The joys of Equifax

Gothamite

I thought i'd check my credit limit with Equifax as suggested by others. I've already done it through Experian back in November so decided to try Equifax.

What a pain!! After filling in all the bog standard details I got a message saying please ring our customer service team to finish setting up your account. (at 5p per min!!). So after having to sit there for ten minutes going through questions i'd already given them the answers to I got asked about what accounts I had, what cards, what loans etc. I then got asked to send my passport details or driving license etc and then they would open my account.

All this just for the joy of a free credit report!! I told her no thanks as I was only doing it as a nosey around my report.

What I don't understand is as the providers of my credit report should they not already have details of all loans, cards, store accounts etc?

So word to the wise. If trying to go for the free trial from Equifax be prepared that it might be more lengthy and long winded than you expect! When I did my Experian one it was done and dusted in 5mins!

sharpy2010

Experian were merely checking that you were who you said you are.

You'd be angry if they gave out your details to someone else, right?

moatmeister

I am waiting for experian to update my details on a nationwide account after I have paid off my credit cards etc including one with nationwide before applying for a nationwide loan. Cant wait forever. Its been well over a month since the last updates were done, but Nationwide say just got to wait as they will look at info from the CREs first and credit score on that even though they could plainly see that it is incorrect if they lookedat my account.

Why are they allowed to hold incorrect information on such important issues? Its despicable!!

lisyloo

The CRAs only hold what the lenders tell them.
You argument is with Nationwide not the CRAs.
Alternatively you improve your forward planning. Updates are done monthly not in real time.
I think you are not being fair in placing the blame on the CRAs.

moatmeister

Not being fair doesnt come in to it. There is nothing "fair" about the whole lending process. They just shift the blame around and make up the rules to suit themselves.

I have rung Nationwide today. They say it is nothing to do with them, its all automatic and just got to wait for it to update, could take two months. Nobody really seems to understand what is going on. Certainly not the monkeys who work in the call centres. The only ones who might do are the ones they wont let you speak to.

sharpy2010

moatmeister wrote: »

Nobody really seems to understand what is going on. Certainly not the monkeys who work in the call centres.

It's not just "monkeys" who work in call centres, you also get highly intelligent people too. There isn't much work out there at the moment, so people are taking what they can get.

Branding them all "monkeys" is neither useful nor polite. They are doing the job the best they can, and a lot of the time their instructions are simple -: "you have no power to make any decisions, just fob the customers off until they don't call back". And those are the instructions from "the ones they won't let you speak to".

Maestro.

On the contrary to this thread Equifax is the CRA I am most happy with so far. Noddle, while it is free, doesn't show the full picture (still doesn't think i am on the ER) and Experian says I already have an account there, but when I go to do a password reset it doesn't let me. Yet they continue to send me emails about how close I am to getting my f^%$£ng credit report.

moatmeister

Sharpey, my point exactly. These people control our lives. They should at least be able to correct wrong information quickly and efficiently and offer accurate advice instead of as you correctly put it "fob the customers off"

They are after all, quick enough to hand out the black marks correctly or otherwise

Rakaposhi

Maestro. wrote: »

On the contrary to this thread Equifax is the CRA I am most happy with so far. Noddle, while it is free, doesn't show the full picture (still doesn't think i am on the ER) and Experian says I already have an account there, but when I go to do a password reset it doesn't let me. Yet they continue to send me emails about how close I am to getting my f^%$£ng credit report.

I had the same experience. Equifax were easy to deal with but Experian believed I had a pre-existing account. I did try to set one up in 2005 / 6 but gave up when I realised they wanted to post me a PIN and charge me recurring membership fees (id been attracted to the 'free' part of their advertising). This account that never was, was linked to an old phone number and email address that I could not remember - so passing their security to reset the password was difficult.

I gamely battled my way through a number of emails and phone calls this year to try and get a look at my Experian Credit Report.. only to fall at the final hurdle when they said logging in would activate my £14.99 a month membership.

I asked for a £2 statutory instead.

cos_2

Frustrating for all you guys

I've posted before that I have now started using Noddle, the Call Credit online CRA version. I used to think that they, and Equifax, didn't get all the info from lenders so couldn't be up-to-date.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, Noddle is 100% up-to-date with all my current and previous creditors. And it's free to use. I don't use any of their links, I just use them to get my info. Not a penny spent.

zfr

cos wrote: »

Well, as far as I'm concerned, Noddle is 100% up-to-date with all my current and previous creditors. And it's free to use. I don't use any of their links, I just use them to get my info. Not a penny spent.

I've also found that all my accounts appear accurately on Noddle.

However, not many banks and lenders search Callcredit - hence I need to check EQ or EX to view my credit search history.