wrong infromation on Experian Credit file

danielr82

I'm a bit confused and hoping I could get some help here.
most people complain about there being stuff that they didn't want on their credit history, my Experian report is really clean because it's missing years of information.

The story is... about three years ago I signed up for the Experian free credit check (mostly because I read here that it was a good idea to check it out). everything was fine. I cancelled the free check before the month was out and never paid.

In the mean time I've heard about noddle and it's free and gives the same information in the same sort of format so I've been using that to keep regular tabs on my credit history etc and it's okay, (not great, not even good, but OK -my credit history that is the noodle site is great!)

I've got three cards, all with money on them, two loans and an over draft. I've never missed a payment, -actually I missed a payment once because I paid my virgin card on the 30th once when it was due by the 31st and apparently if you pay at any time in the month payment clears in one day, unless you need it to clear in that one day then they artificially hold up the process so that it takes two days. (e.g payment on 1st is cleared by the second, payment on 30th won't clear on 31st, but will clear 1 day late on 1st) I didn't know this, and argued with them and successfully got them to acknowledge that the payment was made in time. and not mark that I'd missed a payment. -found this through looking at statements so they wouldn't have even have time to have told referencing agencies.

I've moved house a few times over the past few years, I was living in a house share, then I moved to a different house share, then I moved to a house with just me and my girlfriend. then we decided to get serious about paying off debts and so for the past year have spent about 8 months living at my dads house and 8 months living at her mums house.

Now myself and the girlfriend have cleared a lot of the debt that we had between us thanks to the cheaper living at parents house, and have decided that we'd like our own place.

We've seen a small house that we like, and are hoping to get a mortgage for a shared ownership deal. thanks to the generosity of family we've managed to scrape together a 15% deposit, which will be a gifted deposit... (assuming we get the house.)

At the moment, my debts are equal to just less than 1x salary, (though this includes some shared debts -where I took out a loan which was split between my and the GF, she is paying half the repayments), her debts are about 5k on credit cards, (probably less actually). the total mortgage would be just over 1.5x my salary (about 1.7) or about 2x my girlfriend salary. (between us it would be less than 1x joint salary.
in fact even with all my debts included and her debts, adding on a mortgage would make our total debts just less than 2x combined salary,

I've been told that we may struggle to be approved on a joint application due to my debt that's in my name, but that the GF should be approved on her own given her reasonable wage and low debts.

This is where the problems start, the mortgage advisor called me today to tell me that our joint mortgage application, (something has been flagged in one of our credit reports, (-though we're not told which one) the mortgage company won't tell her, and she says that they won't tell us either, she advised that the best way to proceed would be for us to each check our credit files and send them to her so she can see what the problem is and how to resolve it, or work around it.

So I sign into Experian, I can't get another free trial obviously so I pay them the £14.99 that they demand.

Most people complain that they have debts that aren't theirs... my problem is slightly different...

My address is wrong. it's missing address changes from the move to the shared house back to my home town with the girlfriend and missing the move to my dads house and missing the move to my GF's mums house. it thinks I've spent the past four and a half years living in the shared house.

I can understand the missing the move to GFs mums out as I've left my bank accounts registered at my dads house, it seemed easier than getting everything changed again. (I recieve post from all my credit cards and bank (who I have current accounts and loans with) to my dads address.

it's got electoral roll information wrong it lists my second to last shared house, and the shared house it thinks I still live at. it ignored that I'm on the electoral roll in my home town registered at my dads. -you'd now start thinking that perhaps I'm wrong, if this was a child hood house perhaps I was unregistered when I moved out the first time... true, but I registered again when I moved back and did receive a polling card in the local election this year so that's definitely sorted. (no idea where that is now)

Then comes my credit information, it lists as settled the cable TV contracts in the first and second shared house, and lists as settled a loan that I'd had previously with my bank.
but that's it. it lists available credit as £0, used credit as £0.
but I've got two loans, three cards and an overdraft. (all reducing month on month and not getting added to (-unless taking advantage of promotions on the existing cards for 0% deals then one goes up and another goes down.)

looking at noddle I have a financial association with my GF, this has been caused by a utilities account being in both of our names at the house we moved to after the shared house. this doesn't show on the Experian report.


I've no idea what I can do.
it seems Experian know who I am, then just know absolutely nothing about where I am, or anything about my financial information.


I've sent the report to the mortgage advisor (along with the 100% correct and free noddle report.)
My GF will be getting and sending hers.

I'm feeling a bit miffed at spending £15 for this pile of rubbish.

the question is how can I correct this?

it may already be the cause of a declined mortgage application.
also of relevance is that my work do various checks including credit referencing as a part of my job due to some clients that we work with.
I'm due to be re-checked at work in a couple of months, so I really want to get this sorted before Experian not only ruin my chances of getting a house, but also ruin my chances of keeping my job! (I don't think I'd be sacked really, just be moved to work on different accounts and have less opportunity).


How do I go about getting so much corrected?
Experians site gives a series of letter templates, but to be honest they've gotten so much wrong that I just want to call them up and say. Do your job properly!

Should I just send a letter saying please correct this and this and this and this and this...

Some of the FAQ on changing information suggests sending proof. but I'm not entirely certain why this is the case...

(for example they suggest sending proof that I'm on the electoral roll. -I think, you found a previous two registrations without my help, now that I've told you that the information is wrong you should do your job and make the information accurate, and if that involves them checking the electoral roll, then so be it, it's their job to hold accurate information!! not just their job, it's their duty to ensure that information is accurate.?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You-kip

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