Unusual entries on my credit file...

SergeantOddball

Afternoon all, I’ve been reviewing my MSE Credit Club report and Experian file and have noticed a number of odd entries during May.

One day there was a hard search made by “Oodle Financial Services Limited” of application type “Hire purchase / Conditional Sale” and 4 soft searches on that and the next day by “Advantage Finance” and “Specialist Motor Finance” for “Multiple Product Quotation” and “Personal Loan Quotation” respectively.

I can categorically say that NONE of those were me. I haven’t been looking for car finance and have studiously avoided any ‘hard’ searches since last July with the view to applying for 2 new credit cards (one BT and one purchases) to roll over 0% deals that I have coming to an end in late August.

Is the best course of action to report this to Experian via the "Need some help?" and "I don't recognise this search. What should I do?" tabs???

Apart from my obvious concern re. the possible fraud aspect I’m wondering what effects all this will have on applying for those 2 cards. I’m down as 100% pre-approveed for them both currently but am wondering if the extra hard search and possible fraud will alter this...

I’d be grateful for any ideas anyone might have! :beer:

Anthorn

If you don't recognise searches it is always best to complain about them even if they eventually turn out to be genuine. It could be that someone has fraudulently made a credit application in your name. You might also like to check on the linked addresses section to see if the possible perpetrator has changed your address or entered an additional address.

It's not unusual to have a hard credit search in addition to soft searches for the same credit application. The last time I applied for a bank account which was Starling Bank there were two soft searches for ID and anti-money-laundering and a hard credit search when they considered me for an overdraft facility. It's also likely that there will be soft searches when you get a credit comparison on MSE CC or indeed any of the comparison sites.

[Deleted User]

You can contact them and say it wasn't you

Though 1 hard search will likely impact a CC application, a 100% approval also doesn't mean you will actually get approved following full and final checks

SergeantOddball

Cheers for the help Anthon and Gary! As suggested I'll raise it with Experian, start a query / complaint and hopefully find out a few more details. Will take a look at the linked addresses later too as you mentioned Anthorn.

I did a little digging around and they all seemed related to car finance providers - scary really that someone might have tried to get a car in my name.

Annoying too as I've been so careful with reading all the advice re applications and monitoring things - I definitely recognise all the other soft searches recorded on the file but none of these at all. The MSE Credit Club service really is a fantastic tool in monitoring it all though!

DCFC79

Have you checked the reports from the other 2 agencies ?

SergeantOddball

Thanks DCFC - No I haven't - rather foolishly I suppose it hadn't crossed my mind to. I'll have look through the MSE 'Check your credit report for free' article. Do you think Equifax and Callcredit might have picked something up that's not on Experian?

[Deleted User]

Or picked up nothing.

It depends what agencies the company in questions reports to

T-G-C

Everyone seems to have said the most common steps to take. It is not unheard of, but if you keep your personal information secure, it is quite a rare thing to occur.

If you feel particularly vulnerable to fraud, consider requesting a CIFAS warning on your credit file, which will prevent lenders automatically granting a potential fraudster credit in the future with your identity.

Contrary to common belief, lenders do not discriminate against those with a CIFAS warning on their file, but are simply more stringent in their security checks, to ensure it was you making the application. Only those who have committed fraud themselves are added to the bad side of CIFAS and lenders won't touch them with a barge pole.

SergeantOddball

Yep everyone’s been very helpful! I’ve asked Experian to look at the Oodle hard search through Credit Club and joined ‘CheckMyFile’ to access the other 2 agencies. There weren’t any hard searches / applications via Equifax or CallCredit but there were 3 ‘Audit’ searches - 2 for Oodle and 1 for Clearscore (neither of which I’ve visited) on the two dates in question.

So I’ll watch all 3 agencies like a hawk over the next few weeks and keep a record of any hard and soft searches I do or those likely to have been done. Cheers for the CIFAS tips – I didn’t know that at all - I’ll definitely keep it in mind but perhaps hold back until I know a bit more about what was attempted.

[Deleted User]

Cancel the CheckMyFile account before they charge you.

You need to join the MSE Credit Club for your Experian report, Clearscore for your Equifax report and Noddle for your CallCredit report

Scotd20011

Hi,

I urge you to report this to Action Fraud. You can do so on their website or by telephone. You do have to wait on hold apx 30/40 min if you call them. The company you mention is under investigation and they've targeted many individuals including setting up fraudulent loans on cars. Please also contact the FCA - financial conduct authority and report it as they are also investigating the company.