Address confusion messing up report

Huxleyhound

Hi all,

I am having problems with the flat I live in and I think it's seriously affecting my credit score. I have lived in the flat for 3 years now and it's never been a problem until now as I've never checked my credit score. I don't live at No. 1 but for this thread I will.

My letting agent has told us it's Garden Flat, 1 Road Name. And we have been using this for the three years, posts comes to us as its a garden flat. All bills are set up at this address.

The post office, council and various other places thinks it's 1B Road Name.

Will this be a huge problem in relation to my credit score?

Does anyone now how I get to the bottom of this? And once it's sorted can the three years of lost credit association be transferred to the other?

ElkyElky

Huxleyhound wrote: »

Hi all,

I am having problems with the flat I live in and I think it's seriously affecting my credit score. I have lived in the flat for 3 years now and it's never been a problem until now as I've never checked my credit score. I don't live at No. 1 but for this thread I will.

My letting agent has told us it's Garden Flat, 1 Road Name. And we have been using this for the three years, posts comes to us as its a garden flat. All bills are set up at this address.

The post office, council and various other places thinks it's 1B Road Name.

Will this be a huge problem in relation to my credit score?

Does anyone now how I get to the bottom of this? And once it's sorted can the three years of lost credit association be transferred to the other?

Please don't check your credit score, but do check your credit file.

I was faced with this exact situation some years ago in an older flat and both formats of the address were linked to my credit file so whether I used 'First Floor Left, 1 High St' or '2B, 1 High St'... lenders were still able to trace me no bother since both formats were linked to my file.

Check your file with all three agencies, you'll probably find the same.

It would however be wiser to use the format that Royal Mail uses themselves. You can look up your address on their website with the post code checker to see how they format it. Banks will have the Royal Mail address database linked in to their systems so they'll go by that, but they'll still find you if the other format is linked on your credit file.

What format does your local authority use when they send council tax bills? Check and see how that compares to Royal Mail's format but generally, stick with what Royal Mail has.


Edited to add: If, after checking your credit files, you find both formats are not listed under the 'Linked Addresses' section and there is a missing account or two from your file, contact the agency for that specific credit report. They'll find the accounts under the other address format and merge it on to the same file though it's unlikely you'll need to.

datlex

Hi I had a similar problem at my previous address which I rented a room at. The Landlord called the property one name, however it had previously been called a different address. The council had it down as the previous name for the electoral roll. Royal Mail recognised it from the new name.

It therefore looked like I was not on the electoral roll when I was which made a big difference to my credit report. I got it resolve by speaking to the credit agencies and having it as a dual address.