Experian and Miskeyed Electoral Role Data

MidCentury

Hello,

My wife and I have been tenants at our current address for 7 years. We are going through the process of buying an apartment, but have discovered that Experian have incorrectly recorded our electoral role information. They had abbreviated it such a way that it matched a completely different address. Because I had perviously had a Credit Expert account, I managed to raise the issue with them and after several hours of phone calls and many emails, I got them to change it on my credit file to read correctly. However, my wife has never had an account with them, and when she tried to open one online, Experian could not confirm her identity, no surprise there though because of the address mismatch! She has made several calls to them, but is getting nowhere because they keep telling her that as they cannot verify her identity, they cannot help! 

My wife managed to open a CheckMyFile account ok though, and this confirmed the Experian electoral error, and that the the address and electoral role data is fine for the other agencies, Equifax, Transunion and Crediva. 

Thing is, we got declined an AIP for a mortgage with HSBC who use Experian, that is how this all came to light. We then got another AIP for a mortgage with Natwest without any issue, and they use Equifax. We have had an offer accepted on an apartment and have the phone appointment for the full mortgage application next week, but if we don’t meet the NatWest criteria for some reason we are concerned our options will be limited or even none if we have to find another lender who only uses Equifax. 

My wife has raised a query via CheckMyFile to forward to Experian and sent a them a letter from the Electoral Registration Officer confirming the correct address, but not sure if this approach is going to work and how long it will take, she got the standard, we will reply within 28 days answer. In the meantime, we received a link each today from our solicitors to verify our identities with Thirdfort and guess what, mine all went through ok, but they couldn’t confirm my wife's id even with the Passport and Bank Statement being uploaded. I checked on Experian and sure enough, there was a soft search form Thirdfort on my file, they obviously couldn’t confirm my wife's id because if the address mismatch issue!

My wife has a current account, which is reported to all the agencies, but all the bills are in my name as I pay them all, even her mobile contract is registered to me. We could secure the mortgage we want with my salary alone, which makes the situation even more infuriating.  

This is all adding a lot of stress, just because of miskeyed information by Experian, can we claim compensation from them if we fail to secure a mortgage and lose the apartment?

[Deleted User]

No, there's no compensation on offer, but you can request that they correct the data, which is far more valuable to you.

MidCentury

Deleted_User said:

No, there's no compensation on offer, but you can request that they correct the data, which is far more valuable to you.

Thanks for your reply, we will have to try writing to them the old fashioned as we can’t get them to respond by email...

K_S

@midcentury Similar kinds of issues are more common than people realize (usually flat addresses, converted properties and relatively new builds) and are a p.i.t.a to get fixed.

As far as the mortgage is concerned, I try what you've done while the client gets the reports corrected, and 95 times out of 100, for mainstream lenders the client is no worse off as the rates all bunch up together and there's a fairly even number of lenders using Experian or Equifax.

If you haven't already, I would consider putting in a formal complaint with Experian anyway. It's sometimes hard to get their attention without that. If there's a mistake on their part, you might get a token amount to compensate for the inconvenience.

Is there any reason you think you might not meet Natwest criteria?

lonibra

K_S said:

 If there's a mistake on their part, you might get a token amount to compensate for the inconvenience.

...and to avoid going to the Ombudsman who will charge Experian £550 or so for the privilege irrespective of whether you win or lose.

OP, use MSE Resolver, I can vouch for it based on my Equifax problem that was going nowhere.

[Deleted User]

lonibra said:

K_S said:

 If there's a mistake on their part, you might get a token amount to compensate for the inconvenience.

...and to avoid going to the Ombudsman who will charge Experian £550 or so for the privilege irrespective of whether you win or lose.

OP, use MSE Resolver, I can vouch for it based on my Equifax problem that was going nowhere.

No

OP should complain directly. Adding in third party products is needlessly complicating things and gives your data to third parties to sell on to firms (which is what Resolver does to make money - though to be clear they do anonymize your data). There is the risk the complaint goes to the wrong place or gets missed or incorrect information is provided.

lonibra

Deleted_User said:

lonibra said:

K_S said:

 If there's a mistake on their part, you might get a token amount to compensate for the inconvenience.

...and to avoid going to the Ombudsman who will charge Experian £550 or so for the privilege irrespective of whether you win or lose.

OP, use MSE Resolver, I can vouch for it based on my Equifax problem that was going nowhere.

No

OP should complain directly. Adding in third party products is needlessly complicating things and gives your data to third parties to sell on to firms (which is what Resolver does to make money - though to be clear they do anonymize your data). There is the risk the complaint goes to the wrong place or gets missed or incorrect information is provided.

I acknowledge your opinion and reasons for not using Resolver, but I respectfully disagree.

I have had a great experience using Resolver for every complaint I make and found it far easier to progress than going direct. If the price for that convenience is that my anonymized data is monetised (like a lot of other data that I share with financial institutions), so be it.

[Deleted User]

lonibra said:

Deleted_User said:

lonibra said:

K_S said:

 If there's a mistake on their part, you might get a token amount to compensate for the inconvenience.

...and to avoid going to the Ombudsman who will charge Experian £550 or so for the privilege irrespective of whether you win or lose.

OP, use MSE Resolver, I can vouch for it based on my Equifax problem that was going nowhere.

No

OP should complain directly. Adding in third party products is needlessly complicating things and gives your data to third parties to sell on to firms (which is what Resolver does to make money - though to be clear they do anonymize your data). There is the risk the complaint goes to the wrong place or gets missed or incorrect information is provided.

I acknowledge your opinion and reasons for not using Resolver, but I respectfully disagree.

I have had a great experience using Resolver for every complaint I make and found it far easier to progress than going direct. If the price for that convenience is that my anonymized data is monetised (like a lot of other data that I share with financial institutions), so be it.

I am not sure how it is easier to give your info to a third party site like resolver and hope they pass it on rather than simply writing a letter/email direct to the firm and providing anything they need to know rather than going to and fro with whatever data you hope Resolver passes on. As I said, it needlessly complicates matters and gives the firm your private data to make money from. It's the same (albeit "free") problem as using a CMC for say a PPI claim. It is always easier and simpler to complain directly.

lonibra

Deleted_User said:

lonibra said:

Deleted_User said:

lonibra said:

K_S said:

 If there's a mistake on their part, you might get a token amount to compensate for the inconvenience.

...and to avoid going to the Ombudsman who will charge Experian £550 or so for the privilege irrespective of whether you win or lose.

OP, use MSE Resolver, I can vouch for it based on my Equifax problem that was going nowhere.

No

OP should complain directly. Adding in third party products is needlessly complicating things and gives your data to third parties to sell on to firms (which is what Resolver does to make money - though to be clear they do anonymize your data). There is the risk the complaint goes to the wrong place or gets missed or incorrect information is provided.

I acknowledge your opinion and reasons for not using Resolver, but I respectfully disagree.

I have had a great experience using Resolver for every complaint I make and found it far easier to progress than going direct. If the price for that convenience is that my anonymized data is monetised (like a lot of other data that I share with financial institutions), so be it.

I am not sure how it is easier to give your info to a third party site like resolver and hope they pass it on rather than simply writing a letter/email direct to the firm and providing anything they need to know rather than going to and fro with whatever data you hope Resolver passes on. As I said, it needlessly complicates matters and gives the firm your private data to make money from. It's the same (albeit "free") problem as using a CMC for say a PPI claim. It is always easier and simpler to complain directly.

It's just one standard process irrespective of the entity you're complaining against, doesn't cost me a penny (unlike a CMC), handholds me through the process, reminds me of escalations, etc. And in all the complaints I've pursued through Resolver covering lots of different sectors, I've never had an issue. To me it's far easier and simpler than complaining directly.

Plenty of firms (both financial and otherwise, search engines, banks, mobile phone OS, Google maps, comparison websites, etc etc) make money from my private data and I get something in return for it. I'm ok with that.

Having said that, I totally understand why you don't like using them, it's a personal choice I guess.

[Deleted User]

You only need to browse the PPI forum and the related subs to see the problems people have with Resolver not sending complaints, sending the wrong information, sending to the wrong place etc. As I said, it cannot be simpler than sending a complaint to a firm directly. Sending complaints via a third party adds an extra stage for no reason.

lonibra

Fully acknowledge your strongly held opinion which is the polar opposite to mine, that MSE Resolver is a good tool to use for complaints and better than going direct from my experience. But honestly, it was useful to get an alternate viewpoint.

We'll have to agree to disagree I suppose