Credit Expert Taking my cash!

carrot99

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong forum...


For years (a lot of years) CreditExpert.co.uk has been taking £14.99 a month from our bank account (mine and my wifes account). We are not "well off" but it hasn't caused an issue. The payment was being taken from my wife's debit card and even though she has tried to contact CE via email / phone on a number of occasions to question the payment and cancel it (because she doesn't remember ever signing up to any CE service) but they say they cannot help because she doesn't have an account with them but the payments just kept leaving our account every month.


So today my wife decided to put a stop to it and phoned the bank (Natwest) and explained the situation - the customer service guy was very helpful and blocked CE from being able to take any more money.... Result! Well NO because they have managed to take the payment anyway - how? By changing the name of the company taking the money from CE to EXPERIAN


Now my blood is boiling :mad: - they have purposely used a different company name to "get around" the block and take the payment.


The wife phoned the bank again and is getting the money back and her card has been blocked but this raises another question...


Over the years (the bank recon we have paid around £2k over the years) the wife has lost her debit card a couple of times and got a new one (with a different card number) yet they still get the cash... How is this even possible? It can't be legal?


Is there anything legally we can do to get some / all the money back...? I'm really gunning for CE / Experian over this as you can probably tell!

eskbanker

Probably worth reading up on Continuous Payment Authorities at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/recurring-payments/ but the bottom line is that changing debit cards doesn't affect these, so the authorisations themselves need to be cancelled with the bank or the company debiting the funds or both.

I don't understand why your wife accepted CE saying that she couldn't cancel because she didn't have an account with them, since if there was no account then they aren't entitled to charge for anything! Are you sure there's no account in your name rather than hers (regardless of which debit card was used)?

No harm in complaining to Experian (https://www.experian.co.uk/assets/consumer/contact-us/complaint-handling-procedure.pdf), specifying exactly when your wife first contacted them to stop the charges.

Walker1

It took you 11 years to get around too doing somthing about it?

carrot99

Yeah I know... it was originally the wife's bank account and I would nag her every month about it... it was "on her list of things to do" apparently


Anyway I've found a complaints email address for experian so I've asked them what's going on... i don't care about the money back at the moment (it would be nice) I'm just fuming about them changing their "name" to get around the card block - a very shady practice for such a big company

Hasbeen

carrot99 wrote: »

Yeah I know... it was originally the wife's bank account and I would nag her every month about it... it was "on her list of things to do" apparently


Anyway I've found a complaints email address for experian so I've asked them what's going on... i don't care about the money back at the moment (it would be nice) I'm just fuming about them changing their "name" to get around the card block - a very shady practice for such a big company

"Someone" opened an account and gave them the bank account details. To authorise a direct debit. Now forgotten about by "someone"


A quick google gives this: https://www.creditexpert.co.uk/About/index


Same company.

I wish I was in a position to let that amount of money go every month and not know why? There is a contact in the link complain and ask for refund.

DCFC79

Has your wife tried to login to Experian/Credit Expert to see if she does have an account, use the forgot password/email address if she cant remember either.


Has your wife learnt her lesson to sort things out asap even more so when it involves money.

DCFC79

carrot99 wrote: »

Anyway I've found a complaints email address for experian so I've asked them what's going on... i don't care about the money back at the moment (it would be nice) I'm just fuming about them changing their "name" to get around the card block - a very shady practice for such a big company

Maybe just maybe they stopped using CE and changed to Experian.

carrot99

Seems I'm getting a bit of a flaming and I can't say I blame you... as I said up until recently it was the wife's account and I did nag her about it. Now it'a a joint account so I can do more about it.


The name change thing - it seems highly unlikely that they changed their name during the same month as we block CE, it's far more likely they are used to people blocking their payments and have a system in place to request the money via another company name? Last month (and every other month) it was CE.


Yes we have both tried the "forgot password" system on the CE website and it comes back with "no matching account" found for either of us... Could be a system problem I suppose


As I orginally said - we are not "well off" and some months are good and some are not, I guess the timing of the payment co-inciding with a large(ish) payment into the account each month offset the "ouch" factor (that's not an excuse btw)


And lastly - yes we (or the wife) should have 100% sorted this out years ago - there is no excuse.

Hasbeen

carrot99 wrote: »

Seems I'm getting a bit of a flaming and I can't say I blame you... as I said up until recently it was the wife's account and I did nag her about it. Now it'a a joint account so I can do more about it.


The name change thing - it seems highly unlikely that they changed their name during the same month as we block CE, it's far more likely they are used to people blocking their payments and have a system in place to request the money via another company name? Last month (and every other month) it was CE.


Yes we have both tried the "forgot password" system on the CE website and it comes back with "no matching account" found for either of us... Could be a system problem I suppose


As I orginally said - we are not "well off" and some months are good and some are not, I guess the timing of the payment co-inciding with a large(ish) payment into the account each month offset the "ouch" factor (that's not an excuse btw)


And lastly - yes we (or the wife) should have 100% sorted this out years ago - there is no excuse.

When talking/complaining to them ask why they are taking money from you when an account does not exist. And which you cannot access

If one does exist they will be able to explain when, how etc.

Hasbeen

Had a quick look at the companies site, they ask for email address or user name. Did your wife have old or different email address/ provider 11 years ago?

[Deleted User]

carrot99 wrote: »

The name change thing - it seems highly unlikely that they changed their name during the same month as we block CE, it's far more likely they are used to people blocking their payments and have a system in place to request the money via another company name? Last month (and every other month) it was CE.

That seems highly unlikely, as they wouldn't have the authorisation for that transaction.

It seems more likely your bank messed up on cancelling the CPA.