Good afternoon / 30.08.08
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Consumer Home
No, searches can only be made with your permission. When you apply for credit your permission is obtained in various ways, dependant upon which method of application you use. Some lenders obtain permission through the consent clause or declaration on the application form you complete and sign. If you apply for credit over the telephone, you should be informed verbally before you proceed that a credit search will be carried out with one or more of the credit reference agencies. If you apply for credit over the Internet you should be asked to confirm that you consent to the declaration or terms & conditions of the account. This should include permission for a credit search to be carried out with one or more of the credit reference agencies.
Every time an organisation accesses your Callcredit file we record this, along with the name of the company, the type of search/enquiry performed, the product type applied for (where applicable) and the date of the search. We retain a record of each search for 2 years. The Credit Search History section of your credit file will contain any searches performed in the last 2 years.
You should contact the company who performed the search and ask them to authorise Callcredit to make an amendment to the record. If you do not know the address of the company concerned, contact us and we will be happy to supply you with the relevant details. Alternatively you may write back to us formally disputing the search and we will contact the company on your behalf. We cannot amend any search/enquiry unless the company involved agrees that we can do so.
You should contact the company who performed the searches and ask them to authorise Callcredit to remove the duplicate searches. If you do not know the address of the company concerned, contact us and we will be happy to supply you with the relevant details. Alternatively you may write back to us formally disputing the duplicate searches and we will contact the company on your behalf. We cannot remove searches/enquiries unless the company involved agrees that we can do so. Please note that duplicate enquiry footprints will have no effect on your credit file, as companies searching your file are not able to view details of previous enquiries.
You should contact the organisation that performed the search/enquiry and ask them why they have done it. It may be that the company name on the record is a subsidiary or parent company and that once you have contacted them you will remember providing them with permission to carry out the search/enquiry. If you do not know the address of the company concerned, contact us and we will be happy to supply you with the relevant details. Alternatively you may write back to us formally disputing the search/enquiry and we will contact the company on your behalf. We cannot remove any search/enquiry unless the company involved agrees that we can do so. Please write to us at Callcredit plc, Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, LEEDS, LS3 1WZ.
Each search/enquiry details the following information:
When two people apply for a joint account (e.g. joint mortgage or loan) the lender will perform a joint credit search with one or more of the credit reference agencies. This joint search will normally create a financial association between the two applicants on the database of any credit reference agency used. This association will link the credit files of those individuals in the future. A transient association is a relationship between two or more applicants that does not indicate a permanent financial association, such as two or more students applying to rent a television or a fridge together.
The lender can inform Callcredit during a credit search made in joint names (using the transient association flag) that an association is classed as transient using this field. This indicates to us that a permanent financial association should not be created from the joint credit search. If the transient association field on a search record is 'Yes' this indicates that the financial association is transient and therefore no permanent association was created on our database using this search.
A credit search is a search carried out for lending purposes. An enquiry is carried out for other non-credit purposes, such as employee vetting, tenant vetting and Electoral Roll checks (not related to credit applications). Credit searches and enquiries remain on our files for two years from the date of the search.
Yes, we record a Consumer Credit File Request enquiry type on our files each time you apply for a copy of your credit file from us. A record of historical requests is then displayed to you on future credit files in the Credit Search History section. These records are not available to anyone else searching our database.
