CAG CRA S.A.R Club

[ODC]

Experian - Strategy

Here's what it says:

 

'Trusted stewards'?

 

Bar Stewards:mad:

[elizabeth1]

Experian - Strategy

Here's what it says:

 

'Trusted stewards'?

 

They have us nailed?

 

I was watching a video film on how these companies operate (CAP1. MBNA, PROVIDIAN ETC..) in the USA and how they target people - I was so alarmed by it really - from student to pensioners - they have is sorted and nailed really - and all the tricks they used etc.. to make money from us - so scummy really. This video "Maxed Out" is long over an hour - but is a real insight as to how these companies operate etc.. - it'll make you glad you saw it - but angry as how vulnerable we all are!!

 

Maxed Out

 

 

I do wonder whether this video ought to be made a stickey somewhere as it really is an eye opener - we can all learn from it.

[nuke em]

They have us nailed?

 

I was watching a video film on how these companies operate (CAP1. MBNA, PROVIDIAN ETC..) in the USA and how they target people - I was so alarmed by it really - from student to pensioners - they have is sorted and nailed really - and all the tricks they used etc.. to make money from us - so scummy really. This video "Maxed Out" is long over an hour - but is a real insight as to how these companies operate etc.. - it'll make you glad you saw it - but angry as how vulnerable we all are!!

 

Maxed Out

 

 

I do wonder whether this video ought to be made a stickey somewhere as it really is an eye opener - we can all learn from it.

 

scary movie

I think they are already doing a version of this here, esp as so many companies are either wholly or part owned by American firms

[sosumi]

'Payday loans', anyone? Guess who's on the website?:

About Us | Payday Bank - Payday Loan Bank

PS I'm going to watch that video later elizabeth1 Please anyone don't be offended if I post here regardless - I'm not, just a bit menopausal and very angry!!

Going to watch Eastenders and calm down!

[dannyboy660]

scary movie

I think they are already doing a version of this here, esp as so many companies are either wholly or part owned by American firms

 

 

....and the US economy is at least 91,000,000USD short this year BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | 1945 war debt to US 'almost paid' ....where are they going to get the money from?? Oil, perhaps?? ..or are they cruel enough to manipulate their own markets in such a way that the ordinary consumer takes the pain??

 

Coming soon to the UK........

[nuke em]

And you can watch the Usa total debt here

 

U.S. National Debt Clock

 

ticking away.....

 

wish we had one for the uk as well

[Goldlady]

PMSL at that one - nuke em - my 'local' debt is reducing on a daily basis as the failures to produce CCAs for irresponsible lending, unlawful charges and interest melt into obscurity:D. I have a spreadsheet to prove it!

[nuke em]

Good on you G L

[elizabeth1]

PMSL at that one - nuke em - my 'local' debt is reducing on a daily basis as the failures to produce CCAs for irresponsible lending, unlawful charges and interest melt into obscurity:D. I have a spreadsheet to prove it!

 

 

ha ha ha ha ha :D

 

THAT'S WHAT WE LIKE TO HEAR!!!

[sosumi]

The clock doesn't tick any more for Beryl Brazier. Her family have put a Memorial Page on the Web. It is heartbreaking.

 

In fact, I'd suggest there's a new clock ticking - how much longer Debt Collection Agencies (who employ idiots and rogues) will last.

 

I have my answers.

Mail Order Companies pass our information on. So do Store Cards. So do 'Loyalty Cards'. So do Credit Cards, Phone Companies, Utility Companies... The list is endless.

 

That the data is 'shared' - via Credit Reference Agencies - and somehow grabbed by 'chancers' who prefer to assume that everyone is a 'crook' by default (because they have to justify their own behaviour), is a lot more than frightening. Because they get their 'information' wrong. And because the 'checks and balances' are skewed in favour of 'business'.

 

Experian just happens to be the most visible Credit Reference Agency, because they're advertising their 'CreditExpert service' everywhere. But look beneath the surface and you find a hive of companies trading in information.

 

A large part of my 'Marketing Information' file was 'last updated in 1998'. It's on the file. Also a couple of old phone numbers - we changed phone suppliers a couple of times. Also my address and postcode. That's no secret - we've lived at this address for nearly 25 years. But it's part of the 'Marketing Information' - ie, as they state, used for 'direct mail marketing'. Any company can access it for marketing purposes. Any company - DCAs, for example.

[andrew1]

....and just while you are on the subject of data sharing...did all you people know that when you move home and fill in a redirection order for your mail the Royal Mail sell your new address to ' interested parties' ?

 

I only found out that when I lost a Nectar card - a shopping points card not a credit card and asked for a replacement. They asked if I wanted it sent to the 'current address' some 40 miles from me? "What ? where did you get that address from" I asked... "Royal Mail" - we get the updates to - wait for it " save customers the time and trouble to write to everyone" (someone trying to steal my identity and putting a redirection order on my address so they could collect a new credit card which someone had applied for in my name as it happened!) When I challenged Royal Mail they said they supplied a whole number of organisation that pay for the info............. p****sed off? I was absolutely livid...

[Allwood]

The royal mail has got such honest people working for them, I do think, I sent some vouchers as a present to my grandchild a couple of years ago and it was stolen by them, they could not locate it. I am sure people have read about the thieves that they had working for Royal Mail a few years back millions was stolen by employees.

 

Also for Nectar card, the Inland Revenue used this service to check on people spending as well. I was told this a person who worked for them. With this service they can check peoples that have got small business spending. :-|

[buzby]

....and just while you are on the subject of data sharing...did all you people know that when you move home and fill in a redirection order for your mail the Royal Mail sell your new address to ' interested parties' ?

 

Yup - I mentioned this in another thread recently to a sanguine response. I understand RM actually get paid well for providing this service, which makes you wonder why they charge you for the 'redirection'. Further, there is no opt-out facility to receive only the requested redirection. I wonder if the ICO would act?

[buzby]

The royal mail has got such honest people working for them, I do think, I sent some vouchers as a present to my grandchild a couple of years ago and it was stolen by them, they could not locate it. I am sure people have read about the thieves that they had working for Royal Mail a few years back millions was stolen by employees.

 

I has the same issue - my granddaughter's 6th birthday card contained a Disneyworld 5-Day pass and 2 cinema tickets in a birthday card. It was delivered ripped open and inserted into a 'Found Open In The Mail' plastic bag. Of course, the card was intact, but the tickets which were stapled to the card had 'fallen' out. RM said it was my fault I had sent it my RD and not Special Delivery and only paid £33 in compensation. Since a staff member at the mail centre was dismissed for theft on a large scale at the same time, they were immune for liability as RMs Act of Parliament SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDES liability due to theft by staff. Clever, eh?!

[sosumi]

About 2 years ago - before we were 'in debt' - we bought my mother-in-law a mobile phone to use when she was away from home. She had problems with her eyes at the time (much better now ), so we bought one with a bright keypad. It cost about £30.00 - from Tesco. We also bought her an additional top-up voucher, so all she would need to know was how to use the phone and keep it charged. We put our family phone numbers on it, once we'd handed it to her. It was a gift, we always make sure she has plenty of call-time on it because there is no way she could handle the long numbers on the vouchers. So we buy them for her. It was never registered. It was a Virgin mobile phone with Virgin pre-pay vouchers.

 

A few weeks later we found out that she had received a letter from Orange, claiming that she had an unpaid bill and demanding money. She is widowed. The name and part of the address was hers. She kept quiet about it initially, because she felt she must have done something wrong. She was 88 years old then. She had never owned a mobile phone before in her life.

 

Initially, (after worrying about it alone) she mentioned the letter to my sister-in-law, because she was bothered it had something to do with her new phone and, if she'd got it wrong - that she should be paying bills and hadn't realised, she didn't want to hurt our feelings. Hubby's sister couldn't work out what the letter was either, so approached hubby.

 

The letter had absolutely nothing to do with my mother-in-law. I wrote to them, and demanded that they sort their records out. None of us have heard from them again. Despite the fact that I pointed out she was a widow - aged 88 - and living in sheltered accomodation, we have had no apology. Nothing.

 

The point is that people do try and sort things out on their own. If they live alone, getting a letter like this causes huge distress. It isn't just my own experiences - or reading other people's experiences here - it's that letter my m-in-law received, and how she initially (very naturally) reacted - that makes me boil! How the *$@% are people supposed to deal with things like this?? We were able to send whoever wrote that letter off with a flea in their ear. But how many more people, living alone, would have felt too confused and scared to do anything other than quietly pay the bill, and hope they go away??

Somebody, somewhere, made a huge £%$*-up with Mrs Brazier's personal information. And they set the hounds on her. This is unforgiveable.

 

We bought the phone from Tesco. We have a Clubcard.

 

Correction: we had a Clubcard. And a Sainsburys Nectar Card, a WH Smith Clubcard, a Boots 'Advantage' Card. As of today, they're going in the bin, cut into pieces.

 

Believe me, there are companies selling everyone's information as we speak.

[sosumi]

We all know that some of the 'DCA worst offenders' go after debts below £500. Very often they're mail-order catalogue debts. There's a very high probability that if you use a 'catalogue' it's because you've precious little money, and just like 'the books' tell you, you can 'spread the cost' over 20 or 38 weeks. I've done it many times in the past. The highest value item I ever bought was a settee. I closed the account last year, and have told them several times - I still get the catalogues (even though I rejected the last one at the door, they've still sent me a Christmas one!) My 'amount available to spend' when I closed the account... over £5000!!

 

Most catalogues are now part of the Littlewoods Group. Have you seen the privacy policy? One - part of the group - has it on their web site. It says, very clearly, that apart from 'targeting', 'prize draw entries', 'direct mail' etc... that the information they have can be used for 'debt collection and tracing'.

This looks like the company they use:

UK Direct Marketing Services by CDMS | Direct Marketing Agency

 

Nothing about the Post Office surprises me any more. We sent quite a few letters last month by Special Delivery, £4.30 a time. We sent more recent ones by Recorded Delivery and were told, over the counter, that Recorded Mail 'just goes in the sack' - ie. it might get there, it might not.. Paying extra money over the counter's a bit of a gamble. Except that we're paying for a service, not buying a lottery ticket!

 

Plus, check this out:

EuroDirect - CAMEO Lifestyle - Customer Profiling and Segmentation

and here:

EuroDirect - Data Exchange - prospect data, list ownership, list management, consumer databases

[nuke em]

When you change address you can tick a box to STOP THE POST Office informing companies etc, otherwise, yes they will sell your info on to any interested party

[2Grumpy]

There are lots of comments in this thread about either CRAs providing information or DCAs and credit providers trawling through CRAs database.

 

Surely both of these activities are a breach of the data protection act

 

The CRAs should only be allowing access to their database for specific purposes, such as tracing missing creditors or doing risk assessment on new applications

And marketting without consent is a no-no

 

I hope I didn't miss anyone saying this already - this is a long thread

 

Grumpy

[dannyboy660]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Equifax own Wescot, and until recently Experian and Great Universal Stores were the same thing.

 

They shouldn't, in theory, be passing information around willy-nilly (poor old willy), especially if that information is personal and identifiable. But when there's money to be made, and nobody's looking, who's going to stop them sharing info??

[andrew1]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Equifax own Wescot, and until recently Experian and Great Universal Stores were the same thing.

 

They shouldn't, in theory, be passing information around willy-nilly (poor old willy), especially if that information is personal and identifiable. But when there's money to be made, and nobody's looking, who's going to stop them sharing info??

 

It was GUS that began the whole credit referencing thingy I believe way back with their catalogue shopping...got a lot to answer for!

[Allwood]

Found this link to an article ref how to deal with Thames Credit: See far down the article where Thames came from ……

 

 

 

Capital letters | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

[sosumi]

Here's an article from The Guardian, last July:

The card up their sleeve | Weekend | Guardian Unlimited

 

Couple of other points:

Re. the mobile phone. We've never had a contract phone with anyone. We only ever use mobile phones for emergencies, so they've always been 'pay as you go'. So there was not any kind of way Orange could have 'mistaken' mum-in-law for hubby, for example.

Plus Great Universal is now part of the Littlewoods Group. Experian like to point to their 'successful demerger' from GUS - but yes, it was formerly part of GUS.

 

A couple of weeks ago we had a call from a company offering mortgage services. As we've just changed phone providers again (we've got cable, and have tried Bt, NTL, BT again, then back to cable (it's cheaper)), and we insisted on being ex-directory, I questioned the salesman, made him pass me to his Supervisor, who told me they had been sold our number by 'Lifestyle Marketing'.

 

Allwood - excellent link! Here's what it says:

Mystified by agency's credit card debt threat

I have just received a letter from a firm called Thames Credit which says I owe Barclaycard £5,473.

This statement is accompanied by a whole set of threats including credit reference agency blacklisting, "refering the matter to our solicitors for their consideration" and "refering the matter to our Field Agents who will call at your address."

This is all very worrying. But I do not owe Barclaycard anything. I do not have a Barclaycard nor have I ever owned one. Additionally, I have never had any relationship with Barclays in any way.

I feel powerless - I have tried to phone the number they give but it is engaged.

So, what should I do with Thames Credit's demand?

MS

Swansea

Thames Credit is a Bromley-based company which chases bad debts. It often acts on behalf of ASA Debito which buys debt from Barclaycard. ASA pays a small percentage - perhaps as little as 10% - of the outstanding sum and then hires Thames to chase as much as it can.

Thames and ASA Debito are linked. They are both subsidiaries of Norwegian registered Olympia Holdings ASA. This firm has attracted some attention recently in the Oslo press following offshore tax investigations by the Norwegian authorities and the boardroom resigna tion of leading shareholder Haakon Korsgaard earlier this year.

Thames works by looking through Experian and Equifax listings for everyone with a name similar to that of their target. So, you will be one of maybe thousands to receive this letter - your first and last names are the same but the other names are not.

The easy answer to your predicament is to tear the letter up and send it back to Thames in Bromley. You could put a note in saying "try taking me to court."

If you do not fancy that, trading standards advice is: Refuse to acknowledge the debt until they supply a copy of a Consumer Credit Act section 78 agreement - they have 12 days to do this; Refuse to speak to them on the phone; refuse to offer any proof of your identity so they have to do it; and

Remember that they must send a copy of the legal assignment of the debt from Barclaycard or other lender.

In your case, Barclaycard has now spoken to Thames to remove your name and address from its target list. You should also receive a letter of apology.

Also re. Lifestyle Marketing...

EuroDirect - UK Lifestyle - Datasets and software providing wealth of Lifestyle information - Specialist providers of consumer marketing information

and also here's CallCredit: About Skipton Information Group (SIG) - EuroDirect & GMAP Consulting

[buzby]

Worth remembering that Great Universal Stores created the country's largest CRA, effectively selling on the data they had initially collected from their customers.

[andrew1]

Here's an article from The Guardian, last July:

The card up their sleeve | Weekend | Guardian Unlimited

 

Couple of other points:

Re. the mobile phone. We've never had a contract phone with anyone. We only ever use mobile phones for emergencies, so they've always been 'pay as you go'. So there was not any kind of way Orange could have 'mistaken' mum-in-law for hubby, for example.

Plus Great Universal is now part of the Littlewoods Group. Experian like to point to their 'successful demerger' from GUS - but yes, it was formerly part of GUS.

 

A couple of weeks ago we had a call from a company offering mortgage services. As we've just changed phone providers again (we've got cable, and have tried Bt, NTL, BT again, then back to cable (it's cheaper)), and we insisted on being ex-directory, I questioned the salesman, made him pass me to his Supervisor, who told me they had been sold our number by 'Lifestyle Marketing'.

 

Allwood - excellent link! Here's what it says:

Also re. Lifestyle Marketing...

EuroDirect - UK Lifestyle - Datasets and software providing wealth of Lifestyle information - Specialist providers of consumer marketing information

and also here's CallCredit: About Skipton Information Group (SIG) - EuroDirect & GMAP Consulting

 

 

 

Now this is where it all gets my blood boiling... Lifestyle Marketing, where did they get permission to access your information especially as you are ex directory? Who gave permisssion to the phone company to sell your phone number.... this really makes me mad. I'm ex Directory too and we still get sales phone calls.

 

Recently I was in Portugal and beside the pool was a line of small ants following one after another across the stone path through to the house. I wet my finger and rubbed out the path line they were all following and the ants got totally confused as to what direction they were going in - I'm going to try and find something similar for this line of data information to stop.

The ants vanished in about 15 minutes, might take a bit longer for the likes of Lifestyle Marketing, but we'll get there.

[buzby]

I haver just today received Junk Mail from Call Credit completely out of the blue. I have never given them my details and whilst there is the usual disclaimer at the bottom should I wish to unsubscribe, I still class this as unwarranted and would be grateful if others advise if they too receive the same type of mailing - offering to ensure you 'retain' a high credit score.