Credit Agencies Selling Your Info

[ifoughtthelaw]

My daughter opened a student account in her first year of uni last year and was hit straight away with the hard sell of almost being forced to open a savings account and a credit card at the same time all by Nat West. The savings account was opened and she filled out a form for the credit card but then a letter from TESCO :confused:credit card arrived to say they had lost her application and could she re-apply.

 

This was a worry as she hadn't applied for a Tesco card so she did a credit check using the free online service from Experian. It turned out that for some reason the 'Nat West' card was really a Tesco card and she decided not to go ahead and re-apply. During the free online Experian process it seemed evident that information was being captured about her in the online questions but she needed to check as it had appeared someone was trying to use her identity.

 

I got caught with the £6.99 charge after the free month (I know - I had considered myself consumer savvy and my credit card was used as she needed a card in order to sign up and she didn't have one!) They then refused to accept an e-mail from her cancelling the service. BUT it was alright to do it over the 'phone (although less identity secure!) After much argument about this with Experian, who promised to e-mail - but never sent - a copy of their terms and conditions, I resigned to having been tucked up by the confusing website where the details to cancel are quite hidden away. We realised what a con the service was and it was at the back of my mind that they had benefited far more from the newly information-enriched credit file full of rich pickings info on a young person which showed a green light on all her activity so far recorded, such as bank, car insurance searches, mobile phone etc. But no credit cards.

 

She has been bombarded with texts and calls in the last week from a company called Quick Decision or QDL who claimed to be calling about her £1000 loan application and asking personal details such as her date of birth etc. A quick search of them showed some undesirable info, BUT she hasn't made any applications for any loans. She couldn't understand what they were saying and thought it was an Indian call centre. She has also had texts from another company called YesLoans addressed to someone else talking about their loan and showing the last four digits of their bank account. All touts no doubt looking for business and preying on the vulnerable.

 

When she told me today, I feared once again an identity theft of some sort, and motherly protection coming over me I was so fired up with rage that I called Quick Decision today asking them about 'my' loan application. Initially happy thinking he'd got a sale , the first operator hung up when I started to question where 'my' information had come from having made no loan applications. I immediately rang back like a woman scorned and got a woman who insisted that an application had been made blah blah blah. No it hadn't.... blah blah blah..........

 

Anyway several circles later and following a long row on the 'phone, the crux of it is they have got hold of my daughter's info from Experian in some way or another, they seemed to be confirming that it is 'available' to them i.e. SOLD....

 

Does anybody please know:

 

1) Do Experian have a right to sell on ANY details/information of the credit files they hold on people and how can I find out if they have done so?

 

2) Can legal action be taken to stop them from doing this and can you ask for removal of information if you are no longer signed up on their 'free' credit check.

 

3) How would I find out if my daughter's details were sold by Experian. Can you SAR them like anyone else?

 

These agencies are out of control with personal information misuse IMHO. They make far more money out of selling your personal info than storing it for reference, as it was supposed to once be.

 

Please can anyone comment, I feel like a mother protecting her chick! Also if you have had a similar situation?

 

Thanks all.

[Apathy]

1) They cannot sell financial account details but the information can be used to take you off mailing lists (e.g. HSBC want to offer a loan and check a list of names for CCJs, defaults etc.)

More likely they have got your information from the electoral roll which, if you don't opt-out, can be sold for any purpose (so it is used for all kins of merketing). All CRAs buy in the ER

2)No. Your daughter gave permission to the lender to share data with a CRA. They can refuse you services if you refuse to share data

3) A subject access request can, I think, include to whom Experian have passed your personal details. Check with the ICO if you suspect serious foul play

[ifoughtthelaw]

Hi Apathy and thanks for the post.

 

What concerns me here is that we ARE all opted out of the electoral roll and it is from Experian themselves that Quick Decision loans have got their 'marketing' information about my daughter. They eventually confirmed this after a huge argument. Any company that puts the phone down on you when you clearly state you have not made any applications for the loan they are ringing you about and questioning where the info has come from reeks of something dodgy.

 

In a phone call since to Experian, they hinted, but could not of course confirm, that they are aware of the company, who are authorised to access data for a credit check on person. So suspect company gets to check my daughter's details for free then pose as company she has made an application to, but she has to pay once again to view her own details. Experian were too cagey about the whole thing except of course to recommend that she check her credit file. Here we go again.

 

A lot of personal info was taken from her when she signed up to check her credit file some months ago and so she didn't give permission for any lender to share her information as she hadn't applied for anything. So it's not the lender who has shared her information but Experian.

 

As this trial has now ended and she owes nothing to anybody - my question is really can Experian keep her information on their files if the supposed contract with them when signed up for a 'free' credit check has ended? She doesn't owe them anything and is not applying for any credit, what right do they have to keep hold of and share her info when they are clearly selling it for profit?