These agencies are just go betweeners and are never responsible for anything that is incorrect....leaving you to sort it out in your own time and espence. Its another one of those bad banking stories
Look at these recent disputes:-
These are people who not even insolvent!
Case 1:
I recently applied for a 90% mortgage and was told i could borrow upto £200k. After applying for a 180k i was rejected due to poor credit, i checked this with experian and had a score of 999 but was not listed on the electoral role at my current address. I investigated this with the local authority and these details are updated quarterly.
Having the precise reason for rejecting credit would help target your own personal investigation. ''Poor credit score doesn't mean anything and just leaves you fustrated and angry'' My local bank branch now has to put a case forward as an exception
Case 2
One of the main problems seems to be that if a lender tells the Credit Reference agencies there is a missed payment (or whatever) and this turns out to be incorrect that same company will then tell the customer it's not their problem to sort out the mess they have created. It is then down to the customer to contact all 3 agencies and live with an impaired credit rating for as long as it takes. Surely if the agency has listed incorrect information from a bank it should be easy for the bank to send the correct information and wipe out the black mark.
In my husband's case Halifax 'forgot' to send the first statement for a new credit card. They also failed to set up the direct debit for minimum payment he had requested. He didn't know what the billing cycle was (as it was the first bill) and missed the payment. Halifax have apologised but say they can't do anything about the information the Credit Reference agencies hold. He has now had his overdraft facility reduced by Nationwide.
Case 3
I've recently apply for a mortgage, the broker assure me I could get up to 250k towards a mortgage of up to 80% LTV property.
After the credit check was carry out I was only allowed to borrow 130k, I should have an excellent credit history as I never defaults on any payments.
The frustrating bit is that the broker was unable to tell me why I had such poor credit report !!
Maybe the husband in the middle one needs to take some responsibility for missing the payment - what was to stop him making a phone call to find out the billing cycle?
The 100% automated process in credit file managment is an issue.It affects I think 8% of people [4 milion?],and can be traumatic.
There needs to be more of a personal touch and not left to a computer that cannot differential between deliberate none payment and a payment that say got lost. There is clearly an issue with the system that put too much onus on people whose role not only to pay by demand but also to ensure it gets there?? Nonsense?
If a IVA payment goes missing, even though it has gone out of the debtors bank, then whose fault is that should it lead to a default? Would anyone ring their IVA firm ever month to say,did you get the payment? I never done that in 2 and half years.Once you've paid then it transfers to [Others] responsibility, and no one should be penalised for errors not of their own making.
It appears that if you have the same first and surname as someone else you could possibly see yours and their data rolled erronously into one file. Again,its the fault of the system in place.It has happened.
Last edited by needmoremoney on Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My point is that if you have a credit card you know you are going to get billed for it so surely you have to take some responsibility rather than just blaming the bank.
If the payment leaves your bank correctly and goes into a holding account that's different to not making the payment at all.
Credit reference agencies are an excellent way of checking on people's credit. They rely on information from companies and from us to make sure the information is correct.
I don't think that posting other peoples cases (and how do we know these are genuine?) will help people on this site.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
