Confirm address with credit rathing agencies

SevenTen

Hello everyone,

I am trying to get a credit card. I've been in the UK for 5 years and stayed at the same address for most of that time. However as i am not elligible to vote I am not on the electroral roll and in turn credit rating agencies don't seem to consider my address as certain. I would like to fix this, following MSE's advice to "end all three credit reference agencies proof of residency (utility bills, a UK driving licence, etc) and ask them to add a note to verify this."  (how to improve your credit score page) 

But how do I go about this? I tried signing up for an online account on experian, hoping to submit a utility bill that way, but the process ended with "Sorry, we couldn’t confirm your identity"

D3xt3r5L4b

Write them a letter?

PRAISETHESUN

Request copies of your statutory credit reports from the CRAs - they are legally obliged to provide this information if you ask for it. If/when they are unable to do so because they cannot verify your identity then they should request some ID to verify you. If they don't then you may need to put in a formal complaint, but do it and it'll it'll get sorted eventually (I had to do this when I first moved to the UK).

The "note" they are referring to is a "notice of correction". It will place a message on your credit file that is seen by lenders when you make an application. Usually it forces lenders to manually review your application, and in your note you can explain that you are unable to register on the ER because of <insert reason here> but are able to provide proof of identity and address if requested. It may help, it may not, but since the reason you're not on the ER is presumably not going away anytime soon then it's likely better than doing nothing.

SevenTen

PRAISETHESUN said:

Request copies of your statutory credit reports from the CRAs

Thank you very much, the keyword made it quite easy to find the right form for all three agencies. In each case I picked the printable form, online is a waste of time obviously (well it's obvious but I still tried 2 out of 3...) They are 1 or 2 pages long and require basic info plus last 6 years of UK addresses, and clearly state where to mail them to. I was going to add cover letters to explain, but figured it might be better to just let them pocess the form and ask for info instead.

I'll come back in however long it takes to resolve this and report, as it might help others in similar situations.