Experian want £99 to discuss a false company credit report

I have had a small business for 20 years.

Business has been steady but obviously there are fluctuations.

But being a small business we file only abbreviated accounts, which don't show turnover, profit, etc.

The sole Director lives mostly from dividends.

One new supplier has just refused us credit, citing a credit report from Experian showing our suggested credit limit reduced suddenly from £12000 to £500.

They sent me a copy of the report, and one can see what has probably happened: I rarely draw dividends near the end of the company year (31 Dec), deferring them to after 5th April the following year, for obvious reasons. But in 2009 I did apparently draw one in December, and this reduced the cash in the bank.

The stupid formula which Experian use concluded we are going bust, and it says there is a 12:1 chance of us going bust in the next 12 months.

OK, it is dumb for any supplier to rely on these reports entirely, but this fairly big company evidently does exactly that.

So I tried to phone Experian, only to get another chimp call centre, and a message saying they charge £99 for any discussion of limited company reports!

This is pure and simple extortion.

Some years ago, a CCJ got registered against my company, because it was granted against a company of a similar name, and some chimp in the county court, or one of the credit reference agencies, entered the company name into his computer, up came ours, and he then used the co. registration number to make it stick.

With such a totally crappy process, charging £99 to put it right is disgusting.

I've written to their chief exec but am not expecting much of a response since the last cockup took me 6 months to sort out.

Reply to
nobody
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Is it not refundable if they admit a mistake ?

Reply to
Jethro

If the information shown is correct and is as your accounts that you filed then to be honest there is little you can do. I agree their risk analysis is not perfect however there are other credit checking companies that are a lot worse.

Assuming there is a factual error on what they have produced you could argue data protection, i assume, whereby you have a right to have it corrected at no cost to yourself.

Reply to
Richard McKenzie

Another thought is that it is possible to contact Experian via a Credit Insurance Broker and they can discuss the matter with experian etc.

Assuming you do not have Credit Insurance you could contact your suppliers usually they are quite helpful etc however it may mean providing Management Accounts which i can understand yu may have reservations about.

Reply to
Richard McKenzie

I could send them the proper accounts for 2010 when they are done in a couple of months' time, but that does not help with them advising every enquirer that we are about to go bust, and having done so since about April last year.

Also I don't want to send them full accounts because I have no idea what they are going to do with the data. They are IMHO a bunch of anonymous crooks who I can fully trust to distribute the most incriminating subset of whatever I send them. Our accounts are good but that's not the point.

The £99 charge is obviously meant to discourage small businesses from arguing with inaccurate Experian reports, otherwise why do it? It's a straight finger-up gesture.

Reply to
nobody

Their opinion about the risk of your company is simply that, an opinion. Not all potential suppliers take heed of this.

I can only suggest speaking to your supplier and asking if it is possible to trade initially on proforma then maybe offering a small credit account where any order above that will be a deposit etc. If your supplier has credit insurance their policy may allow a discretionary limit to be established.

Reply to
Richard McKenzie

I agree, but some less than smart companies evidently do rely on these reports.

And to be honest if Experian says Company X is more or less going to go bust, who is going to ignore that?

The credit reports are bogus in both directions. When I started the business, in a converted loft, I used to get Dun & Bradstreet phoning up and asking how many employees we have... answer: 20 :) And D&B charge enough money for their drivel.

Sure; proforma is no problem. Of course they sell to us if we pay up front :)

We do the same with our customers, but I give an automatic £10k credit to any FTSE-sized company, and an automatic £500 credit to any company which has traded for > 10 years and has > 5 employees. I just ask them these straight questions. They could lie but they rarely seem to. Also, anybody pushing hard for a credit account, citing "moral" reasons etc, automatically doesn't get one. It's a simple policy and our bad debts are under £2000 in total, since 1991. Over that time, had we relied on reports from Experian etc, we would have lost a lot of business.

Reply to
nobody

experian started telling people that I had moved house, quite why I have no idea and neither did they. (I have been here 30 plus years as owner)

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Yes they are pretty useless according to thier records i am a partner in a dental practice in Wigan and a solicitor in leeds

I live in Birmingham

Reply to
steve robinson

you should try and claim some of their profits.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

I wish, havent made a profit now for two years and i cant see it getting any better soon.

Reply to
steve robinson

Well at the prices my dentist charges, you must be doing something wrong!

Reply to
mechanic

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