James
My son recently lost his wallet containing credit and debit cards and his driving licence. All cards were cancelled and re-issued, but I advised him to get a note put on his credit report to stop his licence being used as credit application ID. Then I thought, why don't the credit reference agencies use a 6 digit password, in the same way as online banks, and use part of it, such as 2nd and 4th character, to confirm the identity of the individual? A quick call to an agency member would confirm this is the person on file. For speed you could already have the code/number on file and the lender merely has to ask the individual any two of the six numbers at random and confirm it with the credit agency - done in one phone call. Just a thought. Many thanks
Paul
Paul
Sorry to hear about your son losing his wallet. I hope he has now got a copy of his credit report and followed your advice. We can add passwords to credit reports if consumers want us to, by using the note facility you mention, but not quite in the way you describe and not as a general rule, of course. We also advise anyone who is worried that personal information has fallen into the wrong hands to contact CIFAS for details of their protective registration scheme which ensures that the individual's credit reports with all three UK credit reference agencies are protected. If your son mentioned the theft of his wallet to our Consumer Help Service they might already have suggested he do this.
If your son's report does show (now, or if he checks it later) that someone has used his driving licence or other ID to apply for credit in his name, he should get back in touch with us straight away and our Victims of Fraud team will help put things right as quickly as possible. Most UK lenders are CIFAS members so they see these alerts and they also use very sophisticated systems to weed out fraudulent credit applications. As a result, the overwhelming majority of attempted fraud is actually spotted and averted.
The idea of extending the use of passwords with credit reports is an interesting one, though. I might pass it on to my technical colleagues. So thank you for that.
James