'Background information' affecting banking

JB797

Hi,

This is quite a long winded and complicated issue but I'll try and keep it as brief as possible!

Natwest recently did away with what they called a 'step' account, which my wife has had for about 10 years, and moved everyone onto a 'basic' account instead (which only allows cash withdrawals from Natwest machines etc). I had no problems upgrading to a better account but they refused to upgrade my wifes account saying that some 'background information' meant they would never do this for her and that she would never be accepted for any other services either (loans and mortgages etc)! I went bankrupt about 7 years ago and they had no problem upgrading my account and offering me a credit card, yet my wife who hasn't had any debt problems, CCJs etc can't even get a decent bank account!

So, she signed up to get her experian credit report (which according to Natwest is the only credit reference they use) and found it was rated excellent with absolutely no negative aspects at all, she even confirmed with experian that they held no information that should have a negative impact on her ability to obtain credit.
Our branch manager tried to appeal the decision but was told like my wife that 'background information' was the cause, they refused to elaborate or give any further information.

So, she submitted a Subject Access Request to Natwest on the advice of the branch manager, the 40 days is up and all she's had from them is letters confirming that she's never had a mortgage, credit card or loan with Natwest, which we obviously knew already.

She called them today and was told that they hadn't been able to provide the requested 'background information' due to the data protection act as it wasn't held by them, when my wife asked who it was held by they told her it was experian! They also told her that the data protection act meant they couldn't discuss the matter any further.

So basically both Natwest and Experian are saying the 'background information' is not held by them.

We are hoping to get our first mortgage in a couple of years and my wifes bank account is currently pretty useless so we really want to get to the bottom of this but what do we do next?!

Has anyone else had similar problems? Or can anyone offer any advice on what her next step should be? This situation is really getting her down as she thinks she's somehow ruined our chances of ever getting a mortgage

John

BASFORDLAD

Have you thought about taking a copy of your credit report in to the branch?

jen245

Why not just try a different bank? Or maybe do a SAR to CIFAS, to see if they hold any information on her.

JB797

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

Have you thought about taking a copy of your credit report in to the branch?

That was the first thing she did after signing up to experian, our branch manager used it as the basis of his appeal and faxed the relevant department a full copy but they just dismissed it.

Thanks anyway though!

jen245 wrote: »

Why not just try a different bank? Or maybe do a SAR to CIFAS, to see if they hold any information on her.

As a last resort we will switch banks, but it really is a last resort for several reasons, not least because she's worried that if it really isn't information held by Natwest then she'll have the same problem elsewhere. I'll definately look into CIFAS though, thanks.

John

InsideInsurance

It can unfortunately be just "one of those things".

When the original credit scoring was done something was seen that they didnt like and they put a flag on the account. Either they (a) didnt add comments as to why that flag was applied or (b) their comments have already been deleted in line with their records retention policy but the flag remains set.

Fast forward 10 years then they honestly can only see the flag saying never to allow out of sub prime products but have no idea of why that was set.

Some organisations will decide to take a fresh view of the matter and base the decision on the present (and the last 6 years of data as per the CRAs) where as others will say that flag is only set in dire situations and whilst we dont anymore know why we wont risk removing.

Given this is a purely commercial decision there is nothing you can do to force their hand and the FOS will never rule on a commercial decision.

If your current records are clean then you should have nothing to worry about with future applications and you should have no issues with applying for another account or credit with another provider - the natwest flag is just an internal marker not visible to anyone else (though it MAY be visible to other parts of the RBS group)

Agricolae

That is assuming it is an internal marker and not an external one. If NatWest have said it was due to information held by Experian then it may be held by a company effectively managed by Experian - National Hunter.

National Hunter is a database which banks submit customer application data to in order to catch out potential fraudulent applications. So every time your wife has applied for an account with credit (or the potential to have credit in future - like a standard current account) all the data she put down on the application form is likely to have gone to National Hunter.

If inconsistencies are spotted between old application data and new application data, this may cause a red flag to be raised on the new application and the bank will look into the application more closely. If they then see something they don't like they will likely turn it down.

It is also not true that NatWest only use Experian. They use Equifax as well.

As others have suggested, there may also be something recorded against your wife on CIFAS so it could be worth checking there. Bad CIFAS markers (usually relating to first party fraud) will not always show up when you check your credit report, but the bank will see it.

I would find it strange if NatWest said the reason was external when it was actually internal.

pmduk

It might be worth checking all 3 CRAs (The two mentioned plus callcredit)

silvercar

I'd put it down to NatWest gremlins.

I had similar problems one week and got given a bank account with no cheque book and limited card. A month later i went to the branch with experian reports and the manager agreed to retry by opening a new account and it offered me an instant overdraft of £5000. The manager shrugged and said these things happen with no explanation.