One man spent years trying to fix his credit score - and even changed his name - after being wrongly chased for another person's debts

Gareth Pierce-Jones changed his name and has resorted to court action after he was linked to a serial debt defaulter with the same first name, surname and identical date of birth. His case highlights the intractable difficulties people face trying to rectify errors on their credit files, which are checked by lenders every time a customer applies for credit cards, mortgages or mobile phone contracts. Mr Pierce-Jones, 35, has been repeatedly hounded for another person’s debts since 2010. He changed his surname from Jones to Pierce-Jones in August 2012 to try to solve the problem, but the other individual’s debts remained recorded on his credit file. “I was horrified that something like this could happen,” he said, “especially as there was often no warning. It is embarrassing and financially debilitating.”

He said: “I didn’t want to change my name, but I thought I needed to do something proactive. I wanted to make it as clear as I possibly could that I was not the 'Gareth Jones’ they were looking for.” Lenders and debt collectors can use credit reference information to help trace customers who owe money, and Experian and other credit reference agencies provide tracing services to help with this process. The lender is supposed to verify the information is accurate. However, once one organisation has wrongly linked a customer to someone else with similar details, others often follow the same trail. The debt collectors were recording the debts on Mr Pierce-Jones’ credit record, making it difficult to secure credit, as well as sending letters demanding payment. He signed up to a month’s free trial with credit reference agency Equifax and has been a paying member of Experian since 2010. He also signed up to receive alerts from Noddle, a free service provided by agency Callcredit.............Read more here