Who's responsibility is it?

Andybez38

When an inaccuracy occur's on your credit records. I would like to know who's responsibility is it to provide accurate records. I have disputed defaults on my records with experian and equifax.
I have had emails saying they (the credit reference agency's) can't amend records without he creditors say so. I have sent them proof of my disputes. Surely it's the credit reference agency reporting your record to report true & accurate information about you on their sites.
In call credit (Noddle's) concern, why are they asking me to contact my creditors when I try to alert them online of errors on my files.

Thrugelmir

CRA's report the information that they are supplied with.

[Deleted User]

If the creditor is reporting incorrect information, then it is up to them to correct it. However, the CRA would often engage in dialogue with them to resolve it.

If the creditor is providing correct information and the CRA is reporting it incorrectly, then it is the responsibility of the CRA.

fermi

https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/audits-and-advisory-visits/1042574/outcomes-report-credit-reference-agencies.pdf

1. Data sharing

Organisations should have appropriate quality controls in place to ensure
the data shared and received from third-party organisations is of
sufficient quality.

There is a common misconception that the CRAs have sole data controller
responsibility for all the information that appears on an individual’s credit
reference file (credit file). However when a lender signs up to share data
with a CRA the majority of the information that appears on an individual’s
credit file is not 'owned' by the CRA.

It is, perhaps, more accurate to describe the CRA credit file as a conduit
through which information owned by various different organisations is
reported about an individual. As such data assets such as credit account
information cannot be amended by the CRA without the permission of the
lender. In this respect the lender and CRA are both data controllers and
both have their own different responsibilities for data being processed.
The organisations that supply data to the CRAs for credit referencing
purposes have all signed up to be members of a ‘closed user group’.
These are individual organisations, such as lenders or debt collection
companies that ‘own’ the credit data but have agreed to share credit
account information via the CRAs for the purpose of responsible lending.
As a closed user group member you are only entitled to see the data
other closed user group clients supply. The closed user group members
are often referred to as ‘clients’ of the CRAs. For clarity, any reference in
this report to a ‘client’ refers to an organisation who has signed up to
share credit information via a CRA.

All three CRAs are members of the Steering Committee on Reciprocity
(SCOR), which was created by the UK finance industry to set and
administer clear guidelines on the use and sharing of credit and related
personal data. These guidelines are known as the Principles of Reciprocity
(PoR). The PoR cover the collection and sharing of consumer credit data
about individuals located in the UK, and set standards for how data use
and sharing is recorded.

Before an organisation can sign up to share information with the CRAs
there are a number of standard requirements that must be met. All
organisations must be a member of a trade association represented at
SCOR and, through their contractual commitment to the CRAs have
responsibility for regular monitoring and certification of their own
compliance with the PoR, and the quality, completeness and accuracy of
data supplied. Due diligence checks are also completed before service
starts or commitments are undertaken.

However, despite all this, we would still expect the CRAs to take
reasonable measures to ensure the information which is reported by
lenders via their credit files is accurate .

Case study – obligations of the lender

Mr E raised a complaint with the CRA about inaccurate information on his
credit reference file relating to a credit card account he believed he had
paid off. The CRA contacted the lender directly and the lender responded
advising that the data they held about Mr E was accurate.

Mr E complained to the ICO suspecting the CRA was in breach of the
fourth data protection principle because they had not amended the
nformation about this credit card account which he believed to be
inaccurate.

The ICO determined it was likely the CRA had complied with the fourth
data protection principle. This is because it was the responsibility of the
lender to ensure the data they were reporting about Mr E via the CRA
was accurate and up to date. The CRA had taken what we believed to be
‘reasonable steps’ to verify the accuracy of the data they had received
from the lender but, ultimately could not amend this data without the
agreement of the lender.