Sign this Petition. For no adverse reports from United Utilities.

Ant_Wish

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/109697/sponsors/J6daK2IcRiDdlEY1xaG.

I made this petition against United Utilities making adverse notices on to peoples credit files. It needs five signatures before it can go active.

LaidbackPixie

Signed I agree it should not be on a credit report, I got first bill for a few hundred this morning and it say's 'pay immediately'. At least give me some notice.

enfield_freddy

done , more people needed

safestored4

Not me thanks. Utility bills are no different than any other debt and their non payment should form a part of your credit report.

Brooker_Dave

safestored4 wrote: »

Not me thanks. Utility bills are no different than any other debt and their non payment should form a part of your credit report.

Aren't they bills rather than loans?

Or are you happy for your everyday transactions to be on a blacklist?

MisterBaxter

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Aren't they bills rather than loans?

Or are you happy for your everyday transactions to be on a blacklist?

Other than pre-payment meters I would say that utility bills are a form of credit. The utility company supplies you with their wares today with the contractual requirement that you make payment for those wares at some point in the future. The 'bill' is just demanding payment for goods or services you have already received and not yet paid for. This seems pretty standard fare for credit.

It's not a case of recording every day transactions, only those where you receive the goods/services in advance of payment (on credit). Pay by cash/debit card for your shopping and of course it shouldn't be recorded as you can't at that point default and provided what you are buying is legal why should anyone know about it.

Having read the other thread that may have started this one I get the impression that the issue is more to do with the ability for companies to get away with incorrect reporting and the struggle that consumers have correcting this.

stclair

Like everything else providing it's paid on time theirs no problem.

ericctheking

MisterBaxter wrote: »

I would say that utility bills are a form of credit. The utility company supplies you with their wares today with the contractual requirement that you make payment for those wares at some point in the future. The 'bill' is just demanding payment for goods or services you have already received and not yet paid for. This seems pretty standard fare for credit.

It's not a case of recording every day transactions, only those where you receive the goods/services in advance of payment (on credit).

Just so long as employees can report employers then? as according to your logic employees are advancing employers a form of credit!

Nada666

Of course it should be on a credit report. You have access to a 0% interest loan on thousands of pounds of energy. If you are not willing to pay one-twelfth of the credit you have racked up and used with zero interest to pay on it then your scary negligence and lack of discipline should be highlighted.

MisterBaxter

ericctheking wrote: »

Just so long as employees can report employers then? as according to your logic employees are advancing employers a form of credit!

Companies aren't individuals so don't have the same sort of credit report as you or would have. However companies do have credit reports and ratings and if they default on their obligations it is recorded and effects that rating which in turn can impact on their ability to obtain credit and in some cases future contracts. There are of course legal remedies available for employees who aren't paid and these could also be recorded on the emploers credit record. So the logic does stand up but the process and legal approach are different.

fermi

ICO guidance to their case officers.

CRA None credit organisations passing information to a CRA?

The telecoms and utilities sectors are not subject to the CCA. The following sets out the ICO’s view on utilities companies sharing information with the credit reference agencies.

Credit agreements are included on the credit file as well as other agreements such as telephone agreements, energy and water payments. The ICO has accepted that agreements such as utilities bills can be recorded on the credit file as in most cases the services are provided before they are paid for. There are exceptions, such as pre-payment meters, that should be handled differently.

The water companies use the legitimate interests condition to share data with CRAs. However, they must be clear and transparent with consumers about what they are doing with the data and the data must be accurate.

Sharing utilities data is a topic that consumer groups have focused on and they recognise that sharing utilities data should not cause unnecessary damage or distress to consumers. Clearly, accuracy problems resulting in the incorrect placing of a default on a credit reference file must be avoided. The Consumer Focus (now known as Consumer Futures) document below may be useful. It highlights the consumer benefits of utilities data sharing.

http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/files/2011/10/Consumer-Focus-On-the-record.pdf

To conclude, as an office we have accepted that utility companies can pass personal data relating to outstanding payments to CRA’s as explained above. However, even though we accept that this type of activity is allowedunder the DPA, we are of course still concerned with other DPA related issues such as fairness (eg the adequacy of fair processing given to data subjects about potential disclosure to the CRAs), accuracy and the length of time the personal data are held. Therefore, if individuals believe that there are accuracy, retention or first principle concerns, they may still request an assessment of their case under Section 42 of the DPA.