T-Mobile, Equifax

Brett_Butler

03-06-2012 T-Mobile Shop East Grinstead.

My Girlfriend and I recently went into a T mobile Shop Saturday 2nd. June 2012 to purchase a mobile Phone, on a 2 year contract, I had contacted the shop and they reserved a phone, we drove especially up there to pick it up.
My Girlfriend to purchase the phone had to go through an ID check, and then a Credit check, for a mobile, that were were paying £250-00 for, and a 2 year contract at £15-50 a month. She Failed the ID check with just 3 questions.

1/ Her Name. she Clearly knows
2/ Her DOB. She also clearly knows
3/ Her Address. She has lived there for over 20 years.

We had Passport, Letter with registered address
They had already done the Debit card small payment check. and passed.

As she had failed the ID check they could do no more.

I decided to purchase the phone instead, I already hold a T Mobile account, and a 2nd Pay as you go account, though to be fair recently took out.

I passed the ID check and onto the Credit Check. Which I failed, I failed due to the unreasonable questions they ask, 5 questions dating back to 10 years ago, some of the questions related to opening of credit cards and bank accounts in 2010, of which there were up to 3 answers for each question, So I had a 33% chance of getting the right bank.

The Store Manager has no control, he said this is the 4th. person (6 now) this month he has had fail an ID check, and that is in just one store.

It begger's belief that they even have all this information, expect you to remember everything in a shop straight off, let alone some of it clearly being wrong. Hence we walked out of the shop with nothing.

I was told that I needed to log into Equifax, register, get a one off free view at my credit history account etc. fill in the information I guess that is wrong with the correct information, so they get a few update, that they can then sell my information to other Companies.

Does T mobile get a referral fee too?

I just find this wrong, there must be some law that they are breaking, regarding my personal information, let alone stopping me from purchasing goods, and costing me a considerable amount of time, and money in the failure of purchasing goods.
I as an individual must have some rights here?

On a side Note, Barclaycard Fraud also stopped a transaction this morning, again, who apparently ask questions related to transaction up to 6 months back, so on average I make approx. 50 + transactions a month on various credit cards, times that by 6 so I may have to remember a 1 in 300 transactions to pass their fraud check.

I understand the need for fraud prevention, and ID theft, but there is a much larger agenda here now, to how easy it is to fail, and how that also adds to a credit rating on failures, the fact they hold so much data, I would guess some of it is incorrect. The fact that Equifax wants you to pay a monthly subscription to update and check your information on a regular basis.

I might add, I have no debts, no loans, no mortgage, Credit Cards are all paid off full amount monthly, lived in the same address for over 20 years, had bank accounts with various banks come for over 35 years, Savings accounts, bonds, shares, isa's, but still fail a credit check because I have so much spread all over and with having to open new accounts every year to gain introductory interest rates you CANNOT remember everything, and Equifax should not have access to everything, or every transaction you make.

Where does this all stop? It is always the Consumer that loses out, Is there anything I can do to prevent this do we have ANY RIGHTS? over our own personal information?

I would like to hear from others who have had the same experience.

Buzby

The information the CRA uses will be culled from public data and info that you have given explicit permission to be disclosed. This means your rights have not been infringed. Further, the data they hold becomes invisible after 5 years, so events longer than this will still be sored, but not readily viewable or could be used for a Q&A session.

Contract mobiles are rarely a good idea, so it may have been a blessing in disguise.

mobilejunkie

I have nine contracts and they are definitley a good idea if you know what you're doing!

reclusive46

I've heard about these stupid ID checks. What is the point if you have ID with you?