Is Experian giving false information about you and the electoral roll?

RedDwarf82

So as I have been complaining about for ages (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5412530), Experian tells to lenders that you are not in the electoral roll even if you are.
Basically their address matching algorithm is unable to see that "Flat X, <House Name>, <Street Number> <Stree Name>, <City>, <Postcode>" and "X, <House Name>, <Street Number> <Stree Name>, <City>, <Postcode>" (exact same format, just the word "Flat" missing/implicit in one) are the same place.

I did finally fix *my* problem by complaining to the Financial Ombudsman, who made Experian edit the format they store my electoral roll entry address. But only God knows how many people is affected.

Now that the MSE Credit Club give anybody who wants it access to his Experian Credit Report we can check it easily. My Credit Report is OK but my wife's (who lives in the same address), who didn't complain to the Ombudsman, isn't. So it's a good check.

Let's have a poll.

Katgrit

What about an option "I have no idea because I've never checked".

PixelPound

Can we have one for Noddle. Experian & Equifax showed me on the ER but Noddle/CallCredit didn't

DCFC79

Can we have a "I dont care" option.

datlex

Can we have a it was wrong previously but they corrected it when I had a chat with them. Reason for being wrong was council had building as known by one name. Landlord had changed name (Royal mail had new name) but didn't tell council!

RedDwarf82

datlex wrote: »

Can we have a it was wrong previously but they corrected it when I had a chat with them. Reason for being wrong was council had building as known by one name. Landlord had changed name (Royal mail had new name) but didn't tell council!

That story is a bit strange. The credit report in the Credit Club has been available for less than a week, so I guess this chat with them was through Credit Expert or the statutory report, right? You may want to check what the report in the Credit Club says, you may find out it says you are not in the Electoral Roll.

The thing is that Experian doesn't have a credit report of anybody. They don't have an internal ID identifying me and a lot of data linked to that ID. The only thing they have is the data.
Then when a lender, Credit Expert or the MSE Credit Club ask for a credit report for "the person with this name and this addresses" Experian generates a report on the moment matching the name and addresses received with the data they have. Meaning that Experian may generate different credit reports if they receive the address in different formats.

The thing is:
a) There is not an "official" format for an address
b) The closest thing to an official format is the Royal Mail Postcode Address File format. So you should use it when applying for credit. In some cases you don't even have an option since the website will not let you write the address, just select from a list of PAF options.
c) Most of the information in credit reports comes from you (through the information you provide to the lender), so you have (some) control over it.
d) But 'c' is not true for the electoral roll. The electoral roll can use an address format different to the one used by the Royal Mail Postcode Address File. Nothing wrong with this, the PAF format is not official or anything like that. The format used by the electoral roll is as valid as the one used by the PAF.

So now you apply for a new credit card, you give to the lender the same address format you gave when you applied for a current account with a different bank. Experian will give to the credit card provider a report saying you have a current account... and may or may not say you are in the electoral roll depending on whether the format is the same and/or if their computers are clever enough to notice the two address formats are for the same address.

So when you say:

Landlord had changed name (Royal mail had new name) but didn't tell council!

Nobody needed to tell anything to the council. The council can use whatever format it wants.

And I'm afraid what happened to you is that Experian added the second address format to your Credit Expert account.
Remember what I said before, different credit reports are generated depending on the information provided. So after you chat with Experian Credit Expert started giving your address in two different format to Experian, so Experian started returning a complete credit report. But that IS NOT WHAT THE NEXT LENDER YOU APPLY TO WILL SEE. To that lender you will give it the PAF address format, and Experian will tell them that you are not in the electoral roll.
Experian has been "solving" complains about the electoral roll seen in Credit Expert like this for years. They don't give a !!!!.

Let me say this again: The credit report lenders receive can be different to the credit report Experian's Credit Expert shows.
That's why the MSE Credit Club is so interesting. Since you give to the Credit Club the same information you would give to a lender what you see in the Credit Club will be more similar to what a lender will see.

Please, double check what the MSE Credit Club report says.