So having had everything finished and the IVA completion certificate through I've been looking at my credit files through the main agencies and what I've found is worrying and shows how the information held differs dramatically!
I started with Noddle as it's free and all appears to be good. The data is pulled from Call Credit and whilst there may be a short lag because of that, everything appears to be slotting into place.
So I moved on to Equifax and paid for the £2 statutory report; nice and straightforward, everything mirrors Noddle/Call Credit for the most part but it looks like there's an old BT account showing as being in default! I am a current BT account holder and up to date on payments so I'm in the process of finding out what's going on there.
On to Experian.... Jesus wept, what a shower of ****e they are! Firstly the process for getting and viewing the report was a bit rubbish compared to Equifax; very basic and rudimentary, including the requirement to have to send me a code by post (Equifax, Noddle and Clear Score didn't need to do this..).
When it finally came through it has the wrong postcode and only shows a Capital One card which was closed back in 2011 (which I did prior to going into the IVA so I had no open credit avaiable). There's no mention of the IVA, nothing about the mortgage, mobile contract, credit cards and loans which were included in the IVA... And here's the thing that's even more infuriating; unless you sign up for their £15/mo bill, they won't talk to you at all! Everything has to be done by email or letter which is protracted and annoying. So far the emails back and forth have essentially amounted to them 'not being able to identify me' - probably because 99% of what they have on file is incorrect!
Following a mention on here I also signed up to Clear Score this morning which is driven by Equifax's data and unsurprisingly it mirrors the Equifax report so all good.
I'm going to suggest to Experian that I send them the report from Equifax so they can get their house in order and sort it out.
Am I alone in thinking that when it comes to something which has such a significant impact on your life, you should be able to talk to someone at Experian about major errors on the file? They're an absolute shambles and I refuse to pay them money when they can't even get the basics right.
