Flat Address Issue - Post Office and Council use different formats

spook

Bumping this old thread a bit to share my experience, for what it's worth. I lived in an Edinburgh flat many years ago and reading about the numbering system brought back some nostalgic feelings

I don't live in Edinburgh any more, but my wife and I live in a house which is one of a small group that (apparently due to some lazy/cheapskate developer 40 years ago) was registered as a block of flats on the postal database. We all share a single street address and house number, within which the houses are numbered "Flat 1", "Flat 2" etc. It's not really that complicated, and in our case, the electoral roll and Royal Mail agree on the format of our address, but some companies' computer systems seem to be unable to handle it properly.

But all was fine for 5 years until last month I got fed up with my bank and decided it was high time I took MSE's advice and switched some accounts. We applied to switch our joint current account to Nationwide and got rejected without explanation. My wife and I signed up for CreditExpert trials from Experian and discovered that she was listed as not being on the electoral roll. Every other aspect of our reports are spotless, so this is the only possible reason for the rejection. It turns out this all comes down to our address format being non-standard. Experian were looking for the wrong address on the register. We thought this would be simple to fix - nope. It's taken almost a month to get this seemingly basic fact corrected.

Initially we both logged in and corrected the format of our addresses on the website. (Both of us seem to have about 20 bizarre variations of our address (and neighbours' addresses) listed on our files).

The next day, no change - her report was still showing the wrong electoral address and now MY report is showing that I'm no longer on the electoral roll either. Cue two weeks of emails and phone calls. The credit reports are regenerated overnight, so changes aren't reflected until the next day. More than once I was assured on the phone that everything was now fixed, only to log in the next day and find that it was still wrong (but in different, innovative ways). One time I got my report fixed, yet it spontaneously unfixed itself days later for no clear reason.

Yesterday we were both on the phone to them for over an hour. Their staff are smart and very understanding, but don't seem to have the power to make the necessary changes.

Today, finally, for the first time, I went on CreditExpert and both of our reports finally have the correct electoral roll information. I have re-applied to Nationwide and have everything crossed. I only have a few days left before Experian start charging me £15/month and I really want this all sorted out before then.

It's so frustrating that a company like this has so much power over our lives, and that banks like Nationwide seem to offer absolutely no recourse for people on whom the credit agencies hold false data.

Norscbu

you can pay £2 for a one time statutory report. which has all of the information you need but with less nonsense.

GingerBob_3

It's so frustrating that a company like this has so much power over our lives, and that banks like Nationwide seem to offer absolutely no recourse for people on whom the credit agencies hold false data.

The credit reporting industry needs root and branch reform. OP you should contact your MP about this. The issue you highlight is just one of many problematic areas concerned with credit reporting.

clairebeth

Gah! This is annoying me so much right now! We have a bloody perfect credit history but according to the credit reports we are not on the electoral roll, even though we vote in every election! Edinburgh council has us as 3/1F2 and everywhere else has us as 3/4. Do I really need to get the council to write a letter to the credit report people?

Thanks!