CIFAS Marker Removal? 20 November 2022 at 11:36PM in Credit file & ratings 3 replies 327 views

D3xt3r5L4b

i recently applied for a Premier account with Barclays to go with my Avios Plus card to get the Avios bonuses, Barclays have now decided to halt my application pending a “fraud” investigation and have now placed a CIFAS marker against me..!!

I don’t understand what they have found in my application to be fraudulent and why they have placed the CIFAS marker against me, which is now going to hinder any future financial applications for the next 6 years – although they haven’t stated what Category of CIFAS they’ve placed against me. 

I entered the same basic salary as I have done on any other application (excluding overtime and bonuses as 99% of applications tell you to not include those). 

The only difference being the Premier Account as it also asks additional information for bonus and overtime payments as additional fields to the basic salary one.

They still want to proceed with the application as they want me to go to a branch with 2 forms of ID (photo and address) to confirm it was actually me etc. and it says the application may take longer because of these manual checks.

The letter specifically states they have added a CIFAS marker to “protect me” for future applications. I don’t want/need this marker - is there any way of them removing it once my identity and salary etc are confirmed and verified? And if so, how?

Cheers!

Farfetch1

You can ask them to remove it but they're entitled to not do so if they wish.

The marker is not a statement of fact but of their belief, presumably that you may be at risk of being a victim of impersonation. The marker isn't there to protect you, it's there to protect other financial organisations so they'll probably refuse to remove it.

[Deleted User]

CIFAS protective markers are not a block on credit, just means manual reviews of accounts and they don't last 6 years iirc, think it's 1-2 years (please check this though!)

Exodi

If it's a victims marker as it sounds like, it should appear on your credit reports.

I guess you oculd also submit a DSAR to CIFAS if you wanted more details, however there's no reason to think it's necessarily a bad thing. Victim markers should not negatively effect credit applications - they just highlight that a lender should be more careful when processing a credit application, as the applicant may be at high risk of fraud (e.g. impersonation for example).

It may be the case that they've done this because they've noticed another application with similar details.