Debt collectors and searches on credit file

Vox_AC30

Can anybody else offer advice on this please? Thanks

sourcrates

You can make a section 77/79 request for information at any time, so long as a balance remains on the account, you make the request in writing, and enclose the statutory fee of £1.

Makes no difference if you have been paying the debt or not, you have a statutory right to this information, and only a fully compliant copy of the credit agreement determines enforcability of any credit account debt.

whilst the request is outstanding, the debt remains temporarily unenforcable until they provide what they are supposed to under the above act.

Failure to provide the requested documents results in the account becoming irredeemabley unenforcable in court.

Whilst your request remains outstanding, the account is normally put "on hold" until such time as its either complied with, or it isn`t, so no payment is required during this time.

richardadc

I'm not so sure that debt collection agency searches don't appear to other lenders.  I quote from https://www.checkmyfile.com/articles/2781/credit-reports/explaining-credit-searches-and-enquiries.htm

"Apart from searches made by a debt collector (these aren’t attractive to potential lenders), other enquiry and audit searches do not have a negative impact on your credit report or the credit rating."

I've had one appear on my credit report as a "Debt Collection" search - all the other debt collection agency that have searched my file seem to show as enquiry searches.  I think you need to look at if the search appeared as "Debt Collection" or something else.

It's also interesting that if you get a "Debt Collection" search it remains on your file for 2 years rather than one.  I can confirm this as it was the case for me.

Vox_AC30

richardadc said:

I'm not so sure that debt collection agency searches don't appear to other lenders.  I quote from https://www.checkmyfile.com/articles/2781/credit-reports/explaining-credit-searches-and-enquiries.htm

"Apart from searches made by a debt collector (these aren’t attractive to potential lenders), other enquiry and audit searches do not have a negative impact on your credit report or the credit rating."

I've had one appear on my credit report as a "Debt Collection" search - all the other debt collection agency that have searched my file seem to show as enquiry searches.  I think you need to look at if the search appeared as "Debt Collection" or something else.

It's also interesting that if you get a "Debt Collection" search it remains on your file for 2 years rather than one.  I can confirm this as it was the case for me.

Thanks, Richard. I'm now more confused than ever though because that is the direct opposite of what @sourcrates at the beginning of the thread. Is this a change?

Vox_AC30

@richardadc this quote from Experian in the 'what lenders can see on your credit report' section suggests only hard searches can be seen, as @sourcrates said -  "Details of any hard credit checks lenders have carried out, e.g. because you applied for credit, along with the dates of those checks. It also includes soft credit checks, but only you can see these."

But you're right checkmyfile seem to be saying that enquiry searches left by debt collectors can be seen by lenders. They also say these can stay on file for six years. Are they getting something mixed up there? Do they mean debt collectors reporting the balance of a debt?

richardadc

@Vox_AC30 my personal view is that with CRAs is that we only have only a limited knowledge of how exactly they work.  You'll get people that state with certainty how they work but if you start looking into it there's little bits of information hidden on the CRAs sites that can contradict those views.

To add to the fire if you look at the Experian page at https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/guides/searches-and-credit-checks.html it states that "Most hard searches will stay on your credit report for 12 months – although some, such as debt collection checks, can stay for longer.".  If we actually understand "hard searches" correctly though only we can authorise a hard search so there is no way a debt collection agency would be able to do that.  The other view is that hard search/soft search is a simplified version of what actually happens and it is actually possible for a debt collection search to appear to other lenders.

As i said before I can confirm at least that my debt collection search stayed on my file for 2 years so there is certainly a difference to them.  I'd also say that if they weren't able to be viewed by external companies there would be little point in it staying on your file for longer.

Vox_AC30

Hi Richard, yes, on balance I think that you're right. Having said that, I now read elsewhere that it wouldn't neccessarily do that much harm to your credit rating if the search is the only thing on there that is 'bad' so to speak.