Equifax completely messed up without our fault

eponine2502

I posted a while ago about a problem we only found out by complete chance, and I wanted to update things and also ask for advice ...

Some months ago, we were refused credit for the purchase of two bicycles. Since it was interest-free for 12 months, we mainly wanted this to spread the cost a bit - since that didn't work, we still bought them and paid cash, eating into our savings (should've seen the stupid faces in the shop ). Anyway, of course we were completely surprised, since our credit rating had always been excellent, we were never in arrears anywhere, didn't have tons of applications running and so on.

The lender told us there were problems with our Equifax report, as in: "You don't have one!" Neither of us. All of a sudden, over night (because we had one in the past). So we checked with both Equifax & Experian. Experian came back as expected, excellent rating. Equifax on the other hand could pull nothing (and, dare I say it, they are also extremely unhelpful and don't give a toss).

After weeks of correspondence, we finally found out what the problem was: Our address. We live in a flat, we are on the Electoral Roll, and the address shown there is 1/1 xyz. Since a few months, this comes up as "Flat 1" in databases however (all of a sudden, don't know who changed it and why), so the addresses couldn't be matched. Needless to say, Experian obviously found a way to deal with it and linked the addresses, Equifax however insist that this is the correct address, and WE need to get it sorted.

First, they told us to check with the Royal Mail because that's where they get their address databases from (PAF). Royal Mail got back to us and said:"Yes, that's right, but your 'official' address is "Flat 1", the database is provided by your Council, so you need to speak with them, we can't do anything about it."

It says 1/1 on our title deeds, the Electoral Roll says 1/1 as well, some database I found on the Council's webpage also lists us as 1/1, so how can the Council possibly have provided this obscure "database" that says Flat 1? We already contacted the Council about this, they are "in the process of looking into it" and have just been pushing around e-mails for the last weeks.

I get the sneaky suspicion that Equifax, Royal Mail and Council will just start blaming each other, no one is responsible, but someone must have arsed it up (Pardon my French)!

This is all a complete and utter disgrace! Without our own doing, our creditfiles are being wrecked, and no one wants to help us to sort this.

Needless to say, we are in the process of applying for another mortgage, and I am REALLY worried we'll be knocked back because our Equifax report is completely non-existent (or, in the case of my partner, they started a new one, which has a rating of 200 or something, because there's nothing on it).

So, long story short: Does anyone have any ideas what we can do? How to pressurise all the parties involved to get this sorted? Is there anyone we can get involved to help us, anything we can do legally? And will it be enough for a mortgage application that our Experian report is in tip top shape? It is not our first mortgage btw, but we will probably have to switch lenders...

I am really, really stressed about this, because a few months ago, everything was fine, and now all of a sudden, it's a complete mess.

Thanks for listening, and hopefully some advice.

beecher2

Doesn't it have 1/1 as a linked address, still showing your history?

I've had problems with my flat number in the past too as sometimes it is 2/1 and sometimes 2/L. One company got completely confused and changed 2/1 to 2 January!

Is it worth contacting your councillor?

eponine2502

beecher2 wrote: »

Doesn't it have 1/1 as a linked address, still showing your history?

Thanks for your reply. That's what every person with a brain would assume, and this was our initial question as well.
We asked Equifax that even if they can't match the address now, there surely must be a 1/1 on file somewhere, linked to our names. They won't budge however, insisting we don't HAVE a history. I think they just don't WANT to look into it. I am at a complete loss - writing/phoning them does nothing, so I guess we might have to do something stronger, but I really don't know what the best way forward would be, hence the question if anyone has any ideas or been through something similar.

I read on Experian's page that they have some sort of algorithm to clean up addresses to prevent these things from happening. So if they can do it, why can't Equifax? They don't even want to help, they just try to talk you into purchasing their products (that btw was the prerequiste for them to even look into it, which I think is a bloody cheek!).

custardy

the council gives RM the addresses they allocate
however its not uncommon for flats to have various addresses flat 1,PF1,1/1,hell Ive een had southern flat and the like
so I would hazzard a guess its more of an Equifax issue TBH

magpiecottage

Have a look here. This provides details of how to complain to Equifax.

Note that you can also go to FOS if they do not resolve it to your satisfaction within 8 weeks.

Pupnik

Yikes this worries me as we are waiting for our mortgage to be approved and we have always had problems with our address- it usually doesn't show up on any system at all and sometimes it is Flat 4 and sometimes it is Second Floor Flat :eek: I hope this doesn't hold things up or worse stop it in it's tracks. Thanks for the heads up, I really hadn't thought about it.

neverdespairgirl

We've had similar problems - our flat has 2 address, one is XXX Acacia Avenue, the other is YYY Station Road. So for a while we got threatening letters from TV licence types and so forth because one address didn't have a TV licence.