can business run a credit check without premission

sofronia

is it an offence for business to run a credit check without my consent, and without a legitimate reason?

boo_star

No, it isn't.

PixelPound

companies do not need to request consent, you may have implicitly given it e.g. look at a site to find out best credit cards for, and who says it isn't a legitimate reason? More details are needed for more specific answers

sofronia

hi, the story is that.

i bought a car without knowning it has outstanding finance, until the day the finance company came and knocked my door in late May, car is being taken away with court order on private land.

therefore i am doing all the research, and i checked my credit score and found out they has ran a check on me with a purpose stating "checking credit application" on 01may, and obviously i have never apply anything for them.

sourcrates

Sorry, i dont understand the connection between you buying a car with existing finance, and the finance company that owned the vehicle doing a trace on you, are you looking to trip them up somehow ?

If you’ve taken out credit in the past, you will have agreed to allow the lender to check information from your credit report.
If your loan is passed on to a debt collection agency, this consent stays with the debt. That gives the debt collectors the right to search your credit report to assess your overall financial situation and make appropriate decisions about how to collect the outstanding balance.

[Deleted User]

sourcrates wrote: »

Sorry, i dont understand the connection between you buying a car with existing finance, and the finance company that owned the vehicle doing a trace on you, are you looking to trip them up somehow ?

If you’ve taken out credit in the past, you will have agreed to allow the lender to check information from your credit report.
If your loan is passed on to a debt collection agency, this consent stays with the debt. That gives the debt collectors the right to search your credit report to assess your overall financial situation and make appropriate decisions about how to collect the outstanding balance.

An interesting notion. It's true, of course, but it's also an example of a rogue element in the operation of credit reporting. Amongst other things it encourages organisations to sell debt - perhaps to a disreputable debt collector - rather than try and collect it themselves via the courts.

[Deleted User]

What they’ve done is absolutely correct.

Nothing rogue or untoward has gone on

sofronia

i bought a car WITHOUT knowing it has outstanding finance, i have no relationship with them at all, i have never applied for a car finance as well.

so my question is, is it lawful for them to run credit check on anyone that has no business relation with.

[Deleted User]

sofronia wrote: »

i bought a car WITHOUT knowing it has outstanding finance, i have no relationship with them at all, i have never applied for a car finance as well.

so my question is, is it lawful for them to run credit check on anyone that has no business relation with.

Yes, it's legal, but it may contravene some ''guideline", such as they are, issued by the ICO. You might want to report it to them. It's just another example of how credit reporting and its data management are, to all intents and purposes, unregulated.


An issue to consider is - how did the finance company obtain enough personal information about you to enable them to hit you with a credit check.

sofronia

they can access to anyone's data without consent just because they have the facility/system to do so???
so i can only report to ICO?

thats my doubt as well, i have no idea why they have all the infomation, because they should only have my name and address (from DVLA).

forgotmyname

The info you gave the DVLA could be false. BIL had a logbook for a car drop through his letterbox that was not his. He returned it to the DVLA and heard nothing more about it.

So they may have crosschecked your DVLA info with your credit file and when they knock on the door and ask for you and you say he doesn't live here they know thats probably a lie.