How your credit report can protect you

I am also in the same category as Vynor and John Ward and do not check my credit ratings. Don’t know about Duncan but so far 75% of posters would not check their credit rating so it must be even worse than Which? think !!! I would also not want to add to any information they might have about me.

I am not likely to need a loan, have sufficient credit cards that are paid off every month and should have a good credit rating. So why on earth would I want to pay £15 a month to check it? The mind boggles.

I also can’t understand how checking could prevent identity theft unless the agencies know every one of your accounts and that is a scary thought.

No alfa I have never checked my credit rating as the only debt I had in life was my mortgage. I have zero intention of checking it in the future . Your last paragraph alfa– your right it wont prevent it , remember who those debt agencies are aligned to it will only catch out anybody using it already . Your identity travels the world now there is no secrecy and yes even in my day when I checked out what was on that screen they know your EVERY account and debt otherwise their whole setup would be useless . I also looked after the police shoplifters detection service which broadcast to shops to look out for certain shoplifters with supplied video as well . There is now a massive amount of data on each of us and as we speak the government wants to make it official that it hacks your cell-net “smartphone ” turns it off/on/ turns on the camera / mike/ has installed hackware into the firmware so that they control it so overriding any programming you do to block access to it. They even have a name for it , they have been doing it for years just want to make it official under the new “Snoopers Charter ” which will make the NSA look like amateurs in its spying on its own population . all done in the “nicest possible of tastes ” as a certain K.Everet used to say.

malcolm -subbed out , your right years ago I was stopped in the street and told if I went upstairs to a room and answered questions I would be payed several pounds , to my dying shame greed and easy money overcame me and I did , I did not repeat it as my conscious made me feel guilty for years . I also was contacted by a London polling organisation wherebye if I answered questions on a regular basis i would get an renumeration . What a difference , when as a teenager I went round doors for Gallup asking if they used such and such a product ,I was paid per person so I covered several streets a night. One question was -do you use Gillette razor blades and I was given a supply of “Blue ” Gillette blades to give to those answering that used a bladed razor.

Sandra,

Having never felt the need to do a credit check, I am curious to know what you get out of doing one on a regular basis.

What information do you get from checking and how can it help you detect fraud?

Also, how much information does the agency hold about you and did you volunteer that information or did the agency acquire it from elsewhere?

And why Which? suggest that you might need to check your credit report costing up to £180 a year, year in year out, when I suspect most people have absolutely no need to know their credit ratings. £180 if you are short of money might be put to better use?

Commercial Which? offers cheaper version?

Someone has to to arrange to repay the new mortgage to Barclays to pay for the HQ refurbishment. Its nice to be so close to Regents Park but I must admit to being concerned that the situation beside a very busy intersection would be exposing staff to huge amounts of traffic pollution. Internally though the building seems fine to me – though I have never seen the canteen.

I still think staff in the Bristol and Hertford offices are getting a nicer environment and cost the charity roughly £5000 per person less at the junior grades.