Experian & Equifax

[Bri w]

Been trying to sort out a mortgage for a wee while and wondering why there seemed to be hiccups and delays. Decided to do my own credit search and score using both Experian & Equifax.

Found the hiccup.... some to$$3r had taken out a credit card in my name, maxed it out and done a runner. The address used was one we'd lived at 6 years before, and it had been bought as a by to let and had had a number of tenants through it.

It would appear that its worth doing your own checks on a regular basis, not just when you are applying for credit.

[timwilky]

Agree, hopefully you can get your record sorted.

My son had a hiccup. Between signing the contract and completing his mortgage company pulled out. Stating on his application he had not given his middle name and subsequent checks had failed him.

So desperate to find out why he had failed under his full name we did a check. Interestingly there were no issues. But it disclosed his mortgage company had run checks in both forms of his name at the time of his application and that their reason was bogus. Armed with this he was able to persuade them that they had put him in a position where he was having to pay a penalty for failing to complete simply because of their decision to attempt to retrospectively withdraw a product and we would go to the financial ombudsman. Result they agreed to reinstate the mortgage.

Sometimes it is useful to know who has been looking at your financial record.

[yorkie_chris]

I believe there is some security you can put on your credit file to reduce the chances of fraud, but I'm not sure.

I was with Experian and found it good, but it did mean I couldnt even open a new bank account in my own name with all the docs on a Saturday morning till head office had checked it..

best of luck getting it sorted.

[Bri w]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I believe there is some security you can put on your credit file to reduce the chances of fraud, but I'm not sure.

Got it now Chris. As part of the service Experian/Equifax provide you can have email/text alerts when someone does a search on your file. That way when a scroat applies for credit using your name you get the nod before any damage is done.

Bri,
Be sure to phone up experian and equifax and ask for confirmation of closure of your account in writing.
We needed them to find why our mortgage was also unapproved.
However after we'd finsihed with them and I called to request the accounts be closed they basically refuse saying things like "we'll leave it open for 6months to see if you'd like to access it again in the future" Crafty to say after 3 months the service starts costing £6.50p/month.

They're as dirty as the rest of em, experian gave me loads of agro when I tried to close the account. Saying things like "but dont you think its more sensible to keep our service, how will you know if you've got a porblem with fraud" All sorts of similar things geared towards making me poo my self and happily agree to give them some of my monthly earnings.

[Fallout]

Interesting side point, but Experian and Equifax have different scores, and inconsistent data between them. When we applied for a mortgage, my Mrs has some minor credit blemishes and we were denied. This was with a bank that uses Equifax. When we checked Experian we found the blemishes had not been listed and her credit rating was perfect. We then Googled for banks that used Experian, which turned up a couple, went to them, and got our mortgage.

It's all a game, just like everything else.

[dyzio]

I've received an alert from Experian that a search had been done on me by "CREDIT REPORTING AGENCY LTD", can't find anyone with that specific name on a google search.

I've made a car insurance check the other day, which can clearly be seen, but this one came a few days later and around the time someone was trying to pay out some money from my account.

Anyone know who they might be?

[maviczap]

Interesting post Bri

We've been inundated by phone calls from debt companies chasing someone who's obviously used our address to get a loan or credit card. I might do a check myself, might pay dividends in the long run