Think Money damaging my credit rating

MarkSim_2

Help and advice please if anyone has experienced similar.

I have a think money account, set up when I entered my IVA. Now thankfully I am clear of my IVA , it is no longer visible on my credit file and my credit score started to rise.

It has dropped this month by 50pts - reason - I have taken out another credit account

Except I haven't

But there is it - from a company called Ideal Finance. Opened last month with a balance of 0

I click on ideal finance and its a division of think money. I call them. They know nothing about it. They tell me they are a business to business insurance broker and cant help me. I have no other products with Think Money, no insurance. no credit - I have consented to nothing

They have form in this regard. A few years ago they launched "Think Assist" a pay monthly service for people in IVA's. They didn't ask if you wanted it, just started to charge me for it. They gave a premium rate number to subscribe out of it, but made sure they didnt answer it and used a long automated answering message to make sure they still got a few quid out of you for calling to unsubscribe from a chargeable product you never asked for.

Im trying to call think money about it now, as Ideal Finance wont help and just referred me to Think Money. I've been holding for about twenty minutes.

Has anyone else suffered with this? How can they get away with opening credit accounts without your permission or even knowledge? Is it a deliberate attempt to worsen their own customers credit ratings so they can only deal with Think Money?

Even if no-one can help or advise, please be aware of these people. They prey on customers with no consumer choice (in IVAs etc) and act illegally, simply opening up spurious accounts in your name and in some cases helping themselves to monthly subscriptions for products they dont even tell you about until you notice the money has gone.. because, well, they've got your bank details and they thought you wouldn't mind ( that was their actual response to my formal complaint over Think Assist)

As I say Im clear of my IVA so will close my account with them soon, but if anyone else is starting an IVA - be wary of Think Money.

[Deleted User]

MarkSim wrote: »

Is it a deliberate attempt to worsen their own customers credit ratings so they can only deal with them?

No. Because a zero balance account would make no difference, whatever a fictional credit score may say.

If they don't answer the phone, do it in writing - which you will probably want to do in any case, to have a better audit trail.

SnowTiger

Is Think Assist similar to Cashplus' Creditbuilder? They pretend to lend you money, you pay off the 'loan' monthly which they report as a positive to CRAs?

Presumably OP has a Think Money account. Details about how to complain here.

ThinkMoney

Dear MarkSim,

Thank you for the post. Last year we wrote to thinkmoney customers to let you know that we would start telling the credit reference agencies that you have an active current account with us. The credit agency reporting actually started on 3rd April. As your thinkmoney account doesn’t allow you to go overdrawn, your credit report will just show the existence of a current account. Although lender’s policies vary, having a well-run current account showing on your credit history can be seen as a good thing when you apply for credit in future. As a result, the 25 point dip you have seen should be short lived.

Unfortunately, due to an error, your account showed up as Ideal Finance rather than thinkmoney as the provider. This has now been corrected and if you check again you should see that. I apologise for any concern that this caused you.

Regards

Steve - A member of the team at thinkmoney