Under the Freedom Of Information Act I contacted Information Commissioners Office asking for the number of complaints they had received in the last 12 months about Experian. As this information was obtained under Freedom of Information Act I see nothing wrong with sharing it here. After all it is freely available to anybody that asks for it. As Experian like to publish info about everybody else I thought why not give them a taste of their own stuff. Experian would probably argue that the amount of complaints is a small % of the total number of queries/cases they handle. However 179 in 12 months is at the rate of 1 every other day and in my opinion is not good. If you are considering complaining to Information Commissioners Office make sure you include good evidence as 31 cases where closed through lack of detail. Information Commissioners Office response is below. Information Request IRQ****** Dear M Further to my email of ** October 2008 I am writing in response to your request for information. As you are aware your correspondence has been treated as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You asked the Information Commissioners Office to provide the number of complaints received in the last 12 months regarding Experian. The information provided below details the number of complaints raised concerning the company named, not all of the complaints were found to be substantiated. In order to assist you further, I have broken down the cases into groups to provide a brief description of the result of the complaint. A search of our database, for the period 1/09/07 to 30/09/08 revealed the following results; Experian A total of 179 complaints were raised with the Information Commissioners Office, with the following results; 50 of the complaints were considered unlikely to have amounted to a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. 20 of the complaints were considered likely to have amounted to a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, with appropriate remedial action being taken. 31 of the complaints contained insufficient evidence to permit a formal assessment of the case to be made and were closed. 11 cases are currently open under assessment. 29 of the complaints sought an order under section 159 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. This section of the Act facilitates a ‘Notice of Correction’ being added to an individual’s credit reference file. In 19 such complaints an order was made, and a ‘Notice of Correction’ added to the file. In the remaining 20 such complaints the Information Commissioners Office ruled a ‘Notice of Correction’ to be inappropriate. The remaining 38 complaints were dealt with by way of advice. I hope this information is helpful, however, if you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your request has been handled you should write to the Internal Compliance Team at the address below.

EXACTLY! How many people have letters from them with "reasonable care" in it? I've had at least 3.

Look what Experain put on their Terms and Conditions web page. They are actually saying that the info they provide is useless. One must therefore presume that any written reports are not worth the paper they are written on. And don't they just love using that word "reasonable" Im sure that this would not go down too well with a defamation case or libel case. If they cannot prove back up, or guarantee their own info they should'nt publish it in the first place. How do most people get their reports or how do suppliers pass the information to them? At a guess I would say it's online over the the internet!!! Guarantee The content is only for general information, and we provide it as it becomes available. We take reasonable care to check that the content is accurate and complete before we publish it on the website. However, because we get the content from a number of different sources - and because of the issues involved with providing information through the Internet - we cannot guarantee that the content will always be accurate, available, complete or fit for any particular purpose.

Regarding earlier postings about info under Freedom of Information Act Act. I have recently mailed Information Commissioners Office to enquire about the number of complaints they have received against Arrow Global Receivables, CBS Transcom and Experian. Have not received reply as yet. But take a look at the link below re Naming and shaming by the FOS. It's fairly recent and may help scores of people in the future. creddittoday.co.uk .....................online news FOS to expose firms with most complaints