How to find out your Credit agreements prior to 2006

gayles

Hello everyone, I have just done a credit report for myself but the data oly goes back to 2006 so I cannot find out who I had credit with before that - does anyone know how I can go about obtaining this data? I was in a lot of financial trouble back then after a divorce so had a lot of loans, credit cards etc so am hoping to recover some of the naughty PPI they were charging me. Many thanks

di3004

gayles wrote: »

Hello everyone, I have just done a credit report for myself but the data oly goes back to 2006 so I cannot find out who I had credit with before that - does anyone know how I can go about obtaining this data? I was in a lot of financial trouble back then after a divorce so had a lot of loans, credit cards etc so am hoping to recover some of the naughty PPI they were charging me. Many thanks

Hi there

If you know who you had loans/credit cards with, if you contact them or if any of them are a local bank, you could call in and ask the branch manager who should be able to check your details for you.

Another way is to request a Subject Access Request (SAR), the business have 40 calendar days to comply and send all data they still hold on the account, these however mainly only go back to the last 6 years, some will hold data even longer, there is a£10 cheque payment of postal order charge for this request, but if the accounts were with the same business then only one SAR and payment is required.
SAR template letter below, you can use if you want to do this.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1475553

However, you can still make a reclaim without the need of the above paperwork, as long as you know you were sold and mis sold ppi you can continue to make a reclaim, although having the account number to each of these will help, or give them as many details as possible.

Step 3 below - reclaim questionnaire - complete and send to whoever responsible to selling you the account, (complaints of head office), remember to keep copies for yourself.
They normally have 8 weeks, but the FSA have given the main of the banks more time to keep up with the demand of complaints, so its now currenly 12 weeks, they will though let you know if this applies to you.
Good luck.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance#step3

ALIBOBSY

Most companies will lie and say they only have 6 years for the SAR to fob you off, but many keep stuff much longer than that. Money laundering laws (which override any data protection guidence) state data should be held for at least 6 years after the date of settlement. Seen people get data as far back as late eighties.

I found once I trawled through my old paperwork-think we all have old unsorted boxes of paperwork shoved ontop of wardrobes/in lofts etc you find all sorts of letters and reference numbers. Bank statements are good to at least show dd payments and online/phone payments that at least give you the companie's name that you were making payments to.

If you had any store cards the vast majority of high street stores had cards via GE capital, which was bought up by santander, so definately worth a SAR to them. I know we had a few store cards so about to SAR them myself.

Good luck
Ali x

di3004

That is so right.

In regards of one of mine, they said they could not find any data in relation to my loan from early 2000's, but I had the account number and know i was sold and mis sold ppi, put in a claim and was successful, strangely though they said they investigated by using the data they held on the account lol.

magpiecottage

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Most companies will lie and say they only have 6 years for the SAR to fob you off, but many keep stuff much longer than that.

Do you have evidence to support that accusation?

Money laundering laws (which override any data protection guidence) state data should be held for at least 6 years after the date of settlement.

Which "money laundering laws" are you referring to? I cannot think of any.

On the other hand, the fifth Data Protection Principle, which is part of the Data Protection Act 1998 requires data controllers to hold personal data no longer than they need it, so it would be unlawful to hold data on closed accounts in perpetuity.

ALIBOBSY

magpiecottage wrote: »

Do you have evidence to support that accusation?




Which "money laundering laws" are you referring to? I cannot think of any.

On the other hand, the fifth Data Protection Principle, which is part of the Data Protection Act 1998 requires data controllers to hold personal data no longer than they need it, so it would be unlawful to hold data on closed accounts in perpetuity.

Re the banks telling porkies there are threads after threads on her and other forums where the banks only send 6 years of statements, but then when challenged have many more years-barclays for a friend of mine came out with the 6 years thing then when pushed "found" they had stuff back to 1991!-BUT the older stuff was archived onto microfische-this was their excuse for not finding it first time around.

Now either the banks are badly organised and make the same errors over and over or they try to fob people off with the first reply.
Regarding the money laundering bit I will try to find the place i read it on-it was a thread on another site with a link to the legislation they referred to but I hold my hands up I can't justify it at the moment and agree about what the DPA says.

Will have a look and post when I find it.

Ali x

gayles

Thank you so much everyone for your replies - I have my halifax bank statements going back to 2000 and can see all the companies that I had loans/cc with etc and payments made. Unfortunately, they do not have any reference/account numbers. I have requested a SAR froom Halifax and hopefully there should be more details. The first company I tried to contact was M & S about a Personal REserve account I had where they provided you a cheque book and you could write yourself a cheque when ever you liked up to an amount of £3000. I often used this, but when speaking to them today, they denied all knowledge of me ever having any accounts with them, ever - I gave them all my addresses for the last 10 years, ad still nothing!? She said that unless I could get the account number, there is nothing else they can do or heelp me - very strange. It is is black and white all my monthly payments every month for 5 years to them? Any advice, ideas much appreciated xx

roonaldo

FYI, regulation and laws are different.

Some firms do only keep certain records for six years, ive seen it myself and its not always a fob off.

magpiecottage

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Re the banks telling porkies there are threads after threads on her and other forums where the banks only send 6 years of statements

That is hearsay, not evidence.

when challenged have many more years

That probably means more information has been provided, possibly an account number. There is a rule of thumb use to determine whether data is covered by the Data Protection Act known as the Temp Test. This is an assessment of whether a reasonably competent temp, with administrative skills but no specific knowledge of the company could trace the file based on the individuals name, date of birth etc. If not, then the personal data is not covered by the Act.

You also refer to microfiche. Many firms hold microfiche data only by account or policy number. Such data would not normally need to be released under a Data Subject Access Request unless the policy number was given.

Now either the banks are badly organised and make the same errors over and over

Very possibly - never underestimate the incompetence of a financial institution which in most cases is directly proportional to its size!

Regarding the money laundering bit I will try to find the place i read it on-it was a thread on another site with a link to the legislation they referred to but I hold my hands up I can't justify it at the moment and agree about what the DPA says.

Will have a look and post when I find it.

The government is putting most legislation online now. I was looking at an Act dating from the 1830s yesterday, so you should be able to verify it.