advice on incorrect credit entry -help sorry long.

[Dinnertonight]

DP has been refused a mortgage. We don't understand why his credit rating is so low. We found via an Equifax report he had a old credit card from 2008 with a balance in default of £573 which had not been settled. This is a mistake it was paid and settled. DP contacted Lloyds TSB the card lender who said that as the card was closed they had no records. They then said they would contact Equifax as it must be their (Equifax) fault that they did not update the records and they would email them to get it removed.

We ring every day and go through the same rigmarole, each day they say they will email Equifax and each day nothing seems to happen.In the meantime our flat purchase is going nowhere. Can anybody advise us what actions or steps we should could take to compel LLoyds/Equifax to take this seriously and then if when we do get this corrected should he be able to get a mortgage?

FYI DP has a 3 year loan which is 20% of his basic salary. No credit cards, no other debts, a spotless track record of 10 years of paying a mortgage to the same lendor who has just refused him, a 32% deposit, is 47 years old and worked for the same company for 7 years and lived at the same address for 9 years. And the mortgage he is requesting is 1.4 x his salary.

aghhhh please help.

Speak to complaints department at Lloyds TSB. Threaten legal action for financial losses due to your DPs inability to get a mortgage due to the erroneous info. that should make them sit up and take notice.

If you get nowhere with that contact the Banking Ombudsman (or would it be the FSA for credit cards? not sure, can anyone else clarify?)

TBH you could go on like this forever by phone. You need to send them a letter via recorded delivery. I think you also need to send it to the data controller.

He could also try putting a 'notice of correction' on his credit file, where he can put some text against a specific entry on his file to explain it. It means that nobody can do an automated credit search on him without having the note flagged - they would have to go into the file to read the notice before making any lending decisions. It's supposed to be for when the information is correct but you believe it gives the wrong impression, e.g. if you miss payments on a mortgage during a divorce because you can't access frozen bank accounts, but I don't see why you couldn't use it to put a note against an incorrect entry.

Other than that would echo DancingHippo's advice and contact the ombudsman, the details are on Equifax's website under FAQs.

Also look at the information commisioner who handles incorrect data complaints.

Thank you for all your advice. We have written an letter and are going to get it sent recorded delivery to customer services and then we will start to put the pressure on. Is very unfair as both DH but also his vendors who are buying an ongoing property have paid for surveys , searches etc

I really would send it to the data controller whom you can find the address for

here

I would copy it to customer services.

Once you make a complaint to the data controller I believe they have to reply within a certain time frame.