Experian address format warning for people in flats

ChrisA2

I posted last week about the trouble I've been having getting a consolidation loan at a reasonable rate. I'd either been outright denied or given horrificly bad rates, despite having an excellent credit history with no missed or late payments ever, and not being overburdened.

I ended up applying for my credit report from Experian and found they listed me as not being on the electoral register. After a hellish week trying to get in touch with somebody who could actually help me at Experian, I found that the address they have on file for me is in a completely bizarre format:

Flat number: Nothing
House number: 3-02
House name: Nothing
Street name: The name of my flat block
District name: The name of my road
City: City name

This does not match up with the Royal Mail database at all, or the postcode look ups that the loan providers use. It is completely illogical; on applying, I was entering my address in the format:

Flat number: 302
House name: Name of my block of flats
Street: My street name
District: Blank
City: City name

After applying for a loan today and putting the address in the exact format Experian had on file, I was immediately accepted at a rate of 7.9%

If anybody lives in a flat and is having trouble getting credit, I would suggest you contact Experian to find out what format they are storing your address in.

beanielou

Glad you got that sorted out with a little detective work.

custardy

flat numbers are an ongoing problem.
i deliver to all flats in a mix of new flats and old tenements.
many companys either cannot handle flat no.s in their systems or dont bother.
just the other day i got a new tyre and had the usual postcode questions.
when i gave my postcode and it brought up a flat i gave him the full flat/floor address.
eg 2f2,but he said i'll just put 2.
this is what many companys do. even the council will send council tax letters to the wrong addresses so its easy for you to fall off the 'map'

i stress this to customers all the time as they get bank letters etc to the wrong address.if a new postie is on then they wont know the customers real address and bank statements etc could fall into someone else hands
most do nothing until they notice they are not recieving statements etc :rolleyes:

red74

We had a similar complication when with OH's address when we were looking into getting a mortgage about a year ago. It's an old victorian house that has been converted into flats but for some reason only one of the flats is registered on a lot of the gazetteers, and unfortunately it wasn't OH's! In the end it wasn't a big problem but it did take longer to get the AiPs through.