal side and it's from that standpoint I was commenting.

Pretty sure there's no such facility for our business people though.