Issue with credit report.

[Mark T]

The story goes like this:

I recently put an offer in for a house and got the price agreed. I then got all my details together for the mortgage broker and put the application in. I was basically looking to borrow an extra £10,000 on the property as we have got it under market value and wanted to do the property up. To my surprise my application was declined. I work in the lettings business myself and if seemed strange that it was declined when I have always paid my bills on time. If you have a low credit rating it usually comes back as "refer". I didn't think much of it until the broker tried another three companies and the same thing happened, all declined. By this time I was **** as a mo fcker. I asked the mortgage broker for my mortgage application number so I could find out why I was being refused. I managed to speak to a friend who works in Abbey National. He dug around and found that I had a default on my credit rating. I was like "what the poo is going on". I know I have never missed a bill and they usually inform you if you default. I got my own equifax report done and had a look. There was some random financial link company that said I owed £2500 on an outstanding credit card. This is the bit that **** me off. Last year I received a credit card final notice in my name. I told the company they had the wrong person and sent them my I.D to prove I wasn't the person. The person in question was born in 1964 and I was born in 1984. At the time I thought nothing of it. It turns out they ignored my I.D which was sent, and still put the default under my name. When I spoke to them today they said they had the I.D on file and began investigating it 2 days ago. What the **** is there to investigate? The credit card was taken out in 2000 when I was 15 years old FFS! I managed to speak to someone in the finance company and they have agreed to remove the default from my profile. It's a complete **** up. If the finance company would have checked my date of birth at least they would have seen that it wasn't me.

Does anyone think I may have a case against this company since they had all my details over a year ago?

 

[Dave A]

You could ask them for compensation, but tbh to get any would probably take more effort than it's worth for something like this, but the chances are, if what you said is all true, I don't see why you couldn't get any if you took the time and effort to get it.

 

[guska]

mate, go for it, it has caused you financial hardship etc. etc. get a half decent lawyer, and you could do pretty well!

 

[dbartucci]

Hmm, at least in my jurisdiction courts almost never award damages for purely economic losses (especially in a case like yours where your actual damages don't exist, but is rather a bad credit rating that has impacted your ability to borrow), unless their was some negligent misstatement by the firm. Having said that, I'm not a lawyer, nor am I entirely familiar with the laws of England, so it may be worth your while to see if you even have a case before you retain someone.

I do wish you good luck in restoring your credit and I hope you are able to purchase a home soon and put this mess behind you.

 

[Pupik]

Hmm, at least in my jurisdiction courts almost never award damages for purely economic losses (especially in a case like yours where your actual damages don't exist, but is rather a bad credit rating that has impacted your ability to borrow), unless their was some negligent misstatement by the firm.

Maybe you have different legal remedies in the UK, but speaking for credit report errors in the United States, you really don't have a leg to stand on when these things occur. Sometimes you can get things corrected, but it can take 30-60 days. I reviewed by credit rating a few months ago, and fund my student loan balances were essentially doubled, as it was listed under two different banks.

Although there's no dark marks on my credit record, I didn't want to appear to owe much more than I can earn in a year's time, should an emergency arrive.

Unless you can find exactly who screwed up your credit, or if it was deliberate, there's probably not a whole lot that you can do.

 

[Mark T]

Maybe you have different legal remedies in the UK, but speaking for credit report errors in the United States, you really don't have a leg to stand on when these things occur. Sometimes you can get things corrected, but it can take 30-60 days. I reviewed by credit rating a few months ago, and fund my student loan balances were essentially doubled, as it was listed under two different banks.

Although there's no dark marks on my credit record, I didn't want to appear to owe much more than I can earn in a year's time, should an emergency arrive.

Unless you can find exactly who screwed up your credit, or if it was deliberate, there's probably not a whole lot that you can do.

I know the exact company who placed the default and they were also aware that it has nothing to do with me, which I proved a year ago by sending them my passport and driving license. I believe it's negligence that has caused this. I'm going to speak to the citizens advice bureau today.