partner showing on credit file as financial associate

BadBehaviour

I signed up to the Experian free trial (purely to get free cashback and I plan to call and cancel before the end of the trial) and I noticed that when M&S did their credit check for a credit card application which was successful, they have created an association with my partner. It is something about a proposal form.
I didn't put him down as an additional cardholder and I can't remember if M&S asked about my partner in the application.

When we went to an estate agency back in 2012 to rent, they credit-checked him and they said he had a CCJ against him, so he failed the credit check. We obviously then checked his credit file and I couldn't see CCJs but just a default (his mum had bought something off a catalogue in his name and never paid it back - he thought she would sort that out but she never did and she passed away last month anyway). So, where did they see this CCJ?

In October last year he was gonna get me a laptop on finance and he was approved for the finance! I thought maybe this supposed CCJ never existed or it dropped off his file. I had him cancel the finance anyway, because I decided it was best to buy it outright myself, which I did.

I forgot to say he has a late payment on a catalogue, but that's about it now. I know the default on the other catalogue is a few years old, but I don't know how old exactly.

I explained all this to ask whether you think having him as a financial associate is a good thing or not. On Noddle I don't see him as a financial associate.

I tried the MSE eligibility checker (the credit cards one) for both and I get suggested mainstream cards, he gets suggested sub-prime ones with a low chance of approval. That makes me think his credit file isn't so good.

Also, I wonder if the fact he is there as a financial association was maybe the reason why Sainsbury's instead turned me down for a credit card. I applied for that a day before the M&S card, but looking at my file, it looks like they searched my file after M&S had approved me. I am glad I was turned down for that one anyway

SnowTiger

BadBehaviour wrote: »

I signed up to the Experian free trial (purely to get free cashback and I plan to call and cancel before the end of the trial) and I noticed that when M&S did their credit check for a credit card application which was successful, they have created an association with my partner. It is something about a proposal form.
I didn't put him down as an additional cardholder and I can't remember if M&S asked about my partner in the application.

The application process specifically asks for your partner's details and http://bank.marksandspencer.com/banking/credit-card/apply/#CC2 contains this:

When we check your details with a credit reference agency, a search/enquiry is registered to say that you've applied for credit today. As part of our checks, we link your name with individuals associated with you financially, and any previous names you've provided.

I'm not sure that living with your partner creates a financial link between the two of you. Other posts here suggest not. Maybe you could have the financial link removed. Anyone?

GingerBob_3

Interesting I've just run through the M&S application with gash data.

It asks you for partners details; Name DoB etc. and whether you want that person to be an additional cardholder. This information is non-mandatory unless you say Yes to the additional cardholder. However, this is not particularly clear and I expect many applicants will enter this data even though they don't have to. This is nosiness and prying on the part of M&S (I'm now going to cancel my M&S card - but I do have nine others). I don't know if by entering this data it would create a financial association. If it does, then that's bad. I've not seen this on other CC application forms, but I may stand corrected on this.


Additional: just tried Sainsbury's credit card and they don't ask for partner details at all.

Recommendations:

1) Don't apply for an M&S card.
2) If you do apply, don't enter partner data
3) If you already have an M&S card, cancel it, if feasible to do so

BadBehaviour

I didn't certainly want him as an additional cardholder (and he is not an additional cardholder), so I wouldn't have entered his details for that purpose. We don't have any joint accounts whatsoever.
I think I might have entered his details, thinking it was mandatory, but I wasn't informed he would become a financial associate that way.

He is shown as a financial associate on my Experian credit file. On Noddle no. I don't know about Equifax. I just think that since he has had trouble with credit before, he might influence my file negatively in the future.

I have always kept up with all my payments and I believe I have a somewhat limited history, but a squeaky clean credit file anyway so far. In fact the credit card was to help me build a credit history besides my contract phone.

Should I query this?

Flm67

Contact Experian and explain that you have no joint accounts Eric and they will remove the association. This is what I done and they did remove it quick.

PaulW922

Sometimes potential lenders or landlords will regard a default as being as serious as a CCJ. From your perspective it obviously isn't but from a credit management point of view both are regarded as serious. So your potential landlord may have been referring to the default.

The search in joint names may have created the link. if you genuinely have no joint products, including current accounts, then you can probably get the link removed. You initially ask the CRA to do it.

BadBehaviour

PaulW922 wrote: »

Sometimes potential lenders or landlords will regard a default as being as serious as a CCJ. From your perspective it obviously isn't but from a credit management point of view both are regarded as serious. So your potential landlord may have been referring to the default.

The search in joint names may have created the link. if you genuinely have no joint products, including current accounts, then you can probably get the link removed. You initially ask the CRA to do it.

I contacted Experian to have him removed now. No, we have nothing joint.

They said he had a CCJ, not just a default (which we had mentioned to them before paying the application fee). They had said a default wouldn't have been that bad. A CCJ was a big no instead. Apparently the landlord wouldn't have been able to get insurance with a tenant with a CCJ... that's what the estate agency said.
I didn't see this CCJ on his report and he has never received any papers about it, but to be honest, his mum might have hidden them from him. Anyway, if he had a CCJ, how come he had never known about it till he was credit-checked? Wouldn't they have enforced it somehow?

PaulW922

I'm not suggesting he does have a CCJ - I am saying that you may have been told that when in reality the other party was referring to the default.

BadBehaviour

PaulW922 wrote: »

I'm not suggesting he does have a CCJ - I am saying that you may have been told that when in reality the other party was referring to the default.

Yes, I get what you're saying, but we had been open about the default anyway. Telling us he had a CCJ was a blatant lie then. I'll check his credit file and see if the default is still there.

I was able to register on Noddle, but when I tried to sign him up (obviously with his consent - he just can't be bothered with these things and leaves them to me), he kept failing their identity checks (the reason is a mystery to me), so I left it.
He is British and I am not, but I had no problems signing up. I can always resort to the statutory reports anyway.

aaron1994

any ideas best credit card to be accepted for with bad credit trying to rebuild my credit rating after being out of work for so long ?

BadBehaviour

aaron1994 wrote: »

any ideas best credit card to be accepted for with bad credit trying to rebuild my credit rating after being out of work for so long ?

Try sub prime cards like Vanquis, Capital One, Aqua. You should really open your own thread, though, in the appropriate section.