How Do I Get Around This?

Uneducated_Archie

libra10 wrote: »

We started using my OH's card at ATM machines, and made sure his details hit the radar, resulting in fewer problems occurring these days when opening new accounts.


HTH

I nearly always do this, or if I need more than £400 I go to the bank with my card. A couple of months ago, the day before we went on holiday I asked the wife to draw some money from a shopping centre ATM. She inadvertently inserted the Barclaycard but used the High St Bank PIN. She states that she only had the one attempt and the ATM swallowed the card! I phoned Barclaycard, they stated that my card and her card had been cancelled. I explained that I was going out of the country and would need the card in case of emergency and they wouldn't be able to send me new cards in time. They were excellent and as such, cancelled the wife's (my second person card) card but allowed mine to continue. Then on return from abroad, I cancelled my card and they sent two new ones. Shame really as I'd had the same Barclaycard number for 38 years.

Uneducated_Archie

One thing I have noticed in trying to complete the MSE Credit Club online form is that the offered address post codes are shown incorrectly.

Years ago parts of Cheshire had Liverpool Post codes and as such were shown as being South Wirral, but we are NOT we live in Cheshire. We were able to obtain new driving licences at no extra costs etc. Completing this form does show the correct house number, street, town but the county is shown as South Wirral and NOT Cheshire. I wonder if this could have any affect? If Experian are using South Wirral and the electoral roll shows Cheshire, perhaps a conflict exists?

droopsnoot

County isn't really a part of the post-code database information, and isn't required for a fully-addressed letter. That is, there are several different "county" fields in the Royal Mail data - traditional, postal and administrative - and when we used to sell PAF (Postcode Address File) data from the Royal Mail to our customers, we ended up leaving out the county completely as it caused so many problems with customers insisting the county it brought up was incorrect. I'd have thought others would experience the same issue as we did and ignore that part.

colsten

It's Experian, not Experion.

A simple mistake like the above might be the reason your wife isn't found on the Electoral Roll, or at the address she is applying from.

Uneducated_Archie

Well, I've just managed to enroll the wife with Experian Credit Matcher (Score 922) using their enrollment web site. Their address selection does NOT show the county, just the town.

Going back to my original question, it seems strange, to me at least, that today Experian recognised the wife but did NOT recognise her when Yorkshire BS, and possibly Coventry BS used Experian to confirm my wife's address.

I'll have another look at MSE's Credit Club - where they DO show counties. I seem to remember that at the end of the page, after rejection it gave an email address. I'll try that.

dunstonh

Going back to my original question, it seems strange, to me at least, that today Experian recognised the wife but did NOT recognise her when Yorkshire BS, and possibly Coventry BS used Experian to confirm my wife's address.

The banks dont provide their staff with any breakdown as to what info was available to match against bar a few codes. If the electronic ID check failed it would just say failed. It would not say why it failed.

County is not an issue as it goes by postcode and house name/number. If it was an issue it would fail on yours too.

droopsnoot

dunstonh wrote: »

The banks dont provide their staff with any breakdown as to what info was available to match against bar a few codes. If the electronic ID check failed it would just say failed. It would not say why it failed.

Yes, I've experienced that when trying to convince a BS to allow me access to some money. Problem for me was that the questions are a bit vague - for example "What's the credit limit on your credit card?", and they couldn't tell me whether it's the total balance on multiple credit cards, or the highest, or the average, so I wasn't really sure what to tell them. Another was "What network is your mobile phone on?" and mine is a PAYG phone that I inherited from work when we cancelled the contract, so I wasn't sure whether to say "I don't have one" or tell them the network - either could be wrong. And the chap in the security department couldn't help either.


I do sympathise with the OP, while I do want the financial institutions that look after my money to be doing proper checks I think there are some instances where common sense has been left by the wayside.

bowlhead99

Uneducated_Archie wrote: »

Their address selection does NOT show the county, just the town.

I'll have another look at MSE's Credit Club - where they DO show counties.

Ignore the county thing - it is a red herring and as someone mentioned above, it is not used by most organisations even if they display it or give you a box to type it in. If you look up your address from your postcode or vice versa on the royalmail website, county is not used. Postcode and post town alone is fine for both post office and for electoral roll and for credit history.

Going back to my original question, it seems strange, to me at least, that today Experian recognised the wife but did NOT recognise her when Yorkshire BS, and possibly Coventry BS used Experian to confirm my wife's address.

When you went to Experian to try their credit matcher you gave them credit card details to help the identification process together with a variety of other personal information. Together with the personal info, the evidence of having the credit card in hand to read off the numbers - with a number that matches the account number showing in their accounts record in your wife's name (or that matches your own accounts record which is linked to your wife)- is a very good indicator that the person is who they think it is.

So, she was 'recognised' for Experian's purposes. And those purposes are really just to cross check which Mrs ArchieWife she is, before using the scant details in her credit file to give you referral links to financial products from which they can take introducer fees. So all they are doing is saying this valid credit card and these personal details all tie in with Mrs Archiewife #12345 in our system, and we will therefore use this credit file "Archiewife #12345" to run a creditworthiness check and point her to products she might like to buy which we make money off.

However, when YBS or CBS use Experian as a third party service to help them verify identity as part of their anti-moneylaundering identity checks, they are simply collecting some personal data and passing it on to Experian to do some checks. Actually I think Coventry uses Equifax rather than Experian but the point is the same. What comes back from Experian is the answer that there is very scant information on your wife's file because she doesn't really have much in the way of credit agreements.

So, perhaps the fact that the data given to YBS matches some of the very scant information showing on your wife's file at Experian, is not considered strong enough evidence for YBS that the person applying for the YBS account - who they haven't physically met - is really that person on the Experian file rather than some moneylaunderer or terrorist who has got hold of your wife's name and address. If I had your wifes name address and DOB I could fill out their form, but I'm not your wife.

So, it is entirely possible that going direct to the Experian 'Credit Matcher' service in which they just refer you to other financial services businesses and take a commission, as a result of you providing them with personal details and a credit card... has a different 'standard of proof' from what is needed to assess your identity when you open up a bank account and want to run thousands of pounds through it.

With the bank account, they are just saying: "ok there's a probable match but there isn't much information on file at Experian anyway so let's make her give us some documents to show that she really is Mrs ArchieWife living at this address and having this photoID etc."

As others have suggested, the way to get a higher chance of avoiding this in future is to have a more comprehensive file at Experian (and the other two agencies Equifax and CallCredit) by having some credit products.

Of course this is still no guarantee and different businesses will probably still pull some applications out for random checks (e.g. Jamesd getting checked on one barclaycard account and not another)

I'll have another look at MSE's Credit Club - where they DO show counties. I seem to remember that at the end of the page, after rejection it gave an email address. I'll try that.

No harm in following up by email. But the Credit Club application said they didn't have enough information to prove who you were from your application and they did not want to give out a load of personal information if it wasn't you. Stands to reason. So you may need to supply them with other identity documents if you want to join them.

You can get your credit file from each of the 3 main agencies by paying a nominal statutory fee, or by signing up to one of their (cancellable) subscription services.

droopsnoot wrote: »

I do sympathise with the OP, while I do want the financial institutions that look after my money to be doing proper checks I think there are some instances where common sense has been left by the wayside.

There is some irony in the fact that OP is filling in all these online forms giving out his wife's personal information and signing all the boxes saying I am this person and I would like to open an account or authorise you to provide me this service etc etc... and complaining they won't open the account ... when in fact he is NOT the person he's purporting to be: he is him, not his wife.
:rotfl:

For all we know, or the bank knows, or Experian knows, your wife may be blissfully unaware you are trying to put her information into online forms and applying for products. How would you feel if it was one of us filling out the forms using your wife's details? You would be grateful that their security checks exist, yes?

colsten

Uneducated_Archie wrote: »

Well, I've just managed to enroll the wife with Experian Credit Matcher (Score 922) using their enrollment web site.

That's good progress. Is her address on the credit file exactly the same she used on her applications for bank accounts?

Does the credit file confirm that she is on the Electoral Roll?

Are her financial associations on her credit file correct?

Uneducated_Archie

Thanx for the information, it makes it much clearer and I can see why we might be rejected. Little of no credit history, as it stands we don't, and hopefully won't need credit, it's just so annoying when we try to open online bank accounts. Personal visits to Banks and BS armed with passports/HMRC/bank statements is NOT a problem.

bowlhead99 wrote: »

There is some irony in the fact that OP is filling in all these online forms giving out his wife's personal information and signing all the boxes saying I am this person and I would like to open an account or authorise you to provide me this service etc etc... and complaining they won't open the account ... when in fact he is NOT the person he's purporting to be: he is him, not his wife.
:rotfl:

For all we know, or the bank knows, or Experian knows, your wife may be blissfully unaware you are trying to put her information into online forms and applying for products. How would you feel if it was one of us filling out the forms using your wife's details? You would be grateful that their security checks exist, yes?

Thanx. The wife is sat next to me when I fill out all these forms. The main reason why I said "I" is because it's me hitting the keyboard and if I said "she did this or that", other posters might ask how could I be sure she entered the correct information. Additionally when we've applied for online bank accounts in joint names, we do that just in case one of us drops dead, it's always me doing the donkey work. It would certainly be impracticable for applicant A to sit behind the computer and when it comes to fill out the details for applicant B to swap seats behind the computer, especially as it's my computer and I can touch type. We find it better and easier for me to do the typing and the wife to check the information for correctness. Thanx again