Are they allowed to do this

[Moodymulder]

I got my credit limit with Virgin raised by £1000.

 

I wondered how they went about deciding who gets a credit limit raise and was told by a Virgin employee over the phone that they ran regular credit checks on customers.

 

I can totally understand why they would do a credit check when you first apply for a credit card, but are they allowed to access your credit file whenever they want to for their own business needs?

 

The girl I spoke to on the phone said that they knew I had changed my mortage provider and had paid off another 2 credit cards, this absolutely horrified me. Surely they cannot go into their cutomers credit files and look at them on a regular basis and see what other credit you have OR CAN THEY?

[jampot]

Doesn't sound right to me!!!

 

However, if they recently raised your credit limit, that may be the reason they have this "current" information. Perhaps she was slightly confused, and instead of them "regularly" looking at your credit files, they actually did so for the purpose you asked them to (increasing your limit) and this would explain how they knew some information.

[rosiecotton]

I don't see any reason that they shouldn't or couldn't run credit checks on their debtors.