I am writing to you in the hope that you can provide some advice on my credit report. I suspect it is in a bad way and I do not know how I can improve it.  

I think that the blame lies at my old address. My family’s expenses are detailed in the credit report yet they have nothing to do with me. My mother ended up in a lot of debt, and this is now being dealt with by an IVA, perhaps these circumstances affect my own credit ratings when a search is done.

My account, with a certain bank/ building society which shall remain nameless, was finally closed in March 2008, or at least I thought it had been closed. To my utter disbelief, however, this turns out to be a lie. Eight weeks later I received a letter from the company which arrived at my uncles address because I was preparing to move to Ireland. The letter said that I owed the bank money. After further investigation, I realised that when I was closing my account, the bank had mistakenly credited funds to my account. If I do not repay the money, they are threatening to put a default on to my credit file. I think this is unfair. I have contacted the Financial Ombudsman and have written numerous letters of complaint to various departments but have had no success. Do you know where I go from here?

Let’s start at the beginning. The only reason your credit report would be linked to that of someone else is if you have a financial connection with that person. This could be a joint credit application or a joint loans for example. Prior to the end of 2004, families living at the same address were, as you point out, automatically linked on their credit reports. This is no longer the case so I would advise you to check your credit report again today – you can do this free of charge by taking a free trial of Credit Expert, a credit report monitoring service offered by Experian. If your find that your mother is indeed linked to your report and if you are certain that you do not have a financial connection with her, you can simply request that the link is removed by us.

As regards your dispute with the bank; although it was not your fault that they credited your account by mistake, the fact remains that the amount credited was not yours and it is therefore quite reasonable, in my opinion, to expect you to pay it back. You mention that you have had no success following your contact with the Financial Ombudsman Service so I imagine they are of the same opinion. If you cannot repay the full amount straight away, I suspect your bank would agree to let you repay it in affordable instalments. Under the circumstances I believe it would be unfair of them to show negative information on your credit report, providing you agree to repay the money, so request that they agree to this as a concession.

At the end of the day, if your credit report does indicate that you have been a victim of identity fraud, you should contact our Victims of Fraud team without delay. They will not only provide advice on safeguarding your identity in the future but also help you update the incorrect record as quickly as possible.

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