Experian CPA charges on credit card

lorraine2699

Hi has anyone had experience of this and how to obtain a refund? Just before we bought our house in order to get a mortgage we have to have a credit report each for myself and my husband. We went with Experian for our free report but in order to access it we had to set up an account each and put in our credit card details. They then charged our credit card £14.99 each month for each of us until we discovered this this week. We did not know it was a continuous payment authority which although changing our credit cards twice in the 28 months they have been taking money from us, the payments have continued. We have never accessed our accounts, reports or even the website until a couple of days ago to verify that we actually have a chargeable account with them - which is something we never wanted or have never used. When i spoke to them for a complete refund of the charges (over £800) they said we agreed to it all by ticking a box when we first set it up but I said we had to do that in order for us to get our free credit reports that we had to have for our mortgage. They said they sent through a email just after starting the accounts explaining it all but they did not and we certainly never agreed to it. Surely this has happened to other people? How do we get our money back please? Any advice welcome. Thank you.

boo_star

You signed up to CreditExpert, which is only a free trial.

The site does make it clear that it is only a trial and that it will be £14.99 a month thereafter.

[Deleted User]

They’re correct.
You agreed to be charged following the 14 day trial.

You agreed to it as part of taking out the trial that you would be charged thereafter.

Did you seriously not look at your statements over the 28 months and think something was amiss?

Honestly...

PixelPound

Yes you agreed when taking up the free trial, which you feel you had to for your mortgage. It was a 14 day trial so you had 14 days to cancel without charge after you got the report for the mortgage. Any reason you didn't.
You changed cards twice in 28 months, did your provider give very short expiry dates, do you often lose your card, or was it done in the hope it would stop the payments because you had a new card.
CPA is linked to the card and whilst getting a new card might break it (because of the different expiry and CVV even if the 16 digit card number is the same) often banks will honour the CPA with the new card.

Have you cancelled now? Just chalk it up to experience, I suppose you could try a complaint, but doubt you would get anywhere, it is clearly set out on the sign up page. Experian didn't force you to take it out for your mortgage, experian don't do mortgages.

jonesMUFCforever

School holidays again!

cymruchris

As others have said, you're unlikely to get a refund, as it's so prominently displayed when you sign up - that it's a limited trial with a set monthly fee thereafter if you don't cancel it. You can try writing a letter to ask whether there's any way they can help in the circumstances, but I would imagine you'd get a polite reply informing you that there was nothing they could do. (No harm to try though - they can only say no)

dianemack

Can anyone help have just realised I have been paying for experian too for last few years to so went on to have a look and I cant access any extra but am paying it every month why would i not be able to get anymore information on it if I am paying for it. I used to be able to find out how I owed too etc.
Thank you Diane

SnowTiger

dianemack wrote: »

Can anyone help have just realised I have been paying for experian too for last few years to so went on to have a look and I cant access any extra but am paying it every month why would i not be able to get anymore information on it if I am paying for it. I used to be able to find out how I owed too etc.
Thank you Diane

My guess is that over time you've set up two account: one that allows you full access to your credit report and another than only shows your Experian credit score.

Give them a call on 0800 013 1454 (bottom of this page) and make them earn their £14.99 a month by reconnecting you to your account.

Or follow the 'Forgotten your username?' link from this page.