James
I had a loan company ring up and ask me if I wanted a loan a few weeks ago and I told them I was not interested as I was going to try and obtain one from Barclays Bank. This man was very persistent and asked me what I intended to use the money for. I did tell him, but told him I was not interested in taking one with his company and they were not to any circumstance check my credit rating. In the end I put the phone down on the man as he would not take no for an answer. I checked my credit rating today, and lo and behold they did a credit search on me, without my permission, resulting in me being unable to get a loan with Barclays! Is this even legal?
Georgina, Devon
Georgina
Lenders can only check your credit report with your permission. This is one of the reasons why we register a search footprint whenever anyone accesses your credit report. That way, when you look at your report you can easily check who has seen it, when and why. If this loan company has made an unauthorised credit check, they have probably broken their contract with us as well as the Data Protection Act. So I suggest you write to us with further details so we can investigate this for you and take appropriate action. If the search was unauthorised then it will be removed from your report. In relation to your application for a Barclays Bank loan, a single search footprint is unlikely to put a significant dent in your credit score. So if you have applied to Barclays and been refused, I would urge you to dig a little deeper as you may find it is down to something else completely. The Banking Code requires lenders to tell you the main reason for any credit refusal if you ask, so it's certainly worth looking into.
James