CAG CRA S.A.R Club

[sosumi]

Think it was Dobbydog Seahorse, I think on here somewhere. ??

[sosumi]

Experian by any chance?

yup

[renegotiation]

Experian by any chance?

 

Sosumi should know, it was in one of her posts I think. This is a long thread though! I'm sure it is Experian or Equifax. Could be both of them. I'm sure Callcredit aren't angels either!

[renegotiation]

yup

 

You beat me to it. Wasn't there something on the Equifax site too?

[sosumi]

This thread got so long I can't keep track - problem is I find stuff, link to it then get completely sidetracked! ;-) I'm pretty sure Dobbydog was near the beginning of the thread and several others. Also the Experian (tracing) link was recent. I shall go hunt for it now.

[renegotiation]

We'll be seeing you in 5 hours then! :lol:

[sosumi]

We'll be seeing you in 5 hours then! :lol:

... I'm still ere Just found Dobbydog for Seahorse:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/112671-cag-cra-r-club-2.html?highlight=Dobbydog#post1107883

Shall now look for the luvverly (not) Hexperian...

I shall be 800 years old according to my posts, very shortly. I can do it...

[sosumi]

Hexperian's own version of a spiv selling data on street corners:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/112671-cag-cra-r-club-25.html?highlight=Autotrace#post1303825

[sosumi]

Helloo CallCredit:

Callcredit - Consumer Credit Referencing - Skipton Building Society

Over the years, the Society's customer base has grown to accommodate the needs of many thousands of people, with 80 branches across the UK and Skipton Group is now comprised of 13 companies, with expertise across the credit, finance and e-commerce industries; Amber Credit plc, Callcredit Limited, Connell Limited, EuroDirect Database Marketing Limited, GMAP Limited, Homeloan Management Limited, Pink Homeloans, Savings Management Limited, Skipton Financial Services Limited, Skipton Guernsey Limited and Skipton Mortgages Limited.

[sosumi]

- and 'heyup' Equifax Corporate:

Business Solutions Home

- gosh, so many businesses in there!! But, my most fave of the three is...

[renegotiation]

Hexperian's own version of a spiv selling data on street corners:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/112671-cag-cra-r-club-25.html?highlight=Autotrace#post1303825

 

Tis just like that! :mad:

[Seahorse]

Cheers folks. I'll compile a lit of the juicier posts and email them over. If I get any feedback, I'll let you know.

[sosumi]

yes it's this:

Experian - Principal activities

So many activities. So very very many activities. All based on data.

 

So, 3 Credit Reference Agencies. Making a pretty good living from data. Whose data would that be then???

[sosumi]

- Good on you Seahorse

[ODC]

From equifax website

 

Debt Recovery

 

Bad debt can be crippling to your business. With today's heightened focus on managing expenses, you need to efficiently find debtors and collect from those most likely to pay.

The Equifax product suite helps you prioritize your collection activities and locate debtors, improving recovery rates and reducing write-offs.

Our Debt Recovery services enable you to:

• Prioritize collection efforts We tell you where the live so you can send out the threatomatics
  
• Confirm residency and identity by conning people to register with us to check their credit files thus updating us and our DCA buddies with a current address
  
• Leverage reliable tracing tools and services to locate debtors Well at least someone with a similar name who may or may not be the real debtor
  
• Maximise productivity Keep the Post Office in a job delivering thnreatomatics. Boost the price of BT shares by making calls demanding money.

[trevor33]

Subscribing......just read most of this thread, and then saw the time. Just goes to show how time flies when you get involved.

[dannyboy660]

Cheers folks. I'll compile a lit of the juicier posts and email them over. If I get any feedback, I'll let you know.

 

....and don't forget to mention that Alan Milburn MP is on the board of Bridgepoint Capital who own First Credit. Just verify that first to make sure it's still a true fact. The BBC will be interested in that, as the GOV is handing out contracts to DCA's to collect Gov money, and Labour already has close links with Experian.........

[sosumi]

First they sacked computer engineers (outsourcing to India), now they're getting rid of 100 managers.

www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Then there's this - Times Online April 6:

(from here

Experian to track net users

 

James Ashton

 

EXPERIAN, the credit checking company, is braving mounting concerns over internet privacy with plans to launch a service that will track broadband users’ activity so they can be targeted with advertising.

Through Hitwise, the web-site company it acquired for £120m a year ago, Experian has held talks with internet service providers to sell its monitoring technology.

Observers expect it to compete in part with Phorm, an AIM-listed company that has stirred controversy after being recruited by BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to track their 10m customers’ behaviour so they can be sent advertising messages on the websites they are looking at.

However, the key difference is that Hitwise, which describes itself as an “online competitive intelligence service” would play little part in dispatching the advertising to web pages itself, something that Phorm does through its Open Internet Exchange.

“Hitwise is not in the online behavioural targeting business,” a spokesman said.

Phorm’s shares have tumbled 36% since it unveiled its three key clients in February, partly because of a £32m fund-raising for overseas expansion.

Last week, BT was drawn into the privacy row when it admitted to carrying out secret trials of the Phorm technology in late 2006. Jonathan Groo-cock, an analyst at Investec, thinks a revenue sharing model could bring in an extra £85m of sales to BT.

Another trial to be carried out shortly by the two companies will be monitored by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which said: “Clearly the trial should reveal whether this is a service that web users want, whether it is privacy friendly and that users are comfortable with the privacy safeguards put in place by Phorm.”

Kent Ertugrul, Phorm’s chief executive, insists that it tracks users anonymously, replacing their identities with random numbers that are dropped once an ad has been sent. Unlike “cookies” dispatched by many websites to track behaviour, it can also be switched off.

The company has recruiteda heavyweight board, including David Dorman, the former boss of AT&T and Christopher Lawrence, the vice-chairman of Rothschild.

Experian, once part of GUS, is best known for trawling public records and selling the data to banks and retailers.

[sosumi]

Then there's Lower My Bills, a 'service' provided by Experian:

Online Price Comparison - LowerMyBills.co.uk

and About Us - LowerMyBills.co.uk

Compare a Mortgage, anyone:

Compare Mortgages - LowerMyBills.co.uk

and here's the form they provide. Scroll down and see what they want from you:

https://www.lowermybills.co.uk/mortgages/mortgages-form.html

[renegotiation]

We all knew it anyway, but here is proof of my Equifax Credit Report request showing up on a subsequent SAR I got from Barclaycard.

 

 

[patrickq1]

So many activities. So very very many activities. All based on data.(sosumi)

so little princples. huh

[patrickq1]

so re gen your account was SOLD and no doubt this file is due for deletion but the data shall in my opinion shall continue to be their for the next twenty years ....as it is no one has yet prosecuted the CRAs to remove data completely from the records in other words what the goverment has done is allowed these companies to act ilegally and with inpunity as no one could afford to take this to task,but we can take the goverment to court to have the law changed but it would need many millions of signatures and we all know the british public cant be a**ed until it interferes with their home life imo

patrickq1

[patrickq1]

if anyone saw dispatches last night concerning the MOBILE PHONES and goverment interferance will know just what i meant above,MARGRET HODGE should be prosecuted along with OFTEL for operating and abaiting a cartel with the mobile phone companies

patrickq1

Channel 4 - News - Dispatches - The Mobile Phone Rip-Off

[renegotiation]

so re gen your account was SOLD and no doubt this file is due for deletion but the data shall in my opinion shall continue to be their for the next twenty years ....as it is no one has yet prosecuted the CRAs to remove data completely from the records in other words what the goverment has done is allowed these companies to act ilegally and with inpunity as no one could afford to take this to task,but we can take the goverment to court to have the law changed but it would need many millions of signatures and we all know the british public cant be a**ed until it interferes with their home life imo

patrickq1

 

I have written strong letters to all the CRA's asking them for definite confirmation of their policies on data over 6 years old. I await their replies with interest. No replies as of yet.

 

I had a bit of an argument the other day with an Equifax manager as it goes. I was letting off steam about them turning up on my SAR from Barclaycard. He told me it was moral that creditors should know where their debtors were. I told him I agreed that it was moral for creditors to know the location of their debtors, BUT (a) it wasn't their job to do that, especially in the clandestine manner in which it was done!!! and (b) even if it was their job to do that, WHICH IT WASN'T, they certainly had no business passing on telephone numbers of debtors to disgusting DCA's that harassed folk in their own homes at all hours of the day!!! He seemed to shut up after hearing my comments and didn't know what to say!

[andrew1]

The trouble with letting off steam to one individual is that it makes not one happeth of difference to the bigger picture of them abiding by the law or changing things. THIS is where we need to have a bigger voice against these CRA's it really isn't good enough for them to get away, day after day doing this.