CRAs serve no good purpose. Their databases should be destroyed.

LABMAN

If you are going to use a phrase repeatedly can I request you get it correct? It's 'dyed in the wool'.

meer53

Your credit limit was reduced for a reason, you got it reversed, anyone could make the same call and get the same decision if the DD failed due to a bank error. It wasn't because you charmed the person on the end of the phone.

agarnett

Dear Meer53,
You are dyed in the wool are you not? (My apologies to Labman that my motor skills are sometimes suspect and may not do my 40+ year old O Level English and English Literature, Use of English and General Paper qualifications the justice they deserve, nor the typing that Labman expects to be perfect on every occasion!).

For a dyed in the wool bank staffer, you do talk some absolute codswallop about what goes on at the bank at times don't you?

Getting a credit limit reinstated in such circumstances is never as easy as you rather uselessly assert. Upon my insistence, the matter was referred up 3 times within the call because the first answer was "NO, sorry, no can do."

The question of whether the DD failed due to a bank error is exactly the sort of thing this whole thread is about. When is an error not an error? When a badly programmed computer asserts a falsehood as a truth perhaps? How many dyed in the wool bank staff would ever seek to question the computer with a view to countermanding it? Very few. And even those that might would need to be thoroughly persuaded of what the error was and that it was completely irrefutable. I doubt very much there are any MSE readers stumbling on this thread who will be congratulating themselves anytime soon for having achieved the same kind of reversal.

To show us you understand the error perfectly, please tell us exactly what it was so that everyone may quickly get to the point if it happens to them and get the same result. I'll give you some clues:

1. Would it need to be the credit card providing bank that made the error?
2. What if it was something that the third party (DD paying) bank did?
3. What if it was something that was expected as routine but was overlooked by me the customer?
4. What if it was something that was expected as routine but overlooked by the credit card provider?
5. What if it resulted in triggering a Late Payment charge against me?
6. What if it results in a Late Payment marker being added to my credit file?
7. What if it results in the bank insisting on a fresh application for the higher credit limit?
8. Will a fresh application be automatically accepted if financial circumstances have changed in the intervening 15 years since the high credit limit was first given?
9. Will a fresh application result in a Credit Search being recorded on the CRA file?
10. Will the lowering of the credit limit to £500 and the increase back to £10,000 be recorded as a credit limit change on the CRA file?
11. How much of the failed DD/Late Payment/credit limit reduction reversal process should be recorded with the CRA?

Perm any two from eleven and add a bonus line if you like!

Yes I obviously persuaded the bank that they should treat what happened as a bank error, but if you are the experienced bank staff you say you are, then you will know that it is no more a bank error than the error the bank made in reducing the credit limit without checking fully what caused it. That's the one you are in fact not calling an error. Instead, you are calling it "reduced for a reason" ... There was no "reason", just a switch triggered in a dodgy computer program. There was no reason to treat me as a bad credit risk so the credit limit was reduced for no good reason. It was a very bad reason executed by a computer program which unless I'd called the card provider and insisted on stopping it dead in its tracks would have continued to trigger lots of other events. It would have charged me fees and slapped a bunch of erroneous derogatory data all over my CRA files.

You are in fact all over the shop with your reasoning, aren't you? We all rely on motor skills (automatic pilot) a lot of the time, but I do recommend the practice of engaging brain before moving off too sharply and traversing the keyboard at speed

So, back to what I was saying, I reassert what I achieved is, I suggest

1. A proper but lucky result
2. not something which more than 1 in a 100 are likely to achieve in a telephone call, especially if one of the obstacles is dyed in the wool, now seriously, is it?

:rotfl:

meer53

At least my "codswallop" isn't condescending and long winded.

agarnett

I see that we have another 'CRA' trying to claw their way into the pile.

Executives include some with past histories at the likes of Capital One and a company called TDX which apparently had something to do with Equifax?

Where did they get our personal data? Did they first siphon it off from somewhere else into a convenient barrel and then roll it down the road to their gaff? Or did they find it? Or did someone start giving it to them ? Gawd ... it isn't us, is it? We sign up and suddenly we find we have populated half their database for them and effectively signed a petition that says "We want our banks and lenders and phone companies and tabloid classified advertisers to regularly give this new outfit our personal data because they let us look at it free" ??

From comments in the forum, it appears that the existing data is dirty, not complete in a way that a lender would find useful, and contains a lot of false and otherwise erroneous information.

I guess this answers the question earlier in this thread better than I did. Yes anyone can set up as a CRA in the UK and start playing God. You just have to have the b¤lls to dare to enter the marketplace (and the investors to take a punt) and then continue to be b¤llsy or bendy enough to fend off the criticisms of your DPA breaching operation until you gain public acceptance, however resigned that may be.

Oh and of course your USP is that you are on the side of the punters compared to other CRAs. Er ... right ... with that much false and erroneous data ?? :rotfl:

Helps if you can get a major website like MSE to write an article to get you started though and to provide an instant platform to respond to forum comments ...

Let's not kid ourselves, this outfit clearly doesn't have a database anywhere reliable enough for lending decisions to be made upon it, so their business at the moment is ONLY about collecting our data so at some stage they can claim they have a big one as ugly as the others and claim squatters rights.

And we are being encouraged to grow it for them?

Hazzinho

FYI this isn't a new CRA, they use Equifax data and are FCA regulated, they already have the data, free credit reports are fine with me, we just need a free one from Experian now. FYI all CRA's are FCA regulated.

Sounds like you have serious concerns so you should speak to the FCA rather than posting on this board, they will be able to help you more than any of us. Check out their website and get in touch with them.

Johnnytwostep

Tin foil on the head while writing posts. They are all out to get me.

Whoop whoop

agarnett

Hazzinho wrote: »

FYI this isn't a new CRA, they use Equifax data and are FCA regulated, they already have the data, free credit reports are fine with me, we just need a free one from Experian now. FYI all CRA's are FCA regulated.

Not "new"? Who are you trying to kid and why?

They are new kids on the block. Who said they were entitled to our personal data stored at Equifax? Was it part of some confidential compromise agreement e.g. you leave our employ and have a go at setting up your own CRA and we will treat you as a CRA and share some of our data with you like it was a normal CRA sharing arrangement? In return you will .... XXXX ... and will not YYYY?

Sounds like you have serious concerns so you should speak to the FCA rather than posting on this board, they will be able to help you more than any of us. Check out their website and get in touch with them.

Sounds like you do not share concern.

I don't need help. You do and so do millions of others in the UK who are letting these monsters crawl all over your personal data leaving their slime on it any time they feel like it.

FCA are of course almost as useless as CRAs, paying themselves monster salaries and benefits and turning themselves in to a large branch of old school employing their own.

Have you ever watched them being taken apart in Treasury Select Committee Hearings? You should before making such a bloody silly recommendation on a public forum.

Hazzinho

Speak to the FCA with your facts, no one can help you here.

Marktheshark

How is buying a product from a newspaper advert a CCA agreement ?
Where was the credit ? and credit agreement ?

Acting as authorised third party you should CCA request and SAR this sole trader and make it very clear you will be bringing a County court case for damages for making a false entry to a credit agency,
Include a pre-estimate of damages which should be quite substantial for harassment caused.