Debtors, "We have confirmed that you live at this address" - How do they find out ?

Galeeno

When speaking to a debt company, they said that companies that debt is owed to (credit card, load debt)

after 4+ months of not paying, and ignoring their phone calls and letters

then they can send letters which say
"we have gathered information to confirm that you do actually live at this address"
(to confirm they live there, and are getting the letters, but are just ignoring them, as they have confirmed they live there)

The question is, how do debt companies find that out? which companies do they turn to, to find out the customer who they are chasing for the debt, does lives at that address ?

If they ask a company, isn't it a breach of data protection, and doesn't that feel like the big brother state lol

TheGardener

CRA's hold all address info for anyone who applies for credit or has an account of any type - all a company has to do is look at the CRA file, something that anyone applying for credit will automatically give the lender permission to do - its always been this way. Unless you have no accounts whatsoever - no bank account, gas, phone, electric, car insurance - then your addresses, both past and present - are there for any company with access to the credit file to see.
I recently got a letter from the DVLA reminding me my driving license was due to be re-newed. It came to an address they had not been informed of (I moved fairly recently) the letter simply said they had had my information from one of their 'commercial partners' so I'm guessing my car insurance providers...
big brother has been around for a long time ...

jamesd

Credit reference agencies will be able to report all addresses on current credit accounts and those for the last six years. There's also the Gone Away Information Network (GAIN) operated by Equifax for the purpose of tracing people whose letters are being returned market gone away or otherwise not at the address used.

You should also know that debt companies lie about such things. They may well have no confirming information but just be trying to persuade a person to contact them, at which point they really will have confirmation.