If anyone can advise it’d be greatly appreciated:

I tried applying for a credit card – I’ve never needed one before but I’m going travelling where bank cards aren’t accepted. I was refused on the basis that I’ve “made attempts to gain credit recently”. This isn’t true, I avoid debt in much the same way one avoids hugging zombies.

Is there any way of correcting this without subscribing to Experian / Equifax? I’ve just spoken to the latter and frankly wouldn’t trust them with operating a velcro strap.

Surely there must be a way of stopping these organisations from issuing false info about me without buying into their ‘services’, albeit via a free 30 day trial.

If anybody can advise… the rest of the internet isn’t helping much.

Ta.

I agree, it’s pants, they can have false information and share this as the truth and we have very little say in what it contains. There’s little real come back and if I recall, there’s very little you can do to change the data stored. My partner shared her name with a local, currently convicted crim so she struggled to have a good record for years, mine suffered by association. Nobody was very interested and banks black marked us for ages, which itself just makes it worse.

Edit: sorry that doesn’t help.

do the £2 check rather than subscribe, moneysavinexpert has some stuff on it. least it will cost is £6, most is if someone is cloning you

i remember when chris evans had some trouble getting a debenhams card as they had a special offer on…all because he never had any credit.the store got a fair bit of bad publicity over it and he made a bit of big deal about it..ive mostly had good credit which has always helped when sorting stuff on finance.make sure on the voters roll/have a phone number/all bills paid etc

Mike – the £2 check makes sense. Once I get over the indignant “that’s extortion” ranting phase.

Nobody was very interested…

It’s this. It’s like they’re only interested if they think they can make money out of you.

*hissyfit*

Can’t you get an experian 1 month trial of their service? Register, get all the details you need and cancel. I would say that is your best bet. The £15 a month they charge is extortionate

http://www.creditexpert.co.uk/

Mark

But it’s protectionism, isn’t it?

I’m signing up to / paying a company that is issuing false information about me. Why is there no way to complain about this happening without signing up?

wordnumb – Member

Why is there no way to complain about this happening without signing up?

I imagine you could make a FOI claim against them… Which will be more complicated, probably take longer, and most likely will cost more than £2.

I tried applying for a credit card – I’ve never needed one before but I’m going travelling where bank cards aren’t accepted.

Forgetting about the credit check fiasco for a minute, where doesn’t accept Visa/MC debit cards?

Q: An organisation has inaccurate information about me. What can I do?

You should write to the organisation explaining what the problem is and where appropriate provide them with any evidence to show what the information should say. Keep copies of this correspondence. If, after a reasonable amount of time (we would recommend 28 days) the information has not been corrected, you can make a complaint under the Data Protection Act. Please ensure that you supply copies of your correspondence, evidence and, if applicable, any response you receive.

where doesn’t accept Visa/MC debit cards?

Most recently certain French ticket agencies, but I’ve found plenty of places that only take credit cards. It’s also an issue of security, why give your bank card details over in Dodgyville when you can pay by credit and pay off credit card from current account?

I imagine you could make a FOI claim against them… Which will be more complicated, probably take longer, and most likely will cost more than £2.

*another fissyfit*

Pick up a phone and speak to them. Don’t hang up until you’ve spoken to someone who can help. I work for one of the above and I believe that correction of mis-information is a regular thing.

purpleyeti – that ain’t going to solve things before I travel.

Pick up a phone and speak to them. Don’t hang up until you’ve spoken to someone who can help. I work for one of the above and I believe that correction of mis-information is a regular thing.

Now there’s interesting. Thank you.

Most recently certain French ticket agencies, but I’ve found plenty of places that only take credit cards

TBH – I get about quite a bit and have never been told that a Visa debit card is no good but a credit card would be.
I also use a FairFX pre-paid card [Visa] and I can’t recall anyone ever declining that.

true but you didn’t give a time line, also if you have never applied for credit and wanted it this time why leave it till the last minute?

Experian and Equifax can’t correct your credit they can only highlight what is giving you a bad rating. I had a problem with Barclaycard stating that I had an unpaid balance that many years over due. In reality I had paid the amount in full and received a letter stating my account was closed with a nil balance. Experian were able to put a note to that effect on my credit history so anyone viewing it could request a copy of the letter.
To get the incorrect data removed I had to write to Barclaycard who informed me that I had still had a balance outstanding but couldn’t see were it had come from. They wouldn’t remove the bad credit reference until it was paid. Experian then advised me to leave it as it was that old that it would be removed from my history within 6 months, items stay on your history for 6 years iirc.
I contacted the Information Commissioners Office to report the breach of Data Protection in that they (Barclaycard) had recorded incorrect information about me. They stated to open a case but it would take at least 2 years for it to be looked at. I just left it to disappear off my record but must say Experian were great with their advice.

Purple – I’m not an idiot, it’s not exactly last minute. Having had cause to use the Data Protection Act previously – to great success – I know it takes far longer for a company to process an info request than it does for them to issue a card that allows them to make money from you.

Jota – Yeah, I thought the same until recently.

I got a couple of things removed from my equifax record as I was in dispute with the lender at the time. I threatened the credit rating agency with legal action as they were making false representations about me. As far as I am concerned if there isn’t a CCJ (an actual legal record of a debt/default) then they don’t have any legal right to say anything about me.

There are some threads on CAG about this. It’s called defamation.

Jota – Yeah, I thought the same until recently.

I’m not trying to have a go here, just give you some options to get away
I’m abroad now for around 4 or 5 months/year and exclusively use a debit card or pre-paid card, the only thing I can think of as a possible issue is car hire where they want to be able to charge you later.
Any debit card that’s backed by Visa or MC should be OK

In west africa debit cards might as well not exist like wise any mastercard. as the graduate who came to nigeria with me recently found out …… My company creditcard got raped for him to live while he was there.

Was first thing i got told when i joined up – get a visa cc!

Found the local CAB to be of great assistance recently when my Dad got scammed for a mobile phone, something he will never own. They also did a credit rating check through the agencies to check for other fraudulent attempts to use his details.

There are some threads on CAG about this. It’s called defamation.

Consumer action group, is that? Will investigate, thanks.

Jota – I didn’t think you were having a go. I have found places that don’t accept Visa/MC debit cards though – trying to use mine got my card frozen. Will look into pre-paid cards.

Under the data protection act you should be able to get access to data held on you for a nominal admin charge.

The following is from the wiki article on the act but the I think the key points are correct:

Data may only be used for the specific purposes for which it was collected.
Data must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the individual whom it is about, unless there is legislation or other overriding legitimate reason to share the information (for example, the prevention or detection of crime). It is an offence for Other Parties to obtain this personal data without authorisation.
Individuals have a right of access to the information held about them, subject to certain exceptions (for example, information held for the prevention or detection of crime).
Personal information may be kept for no longer than is necessary and must be kept up to date.
Personal information may not be sent outside the European Economic Area unless the individual whom it is about has consented or adequate protection is in place, for example by the use of a prescribed form of contract to govern the transmission of the data.
Subject to some exceptions for organisations that only do very simple processing, and for domestic use, all entities that process personal information must register with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The departments of a company that are holding personal information are required to have adequate security measures in place. Those include technical measures (such as firewalls) and organisational measures (such as staff training).
Subjects have the right to have factually incorrect information corrected (note: this does not extend to matters of opinion)