Equifax Fundamental - What shall we say? - Lack of Usefulness as a CRA?

VictimOfImpersonation

Not wishing to criticise two of the CRAs mercilessly without criticising the third for its uselessness in my case, I thought at least that Equifax should have a thread of their own in this sorry saga of date of birth mismatches and fraudulent credit all too easily applied for in our names with no actual checks worth the name.

Equifax was the only CRA I had an alert service with when this fraud occurred over two months ago.

Whilst I can see marks on my credit files at Experian and at CallCredit showing checks and searches and the new credit agreement (all with incorrect date of birth), there is absolutely nothing on my Equifax file.

Fat lot of good was Equifax's alert service if in fact they are now out of the game

Are they a spent force and consequently unfit for purpose ?

MrSilk

All these posts about how all CRA's are supposedly unfit for purpose are starting to seriously get on my wick. #whocares.

Rather than complain on here, why not speak to them. Not sure if they'd take any more notice than we do though.

I'm sure I speak on behalf of quiet a few posters on here when I say please for the love of god find something better to do with your time rather than banging on about the same old stuff on here.

VictimOfImpersonation

You speak on behalf of yourself. You don't like the fact that your normal forum stomping ground has been stomped all over for the last couple of weeks by someone you don't know and don't much care for with a big BEEF. I understand that.

I am sorry if it has got in the way of your normal routine posts, but just fielding sundry enquiries like a ticket office is not the only purpose of a forum like this on a leading consumer interests website.

I have been looking further at my file and there is further evidence that these CRAs are just out of control sewers or rather cesspits for inaccurate data.

I have now found that the card provider was given a completely incorrect "Time At This Address" and I can also see that some major Aggregators (Insurance Comparison websites for those not used to the jargon hereabouts) are searching with stupid parameters such as "Time At This Address" in Years and Months which correspond to the exact age of the driver for motor insurance. What a bunch of tw@ts they all are to transact this nonsense in our names.

MrSilk

:rotfl: Okay. You have fun

VictimOfImpersonation

MrSilk wrote: »

:rotfl: Okay. You have fun

Thank you! Normal business will I am sure be resumed soon enough!

Meantime, I can tell you that no CIFAS registration has yet reached Equifax so yet another indication that they are not No.1 and are no longer completely in the game?

BMN

zzz.... boring :wall:

VictimOfImpersonation

BMN wrote: »

zzz.... boring :wall:

But you're a bankworker - do you really come here for entertainment ?

[Deleted User]

Completely agree with the above posters - This is getting so stupid now.

dotdash79

It's a sorry saga you have that correct but not for the reasons you think.

Have you followed the companies involved complaints procedure? Have you followed this up with the FOS or ICO? have you spoken to your MP?

Or are you just being a keyboard warrior?

VictimOfImpersonation

I despair for the state of the nation !

Almost no poster has grasped the fact that a large element of inaccurate data or missing data is the norm in CRAs. Being offered credit is very much a matter of luck unless you have an above average salary and bills are easy.

But clearly one persistent poster has grasped that the Credit Files and Ratings forum is one worth spamming with special Bengali social services offerings ! Maybe it is thought that MSE readers do read and inwardly digest what is posted here even if they don't post back in great numbers.

So back to the main topic, if you are not on an above average salary and want to be offered credit, then it is then a matter of contriving your own discoverable data to fit the crazy schemes and algorithms used by lenders to make decisions. There are three CRAs and my own experience suggests that Equifax may be the least likely to record a fraudulently opened account, probably because they are currently not as successful as the other two in gaining personal lender's credt check contracts. Perhaps their forte is more with small business credit checking?

Those credit checks are laughably simplistic anyway.

The cursory nature of them results in thousands of bad decisions daily at all levels from six figure mortgages down to payday loans. If you wish to influence a bad decision your way then it seems remarkably easy. You don't even need to disclose your name and address - you use someone elses!

We know it, and ID fraudsters know it, most of the posters responding to these threads wish to remain blind to it, in many cases because their jobs depend on the merry-go-round continuing.

Of course no institution, be it corporate or government, is doing much about the status quo because it supports "turnover" the way they measure it and it supports "growth" the way they measure it. They don't measure fraud in any way that incriminates their own bad practices.

Corporates can always extract profit from any old transaction flows, we saw that when the Northern Rock mortgage lending model was exposed, when HSBC were taken to task over laundering drug money, and when PPI was exposed as nothing more than a massively parasitic product to extract extraordinary amounts of dosh on the back of any old lending.

Nevertheless government constantly falls over itself to promote the City's interests as the nation's interests.

And the lending systems all continue down paths barely dented by the discoveries and fines and compensation awarded, and despite the boundary between organised crime and the City having been totally eroded these past few years with none of the culprits in jail yet :rotfl::(

dotdash79

Banks and the CRA are different type of organisations with different aims, however they are useful to each other. PPI is nothing to do with the storage of account information

Regarding your issues you have had have you followed the companies involved complaints procedure? Have you followed this up with the FOS or ICO? have you spoken to your MP?

Or are you just being a keyboard warrior?