Credit on closed store card

Brickie_3

I have recently used the Free Trial with Experian to check my credit rating. Fortunately nothing on there was a shock. However when i was looking at credit cards/storecards held i saw that there was a record for a House of Fraser storecard. It showed that my account was £277 in credit. However as i used to be an employee at House of Fraser this was a staff card and when i left the company (in 2002) my store card was cancelled or so i thought. As i believed when i left my balance was zero i shredded all of my old bills and cut my card up. The problem is i want to try and claim my money back but i do not know my old account number. I phoned up GE Capital bank but was told there was nothing they could do without my account number.

Has anybody got any advice on what i could do? I hope this is posted in the correct place as this is my first ever post.

Milky_Mocha

Brickie wrote:

I have recently used the Free Trial with Experian to check my credit rating. Fortunately nothing on there was a shock. However when i was looking at credit cards/storecards held i saw that there was a record for a House of Fraser storecard. It showed that my account was £277 in credit. However as i used to be an employee at House of Fraser this was a staff card and when i left the company (in 2002) my store card was cancelled or so i thought. As i believed when i left my balance was zero i shredded all of my old bills and cut my card up. The problem is i want to try and claim my money back but i do not know my old account number. I phoned up GE Capital bank but was told there was nothing they could do without my account number.

Has anybody got any advice on what i could do? I hope this is posted in the correct place as this is my first ever post.

Yikes! They should absolutely give you your money back. They can and do sometimes search for your account by postcode. They've done that before for me although I was not in credit at the time.
If that fails there may be another way. Did you ever set up a direct debit with them? If so your bank may be able to look up the direct debit reference which is usually the account number. 2002 is quite a long time ago but give it a shot. Good luck.

Brickie_3

Thanks for your help. I did phone my bank and after much searching they managed to find my account number.
However when i spoke to GE Capital Bank as far as they are concerned the account balance was zero and there was no money owed to me. I explained about my Experian credit report but they said there must have been some mistake with it!

JasonW_2

Scum! LOL sorry but these companies are. Ive got a genuine mistake on mines with vodafone who show 1 missed payment when I know for a fact is not correct. I even called their credit assessmetns dept on the day I saw my report and the woman said nope, your account is not showing any problems - it had been dead for around a year, and she checked all the way back. Also, I pay by direct debit and have NEVER had any less than a grand in there at any one time for the last few years, so they are talking crap. I got a letter off equifax who said vodafone have checked the accuracy and can confirm it is correct and will remain unchanged. Have fired a harsh letter to vodafone with all the details, and it annoys me that it is my only missed payment on any account in 4 1/2 years. The account isnt showing as settled either which doesnt help me try and work out which month or even year this is meant to relate to, and so far nobody has even said it is correct, you missed a payment in oct 2003 say.

They are scared to change any genuine mistakes that benefit the consumer, as that would be an admission that their records were wrong and that would surely open the flood gates for lots more people challenging their data. Their records are only as good as the crap that gets fed in, so stand your ground, and tell them you want it in writing that their records are INACCURATE and that you intend to seek advice on this, as you are very concerned the rest of your record is wrong (might help if you have a less than perfect history, you never know! ) Hopefully this should spur some action. Forward a copy of the section of the report that applies and make sure you clarify you will accept nothing less than a full reply with a clear admission their records are wrong!

I hate the credit reference agencies. I actually think they are a very bad idea in practise, but of course some form of records need to be kept. I just dont think the lenders should rely on them as much as they do. Ive spent weeks trying to get my report up to date. There are 3 accounts that are not showing as settled including the vodafone one, so that looks to other lenders as if I have 3 active accounts more than I do have. I want to start some sort of campaign against them, even just to raise public awareness and create a massive storm of queries of info they hold. That is about the only way to make them sit up and notice, and hopefully create some media interest in them. LOL if only I knew where to start on that one.