Nobody has the right to credit. Before giving you credit, lenders such as banks, loan companies and shops want to be confident that you can repay the money they lend. To help them do this, they may look at the information held by companies called credit reference agencies.

If personal information held about you is incorrect or out of date, it could lead to you being unfairly refused credit.?
What are credit reference agencies?

Credit reference agencies (CRAs) give lenders a range of information about potential borrowers, which lenders use to make decisions about whether they will offer you credit or not. They hold certain information about most adults in the UK.

The three main consumer CRAs in the UK are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Most of the information held by the CRAs relates to how you have maintained your credit and service/utility accounts. It also includes details of your previous addresses and information from public sources such as the electoral roll, public records including county court judgments, and bankruptcy and insolvency data.

The information held by the CRAs is also used to verify the identity, age and residency of individuals, to identify and track fraud, to combat money laundering and to help recover payment of debts. Government bodies may also access this credit data to check that individuals are entitled to certain benefits and to recover unpaid taxes and similar debts.

CRAs are licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Refused credit?

If you think you have been refused credit unfairly, you can ask the lender to explain the main reason why and review their decision. Even if the lender reviews their decision, they may still turn you down. You can request a copy of the information about your financial standing on your credit reference file from any of the three main CRAs in the UK.

How do I get access to information on my credit reference file?

You have the right to request a copy of the information held about your financial standing from any of the CRAs. Making this request is free of charge. You can make a request verbally or in writing. The CRAs also usually provide an online form you can use to apply. If you make your request verbally, we recommend you follow it up in writing to provide a clear trail of correspondence. It will also provide clear evidence of your actions.

If you make your request in writing, your letter should include:
  • your full name;
  • any other names you have used or been known by in the last six years eg your maiden name;
  • your full address including postcode;
  • any other addresses you have lived at in the last six years; and
  • your date of birth.
You should keep a copy of your letter and you may want to send it by recorded delivery to demonstrate that your request has been sent and received. Unless the CRA needs more information, they have one month from receiving your request to respond. In certain circumstances they may need extra time to consider your request and can take up to an extra two months. If they are going to do this, the CRA should let you know within one month that it needs more time and why.

Sometimes the CRAs need more details from you before they can send you the information held on your file. For example, they may need proof of your name and address from a utility bill or bank statement. This is important to make sure that no one else gets your information by mistake or to check that no one else has fraudulently applied for your credit reference file. The CRAs do not have to send you your file until they get this information.

The addresses of the CRAs are:

Equifax Ltd
Customer Service Centre
P.O. Box 10036
Leicester
LE3 4FS
0800 014 2955

http://www.equifax.co.uk

Experian Ltd
Customer Support Centre
PO Box 9000
Nottingham
NG80 7WF
0800 013 8888

Experian website

TransUnion Consumer Services Team
PO Box 491
Leeds
LS3 1WZ
0330 024 7574

https://www.transunion.com/

Do I have to get my credit report from all three CRAs?

As there is no requirement under data protection law for lenders to report such data to all the CRAs, it is up to the lender to decide which CRA they wish to use, if any.

While we appreciate it is frustrating you may have to obtain three copies of your credit reference file. You may want to consider obtaining one report first as it could be that all accounts appear on there and you won’t have to obtain the other two. You could ask your lenders which CRAs they use to help narrow this down. You may find that they all use one, or even all of, the CRAs.

Why do I have to sign up to a monthly subscription service to see information about me? Surely I should be allowed to access this for free.

While all three CRAs offer products which allow an individual instant access to their credit report via a monthly subscription service, there is no obligation on anyone to have to sign up to any of these products in order to get a copy of the information about their financial standing on their credit file.

If you want to request information about your financial standing, look for the phrase ‘statutory report’ on the CRAs’ websites. You don’t need to pay a fee for obtaining a statutory report.

Do the CRAs need my consent to hold all this information on me?

No. Data protection law doesn’t actually require the CRAs, or any other organisation, to have your consent before they are allowed to process your personal data. They can use it without consent if they have a valid reason and as long as you have been told what is going to happen to your data. These reasons are known in the law as a ‘lawful basis’, and there are six lawful bases organisations can use. If you have taken out a loan or credit card you will probably find details of this in the original terms and conditions that you signed.

What else do the CRAs do with personal data?

All of the CRAs have different business functions running through them.

As well as credit referencing, CRAs also operate other activities such as direct marketing and lead generating functions. The data they sell in this area of their business may include information which the CRAs have bought from local authorities about individuals who had not previously opted-out of the full or ‘open’ electoral register and information from other sources, such as lifestyle questionnaires and competition entries.

What should I do if my credit file is inaccurate?

If your credit file is inaccurate, you can raise your concerns with the relevant CRA you obtained your file from. However, the problem may lie with the original lender or organisation that supplied the CRA with the information so you will need to contact them instead.

If you have contacted the CRA and the original lender and there is an obvious inaccuracy which they are unwilling to correct then you may wish to make a complaint to the ICO. Please note that it's not our role to decide on financial disputes.

Who is responsible for the information on my credit file?

It is easy to see why people assume the CRAs are responsible for all the information that appears on their credit file. However, in reality, the lenders and telecoms and utility companies who passed the information to the CRA in the first place also have responsibilities for the information that appears on your credit file.

As a general rule, if the entry you are looking at has the name of a company on it, it’s likely to be that company who is responsible for that entry. The CRAs cannot amend this data without the permission of that company.

Having said this, we still expect the CRAs to take reasonable measures to ensure the information that is reported by lenders via their credit files is accurate.

The information that is generated by the CRAs and for which they are responsible, includes financial links, linked addresses and alias information.

If the bank is responsible for this data why can’t they just update the entry on my credit file? It seems like it would be quicker.

They can. Each of the CRAs provides lenders with the facilities to make their own changes to the information you see on your credit file. So if your bank needs to make an urgent update they can do this without requesting that the CRA makes the changes for them.

Do organisations need my consent to carry out a credit search?

Data protection law doesn’t actually require these organisations to have gained your consent before they can carry out a search of your credit file as long as they have a lawful basis for doing so and you have been told that this search is going to take place. If you have taken out a loan or credit card you will probably find this in the original terms and conditions that you signed.

Source : ICO
https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/credit/