We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Please help - bank won't format address correctly, and it's affecting my credit file ...

Options
Hello,
I'm new to the forum and am wondering if someone could advise on an issue I'm having with my bank in relation to my credit file. Four years ago I moved to Scotland, and my bank (Yorkshire/Clydesdale) seems incapable of formatting my address correctly, in line with Royal Mail. I live in a tenement flat, and the addresses are styled in a bit of an awkward way: instead of, e.g. flat 1, 7 Smith Street, it would be 7/1 Smith Street. Yorkshire Bank say that they are not able to put the / in the address box (I have a current account with them and also a credit card). I have been a member of MSE credit club for some years, and noticed that after I moved up here, all of a sudden MSE/Experian wasn't able to verify my details. In the past I've resolved this by going to the bank and sitting with someone, painstakingly explaining how the address needs to be formatted. They've got round the issue in the past by leaving a space where the / should be - although even that seems to require superhuman levels of work on their ridiculous computer system. So, my address would appear on my bank and credit card statements as 7 1 Smith Street. However, earlier this year I moved flats, and am now on a very long street which has more than 100 buildings. Apparently, the bank is incapable of coping with an address where the building number is three digits, so having my address as 100 1 Smith Street isn't even a possibility. I went to the bank in person to try and sort this out, but there was nothing doing.

I'm really worried about this, because I would like to be able to get a mortgage one day (I'm in my late 20s), and I don't understand why it's so impossible to format an address with a / in line with Royal Mail (I get the address 100/1 on all my utility bills). I've tried so hard all my working life to stay in good financial health - I've never once gone into my overdraft, I've never made a late payment on anything, I pay my credit card off in full at the end of every month - and I feel like this is going to cause serious issues down the line, for something that isn't my fault. Has anyone else been in this situation (either with Yorkshire/Clydesdale or with another bank), and if so, what did you do to resolve it?

Comments

  • Change the bank, take one of the cash payment offers to switch. Speak to the bank first and ensure they can report it correctly. There are houses near me with numbers close to 2000 and I seem to remember from a Simon Mayo show years ago the highest number in the UK is even bigger (quick google suggests 2679 perhaps, though there is a weird one in Suffolk which is 9156 but all the other houses on the road are under 2000)
  • My banks had the format as:
    Flat 1, 1 Any Street when I had that in the first flat I moved to.

    Although it wasn't a tenement it did have the format 1/1, 1/2, 1/3 etc. Everything somehow tallied up on the credit reports.
    Mortgage started 2020, aiming to clear 31/12/2029.
  • tacpot12
    tacpot12 Posts: 9,244 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    This problem is sometimes found with software as a result of computers treating special characters as "special". The slash probably has a special meaning to the language that the banking system is written in, and as such you will not get this changed easily because of the amount of testing it will involve. You are better off moving to a bank with modern software. 
    The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.
  • MallyGirl
    MallyGirl Posts: 7,201 Senior Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I'd suggest getting an account with a Scottish bank as this address presentation should have been part of their software testing.
    I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning, Loans
    & Credit Cards boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
    All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • msallen
    msallen Posts: 1,494 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    MallyGirl said:
    I'd suggest getting an account with a Scottish bank as this address presentation should have been part of their software testing.
    Like Clydesdale for example? Q-/
  • MallyGirl
    MallyGirl Posts: 7,201 Senior Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    That depends on whether they are using Yorkshire bank software or Clydesdale - who took-over who?
    I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning, Loans
    & Credit Cards boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
    All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • Eowyn1
    Eowyn1 Posts: 28 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 10 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks everyone for the advice and answers. As I understand it, Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale merged, but they didn't merge their computer systems. So I wouldn't be able to go into a Clydesdale branch to do any routine banking, I'd have to be specifically in a Yorkshire Bank branch. In the head office branch in London they have a separate line for each bank and you have to be in the right line otherwise they can't serve you ... madness. Anyway, both Yorkshire and Clydesdale have since been taken over by Virgin Money, and as I understand it they are updating the systems to reflect this. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to go into my local Virgin branch and get them to update the address. If not, I will do as some here have suggested and switch banks, because this is just getting ridiculous.
  • Neil49
    Neil49 Posts: 3,362 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Have you asked your neighbours about how they cope with it? 
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.9K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.5K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.9K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.9K Life & Family
  • 257.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.