THIS TRANSCRIPT IS ISSUED ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT IT IS TAKEN FROM A LIVE PROGRAMME AS IT WAS BROADCAST. THE NATURE OF LIVE BROADCASTING MEANS THAT NEITHER THE BBC NOR THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROGRAMME CAN GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION HERE.
MONEY BOX LIVE Presenter: PAUL LEWIS 14th APRIL 2008
TRANSMISSION:
3.00-3.30pm
RADIO 4
LEWIS:
Hello.
Well time was if you had a bank account, an address Not any more.
and a vote, you could borrow pretty much what you wanted.
Borrowing money is getting tougher and banks are rationing mortgages and pricing loans by looking at the credit records of the people who apply. If your record has
blemishes, then at worst you won’t get the loan; at best, you’ll be charged a premium rate for it. The banks call it personal pricing or risk based pricing. As your credit
score falls and other information counts against you, the price of the loan goes up. And it’s not just new customers who have to take care. find they’re being carefully assessed by lenders. People remortgaging will
Credit card providers are also They claim
cutting credit limits or even withdrawing cards from existing customers.
to do that again on the basis of risk, and risk is assessed mainly from your credit record. So what exactly does your credit record say and how is a credit score Identity theft and fear of it is
worked out? It’s not just when you borrow money. growing.
Often you don’t even know it’s happened until you’re refused credit What can the credit reference
because your record has been tainted by someone else.
agencies do about ID fraud and how helpful are they when it’s happened? Well whatever your question, you can call Money Box Live now - 08700 100 444. With
me today to answer your questions about credit reports are Owen Roberts, who’s Head of Consumer at Callcredit, the newest entrant to the credit reference business; Neil Munroe, External Affairs director for Equifax, one of the older credit reference agencies; and they’re joined by Anna Fielder, Senior Policy Adviser from the National Consumer Council. Pauline, your question?
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Our first question is from Pauline who’s in Crawley.
PAULINE:
Yes, I want to know how it can be that although I’ve had a
perfect credit rating, I’ve never owed money … - I do have an issue with a telephone company who claim I owe them £48, but this is after a series of mis-selling - that suddenly I’ve found that I have a credit rating, which wouldn’t enable me to get another credit card.
LEWIS:
Right.
And how do you know that? You’ve applied for a
credit card and it’s been turned down?
PAULINE:
(over) Yes I have.
I just find it incredible that they can
accept another company’s word, who incidentally also owe me money, and yet don’t even refer to the person whose credit rating has been dented.
LEWIS: company.
Right, so you’ve got a dispute with this mobile phone
PAULINE:
Yes.
LEWIS:
That, you believe, has gone onto your credit record and that is
stopping you get a credit card.
PAULINE: Experian.
Yes, I have actually discovered that from a readout from
LEWIS:
Okay, let’s put that to Neil Munroe first.
MUNROE:
Yes, obviously what we’re seeing here is information is We get information from public sources, but
supplied from a number of sources. also from lenders.
And those lenders can be people like mobile phone operators, so I mean what we
Pauline I can understand your concerns about that being registered.
do offer very much voluntarily is a dispute process, so that if you want to raise that dispute with us … In your case if you’ve got your Experian report, go back to Experian, raise the dispute. They will actually engage with 3G, I think it is out here,
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to actually go through that dispute and hopefully resolve it for you. operate a dispute process to allow you to have your say in these matters.
So we do
PAULINE:
But I think my question is how can you go on somebody’s file
like that when it’s just a minor amount - something like £48 - when I’ve had you know 6 to 8 years of no problems with money finance at all?
MUNROE:
Okay, I mean if I may just answer.
The information that we The lender that you’ve
hold, we don’t actually provide the rating to the lender. applied to makes that decision.
They have their own scoring model, so they will Obviously their
have taken all of that information on your file into account. particular criteria, they felt it was important.
You know we can all get in contact
with these organisations and solve it for you, so my advice would be to engage Experian, raise a dispute - which you can do very easily - and get them to you know work it through with the lender.
LEWIS:
Anna Fielder from National Consumer Council?
FIELDER:
Yes, what I would advise you is that you have an absolute
right to know what’s held, what information is held in your name, and you have a right to correct it if it’s wrong. What you can do in a case like this, as well as the
dispute resolution that Neil mentioned, is to put a notice of correction on your credit file. You have two hundred words to actually state what the case is and why the
information is wrong and any lender that will look at your file will see that notice of correction. And in the meantime you also need to take the dispute with 3G and
resolve it, not necessarily with 3G but to take it to another dispute resolution mechanism.
LEWIS:
Yes.
There is a question though, isn’t there, of the credit
agencies themselves publishing this information on the basis simply of what the banks tell you, Owen? How do you know it’s correct what they put on the file?
ROBERTS:
Our aim at Callcredit and the involved credit reference That’s what we’re here for.
agencies is only to share information that’s correct.
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We’re only as good as the information that people provide to us and, as Neil talked about, there’s a process for you as an individual that if you see that data on there is wrong, you can go through that process and get that put right.
LEWIS:
Yes, but it’s how quickly, isn’t it? I mean I must say we’ve
had a large number of emails like this expressing very similar concerns to Pauline people who’ve had minor disputes but then find their record is against them. And
one man, Patrick, emailed us to say, ‘How on earth can a credit reference agency libel or defame me’, he puts it, ‘when I’ve not been given the right to reply?’ And you
know anyone who publishes information that is defamatory has to be sure it’s correct or remove it, don’t they?
ROBERTS:
And that’s what we do every day.
We spend a lot of time
making sure that the information on our files is correct and we consult with lenders. We make sure that when consumers see the report, they’re given the chance firstly to see their report quickly and easily and cheaply; and, secondly, when they’ve seen it that there’s a process they can follow to get the information on there put right.
LEWIS:
Okay, let’s bring in Richard from Leeds now, who I think has Richard?
had one of these problems.
RICHARD:
No, I don’t think I’ve had one of those problems.
LEWIS: your question?
Richard, I do beg your pardon.
I misunderstood.
What’s
RICHARD:
It’s really about a year ago, thanks to a small inheritance, I
was able to pay off my mortgage early and since then I’ve been living entirely debt free. My plan will eventually be to buy another house in about 18 months time,
depending upon the housing market, but I expect to have to borrow as much as I’m allowed to. With all of the lenders changing the way they profile borrowers, I’d like to know how my credit rating is affected by having no debt registered against me at all?
LEWIS:
Okay.
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RICHARD:
Does my good credit score vanish off the radar?
LEWIS:
Before we answer that, let’s bring Lorraine in who has a
similar problem to yours.
LORRAINE:
Yes, hello.
My question is, is it necessary to have a credit
card so that you can build up a credit rating - for instance, you know when applying for a mortgage - because I was wondering as my children approach their middle twenties and they want to apply for a mortgage and they’ve never had a credit card or any debt at all, is that in fact now a bad thing?
LEWIS:
Okay and we’ve had any number of emails about this too.
Neil, tell us what the rules are.
MUNROE:
Well obviously, going back to Richard’s question, if that
information when he’s borrowed money (his mortgage, for example) was actually shared with the credit reference agency, it sounds like it may be, although if it’s an old mortgage, it may not have done.
LEWIS:
Because they drop off after how many years?
MUNROE:
They drop off after 6 years on the files, but obviously it
depends whether at the time he took the mortgage out he gave his permission to have that information shared. But the credit card, paying it off each month, will go as a So the one thing I would recommend, Richard, is that
very positive in your favour.
you do make sure you’re identifiable - more and more these days, people are looking at the threat of fraud - and to make sure that obviously you’re on the electoral roll. I
would suggest your credit card record will show you’ve got a good repayment and a good ability to repay and hopefully your previous mortgage is on there. copy of your file from any three of the bureaus for £2 and check that out. But get a And more
and more people are doing that with all three credit bureaus at this particular stage in the economic cycle because I think the penny’s finally dropping that it’s worthwhile just ticking that box before you do go for that mortgage application.
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LEWIS:
As I say, we’ve had a lot of emails about this with similar Simon says, ‘Never having I was hoping
problems to Lorraine and Richard or similar questions.
had a credit card or a store card, I’m concerned I don’t have a history. to look for a house this year.’
We’ve had a question from Alan who says, ‘Is it true And
that not appearing on the electoral roll adversely affects your credit rating?’
then we’ve had another one from Jill who says, ‘My son and daughter are students. They’ve got mobile phones. credit cards?’ They are on the electoral register. Should they get
Another one from a student - Mr B - who’s looking for a mortgage.
It’s a real problem for people, isn’t it? Anna?
FIELDER:
Well I would make the general comment that it seems very
strange to us and me from a consumer perspective that you have to get into debt in order to prove that you can repay that debt. It seems a ridiculous state of affairs and I would be very interested to hear from colleagues how consumers can solve this problem. I mean I have student daughters myself and they got credit cards and got There should be a situation whereby people can actually prove they
into big debt.
are good payers without having to get into debt in the first place.
LEWIS:
Yes and of course I suppose in a sense the banks want good
payers but not perfect payers because they make money out of people who are in debt, don’t they?
FIELDER:
(over) Yes, exactly … exactly.
LEWIS:
Owen, let me raise another point.
Thanks to Lorraine and
Richard and all those emailers by the way.
Let me raise another point that actually
mentions Callcredit, which is why I raise it with you, and this is a slightly different one, I think. This is from a lady called Carol who says that she applied to buy some Callcredit then ran a credit check and based on those results What’s going on here?
shares through a broker.
her application was declined.
ROBERTS:
What appears to be going on is that it’s not a check for credit
worthiness; it’s a check for establishing identity - so all the brokers and share dealers
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are obliged to make sure there’s no money laundering going on with their clients, so they run anti-money laundering checks. Now these have traditionally been done by What’s happening now
the client bringing in pieces of paper and proofs of identity.
is it’s more and more possible to do those electronically, so this sounds like a case whereby the broker is trying to do an electronic verification on this client, they’ve failed that electronic verification and ordinarily the broker would then fall back on the paper process. Without knowing the details of the case, I couldn’t be sure.
LEWIS:
Sure.
So it’s a question if that happens to you, get in touch
with the broker or whoever and say look why have you done this? And you can always do that Neil, can’t you? You can always ask, “Why have you turned me down?”
MUNROE:
Absolutely.
And all the lenders signed up to a document that
was agreed with the Office of Fair Trading called ‘Guide to Credit Scoring’, which actually obliges lenders to tell you why. And I think it’s very important in this
particular state we’re in at the moment because obviously you may find that people will turn you down not because your credit file has any misdemeanours on it or anything wrong with it, but purely because it’s not fitting the profile. And therefore
ask the question because the last thing any of us wants at the credit reference agencies is to set you on a wild goose chase checking your file only to find out there’s nothing wrong with it, for us to have to pass you back to the lender. industry. That’s not good for the
LEWIS:
Yes, so it is the old question of if you’re not on the electoral And
roll, if you don’t have a credit history of any sort, it’s quite hard to get on it.
you can even be turned down for something that isn’t credit, which is buying shares.
MUNROE:
Well I think this is just an indication of the way the
information is being used across the industry and it’s also an indication maybe with other areas where it’s using. A lot of people don’t realise mobile phone contracts
are credit agreements, mail order accounts are deemed as credit agreements, and so you know there will be a credit check done when you apply for those things.
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LEWIS:
Yes, yes.
So it’s a problem, but not a very easy solution to it Andrew from
except always argue with people, which has always been my answer. Pontypool is next.
ANDREW: my credit file.
Well I’ve a question relating to information that’s been put on I’m dealing with Experian who’ve been very good so far, but
information has been put on by Barclaycard and O2 relating to an address link for a person with a similar name to me but is not me. get Barclaycard to remove this information. I have been trying for two years to
They’ve not responded to any of my
correspondence, although with the help of Experian they seem to be moving to take it off my file. But they haven’t done so yet. I mean you know these companies put
information on my file without contacting me to see if the information was correct and it’s very difficult to get it off.
LEWIS: completely wrong …
Indeed.
And in your case, from what you say, it’s
ANDREW:
Absolutely.
LEWIS: involved there.
… and I would say defamatory and there could be a libel But anyway, Anna, what do you say?
FIELDER:
Well I think this is a prime example of really appalling Under the law, you have
customer service nightmare from the part of this company.
an absolute right to see your information and correct it if it’s wrong and also under the Data Protection Act you have a right if your information is wrong and not being corrected to ask for compensation. So that’s what I would advise you to do.
ANDREW:
Right.
LEWIS:
And ask for compensation from the credit reference agency …
FIELDER:
Yes.
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LEWIS:
…or from the bank?
FIELDER:
(over) No … from the lender, yeah.
LEWIS:
But it’s the credit reference agency that’s publishing it.
If I
broadcast a fib, it’s me that’s liable or the BBC, not the person who told me the fib.
FIELDER:
Yes, I understand and I’m sure the colleagues here will help
out with this information - that you have to accept the information from the lender; you can’t correct it yourself. Is that right?
LEWIS:
Neil?
MUNROE:
Well I mean that is right, but I think let me just add a couple If there are issues, we
of points and we’re not going to shy away from these issues.
do now fall under the Financial Ombudsman Scheme, so that is somewhere where you can go. We are obviously very tightly controlled by the Data Protection Registrar
and we have you know very frequent meetings with them about the data and you know they contact us now and again with queries. So there are routes for you and
we do stand up to our obligations on this and we quite willingly will work with the Financial Ombudsman Service if anybody has a problem or the Data Protection Registrar.
LEWIS:
So it may be worth, Andrew, contacting either of those
organisations - the Financial Ombudsman or the Data Protection Registrar. I’m pretty sure the Financial Ombudsman link will be on our website. Whether the Data
Protection Registrar is, I’m not sure, but you can easily find that by doing a search. Thank you very much for your call and good luck with getting that sorted out and perhaps getting some compensation. your question? Carl is calling us now from Ilminster. Carl,
CARL:
It’s actually two questions really.
It’s first of all the quality To the previous caller,
of the data that’s held by the three credit reference agencies.
this registrar, that would be sort of like an audit, I would think, but preferably I would
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like to see sort of an independent assessor to sort of assess these credit reference agencies on a regular basis and make public what the result is.
LEWIS:
And by an independent assessor, you mean who?
CARL:
Well I don’t know if there is an assessor, but …
LEWIS: other point quickly?
Okay, we’ll get an answer to that suggestion.
What’s your
CARL:
The other point is … oh yes, the front page of the website.
Your statutory right is that for £2 you get a credit report, but it’s hidden in the website, so really it would be a web redesign to have this statutory right to your credit report on the front page of all the agencies.
LEWIS:
Yes, we’ve had a few emails or a couple of emails anyway
about this too saying why is it that the £2 report, which is the cheap one which everyone has a right to, is not in big letters on the front of your website and why is the one we pay so much a month for in big letters on the front of the website? Owen?
ROBERTS:
The aim of all of us is to really make sure that you as a
consumer get the report that’s right for you, so at no point do we try and hide the fact that you can pay £2. At the same time, we would be lying if we said that £2 covered
the costs for any of the credit reference agencies to send out that report.
LEWIS:
No, but you’re legally obliged to do it, aren’t you?
ROBERTS:
The price was set 10 years ago, hasn’t changed in over 10
years, and was set at £2; and as the cost of providing that report’s gone up, the price has stayed the same, and it’s important that as consumers you can get your report for that £2. We’ve also got services that add value, so the online services are often a There’s a lot more information more tailored to the
little bit easier to read. consumer.
And then they have things like credit monitoring, so if you’re worried
about ID theft or knowing when changes happen to your file, then you can pay extra
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and have those services.
The honest answer to the question is we’re trying to offer
the product that’s right for the consumer.
LEWIS:
Hmn.
Or the one that’s most profitable for you, Neil,
because I mean on your site it isn’t even on the front page, is it, the £2 statutory report?
MUNROE:
Well this will give you something not to talk about in the
future, Paul, because on the 16th - i.e. this week - that site is changing.
LEWIS: change it, Neil?
Right, so after what, five years of nagging, you’re going to Well done. (laughter)
MUNROE:
Well don’t say I never listen to you.
I mean I agree with I think maybe You will find
obviously Owen’s view on that.
I mean we will be changing ours.
the question has been directed more at us. I’m fully aware of that.
now that there will be a more obvious £2 access available on our site, as I say, from later on this week, so appreciate the comment.
LEWIS:
And you say I think in your statements earlier that there is a
big growth in the number of people getting their credit report, presumably because it is getting harder to get credit with a blemish on your report?
MUNROE:
It is.
I mean, as you know, I’ve spent five, six years trying to
get people educated on this subject and I think there’s one thing, which is the credit crunch, which has convinced everybody that you know it’s the sensible thing to do.
LEWIS:
Anna?
FIELDER:
Well I’m very glad to hear that Neil is going to put this
information on his front page.
LEWIS:
It’s the size of type we’ll be looking out for, won’t we?
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FIELDER:
Yes. I think that’s absolutely right: I mean these are However, from our perspective all
businesses and they’re trying to make money.
you need is probably a cheap report once a year to check that all the data is correct there. If you’ve been a victim of fraud, you might need to look at it a bit more but
there’s no reason why you should pay £7.50 a month or more for a service that you don’t actually need. In the US, for example, these reports are given free - at least One other
one report a year free - so I think absolutely you should put this upfront. point I want to make.
I read somewhere that one of the agencies get about 650,000 That makes, what, over a million and a half
requests for £2 credit report a year. pounds.
LEWIS:
1.3 million.
FIELDER: know.
Is that not enough to cover the costs? You know, I don’t
LEWIS: sensitive.
No, well none of us knows that. But good news anyway.
I’m sure it’s commercially
And just briefly, Anna, just on the question of They do seem to
these other things.
You said some of them aren’t worth having.
offer you a service though.
You can be told if someone else has accessed your credit
report, you can have regular updates on your credit report, you can look at it any time of the day or night for a year. might be willing to pay for it? Some people might want that, mightn’t they, and
FIELDER: that.
Some people might want that and might be willing to pay for But the average person probably doesn’t need that as I mean even if you request two or three reports
That’s absolutely fine.
long as you regularly look at your …
per year, that’s still £6 per year as opposed to £7 a month.
LEWIS:
Yes and certainly worth doing that at least to know what’s on
there and what data people are sharing.
FIELDER:
So the conclusion would be give people the information
upfront and let them choose.
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LEWIS:
Okay, we’ve just had an email come in and I’ll take that He says, ‘Is it true that every time you
before we go to the next caller, from Steve.
request a check with a credit reference agency, taking out a loan or something like that, this counts against your credit rating?’ Neil?
MUNROE:
Well every time you do make an application, there will be a That’s actually done for transparency, for you
search recorded on your credit file.
the individual as much as anything, so you know that your file has actually been accessed. Searches is an element that is used in credit scoring models, credit rating
models, so if there are a number of searches over a very short period of time a lender may make two conclusions out of it: one is there is possible fraud going on; the other thing is that somebody is actually being turned down for credit and having to reapply elsewhere. So you know it’s very difficult to say how many searches over what
period of time, but the only piece of advice I would give you is obviously if you have been turned down look at your credit file first before you make another application because you start building up these what we call search footprints on your file that could work against you.
LEWIS:
Owen?
ROBERTS:
Just to add something to what Neil was saying.
When you as
a consumer check your own file, it leads to footprint but it’s not footprint that lenders see, so you can check your own file as often as you like without any negative impact.
LEWIS: debates there. Hampshire.
Okay.
Carl, thanks very much for your call.
Interesting
And thanks for that email as well.
We’ll now move onto Ann in
Your question, Ann?
ANN: like measles?
Hello, my question is this.
Is a bad credit rating infectious
What I mean is if a family share an address and a surname and
everybody in that family is absolutely impeccable except for one - their financial affairs are up to scratch and never had debt or problems - and if one is causing problems to himself and others, is the name and/or the address in that family infected
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for the whole lot by the one’s misbehaviour?
LEWIS: Let’s deal with it.
Okay, we won’t ask you the reasons behind your question.
ANN:
(laughs)
Okay.
LEWIS:
First, Neil?
MUNROE:
Well the good news is at the end of 2004 data was actually
provided back to lenders very much about you as the individual and the only other piece of information that’s returned is actually where you have a financial link - so if you have a joint mortgage, for example, which is probably much the only vehicle left these days, financial vehicle, then that may well create a link. If there’s no financial
connection with the relative you refer to, then I think you can rest assured you haven’t got the measles.
ANN:
Alright … lovely, thank you.
LEWIS:
Okay.
Though it did used to be an issue Owen, didn’t it? It
used to be that people at the same address would see each other’s credit file when they asked for it. That’s all been stopped now in theory.
ROBERTS:
The ruling is very, very strict.
And, as Neil says, we’re all
assessed on our own individual credit profiles and potentially those of people we’re linked to.
LEWIS:
But that has to be a financial link like a joint mortgage, a joint
bank account, a joint loan, something like that?
ROBERTS:
Absolutely.
If you see your own file and there’s a link on
there from somebody that either you’ve never had a financial joint account with or somebody that you had a transient relationship a long time ago with, then you can get that corrected.
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LEWIS:
Okay.
And talking about corrections, because you
mentioned it earlier - notices of correction, which we can all have - we’ve had a call from someone who says he used to be head of credit policy at a credit card company and he says that although these are there and they’re read, they’re generally read by very junior people and are often disregarded by the ones who make the decisions about credit and he thinks there should be some insistence that they’re not just read by the first person but by the decision makers. Anna?
FIELDER:
Oh I would agree with that. I think overall many mistakes
are done by the lenders because the people who are there at the front are not properly trained. They may be junior and they may be inputting wrong information, so doing
proper training, proper systems and up the scale of decision making is a good idea.
LEWIS:
Neil, briefly.
MUNROE:
Yes, I mean just one point to make.
These notices of
correction when they are supplied will refer it out of an automated system, so that’s why it’s being looked at by an individual. sense … So there is some safeguard there in the
LEWIS:
But it’s the level of that individual in the organisation.
MUNROE:
I think it’s a very valid point and a very interesting one.
But
the Information Commissioner’s Office is very, very keen to make sure these things are acted upon if they’re on a file, so I think if anybody’s got any concerns about them not being taken into account then they probably need to go there.
LEWIS:
We’ve also had a number of emails from people saying they
have asked for an explanation of why credit was turned down and the answers are all very vague like, “Well maybe your income’s insufficient”, “Maybe you’ve got too much credit”, not specific enough actually to really find out why. So although you
can ask and they do have to give you an answer, it may not be a very sensible one. Anyway let’s move on. Nicola is calling us now from Bury St. Edmond’s.
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Nicola?
NICOLA:
Oh hello.
I had a problem whereby the credit reference that
you handed to the building society was different to the one that you actually supplied to me when I was turned down. So fortunately - or unfortunately depending how
you look at it - I went into the building society with my beautiful credit reference and said, “Why on earth am I being turned down?” and they went through this business of saying, “Oh of course we can’t tell you because da-di-da-di-da.” persisted, they admitted that they had a different report on me. a different report on me was actually through my husband. But when I
And the way they got
There were two reports -
one was in his name and the other one had just his initials on, which we eventually got from Experian and Equifax. One had you know his initials and his surname; the
other one just had his full name.
LEWIS: Nicola.
Right, this sounds a little bit complicated and individual, Your main concern is getting something corrected that you weren’t happy
about that was wrong?
NICOLA:
I couldn’t get the information out of Experian or Equifax
because they were giving me different information than they were supplying the building society.
LEWIS:
Right, so it sounds as if they might have had sort of two files But, Neil, you have a right to see the full record if you
or the wrong information. can find it?
MUNROE:
Yes, absolutely, I mean you know the £2 file is basically I’m not sure of the
subject access request from a credit reference agency. circumstances here.
I’m happy to take these offline, if necessary, to try and correct
them, but it may be that there was information in your husband’s name and in your name and I don’t know if there’s a financial link there. complicated at this stage to go through. But it’s probably a bit
LEWIS:
Okay, thanks for your call Nicola.
Let’s just try to squeeze
in one final call, David from Wimborne.
If you could be very brief, David.
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DAVID:
Hello.
Is it necessary and wise to take out ID insurance as
was suggested by my credit card company?
LEWIS:
ID fraud insurance you’re talking about against a fraud?
DAVID:
Yeah.
Sorry, yeah.
LEWIS:
Owen?
ROBERTS:
I think the important thing to look at is what are the benefits of
that insurance, so you know is it just a case that they’ll reimburse you if you end up out of pocket or are there other assistance elements to it? And then the second question to ask is well how would you manage if you were a victim of ID fraud? If you’re somebody who’s got a reasonable amount of time on your hands and you understand the financial services industry very well, then perhaps ID fraud insurance isn’t for you.
LEWIS:
Anna, twenty seconds.
FIELDER:
Well, I don’t think it’s necessary.
I don’t know about wise.
There is nothing that an insurance can do that you cannot do yourself.
LEWIS:
And of course if you do lose money, the bank should pay
anyway, shouldn’t they?
FIELDER:
Yes.
LEWIS:
Okay.
Sorry to rush you, but we do have to stop there That’s all we have time for.
because we have to come out at half-past three.
Thanks to Anna Fielder from National Consumer Council, Owen Roberts from Callcredit and Neil Munroe of Equifax. emails. Thanks to all of you for your calls and
You can find out more about credit reference from the BBC Action Line Our website is bbc.co.uk/moneybox where you can listen to the
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0800 044 044.
programme again, in a couple of days you can download a transcript, and you can download a copy of the programme or subscribe to our podcast. And for those of
you throwing up their hands in horror saying there were problems with Saturday’s podcast - yes there were, we’re very sorry about that - but I believe they’ve been resolved. Today’s programme will also be on the website soon. I’m back at noon
on Saturday with Money Box and here to take more of your calls on Money Box Live next Monday afternoon.
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