OK, so I’ve spotted something really bloody annoying. I’ve got a red flag for having had more than three credit searches in 12 months.
Two options:
I have, in fact, had EIGHTEEN if you include “other searches”. Looking at what they are, two of them are today from me opening a joint account with my husband earlier this year and me trying to get this mobile phone. Fair enough. Three of them are from when I wanted to find out how much it would be to insure my grandmother’s BMW (which, spoiler, I did not accept as a “free” gift). And then ALL the rest are from this summer when every single place I have any money saved (I am a Mustachian – this is quite a few places) had to re-verify my identity to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and apparently did multiple credit checks. So the ‘search reason’ is clearly written there and not me trying to open lots of high-interest credit cards so I can spend all the money on coke and hookers and then skip out to Ibiza.
Or, allegedly only “real” searches impact your credit score (so the joint account and mobile phone). But in the detailed table listed underneath, each of my past three addresses shows up a separate credit check, even though it’s just the two instances checking my whole history. So maybe they are being counted as separate checks and adding up to five? (Didn’t live here when opened joint account.)
So… what should I do? Is there anything I can argue with Equifax about here? I’m clearly getting a ‘ding’ for “it”, whatever “it” may be, but I don’t know how to make things different.
It sounds like it could be the addresses that are tripping up the system. Is there an alternative way of writing your address? It doesn't need to be much - I had "Flat 2" and "Flat number 2" list as different addresses on a credit file. Ideally, you want your bank to have the exact same address as the electoral roll address, which should be the same as everything else. It can take a while for banks to update Equifax and co.
It does look like my address updates haven't been passed on to Equifax, so I have submitted a query asking them to confirm that [current address] is the one my bank and phone company hold for me, not [past address]. Should I do the same for the two accounts (Next and old phone) classed as "Settled"? I mean, presumably those companies don't hold any information on me any more, so I don't really know what I'm asking them to do.