MSE News: Guest Comment - Why should we pay for OUR credit reports?

Consumerist

Quoting from the article :-

"This information is so important that some people have argued there should be one centralised, government-run agency rather than three commercial companies. Fortunately, that will never happen, nor should it. Commercial CRAs invest huge sums in computers, security, analytics, customer service and processing millions of records."

Well, let us not forget that all this investment and infrastructure has been created for the benefit of the financial institutions and not the consumer. And it's now being accessed by all and sundry; I recently had some double-glazing installed for cash payment on satisfactory completion and I was casually informed that the company would check my credit record before starting the installation.

Since accuracy of this information is key, consumers should have a statutory right to free access to it, if only to ensure that accuracy.

It is clear that the financial institutions themselves are not interested in accuracy and, anecdotally, will reject an application for credit where a file contains a notice by the consumer.

I disagree with the author's contention that consumers will willingly pay to see their credit file when it can be seen for free. It is already clear that CRAs (Noddle excepted) will do their utmost to hide access to their statutory report and this is the only way that consumers will willingly pay - because they don't know it's available for free. Having to check with three agencies at £2 each at regular intervals is a travesty and should be curtailed at the earliest opportunity.

Experian_company_representative

There has been a link to order a £2 statutory credit report on the Experian website homepage since we launched our website - we have never tried to hide it.

What's rarely mentioned is that the cost of providing one-off credit reports to consumers is significantly more than £2 fee set by law, so it is already heavily subsidised.

The Noddle pilot is certainly interesting and I was probably one of the first to register. As Tom says, innovation is good for consumers. I am intrigued to see what the marketing element of the proposition, which is how the free reports will be funded, will look like and what controls will be put in place.

James Jones

Consumerist

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

There has been a link to order a £2 statutory credit report on the Experian website homepage since we launched our website - we have never tried to hide it.
. . .

What's rarely mentioned is that the cost of providing one-off credit reports to consumers is significantly more than £2 fee set by law, so it is already heavily subsidised.

Why then has an earlier post in this thread indicated that it is hard to find and another that the consumer didn't know where to find a credit report for just £2?

To provide internet access to credit reports may incur a one-off cost to the credit agencies to set up but thereafter one would have thought that ongoing maintenance costs would be minimal. Furthermore, and as mentioned earlier, the facilities provided by CRAs have been set up for the benefit of the financial institutions and not the consumer. Since accuracy is key with that kind of information, then if there was any genuine concern for accuracy then those financial (and other) institutions should pay the price of keeping it accurate. This can only be achieved if consumers have free access to the information and paid for by the institutions who insist this information is kept.

It is clear that your main purpose is to make a profit from consumers for a service required by the financial institutions. Don't think for a second that I buy your weak excuses for profiteering from consumers. I don't.

c-m

Yep they are a commercial company, so first and foremost want to make a profit.

Consumer credit reporting should not be a wholly commercial enterprise. I think it should be state run, financed by businesses paying for access, but free for the general public.

danothy

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

There has been a link to order a £2 statutory credit report on the Experian website homepage since we launched our website - we have never tried to hide it.

...

James Jones

There's a mention of it on the home page:

Consumer advice

The quickest way to get help and advice about your credit report. You can order your £2 credit report, find out how to update your report, read our frequently asked questions, send us a question, get advice about fraud or visit our Learning Zone.

But clicking on the associated link seems to take me to a page selling featured products and offering a 30 day trial of the service. What if I want to just order the report and pay the £2 (begrudgingly) without signing up to a 'free trial'?

Consumerist

c-m wrote: »

Yep they are a commercial company, so first and foremost want to make a profit.

Let us not also forget that CRAs are already funded by the financial institutions and we, the consumer, already pay for CRAs through our charges and interest. It's unmitigated greed and the sooner the CRAs are forced to provide us with free access to our own information, by choice or regulation, the better.

Noddle has shown us that it can be done. Experian seems to be indicating it won't be done by them without a fight. No surprise there.

Consumerist

danothy wrote: »

What if I want to just order the report and pay the £2 (begrudgingly) without signing up to a 'free trial'?

For those who would like a Statutory Credit Report for £2 from Experian, you can order it <here>.

Order Your Statutory Credit Report
You can order your statutory credit report online or by post.

Order Online
The cost of ordering a statutory credit report online is £2. You can choose to view your report online or to receive it by post.
If you choose to view your report online we will post you a passkey once your report is available, usually within 5 working days. This will allow you to log in to a secure area of our site and view your report.
If you choose to receive your report by post it will be posted to you within 7 working days.

Edit
Don't click on the orange button "Get your FREE credit report and Score" (on their homepage) as you might reasonably expect. The score is part of the "CreditExpert" offering which you pay for. This is the trap you are expected to fall into.

DebtHater

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

There has been a link to order a £2 statutory credit report on the Experian website homepage since we launched our website - we have never tried to hide it.

What's rarely mentioned is that the cost of providing one-off credit reports to consumers is significantly more than £2 fee set by law, so it is already heavily subsidised.

James Jones

Consumerist wrote: »

For those who would like a Statutory Credit Report for £2 from Experian, you can order it <here>.
Edit
Don't click on the orange button "Get your FREE credit report and Score" (on their homepage) as you might reasonably expect. The score is part of the "CreditExpert" offering which you pay for. This is the trap you are expected to fall into.

But I think it is agreed that the link on Experian's website is not obvious.

Yes, they do provide it on their website, but in much smaller font than the big yellow box saying "FREE credit report".

People then go and subscribe for the free 30-days and most likely forget about the subscription, until Experian start taking the monthly subscription from the user's bank.

Its fair to say, although Noddle may be using our data in other ways, at least I know that they wont be accessing my bank each month via direct debit to take a subscription.

jamesd

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

What's rarely mentioned is that the cost of providing one-off credit reports to consumers is significantly more than £2 fee set by law, so it is already heavily subsidised.

What if it wasn't one-off but mandatory online in much the same way as the LendersCompared site has mandatory participation for large doorstep lenders?

Consumerist

The cost of providing one-off credit reports to consumers is significantly sunsidised by the financial institutions who require the CRAs services. We, the consumer, pay that subsidy through our account and interest charges. The point that is rarely mentioned by the CRAs is that we are paying them as the middle men as well as the financial institutions. It's a rip-off; we know it and they know it. Our problem, as consumers, is having regulators who the banks can (and do) run rings round even when they are awake on the job.