Be careful of Equifax

robatwork

I wanted my £2 report so applied online for that with Experian and Equifax.

Experian charged me £2.

Equifax charged me £2. Then £6.99 for a service that I didn't request. I think I'm pretty careful when signing up or ticking boxes for things online. So if you apply for your statutory report online make sure you cancel it straight away afterwards and be very careful about what you are actually requesting.

I am making a request for a refund and hope they aren't as underhand in sorting that out. Perhaps there is a company rep who reads these boards?

Rob

ownstu

I applied for Equifax's Free Credit Report (TM) as I had been a victim of identity theft and just wanted to check what they had on file about me. Part of the application required providing credit card details as this was "part of the identification process". Nowhere during the process did the site mention I was signing up for a 30 day trial after which a £6.99 charge would be made per month. Also no mention of a future charge was mentioned in the confirmation email.

When the £6.99 charge was taken a month later, I contacted them to complain and have it cancelled (5p per minute call, left on hold for 20min). Was unable to have the charge refunded as it was after the 30 days and I should have read the terms & conditions. Month later I am charged again. Yet another 20min x 5p on hold call. After going ballistic at the poor girl in the foreign call centre they have agreed to refund the second charge.

In my opinion, Equifax are commiting fraud, which is rather ironic really.

Kingsd316

Pretty sure this is clearly on the front page of the site

*Monthly fee applies after free trial, new customers only. Free trial period starts on registration — further ID verification may be required to access full service which may take up to 5 days.

and in the FAQ there is this:

We offer a free trial. During this time, you can look at your credit report as often as you like and learn from the wide range of information about credit-related topics on the website. You will also be sent alerts if there are any significant changes to your credit report. This can help to protect against identity fraud by showing you if somebody else is trying to apply for credit in your name.
After the free trial, you will be charged the appropriate monthly or annual fee depending on the service you joined. We will communicate with you at the start of your free trial to let you know what you can expect from that service and outline the details of the membership fee associated with membership if you do not inform us that you do not wish to continue.

robatwork

It's underhand, at best.

By definition, people signing up for the £2 report have made a conscious decision to NOT sign up for an ongoing trial - they just want the cheap report.

It's not clear during the process you are committing to a trial. The irony, as owenstu says, is immense...

Despite my complaints to them I have heard nothing back so their customer service stinks as well. Avoid.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

We recommend checkmyfile ....

Detailed report from Equifax and CallCredit, public info from Experian + some other analysis.

Absolutely genuine 30 day free trial - phone their excellent (English speaking/located helpdesk) on freephone number and cancel and they are ideal if you ctually need some help/advice.

Frankly I can't speak highly enough about them.

grey_gym_sock

the less error-prone way to request the £2 report is by post, enclosing a cheque. if you don't give them your card details, they can't charge it.

SG27

I did this a few years ago. Checked my credit report and called straight away to cancel. They were very pushy and kept asking why I wanted to cancel and was trying to convince me that I needed to pay £7 per month just in case I wanted to look at it again! Cancelled it in the end though.

I use noddle now. Totally free

robatwork

Noddle looks interesting. What's the "catch" - spam?

Mishomeister

robatwork wrote: »

Noddle looks interesting. What's the "catch" - spam?

The catch is that many lender do not report to them and therefore their report represents much lower value than Experian/Equifax

Han_naH

If you acquire a Capital One card then Equifax is free for detailed reports and ID alerts at equifax.co.uk/capitalone

You might think - why bother? But I also suffered ID theft and you need to be emailed when a search is carried out. If it wasn't yourself, you can act quickly.

I use Call Credit's check at annualcreditreport.co.uk I think you pay a one off £5. Also useful - I found last year someone had linked a different address to my name, but only with Call credit.#

For Experian, goto Quidco and sign up from there and you are paid £5. Cancel within 25 days.

SG27

Mishomeister wrote: »

The catch is that many lender do not report to them and therefore their report represents much lower value than Experian/Equifax

It's call credit. I cant see why it should be any less value that the others? All my accounts are on there, all my payments, credit card balances overdrafts etc. passed and present and all up to date. So all the lenders I use and have ever used report to them.

The catch is they have adverts trying to sell you loans and things but not a problem.