Can Santander audit me, when I don't have an account with them?

11ME11

On doing a recent check to try to ascertain why my credit rating had been downgraded from 'fair' to 'very poor', I noticed that Santander (with whom I have no account) did an audit on me, last December.  At that time, my card (for the account of my mother, for whom I have power of attorney) also wasn't working. my own card wasnt working either, & I couldn't order a shop, right before Xmas.  I didn't manage to get the Santander card sorted, after lots of palaver, until after Xmas, which was difficult. 

I'm now thinking that all this palaver & worry that I went through, AND the downgrading of my credit rating, at approximately the same time, was due to them doing this audit on me, which they did, without prior warning, or post notification (I had no idea until I checked the credit rating, a week ago) was due to this audit.  Are they allowed to audit me, even though I have no account with them?  Shouldn't they have at least, notified me, of the audit?  

molerat

What do you mean by "audit" ?  There is no such thing on a credit file.

If you mean credit search then yes they can if you are named as POA on an account.  You would have agreed to it when setting up the POA with them.

la531983

11ME11 said:

On doing a recent check to try to ascertain why my credit rating had been downgraded from 'fair' to 'very poor'

You mean the made up score that only you see, lenders dont see, and is only used to try and cross sell you finance products so the credit reference agency can get a kickback, has gone down?

CliveOfIndia

If, as per the previous poster, you mean they ran a credit search, then this will have had a very minor effect on your "credit rating" at the time, and zero effect a year later.  If your account was blocked, it will have been for some other reason, nothing to do with a single credit search.

11ME11

This showed on the CheckMyFile site:

Audit Searches

Audit footprints relate to all other accesses of your Credit Report and typically reflect your own access of your Credit Report. They are not seen by lenders or any other parties, do not affect your Credit Score and are only viewable through checkmyfile.

11ME11

CliveOfIndia said:

If, as per the previous poster, you mean they ran a credit search, then this will have had a very minor effect on your "credit rating" at the time, and zero effect a year later.  If your account was blocked, it will have been for some other reason, nothing to do with a single credit search.

A year later Clive, my credit rating is back to where it was a year ago, but it has taken me all year to get back to it (about a month back, my rating went into the 'fair' section.  By now, I would have been into the 'good' section, if I hadn't had this knock back. To suddenly drop me from 'fair' to 'very poor' seems harsh, to say the least, and I'm trying to find out why that happened, as I don't want the same thing to happen again - I clear the card debts.  In fact, I've just finished paying off a £4000+ debt with one of the 3 cards I had, when I had a bad accident, 4 years ago.  Again, I've had no notification, or confirmation that I have done so.

MorningcoffeeIV

11ME11 said:

CliveOfIndia said:

If, as per the previous poster, you mean they ran a credit search, then this will have had a very minor effect on your "credit rating" at the time, and zero effect a year later.  If your account was blocked, it will have been for some other reason, nothing to do with a single credit search.

A year later Clive, my credit rating is back to where it was a year ago, but it has taken me all year to get back to it (about a month back, my rating went into the 'fair' section.  By now, I would have been into the 'good' section, if I hadn't had this knock back. To suddenly drop me from 'fair' to 'very poor' seems harsh, to say the least, and I'm trying to find out why that happened, as I don't want the same thing to happen again - I clear the card debts.  

But that make no difference to anything.

No one will ever know the journey that your pretend score has been on.

Just tell people that your score is excellent if you think it'll impress them. They'll never know it's a lie.

molerat

11ME11 said:

This showed on the CheckMyFile site:

Audit Searches

Audit footprints relate to all other accesses of your Credit Report and typically reflect your own access of your Credit Report. They are not seen by lenders or any other parties, do not affect your Credit Score and are only viewable through checkmyfile.

So essentially a "soft search".   Those searches have no effect on your score / credit record.  Any change in your status then must be down to some other factors.  What do the 3 main CRAs show ?

sourcrates

@11ME11

The credit score you see on your report is not used in lending decisions, or even seen by anyone but you.

Its used by the CRA`s as a marketing gimmick, to sell credit improvement products, access to credit reports/loans/cards etc.

Lenders assess your credit worthiness by using their own confidential scoring technique, which the rest of us are not privy too.

The "score" on your report may fluctuate up and down, with any minor change, but it means absolutely nothing in real terms, most of the time there are no changes, yet the score still moves.

The granting of credit is dependant on many things, but that number you see is not one of them.

CliveOfIndia

11ME11 said:

This showed on the CheckMyFile site:

Audit Searches

Audit footprints relate to all other accesses of your Credit Report and typically reflect your own access of your Credit Report. They are not seen by lenders or any other parties, do not affect your Credit Score and are only viewable through checkmyfile.

Well there you have it then - they themselves say that this so-called "Audit Search" is only visible to you and has no impact whatsoever on how a lender will view you.

11ME11 said:

A year later Clive, my credit rating is back to where it was a year ago, but it has taken me all year to get back to it (about a month back, my rating went into the 'fair' section.  By now, I would have been into the 'good' section, if I hadn't had this knock back.

To reiterate what has already been said, the CRA's assessment of your credit-worthiness means absolutely nothing.  They can think what they like - they aren't the ones lending you money.

A lender will make their own assessment, based purely upon the factual data contained within your file.  They neither see nor care about the CRA's view of you.

AstonSmith

We've established that it won't affect any rating/decisions, but what hasn't been answered is the question in the title. Can (a financial institution) do an audit search on somebody without any previous relationship? Especially considering according to the CheckMyFile thing above,

Audit footprints relate to all other accesses of your Credit Report and typically reflect your own access of your Credit Report.

which hasn't occurred here? What kind of access did they request, and why? Should they be allowed to have this data "just because"?