Acaw0068

colmac71

Hi,

My (free) Equifax credit alert is showing that there's a new credit agreement for the company name of ACAW0068 which is classed as a 'Public Utility' account type.

I've done a google search but nothing seems to be coming up.

I've not recently changed any utilities - anyone have any ideas who this may be at all?

Thanks in advance

saraih

United Utilities reports to credit reference agencies now. I think Yorkshire Water does too. Mine is showing my water bill status since March.

GingerBob_3

saraih wrote: »

United Utilities reports to credit reference agencies now. I think Yorkshire Water does too. Mine is showing my water bill status since March.

Bad news for the people of NW England.

Edit:

Here are the details of yet another gullible organisation that's allowed itself to be seduced by the slimy CRAs:

http://www.unitedutilities.com/documents/CRA_factsheet.pdf

Notice how they'll be carrying out credit checks on the their customers without permission. Can someone explain the legality of that? How do the CRAs explain it away, I wonder?

cmsimc

I've also had a credit check done (on the 18th July 2014) by the same company - ACAW0068. Is it definitely United Utilities?

GingerBob_3

cmsimc wrote: »

I've also had a credit check done (on the 18th July 2014) by the same company - ACAW0068. Is it definitely United Utilities?

Difficult to know (it doesn't show up in Google), but if you live in NW England I'd bet a penny to a pound of the brown stuff that it's them. So a couple of questions:

Did you give them permission to do credit checks on you?

Do they know your full name and DoB?

saraih

Checkmyfile.com shows 'unknown' Public Utility, and the same file in Equifax has the full company name showing as United Utilities. Callcredit doesn't show it at all.

Unless there is some other sort of public utility that credit reports - you could always check the amount registered with your water bill, mine shows £288 which is how much is left to pay this year on my water.

eta:

GingerBob wrote: »

Did you give them permission to do credit checks on you?

Do they know your full name and DoB?

I opened my account with UU in June 2000, they didn't get my DoB at the time. I just called up, gave my name, said my previous address wasn't in my name and they sent the bill. Nothing signed at all.

colmac71

Most certainly haven't spoken to United Utilities recently and certainly not authorised them to do a credit check.

I've had my account with them for almost 2 years and if it is them they haven't previously reported my account history to any CRA.

Just as well it is on monthly DD so at least I know it will always get paid!

Thanks for the information everyone

pmf_3

Hi all, thanks for sharing your info on this.

I am also in the North West and with United Utilities. The only strange thing for me is that the 4 digits of the account number shown in Equifax don't match any part of my UU account number.

I tried to send UU a message through their website but it said it would take 10 days to reply, then the web form didn't work!!

GingerBob_3

pmf wrote: »

Hi all, thanks for sharing your info on this.

I am also in the North West and with United Utilities. The only strange thing for me is that the 4 digits of the account number shown in Equifax don't match any part of my UU account number.

I tried to send UU a message through their website but it said it would take 10 days to reply, then the web form didn't work!!

You might like to see whether or not they've carried out a credit check on you; which if they have, would possibly have been without your permission. If you don't want them to carry out such checks, current thinking on this board is that you should be able to bar them from doing so by withholding consent.

tonyenglish

The reason they are doing this is because by law they are not allowed to cut off supply to a residential customer. So if somebody is struggling financially they are often told to ignore the water bill as there is little the company can do. They are not going to chase people through the courts for small amounts of money. So what they are doing now is to introduce for some kind of penalty to try to get people to pay up and knackering their credit file is what they came up with.

GingerBob_3

tonyenglish wrote: »

The reason they are doing this is because by law they are not allowed to cut off supply to a residential customer. So if somebody is struggling financially they are often told to ignore the water bill as there is little the company can do. They are not going to chase people through the courts for small amounts of money. So what they are doing now is to introduce for some kind of penalty to try to get people to pay up and knackering their credit file is what they came up with.

I believe you're right. All the more reason for not letting the water company know exactly who you are. It's a cynical ploy on their part.