Experian vs Equifax

DarnIt_3

I have an experian CR, I pay monthly (or will do when the trial runs out) Today I tried to get an equifax as I wanted to see what it said...after a huge palavour I told the customer rep to stick it!

My question is this:

If my credit report with Experian is clear (no defaults, late payments ccjs with one account for next on it, 13% of my credit is being used although I have cleared this now. I have a small loan which I recently took out which doesn't appear yet because its so new and a credit card with a £200 limit which is also very new so won't appear).....will the one with Equifax be too? I can't see experian not picking up on bad credit if it is there?

I am 99% sure I have not had serious credit before.....defo not had CC or loans or store cards. I had a next account three/four years ago....but have no idea what happened to it...I now have another new next account and that shows on experian but no mention of the previous which makes me think it was settled and satisified. I also had a phone contract 8 years ago which is no where to be seen, and I had an overdraft 7 years ago, but none of them appear on experian. I am assuming they won't appear on my other one either?

However......I refuse to get a equifax report now....didn't even put me to through to someone who I could understand which vexes me somewhat!

Can anyone tell me whether they have both and if one brings up defaults and the other one doesn't please?

Thank you ever so much

DancerSupreme

I heard that your credit report spans three different companies - experian, equifax and callcredit(??).

We have our equifax reports but not everything is listed on there so we were going to get our experian reports next month.

xxx

Tixy

I have seen a few cases where people have a default on their equifax file and not on experian (and vice versa).
And certainly accounts will often appear on one and not the other (and therefore possibly any late payments etc).

I would recommend you get both to get a better picture of your finances. I get the equifax one about once a year and the experian one every few months (and callcredit just once!).
You could just order it by post if it was a pain on the phone?

FredWhispers

Some creditors send details to all three, others to two of them, others to just the one.

Basically their records are very, very similar, but not identical.

Fred

DarnIt_3

But if a debt was on one it would be on the other?

Next
Orange
Santander
Lloyds

are the only people I have ever used credit facilities with....I am sure they all report to Ex?

Tixy

DarnIt wrote: »

But if a debt was on one it would be on the other?

Maybe but equally maybe not.
It'd be unlikely for your reports to both show the exact same info and accounts but its likely there will be a lot of crossover.

KingElvis

Nope, you deffo need to check them all to be clear.

MoneyWasting_Expert

I would like to check Experian too see how my file with them looks, but I appear to be permanetly barred from using the site as it refuses to acknowledge me as a new costumer despite last subscribing near 10 years ago. Costumer Service have never been able to help me. So now with Equifax. Because I cleaning my credit file and a lot of accounts have been taken over its probably important that I do see my Experian record. Had my debts now been all settled on records then I likely would only use Equifax as a Capital One and Barclays costumer.

Tixy

MoneyWasting_Expert wrote: »

I would like to check Experian too see how my file with them looks, but I appear to be permanetly barred from using the site as it refuses to acknowledge me as a new costumer despite last subscribing near 10 years ago.

You can order the statutory report by post for £2 and the new/existing customer thing won't be an issue. Though I'd agree its useless that customer services can't sort it for you.

bowbelle

I can't understand why Martin doesn't tell you that when you sign up for your so called 'free' report you cannot get it until you ring equifax's 0844 number at 5p per minute (no mention of how long the call may be, but I will be paying something for it after all), as I am doing it this evening and they are now closed, I cannot get anything done until Monday. What a total waste of time. I am really annoyed. I wouldn't have even bothered had I known that you can't see your report straight away. And you have to pay for the phone call to cancel it, so definitely isn't free! Then I'll probably get the same level of customer service you got when I get hold of them. Rubbish!

ihatebiffandchip

I have applied for my experian one in the past no problems. thought I would check with Equifax but it wouldn't let me apply for the £2 file online, it said I had to phone customer services. The lady I spoke to told me to take a photo of my passport and bank statement and email it to them before they would release my file because she said that I had failed the security questions... 1 qeuestion was who was your broadbank provider in 2003? I didn't get broadband until 2006 but she told me I gave the wrong answer????

So applied to experian again, no problem. should I fill out the form for equifax and send it in the post? I am trying to find out exactly what is on my file prior to speaking to cccs about how to deal with my debts??