credit companies & subject access request

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,085
Location
Stoke area
Hi all,

Just talking today to a college regarding his credit. Both he and his girlfriend pay Experian £15 a month each to access their credit reports.

It got me thinking, would it not be cheaper for them both to send Experian a Subject Access Request and get the information that way?

I've not got a lot of experience with either the company or the access requests and was hoping someone here knew more about it?

thanks
 
The Experian service is more than just a record of your credit file. It also gived good advice on improving it. It worked great for me. I followed their advice and am now being accepted for finance and credit cards again after about 3 years of being refused.
 
There are also several free alternatives available such as Clearscore and Noodle, though they don't necessarily access all credit reference agencies, so their value is dependent on why your friend and his girlfriend pay £15 for the Experian service.
 
As others have said, much of the useful and relevant information is freely available elsewhere without having to subscribe. Experian are not only monetising credit records, they've also introduced (as have others) gamification. They've created their own metric and actively encourage you to try and improve it, in this instance for the cost of £180 a year.

It might help the most inept, but for others the cost is the equivalent of their home and contents insurance for a year, their council tax for 2 months or their mobile contract for half a year. If they don't need the constant validation of seeing a fictitious number slightly increase each month, is it really necessary?
 
I have advised him to look at Noddle and his brother does. I have a free account with them but, if I am honest, it's not very accurate, especially with regards to bank accounts and credit card balances. I am going to wait until the next update to see if it's more accurate.

He doesn't really need the info that they are offering, they area already aware of the steps and it just seems they are wasting £30 a month for no reason, especially when a simple SAR could get the same info every few months for a lot less.
 
AHarvey said:
I have advised him to look at Noddle and his brother does. I have a free account with them but, if I am honest, it's not very accurate, especially with regards to bank accounts and credit card balances. I am going to wait until the next update to see if it's more accurate.

He doesn't really need the info that they are offering, they area already aware of the steps and it just seems they are wasting £30 a month for no reason, especially when a simple SAR could get the same info every few months for a lot less.
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It wouldn't be a SAR, as they are not requesting all personal information held on them by Experian, it would be a request for a statutory credit report and the cost is £2.00.

http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html
 
AHarvey said:
I have advised him to look at Noddle and his brother does. I have a free account with them but, if I am honest, it's not very accurate, especially with regards to bank accounts and credit card balances.
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I have noticed that with Clear Score. It details my current and savings accounts but the balances are blank; why is that?
 
£2 and you get a report from Equifax - no need to sign up for monthly subs etc. Same if not more detailed than Experian.

£30 a month on credit reports - man alive - some people need to have a reality check.
 
Wow can't believe people pay for that service, how difficult is it to keep track of how much debt you have? :confused: Paying £360 pa for credit reports that could be spend on actually repaying the debt lol.
 
Energize said:
Wow can't believe people pay for that service, how difficult is it to keep track of how much debt you have? :confused: Paying £360 pa for credit reports that could be spend on actually repaying the debt lol.
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Agreed to a point as its difficult to keep track of fraudulent activity without some sort of credit report.

I use noddle now and to be honest its as accurate as any of the other paid ones were. Just remember its using just one (callcredit) of the three credit agencies though so it may not have all of the info.
 
Curious, how do you find it difficult to check for fraudulent activity without a credit report? Your card statement shows all the transactions made on the card, unless you make hundreds of transactions a month across the entire continent I'm struggling to see how fraudulent activity would not be blatantly obvious?

Just googled noddle and the reviews are shocking! https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/noddle.co.uk?page=4
 
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Your statements wouldn't show if someone had fraudulently opened other accounts or taken loans/credit in your name. Your credit report would.

I use Noddle and it seems as good as the paid ones. Just my opinion of course.

/Salds
 
Energize said:
I see your point but it's a bit of a fringe case though, not something I'd pay money for.
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Having had someone take loans out in my name I believe some sort of access is necessary to keep an eye on things.

Noddle isn't amazing but for a free service its good enough to cover what you need. the only "issue" with it is it only updates monthly, plenty good enough for me.
 
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