Possible mortgage rejection over ID theft -please help!

KkgTjm

Hi,

My partner and I have reserved a new build home and went to our mortgage appointment today. We currently have a 25% deposit, one credit card with a £0 balance and no credit or hire purchase accounts. We have never missed payments for mobile phones.

The mortgage advisor told us that prior to our meeting today, he had 'applied' to a mortgage lender (I think for mortgage in principle) and received a declined email stating that further investigation was required on a credit account. I queried this and he said it might be a mobile phone bill. We have had a mortgage in principle accepted with another lender in the past two weeks.

After leaving I requested my credit score online and have discovered that a member of my family has used my name to open a credit account with Studio. There is one AP marker from March 2016 and several 2s and 3s. I knew nothing about this account until today.

I have contacted the person who has done this (I knew from address of account on credit file) and they have paid the remaining balance and closed the account today. I have also contacted the company and am awaiting a call back from their fraud team.

As we have reserved our property we are on a tight deadline to getting a mortgage in place.

How quickly can this be removed from my file? Will a mortgage lender believe that this is not my account and I have been a victim of fraud? If I explain this is there potential for a mortgage to be approved? Is there anything else I can do to help this situation?

My future is literally hanging in the balance over this and I'm pretty much having a meltdown. If I cannot fix this in the next week or two I will lose my house.

amnblog

A lot depends on the Lender you are dealing with.

We a handling a case at the moment with a similar situation of a credit account being opened up fraudulently.

Our client has a letter from the credit provider confirming our client is not responsible for the account. Our selected mortgage lending is manually corrected a failed credit score on the case accordingly.

If your Lender has no method of overriding an automatic credit score you cannot progress.

Your broker has not covered himself/herself in glory but may now perhaps redeem themselves.

You should obtain:

Credit reports from Experian Equifax and Call Credit

A letter from Studio confirming they are removing the account from your credit record.

ACG

I can not see any high street lenders doing this. When I worked for RBS we always took the credit report as gospel. The only way we would consider anything else would be if you reported the person who did it for fraud to the police.

That being said, you could potentially get the catalogue company to get it removed but even if they agree to remove it tomorrow, it may not update immediately. You would need to then get the company to speak to all 3 credit agencies (or whoever they have reported the arrears to) to remove it immeidately then you may stand a chance.

The alternatives would be:
1) To go to a small building society who can take a view on these sorts of things.
2) To go to a lender who will accept the adverse as it falls within criteria (an adverse type lender).

Both of these are going to cost you more than the average high street lender I imagine.

amnblog

The case we are dealing with is going 'High Street' ACG.

Granted it is a large and strong case making it good business for the lender.

KkgTjm

Thank you so much for replying. The current rejection is from the Post Office. We were approved for a mortgage in principle less than two weeks ago by Halifax and another lender in November 2016 which expired as we couldn't find a house.

If Halifax and the other lender have approved this and presumably have seen this account on my credit file, is there potential for a mortgage being accepted by them?

amnblog

Lenders use different credit reference agencies and this blemish may not appear in the same way on all the credit files. That is why obtaining all three reports is key.

Thrugelmir

KkgTjm wrote: »

How quickly can this be removed from my file? Will a mortgage lender believe that this is not my account and I have been a victim of fraud? If I explain this is there potential for a mortgage to be approved? Is there anything else I can do to help this situation?

The matter will have to be investigated thoroughly by the finance provider. As you are potentially making a very serious allegation against another party. Which will result in a black mark left against them.

From the mortgage company's perspective they've simply got your word. Which unfortunately won't be enough. For obvious reasons.

KkgTjm

What is the purpose of receiving all three reports? If I get them what do I do with them? How will this help my case?

amnblog

A good broker will ask for the three credit reports to know what the Lenders will see and better manage your application.

rtho782

Your best bet to get a mortgage is to report the crime to the police.

It's unlikely the lender of the unauthorised account is going to remove it without a police report.

This will lead to your relative being charged with fraud, which is a criminal offence.

Candyapple

KkgTjm wrote: »

What is the purpose of receiving all three reports? If I get them what do I do with them? How will this help my case?

You need copies of all 3 reports because then you will have the true picture of your credit history and not just one part (assuming you only got your credit report from say Experian only). You may also discover some more hidden accounts because not every lender reports to all 3 agencies.

See post #11 in this thread below as to what to do:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5650944

The bad news is this won't be removed from your files within your timescale.

You are going to have to get Studio to remove the entire account history from all 3 of your files (assuming they reported to all 3) and they won't be inclined to do this given that the balance has now been paid and also it's very convenient for you to cite fraud to get them to remove the account hence the need to get the crime reference number.

Once they have this, it might take them for the next update for the change to be reflected in your report which could mean anywhere between 1-2 months before you would be able to see the new report with removal of the account depending on a) what date in the month they report data to the CRAs and b) the date you registered for an account with Experian, Equifax etc.

As an example, let's say you managed to get Studio to agree to expunge the account on 21/8/17, but you've missed their cut off point of reporting data to the CRAs because they usually do that on the 6th of every month so you now have to wait another 2 weeks before they've submitted the new data to the CRAs on 6/9/17. Your next report is due out on 1/9/17 because this is the date you signed up for an account with Experian, Equifax etc. but it still won't show the account being removed because that will only happen on 6/9/17 so the actual date you will receive a copy of your new report with the account removed would be on 1/10/17.