Credit Reference Agency Search

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Repossession : One Thread

I have today received a copy of my credit files from Equifax and Experian and noticed a search conducted by Facility Trading Services who are chasing us for a £15000 shortfall on behalf of Citibank. Is this something they all do - I haven't noticed it on my records in the past. We have not been paying the small monthly sum we agreed to pay(before I came involved with the home repo site). Do you think they are trying to find out if it's worth pursuing us. We have a lot of outstanding credit agreements but our credit files are clean.

-- sue gates (sue.gates@ntlworld.com), November 22, 2000

Answers

If you have not authorized a credit search, and, if you have not applied for credit to this company then this credit search is un- authorized. You should register a complaint with the Bank concerned and request a deadlock letter on this point so that you can complain to the Banking Ombudsman. At the same time you should request an assessment from the Data Protection Commissioner. This all goes to causing the lender that you are in dispute with a degree of grief, they know that at the end of the day they will have to endure investigation regarding their investigations into your finances.

Nobody is allowed to issue un-authorized credit searches, it is a breach of the credit comsumer laws.

-- (michael_zena@hotmail.com), November 24, 2000.


How come there is a search every year on my file from the lender/MIG Co then? And I mean EVERY year since my repossession? If I complain, surely I risk them finding me? Equifax and Experian record on the file if the holder of that file gets a copy. It creates a trail - believe me!

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), November 24, 2000.

Could you just clarify something please. If they are saying that we owe them money doesn't that give them the right to search our credit files even though they are "acting" for someone else in trying to recover this so called debt? If you are right in your original response then I'm going to do everything you suggested.

Thanks

-- sue gates (sue.gates@ntlworld.com), November 25, 2000.


There are some grey areas here and I think that it will do you no harm at all to ask the DPC for an Assessment of your case. I think that it would be useful to give the details of circumstances under which you were persuaded to offer a settlement figure. Did the company concerned dupe you in some way into giving income information? Were you under the impression that you were required to do so? Obtaining your personal data ('processing' it) may be unlawful in these kinds of circumstances. If the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) takes an interest, it may well (a) help keep your case out of court, and (b) help others. If you need addresses etc please email me privately.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), November 28, 2000.

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