Experian and Miskeyed Electoral Role Data

MidCentury

K_S said:

@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?

Thanks for the reply. My wife did escalate the issue with the complaints department and they did actually call her, during the call they also took me through security and admitted that they could see the mistake had been sorted on my account, but were powerless to change it on my wife’s account because they could not verify her identity. We seem to be stuck in a loop.

I have checked all the NatWest criteria in detail using the intermediary website and I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t get an offer from them, but there just seems to be a problem at every turn right now, somI am trying to manage my wife’s expectations as well as my own, in case things do not work out.  

If it doesn’t go to plan, I will will need a good MA, maybe I will send you a PM!

ServiceSOS

Hi sorry to jump on a slightly older thread but I just wondered how you got on? I am going round in circles with Experian who want me to change my personal address to something that doesn't match the electoral roll. I have sent them electoral roll info that does match the address I have put in myself as a user but infuriatingly they still want me to change my address to a random, truncated version. Did you end up going down a formal complaint route with them in the end, or the ombudsman?

I having another problem with Equifax in that they have me down on electoral roll and all my financial accounts at a totally wrong address, it's just the same house name about a mile away with a vaguely similar road name. Obviously a miskey and I'm in the process of trying to show them that but I suspect I will need to do whatever you did with Experian with these too. 

I hate how these companies have so much access to our data yet seem to have almost no basic admin protocols in place, judging by the amount of mistakes I've been reading about while trying to find one similar to my own problem. 

MattMattMattUK

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 have never used Resolver and never had an issue getting complaints resolved.

MaryNB

ServiceSOS said:

Hi sorry to jump on a slightly older thread but I just wondered how you got on? I am going round in circles with Experian who want me to change my personal address to something that doesn't match the electoral roll. I have sent them electoral roll info that does match the address I have put in myself as a user but infuriatingly they still want me to change my address to a random, truncated version. Did you end up going down a formal complaint route with them in the end, or the ombudsman?

I having another problem with Equifax in that they have me down on electoral roll and all my financial accounts at a totally wrong address, it's just the same house name about a mile away with a vaguely similar road name. Obviously a miskey and I'm in the process of trying to show them that but I suspect I will need to do whatever you did with Experian with these too. 

I hate how these companies have so much access to our data yet seem to have almost no basic admin protocols in place, judging by the amount of mistakes I've been reading about while trying to find one similar to my own problem. 

Does your council's electoral services have your address registered different to what Royal Mail has? I had this problem. Every account I held defaulted to the version held by royal mail. The credit rating agencies didn't have my electoral information because they were using the royal mail address.

Schnurrbart

ServiceSOS said:

Hi sorry to jump on a slightly older thread but I just wondered how you got on? I am going round in circles with Experian who want me to change my personal address to something that doesn't match the electoral roll. I have sent them electoral roll info that does match the address I have put in myself as a user but infuriatingly they still want me to change my address to a random, truncated version. Did you end up going down a formal complaint route with them in the end, or the ombudsman?

I having another problem with Equifax in that they have me down on electoral roll and all my financial accounts at a totally wrong address, it's just the same house name about a mile away with a vaguely similar road name. Obviously a miskey and I'm in the process of trying to show them that but I suspect I will need to do whatever you did with Experian with these too. 

I hate how these companies have so much access to our data yet seem to have almost no basic admin protocols in place, judging by the amount of mistakes I've been reading about while trying to find one similar to my own problem. 

I hope people don't mind me chiming in here. I'm having MAJOR problems with Experian, including the problem of my credit file showing me as not on the Electoral Roll depite my providing evidence from my local authority that I am. They said it was something to do with the format of my address, and I spent ages on the phone with them telling me exactly what I needed to type in each and every field in the 'Edit contact details' section (bizarrely, I was told that I needed to put my town in the 'District' field, not the 'Town' one!). I was promised that this would trigger the necessary change the following day. When I checked, nothing at all had changed (except that my address is potentially even more messed up due to my following their advice to put my town in the 'District' field).

@ ServiceSOS, I'm quoting your post because you mention the ombudsman (presumably the Financial Ombudsman). I have been in touch with the Information Comissioner's Office (ICO), who told me that they were the body I'd need to report to if Experian continued in their mishandling of data on my credit file. Before that, however, I would need to give Experian a chance to put things right (they've already had plenty) by contacting their Data Controller. I have already tried to resolve some of the issues by using Experian's complaints procedure, but this has resulted in them actually making even more of a pig's ear of my credit file than it was before.

I have also contacted the Financial Ombudsman, who told me that they would only handle complaints regarding the credit broking side of Experian's 'operations', not the credit file aspect. They confirmed that this would be a matter for the ICO. I just wanted to let you know this in case you wasted time and effort trying to report your problems to the wrong organisation.

On a general note, I am more than happy to revive this thread somewhat, share the issues I'm having with Experian (not just confined to the Electoral Roll error), offer any help and advice that I can (I've spent hours looking around my file, and communicating - to no avail - with Experian via phone and email). Equally, I'd be grateful for any help or advice others can offer.

As well as compounding error upon error, and failing to get back to me within their own timeframes for responding to complaints, they are now sending me emails every couple of days advertising their credit broking services (oddly, this began after I cancelled my subscription after my free 30-day trial). The subject headings make it look like the emails are relevant to my credit file, e.g. "Action requested" and "Your eligibility update".

I fully intend to contact Experian's Data Controller (with a view to escalating to the ICO), but I am currently burned out after the amount of time and effort I've spent trying to get things corrected. I need to collate masses of notes, emails, etc. as well as requesting transcripts of my phone conversations under the Subject Access Request rules (most of my communication with them was by phone, as I thought that this would get things fixed more quickly - silly me). But Experian's mishandling of my data is having an adverse effect on my credit file (especially the 'not on the Electoral Roll' issue'), so I will not be letting them get away with it.

Sorry again to hitch a ride on this thread, but it's the nearest one I could find to the problems I'm having with this woefully incompetent company, and I thought that the info I'd been given regarding the ICO and Financial Ombudsman might be useful to others.