lol!

I totally appreciate what you are saying but if you look at gas and other utilities provided, you usually pay a month in arrears which is kind of like having credit facilities. I think with all of the cra it says in the T&C's that you give them permission to create their own info from the info you have provided to them. As for the ID cards, I think I'll elope to Russia or somewhere like that when they become compulsary. We already get caught on CCTV 300 times a day on average, what right do does anyone have to monitor our movements to that extent!?

I think your VR info may be recorded at a different variation of your address to the address searched by the company looking at your cra report. I have a house name, house number and street name and my VR info was recorded as the house name in the street name field so when lenders searched my report using the correct variation of my address, they were not seeing this info. Hope this helps ;-0

Hello again As far as I'm aware, utilities and catologue companies (definitely catologues even if you intend paying by cash) perform credit checks with the big 3, so they will need a DOB when searching your report as they will be unable to perform a search if a DOB is not supplied. I note what you are saying regarding your interest with cra's and that wanting a DOB for utilities etc is taking things to far but if you look at the pattern a fraudster takes, they always try and guess your DOB rather than knowing this (unless they have your passport etc) so devices are in place if a DOB miss-match is spotted on an application. I think DPA 1998 changed in 10/2004

Sorry for any confusion - I thought that you had asked if you had a right under S7 to be told how the decision to decline was arrived at? I posted to you what I had found out on your behalf?

Didn't the DPA change in 2004 where third party data previously appeared on your report - now it doesn't so I think they need a DOB to make sure only your info is retrieved to comply with the DPA. Also I'm sure that under the DPA cra's are required to make sure that the data they hold is secure and given to the right person so security checks apply whenever you apply for your report (this is to fight against fraud also). I think the fact that you keep on supplying random dates of birth will cause you lots of probs in the long run. i.e. the data that is recorded in your name and random DOBs will not match the info that you provided on your app form for your report and I think this will also cause you probs whenever you apply for credit. One of my accounts had a DOB a couple of days out and this kept on flagging up whenever I applied for things, causing me embaressment in shops etc as other than that everything was fine.

Hi Meagain I telephoned Experian today who informed me that the company doesn't legally have to tell you why they have declined you but they should give you a more specific reason if you ask. They said that they should also be able to tell you if they declined you because of the information appearing on your credit report or whether it was to do with your application details i.e. age, income, etc

Hi again Just to let you know I just spoke to an Administrator "Zooman" in the chatroom and he said that cra's just give a report to a lender and the score actually comes from the lender, so I reckon my theory is right that they are selective based on the type of customer they personally are looking for and that some are more strict than others when it comes to deciding what info affects a score. If they weren't then I wouldn't have been declined one day and accepted the next

Oh right, because when I phoned Virgin (the company who declined my first app) they said that they only got my report from Experian but the score didn't come from Experian? I'm confused, I might give them a ring tomorrow to get an answer as I got a score from one of the credit reference agencies a few months ago and it said online that they didn't provide this to lenders just a guideline to see how the actual information contained on my report might affect a lending decision. Will let you know what they say tomorrow!

Thanks again, what I am trying to clarify is if one company believes that 3 searches within a short space of time is too many they will decline you, however another company may believe that 5 searches are too many within a short space of time (so each company you apply to may have different scoring critieria?) i.e. one company might be more strict than another?

Hi Natweststaffmember Am I right in thinking that ultimately, the company who you apply to set the scoring criteria and therefore it is entirely up to the company to decide by how much the items affect your score? So they can be selective? For example if I apply to company A and they decline me for having 3 searches on my report and this makes the overall score less than they accept, and then apply to company B the next day (with 4 searches at this time) and they accept me as my score with them will only be below the acceptable level when it hits 5 searches (their criteria)? Thanks

Hi Meagain I was rejected for credit recently and I was told that I didn't have a good enough credit score even though my credit report is now in a very healthy position! I phoned the lender to tell them this and they basically told me that I didn't fit the type of customer they were looking for! lol....so i'm assuming they want a customer who has lots of arrears recorded etc (so they can make lots of money out of them - afterall if they have a record of previously making payments late they can charge lots of late payment fees!) It was also said to me that credit is a privilege and not a right....fair enough. They said that they didn't have to tell me why they declined me? I don't know if this is correct...... I applied to transfer the balance of one of credit cards yesterday and was accepted no problem so my credit score seemed to be in good order with this particular company! This credit scoring lark is mental! Excellent site by the way I'm really enjoying reading how sucessfull everyone has been with the bank charges! About time we all came together to stop the money grabbing banks from getting any more of our hard earned cash!

Hi Andy As far as I'm aware Experian will onll supply you with information recorded at the addresses you provided to them when you applied for your report as the same thing happened to me. If you give them a ring they will produce you another report for free to include the linked address and then you will be able to see all of the information recorded at that address, rather than just at the addresses you gave when making your first request for your report I'm also sure that linked addresses can be deleted from your report if they are over six years old, however only if no financial information is recorded at the linked addresses listed. It sounds to me like there is info at the linked address if you have been turned down for that reason