CIFAS Marker Hell

Manch

Hi

My husband had a CIFAS marker placed in his accounts last year after he was the victim of a rather unpleasant and sophisticated fraud. The whole experience was horrendous and at the time we were grateful for any measures to prevent further fraud happening. Fast forwards 12 months and we are finding it almost impossible to apply for a new credit card. He’s been to the bank with ID documents etc and still we are being kept in the dark regarding a credit card application made 4 weeks ago. Furthermore they (Santander) refuse to speak to him on the phone about it, yet the branch can’t provide any information. This is despite being a long standing Santander customer with current accounts, ISA etc all with them. 

Is this normal? Can we get the CIFAS marker removed? It feels like another win for the fraudsters that this is still affecting our lives 12 months on. I worry what will happen when we try and remortgage later this year. 

Any advice would be appreciated.

Ayr_Rage

According to a search CIFAS markers can last from 13 months to 6 years.

You'll have to check exactly what type of marker has been recorded.

Hopefully you have already made a request here

https://www.cifas.org.uk/dsar

GeoffTF

Are your Santander current accounts, ISA etc still open?

Hoenir

Why was the marker imposed ? 

MattMattMattUK

Manch said:

Hi

My husband had a CIFAS marker placed in his accounts last year after he was the victim of a rather unpleasant and sophisticated fraud. The whole experience was horrendous and at the time we were grateful for any measures to prevent further fraud happening. Fast forwards 12 months and we are finding it almost impossible to apply for a new credit card. He’s been to the bank with ID documents etc and still we are being kept in the dark regarding a credit card application made 4 weeks ago. Furthermore they (Santander) refuse to speak to him on the phone about it, yet the branch can’t provide any information. This is despite being a long standing Santander customer with current accounts, ISA etc all with them. 

Is this normal? Can we get the CIFAS marker removed? It feels like another win for the fraudsters that this is still affecting our lives 12 months on. I worry what will happen when we try and remortgage later this year. 

Any advice would be appreciated.

Was the marker a victim of fraud marker, or one of the markers for people who the financial institution thinks have committed/aided fraud?

Normally the former means that lenders will conduct additional ID checks, but these usually take a few days at most, the latter makes banking very difficult for six years.

For the remortgage if you are just going to get a new rate from your existing lender then they will not do any ID checks, if you are looking to borrow more or move to a different lender then they will need to conduct full checks. As above, if it is a victim of fraud marker that might slow things down slightly, if it is a fraud marker then it will make it impossible.

GeoffTF

If your other Santander accounts are still open, that indicates that you have a protective marker, which should not be a serious problem. I suggest that you get reports from the credit reference agencies:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/

You can then look for a reason why you might be considered a poor credit risk. It is not unknown for fraudsters to take out a loan in someone else's name and not pay it off.

grumpy_codger

GeoffTF said:

If your other Santander accounts are still open, that indicates that you have a protective marker, which should not be a serious problem. ...

Yes, should not be, but in practice it is as reported by many people.
Banks just don't want to do extra checks and to get yet another potentially risky customer.

GeoffTF

grumpy_codger said:

GeoffTF said:

If your other Santander accounts are still open, that indicates that you have a protective marker, which should not be a serious problem. ...

Yes, should not be, but in practice it is as reported by many people.
Banks just don't want to do extra checks and to get yet another potentially risky customer.

Yes, but people who do not have a problem will not be reporting here. If a protective CIFAS marker is the only problem, I expect that the OP will be able get more basic credit card from somewhere, or find some other way of doing whatever they want to do. The OP's main worry seems to be renewing their mortgage, which may not be a problem. Finding out what the marker is and checking their credit reports is good place to start. We do not have many facts here.

Nasqueron

GeoffTF said:

If your other Santander accounts are still open, that indicates that you have a protective marker, which should not be a serious problem. I suggest that you get reports from the credit reference agencies:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/

You can then look for a reason why you might be considered a poor credit risk. It is not unknown for fraudsters to take out a loan in someone else's name and not pay it off.

The protective marker should show on the free sites like ClearScore, it's the other types that don't

born_again

GeoffTF said:

grumpy_codger said:

GeoffTF said:

If your other Santander accounts are still open, that indicates that you have a protective marker, which should not be a serious problem. ...

Yes, should not be, but in practice it is as reported by many people.
Banks just don't want to do extra checks and to get yet another potentially risky customer.

Yes, but people who do not have a problem will not be reporting here. If a protective CIFAS marker is the only problem, I expect that the OP will be able get more basic credit card from somewhere, or find some other way of doing whatever they want to do. The OP's main worry seems to be renewing their mortgage, which may not be a problem. Finding out what the marker is and checking their credit reports is good place to start. We do not have many facts here.

If they stay with the same lender & just do a rate switch then there will be no issues, as nothing is checked.