Moneysavingexpert.com/ Your Credit Rating discussion area

$17mma

Hello, this is my first time on a forum and had to join in.

I have been using creditexpert for a yr now and it has helped me to keep an eye on and manage my credit file.

I have no late payments excessive credit etc, however i recentky applied for an account and was declined. I understand that all credit reference agencies hold different information.

Should I subscribe to all of them? change the one i am using? which one is best and gives the most overall view of your file?

Please help

$17mma

I have recently subscribed to CreditExpert, which gives me 24 hr access to my credit file..

Here is the query:

1: I understand that both Experian and Equifax hold different information?, therefore should i subscribe to both? How can they hold different information/ thought everything had to be factual? does this mean that one agency is holding outdated incorrect information? how long do searches/footprints last for?

2: I notice on my credit file that there are quite a few associated alisa's?? it appears that this has happened when i have applied for credit and my name has been spelt wrong.

Tell me do these associated alias's effect a lenders decision and can they be moved?

jonnyb

Emma, there is another discussion somewhere on this site that lists which financial organisations use Experian, and which use Equifax. If you can find it, it might be useful.
I work for Experian, though not directly with the consumer division, but I know enough about their data.
Seraches/footprints last for 12 months. Any public data (bankruptcy or CCJ) is held for 6 years. Credit account history is shown for 36 months (Experian call it CAIS data).

Aliases on your file should not adversely affect your credit rating, if they are only other versions of your name, and nothing adverse is linked to those names.

There is a difference in data between Experian and Equifax because not all lenders supply data to both companies. I'm not sure why really. While it is useful to see what both agencies hold on you, I would not recommend paying for Equifax's version of credit expert, when you can apply for a copy of your credit file for £2.

$17mma

Just got my free 30 day file from Equifax..


Nothing bad only two Arrangements to pay and 2 late payments.. How long will it take for these to drop off the file if I keep making payments on time?

Everthing else has been paid on time. So not bad at all.

Final question:

Ideally how many searches/ footprints should be on a credit file?

richiethekid

Alan C: Maybe this is a bit late, and maybe you've already thought of this, but if the house name you use is different to that on the Royal Mail database (and this happens more often than you might think) that would cause problems with things like the electoral roll. Sorry if that's patronising but you never know, it could prove useful.

Voyager2002

Earlier in this thread, someone asked how many credit searches are 'allowed' before they have a negative impact on your credit rating. I have just found, in the FAQ section of the Equifax site, a statement that more than two searches within a six month period would look bad to at least some lenders.

tempuscat

Many thanks to Martin for the credit check templates: we're going to send off our letters today. Thanks, too, to everyone on this thread for the wealth (!) of information that's developed here.

Our question relates to defaults: alleged, rather than actual, .

Like many another British Gas domestic customer, we found ourselves on the receiving end of epic, arrogant incompetence and finally referred everything to EnergyWatch who investigated on our behalf. After EnergyWatch's intervention, British Gas sent us repeated letters of (cosmetic) apology for its behaviour. And on not one, but two occasions actually paid compensation in the guise of substantial billing discounts.

A final energy bill was agreed between us, Energywatch and British Gas, and this was settled immediately. We then migrated to a different energy supplier. But then, six months later, BG sent us another 'final' bill, entirely different from the first 'final' bill, and considerably higher. It bore no relation to the total BG had agreed with us and Energywatch. We asked BG to justify the bill but it refused. We then quite naturally refused to pay.

BG then hit us with a solicitor's letter threatening court action. We said we welcomed the opportunity to go to court as the alleged 'debt' was unfounded. There then followed 18 months of harassment by no less than three different debt collection agencies, the second of which -- Robinson Way -- we reported to the OFT.

It's now six months since we've heard anything about the unfounded debt. But we've recently had cause to think that something has suddenly gone awry with our credit record (hence today's letters to the agencies).

As we don't owe any money to anyone, and haven't for many a long year, we're wondering if the BG 'debt' issue may have finished up on file, despite the fact that it has no foundation and that having made its allegation, BG then refused to go to County Court to prove its claim.

Pending clarification from the credit agencies, we're wondering what advice others here would give? If it turns out our credit record has been adversely affected because of a wholly unsubstantiated allegation, wouldn't we have some legal redress against the source of that allegation (i.e., British Gas?)

It surely can't be the case that in the UK, anyone can make an unfounded allegation of a payment 'default' and get away with what is, in effect, a libel??

westernpromise

tempuscat wrote:

It surely can't be the case that in the UK, anyone can make an unfounded allegation of a payment 'default' and get away with what is, in effect, a libel??

I get the feeling this can and does happen. It seems outrageous to me. I was thinking of PMing Martin on this because it seems to me that CRAs just shrug and ignore this kind of thing, which as the peddlers of the libel, they should not be allowed to do.

Many debt collection agencies also seem to me to be, at heart, basically criminal enterprises. They buy debts without regard for the actual validity of the supposed debt, and then use quasi-legal threats to obtain payment from people who are unaware of how weak the DC's legal position is.

Every fitness centre I have ever resigned from has claimed I still owe it money, and appointed debt collectors to chase it. This seems to be a standard fraud among such businesses. Member resigned? No problem: say he didn't write to you to say so, claim 3 more months of subs, and then sell the 'arrears' of 150 quid at 40p in the pound to a bunch of heavies.

Nice, easy money: if you do that 20 times a month you make 14 grand a year for no effort.

silvah_2

Hi all,

DOH! I wish I'd seen this before - I would have earned myself a few quid. If you use Rpoints, Martin's recommended moneysaving online shopping rewards site, you can get loads of free points by ordering your credit report on their 30 day trial.

So if you haven't got your credit report yet, don't do it without registering for Rpoints here:

Rpoints

and clicking through from there to Experian.

In true Martin style, I've got to tell you that clicking the above link will help me out. But if you want to go to rpoints without helping me, the 'bare' link is below.

Rpoints

Hope that helps you.

tempuscat

Hi western -- wasn't able to respond yesterday to your point, so am doing so now because of the importance of the issue you highlighted.

Legally, a person is entitled to protect that which is most fundamental to them -- their reputation.

Factors with a bearing upon reputation include financial standing.

Misrepresentation of an individual's financial standing by a third party is misrepresentation of that individual's reputation. Where such misrepresentation is -- for the purposes of commercial gain -- made to other third parties (as would be the case where a credit agency profited from supplying misinformation to its clients) then the question of legal liability must surely arise.

Your comment about debt collection agencies certainly seems well-founded where our experience is concerned. We had our eyes opened when we researched the activities of Robinson Way and its parent company, and saw from the annual reports just how much profit is generated from debt purchasing / debt collection activity.

As mentioned in my earlier post, the only reason we were able to rid ourselves of Robinson Way was by asking the Office of Fair Trading to intervene. But then. . . 'our' debt was suddenly in the hands of a quite different collection agency, an indication to us that Robinson Way had quickly dropped it after the OFT intervention -- and sold it on.

Our letters (thanks Martin, AGAIN!) to the credit agencies have now been despatched and we await their replies.

Will post here once we have some news. If it turns out that UK credit agencies are not distinguishing between an alleged default and a proven default, then we will certainly take the matter further: so far, we have battled with one of Britain's biggest energy companies (British Gas) and one of Britain's biggest debt collectors (Robinson Way), so locking horns with a British credit reference agency will be par for the course.