OMG look what Gocompare did to my credit file.

shireknight

I just got an alert from my Equifax credit file account and look what I found

SWINTON GROUP LIMITED , a Insurance company, has made an inquiry against your credit report on 23/04/2014 . If you were not aware of or did not consent to this search, contact SWINTON GROUP LIMITED or Equifax for clarification.
HASTINGS INSURANCE SERVICES LTD , a Insurance company, has made an inquiry against your credit report on 23/04/2014 . If you were not aware of or did not consent to this search, contact HASTINGS INSURANCE SERVICES LTD or Equifax for clarification.
SWINTON GROUP LIMITED , a Insurance company, has made an inquiry against your credit report on 23/04/2014 . If you were not aware of or did not consent to this search, contact SWINTON GROUP LIMITED or Equifax for clarification.
HASTINGS INSURANCE SERVICES LTD , a Insurance company, has made an inquiry against your credit report on 23/04/2014 . If you were not aware of or did not consent to this search, contact HASTINGS INSURANCE SERVICES LTD or Equifax for clarification.
SWINTON GROUP LIMITED , a Insurance company, has made an inquiry against your credit report on 23/04/2014 . If you were not aware of or did not consent to this search, contact SWINTON GROUP LIMITED or Equifax for clarification.
HASTINGS INSURANCE SERVICES LTD , a Insurance company, has made an inquiry against your credit report on 23/04/2014 . If you were not aware of or did not consent to this search, contact HASTINGS INSURANCE SERVICES LTD or Equifax for clarification.

I renewed my Car Insurance last week and then out of curiosity went to the Gocompare website while I was bored a couple of days ago just to do a Car Insurance quote to see if I could have got it cheaper through a comparison site than I did with my usual company.

Presumably the multiple credit checks result from the fact that I got quotes for Fully comp, Third party and Third party fire and theft just to see the difference in price between the three however at no point did I ever sign up to any of the quotes as I was only browsing.

Do these count as six credit checks in as many minutes on my credit file and if yes why were they even doing credit checks against me when I never applied to take insurance out with these companies?

Very annoyed at this grrr

TherealMandM

use the search feature or read a faq... same question is answered over and over

POPPYOSCAR

"As part of the evaluation process our insurance partners may conduct a general insurance credit search. These searches may be viewed by other companies when you apply for credit or insurance but shouldn't harm or adversely affect your credit profile. If you have any concerns regarding a credit search then you should email our customer service team. If you would like further information on this then please read the section of our Privacy Statement entitled 'Credit and other searches'."

Taken from Terms and conditions.

As usual in the small print.

GingerBob_3

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

"...These searches may be viewed by other companies when you apply for credit or insurance ...."

Half the punters on this site agree with this, while the other half say they can't be viewed by other companies. So unfortunately it remains unclear.

When using comparison sites I always start with bogus, but realistic, information. Contrary to what some here might say, this does work and you get loads of accurate quotes - without the credit file stamp, or 'footprint' as the enthusiasts call it.

InsideInsurance

GingerBob wrote: »

Half the punters on this site agree with this, while the other half say they can't be viewed by other companies. So unfortunately it remains unclear.

One CRA representative I dealt with when implementing credit checking for a former insurer client advised that if it was done as a pure ID check - as some are - then this WONT show up.

If you are pulling back the score to use it as a rating factor, as the client wanted to, then this WOULD show up however it showed as an Insurance Query and thus those doing Credit Checks would almost certainly ignore them even though they do see them.

This was 6 years ago though and the CRAs may have changed their stance since then.

Of cause if you check your CRA file with Equifax they clearly show on their reports which ones are visible to others and which arent.

JKSandy

You would need to contact the insurance companies and remove your agreement for them to check your credit file.

You may find they will now check annually.

GingerBob_3

JKSandy wrote: »

You may find they will now check annually.

Why would that be, if you've no relationship with them?

shortcrust

When you consider how many people use these sites, does it really matter whether potential lenders can see the searches or not? They'll easily recognise the searches for what they are and I can't think that lenders would care that you've used gocompare.

My file is littered with these things and I have no problems when applying for stuff.

JKSandy

GingerBob wrote: »

Why would that be, if you've no relationship with them?

In my own experience I used moneysupermarket in February 2013 and had quotation searches, which I was expecting. Then in February 2014 I had the same companies search my report.

GingerBob_3

JKSandy wrote: »

.. Then in February 2014 I had the same companies search my report.

So I wonder what they would be looking for? And why?
Answering my own questions I guess they're using it as a marketing tool - finding out how much you're currently paying and so on. Good old CRAs - another example of scope creep.

Bantex_2

GingerBob wrote: »

So I wonder what they would be looking for? And why?
Answering my own questions I guess they're using it as a marketing tool - finding out how much you're currently paying and so on. Good old CRAs - another example of scope creep.

That info is not on a credit report.