Equifax - When £2 Statutory Report Costs £8

Simon7685

First of all It is a moment of celebration for me at last.:j:beer::T
After 6 of the longest year of my life my credit report is finally clear of any adverse information. I have managed all my bad credit credit cards properly over the last 3 years. Always paid in full, on time and never paid a penny in interest.

Prime time is slowly happening I have 2 prime cards now and slowly starting to ditch the bad ones, that have done their job.

So onto Equifax and their shambolic system of getting anything online. This is not the first time I have come accross this with them but it is really annoying.

Last time I tried to get the online statutory report I had to ring up as it would not identify me, or give me access to the report. It had no problem however in taking the payment twice! I answered loads of questions at 7p a minute to be told the information I had given (credit limits and balances) did not match with theirs.

Well it wouldn't would it as their records are only updated once a month. So there is always going to be an an anomolly unless you haven't used the card since their system was updated:mad:. So they said to get my report I needed to send bank statements/credit card statements and even my birth certifiacate or passport in to them.

I told them no way, no how, forget it and refund my money.

A month later I filled in the form for one being sent out to me paid my £2 online and it arrived in around a week.

So back to today and I decided to give the Statutory report another go to get it online. so I filled it all in put my debit card details in preseed submit and it said, your card has been refused, check the details and resubmit. So I did same thing happened.

So I quickly logged into my bank, no problem, plenty of available balance but £4 had been authorised for payment. Not happy now as they have obviously got payment authorisation TWICE despite saying my card wasn't accepted.

Ever the optimist, I thought OK I'll try again with a different card, so used a credit card. We can't match your details please call us on XXXXXXX. So I did she went through everything confirmed my identity by asking the same questions it had online only this time she said the answers were fine and the account was now activated.

How strange I thought, so I asked about the refused transactions that were showing as being authorised on my online banking. She said when they showed as charges to send the bank statement to them and they would refund the money. Not ideal but I guess it was probably the best I was going to get. She said my account was active now and I could go online and view my report for up to a month.

So I logged in pressed the button to get my report, that I assumed had already been paid for 3 times and it said press here to see your statutory report, oe somehting like that. So I pressed and it flashes up thanks here is your report.

The file is completely clear, all green and lots of positive history on it.

I viewed it and saved a copy then logged off and went and checked my bank and CC again. They have placed 2 authorisations against my current account for £2 each and surprise surprise 2 charges against my CC for £2 each.

So all in all for the ability to view my report online and not wait for it through the post has cost me £8 today. Now I know that 3 of the authorisations might drop off in a weeks time, or when they show as actually posted on the accounts I can get them refunded but this really is a joke:rotfl:!

I am sure they only get people to ring them to earn some extra cash from the call, after all she asked the same questions that it asked online and I gave the same answers. They were accepted on the phone at 7p a minute but not online????

Should really be this complicated nowadays to get your credit report?

Anyway as I said at least I no now my file is clean and green with all 3 CRA's at last and my "journey from the dark side is now complete"!:rotfl:

AndyBSG

Simon7685 wrote: »

Prime time is slowly happening I have 2 prime cards now and slowly starting to ditch the bad ones, that have done their job.

Sorry to go off topic but what does this mean?

I'm in the process of trying to improve my credit file and have got a low balance high interest CC, the first one I've had in nearly a decade, and using it just to pay my train ticket each month and settling in full.

Are some CC's seen as 'better' than others on a credit report?

Simon7685

Prime cards are the ones with lower APR's and better limits. Bad Credit credit cards are ones like Vanquis, Capital One Classic, Aqua etc etc. These cards are generally easier options for people with not good credit files, maybe they have defaults or CCJ's on their file. These cards generally start with low limits and very high APR's.

My first card was Vanquis Granite, it came with a £250 limit and interest rates of 49.9% on purchases and 59.9% on cash withdrawals. Some people have much higher interest rates.

It is all about the risk level a company puts on you and how likely they see you as being able to repay your debt. When starting out a prime lender will not touch people with bad history, or no credit history generally speaking.

As you build a good history over time so your chances of getting better cards from prime lenders improves. In my case it has taken 3 years to get from Vanquis at 49.9% to Barclaycard at 18.9%.

I am now slowly trying to get better cards with higher credit limits and lower APR's on them. So when I do, I start to close the bad ones like Vanquis.

It does look better to a prospective lender when your file shows accounts with higher limits on them and low or zero balances. I do not think they can see what cards you have but they can tell by the limits on them and also whether you pay in full or carry a balance all the time.

I am no expert and other people can probably explain it better than me but I hope that helps you.

In your own case you are doing the right thing by using the card you have and then paying in full each month. You are building a good history. How long it takes for you to get to prime is anybodies guess really. If you have adverse info on your credit file, it could take until it drops off, up to 6 years. If not then maybe 18 months to 2 years. The longer you have positive history the better your chances get but I wouldn't try just yet if I were you.