Hi, I've been reading these forums for a while and it's full of great info, I finally have my own question and hope that the answers following this will also help other people in the same situation. What happened is that I wanted to be disassociated with someone since we closed our joint account. I used Experian's online facility to do that and they have confirmed the disassociation without a problem. I also sent a letter to Equifax and CallCredit. CallCredit sent me an email acknowledging the letter and also confirming that they disassociated the other person from my credit file. The letter I sent CallCredit and Equifax reads: Good morning, I would like to have my name disassociated with [name/surname]. I had a joint bank account with [name/surname] at [bank name] but this account has been closed and the association should not be present on my credit file. I have contacted Experian who have helpfully removed the association with [name/surname] from my file and who also provided me the address and contact details of CallCredit and Equifax to make sure that my credit file stays up to date on each credit reference agency. I request to receive confirmation that the financial association with [name/surname] has been removed from my credit file upon receipt of this letter, since there are no more financial associations between me and [name/surname]. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me on my phone number [landline number] and I will provide you with the information you require. I would also like to request opt-out of any marketing communication. Please find below the history of my addresses as well as my date of birth to help you locate my credit file. [house number, street, postcode, town] (7 addresses in total which are all the addresses I've been in) D.O.B Month, Day, Year. Sincerely, Signature [My name/surname] I just received a letter from Equifax, after a month (!!!) telling me that, begin quote: "Unfortunately, you have not provided a valid credit report reference number with your correspondence. I'm afraid we will need this before we can answer your query. Equifax have stric security procedures covering the storage and disclosure of information to maintain confidentiality, to prevent unauthorised access, and to comply with The Data Protection Act 1998. Please resubmit your query, including your report reference number. If you don't already have an Equifax report, there are several ways you can get one: -You can get a FREE Equifax Credit Report at w w w.equifax.co.u k/free -You can order a postal copy online at w w w.equifax.co.u k/statutory. You'll need to pay a fee of £2 by credit or debit card when you order. -You can apply by post to the above address, include a cheque or postal order for £2 made payable to Equifax Ltd, and tell us: your full name (and maiden name if appropriate), your date of birth, your current address, and any previous addresses you've lived at in the past six years. [some irrelevant stuff]" END quote. I cannot believe in this BS, honestly. Surely when I provided all my personal details they would HAVE TO comply with my request, especially when the other two agencies did without a problem (and quick, should I add). They are effectively asking me to buy a report (which I won't do) in order to change my own personal data! Surely this is not legal!? I've got their free report around 8 months ago and I really don't want to pay them for something that's effectively mine (my data), so are they acting legally by asking me to pay for the report (since once you get your free report once, you have to pay for it afterwards, which they definitely know I have and want me to pay in any way possible)? I don't have the reference number they want because I viewed the report online so if I want to access the historic report I have to pay to do that! Unbelievable... How can I reply to them to make sure that they comply with my request without charging me, and where can I go to raise a complaint about this practice? I've used first class post when sending them the letter and this costed me money, I won't pay £2 for a statutory report when I've already spent money to contact them since they offer no place online to do it for free like Experian does. Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

Hi all First time posting here. Thanks for the advice. I recently found that I had a default on my file from Instrum Justitia for a credit card account from 2005. Using a letter found on here, I have managed to persuade them from pursuing this by using the " I would point out that under the limitation act 1980 Section 5 “an action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.” They have replied today and will not be following it up or contacting me again. Great news! However, I would now like this removed from my credit file, is this possible and how do i go about it? The file was with CallCredit. Thanks J