Bad Experience With Experian

HA57

My private pension provider recently gave me free Experian Identity Plus membership because various strands of my personal data (including my bank account details!!!) were hacked during a cyber attack at Capita. I few days ago I applied for a new current account with a different bank and my application was declined because the bank applied to Experian for a credit check. I have no debts and own my home outright so cannot think of anything, apart from my recent Experian membership, that could have caused my bank account application to be declined. Has anyone else had a similar experience?  

Brie

It may not be the debts that are the problem but the credit.  If you have an overdraft available or a few credit cards with significant credit they will be able to see that on a credit check.  It doesn't always matter that you aren't using the cards (or pay them off each month) and aren't into your overdraft.  It's the fact that you might do these things particularly if you income might not support servicing any possible debt.

Other things that might scare them...you're not on the electoral register, you are paying car insurance monthly (which is in fact a debt), that there's actually nothing on your credit history (which means they don't know what you're like).

Nebulous2

There was a post about this in the last few days, though I don't have time to look for it. 

Apparently the Experian protective registration blocks new applications for credit. You need to log into Experian and turn it off if you want to apply for something. 

Did you do that? 

pushpull

Nebulous2 said:

There was a post about this in the last few days, though I don't have time to look for it. 

Apparently the Experian protective registration blocks new applications for credit. You need to log into Experian and turn it off if you want to apply for something. 

Did you do that? 

Seems to be called "CreditLock."

However, it does alert the user when it blocks a credit application so I'd have thought the OP would have known if it was that that had caused it?