Experian confusion

Movingon5464

Hello,

I subscribe to Experian on the £14.99 a month plan as I am in the process of checking my files and getting them corrected if necessary. As I wanted a printed copy of my report and don't have easy access to a printer I went online and ordered the £2 statutory copy to be posted to me. It has arrived today and is totally different to the version I see online. When I log in online I see my 2 bank accounts and 2 credit cards listed but no EE phone account. The £2 statutory report they sent me shows my EE account but does not show my 2 bank accounts or 2 credit cards.

Also, the statutory report doesn't have me listed on the electoral roll at my current or previous address, just the one before that, but my online report shows me on the electoral roll at all my addresses.

The problem seems to be with the way Experian show my address. My current and last 2 addresses were all flats so have addresses in the format:
1 Example Court,
2 Somewhere Road,
District,
County,
Postcode

I tried to correct the previous address with them a couple of years ago and they seemed to make it worse as now that one address is listed twice on my reports in different formats with me showing as on the electoral roll at one and not at the other. I know I need to call them to try to sort this mess out but would appreciate any advice from others who have had a similar problem with Experian and flat addresses as last time they just made it worse.

Thank you.

rizla_king

Complain to Experian that theyre supplying incomplete data on the statutory report as you can prove, so they are breaking their obligations under DPA/CCA to provide the stat report showing all the info they have.

Experian_company_representative

Hi Movingon5464

Movingon5464 wrote: »

Hello,

I subscribe to Experian on the £14.99 a month plan as I am in the process of checking my files and getting them corrected if necessary. As I wanted a printed copy of my report and don't have easy access to a printer I went online and ordered the £2 statutory copy to be posted to me. It has arrived today and is totally different to the version I see online. When I log in online I see my 2 bank accounts and 2 credit cards listed but no EE phone account. The £2 statutory report they sent me shows my EE account but does not show my 2 bank accounts or 2 credit cards.

Also, the statutory report doesn't have me listed on the electoral roll at my current or previous address, just the one before that, but my online report shows me on the electoral roll at all my addresses.

The problem seems to be with the way Experian show my address. My current and last 2 addresses were all flats so have addresses in the format:
1 Example Court,
2 Somewhere Road,
District,
County,
Postcode

I tried to correct the previous address with them a couple of years ago and they seemed to make it worse as now that one address is listed twice on my reports in different formats with me showing as on the electoral roll at one and not at the other. I know I need to call them to try to sort this mess out but would appreciate any advice from others who have had a similar problem with Experian and flat addresses as last time they just made it worse.

Thank you.

I understand from your comments that a number of your accounts and information is missing from the paper credit report you've received.

To enable us to establish what has caused this issue and help resolve it for please get in contact with us, alternatively you can [EMAIL="uksocialsupport@experian.com"]email me[/EMAIL] with your details (full name/date of birth/full address including postal code) I'll gladly be able to assist you further and also arrange for a credit report to be sent to you with the amendments.

Regards
James Jarvis

RedDwarf82

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

To enable us to establish what has caused this issue and help resolve it for please get in contact with us, alternatively you can [EMAIL="uksocialsupport@experian.com"]email me[/EMAIL] with your details (full name/date of birth/full address including postal code) I'll gladly be able to assist you further and also arrange for a credit report to be sent to you with the amendments.

What happened is obvious (because has happened so many times before that is not funny any more): Experian has a general problem handling addresses in different formats.
Given that CallCredit and Equifax don't have this problem, it could obviously be avoided.
Experian could assist EVERYBODY fixing the way you handle addresses. But Experian is not going to because you don't really care about the quality of the data you provide. You only care about getting those £14.99/month (plus whatever the lenders pay you for the wrong data).

Seriously, read this

I tried to correct the previous address with them a couple of years ago and they seemed to make it worse as now that one address is listed twice on my reports in different formats with me showing as on the electoral roll at one and not at the other

This is the standard Experian problem creating pattern.
a) Client creates a CreditExpert account, and specifies his address in the format used in the Royal Mail database.
b) Client notices the Experian Credit Report misses an account and contacts Experian
c) Experian replies saying that the lender reports to them the address for that account in a slightly different format, and that Experian has added that format as a new address in the client's CreditExpert account so the account appears now in the credit report.
To make it better, the Client can't remove addresses in his CreditExpert account, he can only add and edit them.

Now normal people would ask: "Wait! If the address needs to be in both formats for all the accounts to show in the Credit Report, does that mean that if I apply for a new credit card using 'format A' the lender will not see the accounts under 'format B'?
If you ask Experian, they will tell you that no. That now that they have added both formats to the CreditExpert account, when lenders ask for your information they will see all your accounts.
Naturally we can't verify the Experian's explanation since we are not lenders. But if you create a second CreditExpert account or, how Movingon5464's example shows, ask for the statutory report you don't see all the accounts information.
So I have a difficult time believing the explanation from Experian. Which would mean that when people tell to Experian about errors in their Credit Reports Experian does NOT fix the Credit Reports. The only thing Experian would be fixing is THE VIEW FROM CREDITEXPERT of the Experian Credit Report.

All this can get extra funny when the lender actually is using the exact same address format than the other lenders, but some problem in the software used by the lenders to submit data to Experian makes the format break when it reaches Experian's computers.

Did I say anything incorrect or imprecise?

OK, now let me explain where your problem is: If an account doesn't appear because of a different format you should have an *internal* database of "address alias" where you could add the new format. Adding the address in a different format to the Client's CreditExpert account makes no sense.

Movingon5464

Thanks James. I have sent you an email with my details.

Movingon5464

Hi RedDwarf, you sound as frustrated as me. I am really hoping this time it does get sorted out and not just my view of the report. I want to be confident that if I apply for credit the lender can see everything i.e. me on the electoral roll at all my addresses and all my credit accounts - banks, cc's and EE. I assume EE isn't showing up on my online report as EE are reporting my address in a different format - the one I must have input when applying for my statutory report. I don't understand why a slight variation in address format causes such a problem for Experian yet doesn't pose a problem for Equifax or Callcredit. I can only guess it is a software problem. Reading back over previous posts this seems to have been an issue for many years. No idea why they don't just adopt a similar address system to Equifax and Callcredit and save us and presumably their enquiry team a lot of stress.

RedDwarf82

Movingon5464 wrote: »

Hi RedDwarf, you sound as frustrated as me. I am really hoping this time it does get sorted out and not just my view of the report. I want to be confident that if I apply for credit the lender can see everything i.e. me on the electoral roll at all my addresses and all my credit accounts - banks, cc's and EE. I assume EE isn't showing up on my online report as EE are reporting my address in a different format - the one I must have input when applying for my statutory report. I don't understand why a slight variation in address format causes such a problem for Experian yet doesn't pose a problem for Equifax or Callcredit. I can only guess it is a software problem. Reading back over previous posts this seems to have been an issue for many years. No idea why they don't just adopt a similar address system to Equifax and Callcredit and save us and presumably their enquiry team a lot of stress.

As far as I can tell you the only "solution" for us is not to believe anything Experian tells you.

Basically look at the statements and other documentation that the lender sends you. The address is in the format you expect? If it isn't, contact the lender to change it.
If it is, then that's the format you should trust.

Now if Experian tells you "the lender is using a different format", we are going to add the new format to your CreditExpert account.... WRONG. Ask the new format to be removed from your account, and tell Experian to contact the lender to confirm the format.
This can take a few iterations. At some point you may need to contact the Information Commissioner's Office and/or the Financial Ombudsman Service. But whatever you do, don't trust the Experian version.

Then, at some point, you will find your credit report is right without the need of extra formats in your CreditExpert account (click on "Your Account" in the top right corner of the CreditExpert website). Wait a couple of months and check again. It's well possible that Experian manually fixes the problem, but in the next update from the lenders the problem appears again.


PS: Please, keep us to date about how this progresses for you.

Movingon5464

Update so far:
Experian sent an email this morning saying their electoral roll team have updated my address to show I am registered under the full version of my address and they will remove the variation. They said it could take 24 hours to update but I have checked and seems to have updated already. However EE are still not showing up on my file and my previous address still shows 2 variations with me registered on the electoral roll at one and not the other. I suppose 1 fix out of 3 is something but looking like this could take a while to get fully resolved. Really hope I don't have to contact ICO or FOS as you suggested as that will take forever and I was really hoping to have sorted out my files in the next month or so. I have successfully complained to 2 creditors who applied AP markers and a late default and one of these has been removed and the other agreed to remove in next update. Only thing really holding my plans back now is my Experian file and these address issues. I will check back tomorrow to see if EE has appeared or my previous address variation has been removed. They was not mentioned in the email though so expect I will have to contact them again.

Movingon5464

Ooops - I spoke too soon. Experian sent me a second email yesterday regarding my other 2 issues. They said that EE are reporting in a variation of my address and rather than add that variation they have contacted EE who I hope will rectify this and start reporting using my full correct address. The email also said they will remove the variation that was added of my last address but it will take 7 days. Fingers crossed it will all be looking correct soon. It seems that Experian can fix these issues but you just need to be communicating with the right person.

Candyapple

Have you checked your Equifax and CallCredit (Noddle) files too to make sure they too are showing the correct information?

Movingon5464

Yes, Equifax and Callcredit are fine and show all my accounts under my full address. It is strange how EE report differently to Experian. My Orange account which changed over to EE shows under my closed accounts but I want my current EE account showing as an example of my good account management as I pay by direct debit so all up to date payments.