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As you may have seen from other threads, Ive had some bad info on my report after being overseas for many years. Most of the bad information I did not recognise, two of them were me (barclays and tmobile), two of them could have been me (lowells) and several were just underhand practices.
First off, I share the same name as my father. Family tradition, however a bane for the credit system. It seems in the years I have been away that because my father and I lived in the same house when I was first registered on the electoral roll, some creditors searching for new accounts (or trying to trace the now 'gone' me) have linked him to me at every address we have lived at since, and vice versa - even though we have only shared one address back in 1998. I have even had (and still sometimes get) letters from statute barred debts he has from his old company (sole trader). This all stems from DCA's deciding that my father is me and vice versa and just performing searches, thus linking addresses in the process. Underhand chaps.. underhand
Second, people in the house i used to live at have had some fun in my name while I was away (CRA's are investigating and I am at the stage of going to the police - last one was just a few weeks ago for a utility (gas) when I haven't lived there for over 5 years.).
third, there were two loans from barclays that I had, mostly paid off and only small amounts remaining when I moved. I sent them notice i was moving, gave new address in USA and asked for details such as IBAN numbers etc to make payments, but never heard anything back. There was also a tmobile account which I know for sure was mine but completely (hands up) forgot to pay.
Well, tmobile have taken me back on as a customer since my return. After some correspondence explaining the situation (all via my tmobile online customer area) they wiped the previous debt off and removed all negative entries from my report. Result.
But thats not the meat of what I want to get at. And maybe this hasnt been the experience of everyone, but what i found were the most powerful tools to get things cleaned up were joining two of those online credit file checkers on a paid for basis. I had tried getting things cleared up via the CRA's in writing but they didnt want to know really, just referred me to original creditors, who seemed to ignore CCA requests and ignore letters then just write to me demanding money. Once I was a customer of these credit checker services, they actually seemed to do the leg work for me. It came as no great surprise to find out these companies were actually the CRA's consumer arms.
With regard to 'first off' above, they cleaned things up - disconnected dad and me so neither of us show up as linked, nor did his addresses show up on my file or mine on his. My experian file updated within a few days and the others updated once i next refreshed the online report. Result worthy of the one email to each credit file service it took to send.
With regard to 'second' above, everything that I know for sure wasnt mine is gone and they are advising me how to proceed. Thats about 15k of unknown debts wiped off my report in a few emails. Result worthy of the three/four emails and scans of my passport showing my US visas and entry/exit stamps.
'Third,' barclays removed all defaults when approached by the credit checkers about those entries. Only lowells remain and we are still trying to find out if they are the same as the barclays ones or not - they appear to be as the dates match but the amounts are near double what barclays had on there. Lowells seem to not be responding to the credit file checkers on that one and the people I have been emailing seem to be a little miffed off at being ignored by lowells. I would have chalked it down to me being lied to/fobbed off was it not for the fact this is both callcredit and experian saying the same thing.
I guess what im trying to express (and without sounding like an advert for these kind of services) is that they helped me a lot. I got nowhere talking to CRA's until I was a customer of their credit checker services, then suddenly they pushed the owners of entries on my file and things disappeared. I could have just talked to creditors directly but im guessing that in the 2 months ive been sorting things out with the CRA's I would have not got the same result. I also know in the 6 months previously that writing to the CRA's got me nowhere fast. I was loathed to talk/write directly to the alleged creditors and DCAs as I know what they are like and from what I read online i would either have months of run around, ignorance, bulls**t, debt re-assignment or stonewalling. I did have to use a lot of terms ive picked up from sites like this when talking to these credit file people, but I think once they saw I knew what the system was like (again big thanks to sites like this) they just went off and did a lot of the leg work for me it seems. Any mods who wish to make sure im not one of these credit checker company bods can check my email address on this forum, my profile is all over the internet with me having been online since 1993.
so from what was a frustrating experience writing to CRA's originally, could have been even more of a mountain of work, writing and recorded delivery letters to now only having two defaults with lowells to contend with. I will post up things on this forum as they happen (and no doubt ask for advice) but my gut feeling is im going to have to duke it out with lowells and find out if these are actually my debts. If they are, im more than happy to settle them (only an other year of default on the CRA file anyway) i just want to make sure they are mine first. With them stonewalling the CRA's though its not like im going to have much luck myself. Perhaps a CCA req and hope the go into default.
Just my $0.02 and it may help others clean up files where they have been victims of fraud, circumstance and sometimes a bit silly on not chasing up creditors
Hell I could have just got lucky i suppose (see my americanism coming out there? I still even say tom-ay-toe and regularly get a good ribbin for it.)
First off, I share the same name as my father. Family tradition, however a bane for the credit system. It seems in the years I have been away that because my father and I lived in the same house when I was first registered on the electoral roll, some creditors searching for new accounts (or trying to trace the now 'gone' me) have linked him to me at every address we have lived at since, and vice versa - even though we have only shared one address back in 1998. I have even had (and still sometimes get) letters from statute barred debts he has from his old company (sole trader). This all stems from DCA's deciding that my father is me and vice versa and just performing searches, thus linking addresses in the process. Underhand chaps.. underhand
Second, people in the house i used to live at have had some fun in my name while I was away (CRA's are investigating and I am at the stage of going to the police - last one was just a few weeks ago for a utility (gas) when I haven't lived there for over 5 years.).
third, there were two loans from barclays that I had, mostly paid off and only small amounts remaining when I moved. I sent them notice i was moving, gave new address in USA and asked for details such as IBAN numbers etc to make payments, but never heard anything back. There was also a tmobile account which I know for sure was mine but completely (hands up) forgot to pay.
Well, tmobile have taken me back on as a customer since my return. After some correspondence explaining the situation (all via my tmobile online customer area) they wiped the previous debt off and removed all negative entries from my report. Result.
But thats not the meat of what I want to get at. And maybe this hasnt been the experience of everyone, but what i found were the most powerful tools to get things cleaned up were joining two of those online credit file checkers on a paid for basis. I had tried getting things cleared up via the CRA's in writing but they didnt want to know really, just referred me to original creditors, who seemed to ignore CCA requests and ignore letters then just write to me demanding money. Once I was a customer of these credit checker services, they actually seemed to do the leg work for me. It came as no great surprise to find out these companies were actually the CRA's consumer arms.
With regard to 'first off' above, they cleaned things up - disconnected dad and me so neither of us show up as linked, nor did his addresses show up on my file or mine on his. My experian file updated within a few days and the others updated once i next refreshed the online report. Result worthy of the one email to each credit file service it took to send.
With regard to 'second' above, everything that I know for sure wasnt mine is gone and they are advising me how to proceed. Thats about 15k of unknown debts wiped off my report in a few emails. Result worthy of the three/four emails and scans of my passport showing my US visas and entry/exit stamps.
'Third,' barclays removed all defaults when approached by the credit checkers about those entries. Only lowells remain and we are still trying to find out if they are the same as the barclays ones or not - they appear to be as the dates match but the amounts are near double what barclays had on there. Lowells seem to not be responding to the credit file checkers on that one and the people I have been emailing seem to be a little miffed off at being ignored by lowells. I would have chalked it down to me being lied to/fobbed off was it not for the fact this is both callcredit and experian saying the same thing.
I guess what im trying to express (and without sounding like an advert for these kind of services) is that they helped me a lot. I got nowhere talking to CRA's until I was a customer of their credit checker services, then suddenly they pushed the owners of entries on my file and things disappeared. I could have just talked to creditors directly but im guessing that in the 2 months ive been sorting things out with the CRA's I would have not got the same result. I also know in the 6 months previously that writing to the CRA's got me nowhere fast. I was loathed to talk/write directly to the alleged creditors and DCAs as I know what they are like and from what I read online i would either have months of run around, ignorance, bulls**t, debt re-assignment or stonewalling. I did have to use a lot of terms ive picked up from sites like this when talking to these credit file people, but I think once they saw I knew what the system was like (again big thanks to sites like this) they just went off and did a lot of the leg work for me it seems. Any mods who wish to make sure im not one of these credit checker company bods can check my email address on this forum, my profile is all over the internet with me having been online since 1993.
so from what was a frustrating experience writing to CRA's originally, could have been even more of a mountain of work, writing and recorded delivery letters to now only having two defaults with lowells to contend with. I will post up things on this forum as they happen (and no doubt ask for advice) but my gut feeling is im going to have to duke it out with lowells and find out if these are actually my debts. If they are, im more than happy to settle them (only an other year of default on the CRA file anyway) i just want to make sure they are mine first. With them stonewalling the CRA's though its not like im going to have much luck myself. Perhaps a CCA req and hope the go into default.
Just my $0.02 and it may help others clean up files where they have been victims of fraud, circumstance and sometimes a bit silly on not chasing up creditors
Hell I could have just got lucky i suppose (see my americanism coming out there? I still even say tom-ay-toe and regularly get a good ribbin for it.)
