Soft searches.

SydSnott

I've just been notified of a soft search  made by LexisNexis (IIL) - Insurance Services.
I have not to my knowledge had any contact with this firm, indeed I have done nothing "Insurance Related" since last September when my Car insurance was due!
Also intrigued by the Bank accounts showing zero!
Can anyone advise?

la531983

SydSnott said:

Also intrigued by the Bank accounts showing zero!

Bank accounts aren't credit unless you have an overdraft, if you aren't in your overdraft you owe £0.

Credit reports don't concern themselves with the positive balances of bank and savings accounts. You could go out in an hour and spend the lot.

Barkin

SydSnott said:

I've just been notified of a soft search  made by LexisNexis (IIL) - Insurance Services.
I have not to my knowledge had any contact with this firm, indeed I have done nothing "Insurance Related" since last September when my Car insurance was due!

Previous insurer, or comparison sites, running checks/searches in order to re-quote when your current insurance is up for renewal?

MyRealNameToo

SydSnott said:

I've just been notified of a soft search  made by LexisNexis (IIL) - Insurance Services.
I have not to my knowledge had any contact with this firm, indeed I have done nothing "Insurance Related" since last September when my Car insurance was due!
Also intrigued by the Bank accounts showing zero!
Can anyone advise?

LexisNexis are a service provider used widely across financial services, they dont do anything directly consumer facing that I'm aware of. 

Was it early September? If it was then it will be firms preparing to do renewal quotes. The price comparison sites in particular are well known for running their checks on people that used them the year before. 

As it's clearly stated as insurance related any lender is likely to ignore them irrespective if they are soft or hard searches. 

SydSnott

la531983 That was my feeling but needed confirmation!
@Barkin Don't think I've dealt with them but insurance is such a rabbit hole it could be so.
As I was typing, and cast my mind back to the last "Insurance related" queries, its very coincidental that it was around late September last year, so you're probably right.
Edit:
@MyRealNameToo Thanks for the confirmation of this practice, I was just worried as I didn't know the firm at all!
Thanks guys, I won't contest it, but it's a bit sneaky isn't it!   

MyRealNameToo

SydSnott said:

Barkin Don't think I've dealt with them but insurance is such a rabbit hole it could be so.
As I was typing, and cast my mind back to the last "Insurance related" queries, its very coincidental that it was around late September last year, so you're probably right.
Edit:
@MyRealNameToo Thanks for the confirmation of this practice, I was just worried as I didn't know the firm at all!
Thanks guys, I won't contest it, but it's a bit sneaky isn't it!   

You won't have dealt with them as they dont sell insurance but used a lot by insurers. My current client uses them for screening customers (non-consumer) to ensure none are subject to sanctions or are politically exposed persons which is a requirement from the regulators and more of a concern when you are writing insurance policies all over the world as my client does. 

Insurers use services like this to validate you are who you say you are, with aggregators they like doing these sorts of checks themselves as they can then share the results with the 100+ providers in their system rather than each provider having to do their own checks. That said some will still do their own checks because they want more information than a basic ID check that the aggregators do. 

When you use an aggregator you have to agree to their terms which will include the fact they can retain the details on file and can rerun the pricing in advance of your renewal next year. They can then send you a reminder with some comment on price but caveated that it's assuming nothing has changed. 

I was in consumer insurance when the aggregators really started to gain traction and it was funny. They'd spent their early years promoting the fact that customers should be promiscuous and not be loyal to their insurer. As the model was proven and the number of aggregators grew they realised that they had sold the idea too strongly and customers were not loyal to their aggregator either hence we saw introduction of these types of processes, plus introduction of collections of free cuddly toys or discounts in an attempt to get customers to be disloyal to their insurer but loyal to their aggregator. 

surreysaver

la531983 said:

SydSnott said:

Also intrigued by the Bank accounts showing zero!

Bank accounts aren't credit unless you have an overdraft, if you aren't in your overdraft you owe £0.

Credit reports don't concern themselves with the positive balances of bank and savings accounts. You could go out in an hour and spend the lot.

But then surely you could go out tomorrow and spend all your credit too?

Nasqueron

surreysaver said:

la531983 said:

SydSnott said:

Also intrigued by the Bank accounts showing zero!

Bank accounts aren't credit unless you have an overdraft, if you aren't in your overdraft you owe £0.

Credit reports don't concern themselves with the positive balances of bank and savings accounts. You could go out in an hour and spend the lot.

But then surely you could go out tomorrow and spend all your credit too?

Credit has a limit and the idea is you wouldn't max the cards and not repay like normal people - it's also a debt that can be enforced and will harm your credit history for 6 years.

Savings can be spent and after that there is nothing left