A Statutory Credit Report and a credit report contain the same underlying data, the difference is how the data is presented to you. On a Statutory Credit Report you can view the credit report data you are legally entitled to.
For an additional fee, some credit reference agencies (CRAs) will offer you other services, for example, analysis of your credit data to derive a “credit score” to evaluate your credit worthiness. These types of additional services are shown on a credit report.
Crediva generates your credit report from data provided to us from councils (the Electoral Roll, for example), government agencies (court records or mortality information) and other data providers. If there is an error or inaccuracy on your report, you will need to contact the relevant data holder for them to make the change or deletion. It typically takes a council or government agency up to 6 weeks to update your changes and provide the information to us.
You can use the government website to update your name, address or other details they hold about you.
You should also inform Crediva directly of any corrections by filling out this form. We will only be able to correct the data held on our systems and you should also contact the source of the inaccurate data for them to correct the information they hold.
Should you require any additional information on how to remove or correct errors or inaccuracies on your credit report, please let us know in the ‘Further Information’ section of the form.
If you have requested a change to your data or for data to be removed, it can take up to 6 weeks for the council or government agency to update their records. In addition, CRAs typically receive data from these organisations on a monthly basis, so the combined time delay may be the reason your information has not yet been amended as requested.
It is also possible the relevant council or government agency disagrees with your request to amend data and they decide not to implement your request. In this instance you can contact us to let us know and you can request a Notice of Correction is added to your credit file – see below FAQ: What is a Notice of Correction?
If you request a change to your data from a council or government agency and they do not agree that the change should be made, under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, you can request that Crediva adds a Notice of Correction to your file. A Notice of Correction is a short (200 words max) explanation of your situation, in your own words added to your Crediva file. We will also use Notice of Correction if you believe you have been a victim of fraud or want to flag difficult personal circumstances. We will only store a Notice of Correction on your file that is submitted directly to us.
Crediva cannot add a Notice of Correction if it is untrue, negatively affects another person’s, or an organisation’s reputation, or if it is scandalous. If we do receive a Notice of Correction that we cannot add, we will write to you to let you know why, and we may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office for their consideration.
To add a Notice of Correction, please complete this form. We will need your full name, address, email address and 200 words explaining the Notice of Correction information – please note: 200 words is the maximum that we are able to accept as this is the total number of words we are able to display on a statutory credit report (this 200 word limit has been set by legislation under the Consumer Credit Act 1974).
We will also use Notice of Correction if you believe you have been a victim of fraud or want to flag difficult personal circumstances.
An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) is a financial arrangement that you can enter into with an existing creditor if you are experiencing financial hardship and are unable to pay your unsecured loan repayments. The IVA is set up by an independent Insolvency Practitioner, who will act on your and the creditor’s behalf to agree a monthly amount you can afford. An IVA is legally binding and, once in place, the creditor cannot add further interest.
An IVA is registered with the government’s Insolvency Service and appears on the Individual Insolvency Register which is available to the public. Once you have an IVA, it will be shown on your credit report for at least 6 years from the start date or until the IVA is paid in full (if beyond 6 years). You may experience difficulty gaining further credit as potential lenders may view you as high risk if you have, or have had, an IVA in place.
For more information please refer to individual voluntary arrangements.
A trust deed is the Scottish equivalent of an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA).
For more information please refer to debt support trust.
If you declare yourself bankrupt (in England and Wales), or have entered into sequestration (in Scotland) then this will be included on your credit report for 6 years from the start date, as long as you are discharged from the bankruptcy within this period.
In England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, you are usually freed from your Bankruptcy (known as being ‘discharged’) after 12 months.
When the bankruptcy period has ended, you may still experience difficulty in obtaining credit as lenders may consider you a high risk.
We receive updated bankruptcy and sequestration data on a daily basis (for England and Wales) and a weekly basis for Scotland and Northern Ireland, so we will be informed when your bankruptcy or sequestration has been discharged. We update our records when we receive this information. For further information, please refer to England and Wales bankruptcy, Scotland sequestration, or North Ireland bankruptcy.
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we protect your data via secure systems and only share your data within our Group of Companies and with third parties who we have investigated to ensure their legitimacy and appropriateness to access the data. We have legal agreements in place with these third parties to ensure that they also protect and use your data in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
We will never share your data with organisations that we have not vetted, or who have not legally agreed to the terms and conditions we stipulate to protect your data securely. We have internal controls in place to ensure that our staff are fully aware of the importance of protecting your data, and not sharing it with any unauthorised organisations. Crediva keeps records of all searches made against your data, the data we shared, and the date we shared it. We show this search information on your credit report and we retain the data in our systems for audit and compliance purposes, in accordance with the law. Crediva displays financial data on your Statutory Credit Report for 6 years. Non-financial information is retained by Crediva as an historic record of residence for identity assurance purposes.
We aim to provide services which satisfy the needs of all our customers. However, should you wish to make a complaint you can do so by writing to us via email at ukcustomercare@lexisnexisrisk.com or by post to Complaints Team, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Global Reach, Dunleavy Drive, Cardiff, CF11 0SN.
To allow us to respond quickly to your concerns, please provide the following details:
- Full name
- Address
- Date of birth
- Email address
- Any relevant reference numbers
- A description of the complaint, plus any supporting evidence
Our complaints procedure
We aim to resolve your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it and will contact you, in writing, with the outcome. If that is not possible, we will write to you within 5 working days to let you know that your complaint has been received and we are progressing with it.
If your complaint is not resolved after 4 weeks, we will write again to explain what progress has been made. In most cases, we will give you our final response within 8 weeks of receiving your complaint. Our final response will tell you what we have found, what we will do and why we came to that conclusion.
Depending on the nature of your complaint, an alternative dispute resolution provider may also be able to assist. Where you are a consumer and your complaint relates to the financial information about you processed by Crediva acting as a credit reference agency, you will have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (the “FOS”).
The FOS is an independent body which seeks to resolve eligible complaints received from individual consumers. Sole traders, partnerships and other small businesses, charities and trusts may also be able to refer eligible complaints to the FOS. There is no charge for referring complaints to the FOS.
The contact details for the FOS are: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
Telephone: 0800 023 4567, or +44 20 7964 1000 if calling from outside the UK
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Where you are a consumer with a complaint arising out of services purchased online, you may also register your complaint using the European Commission Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform. A link to the platform, including more information about how it works, can be accessed at the following address: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr
A County Court Judgment (CCJ) or High Court Judgment will remain on your credit report for 6 years. Existence of a CCJ will be used by lenders as one of the factors to determine your credit worthiness. Lenders will be able to see if you have settled a CCJ from your credit report. If you settle your CCJ within one month, this will be removed from your credit report once notification is received by Crediva from the Registry Trust.
For further information please refer to County Court Judgments.
Being listed on the electoral roll enables organisations to check your identity when conducting a search on your credit report. You can choose not to register for inclusion on the electoral roll, but this means you will be unable to vote in elections, and it makes it harder for organisations to check your identity and your personal address. Lack of Electoral Roll information can count against you during credit checks.
Councils send us regular updates of electoral data which we will aim to update within 4 weeks of receipt.
If you are uncertain that you are on the electoral roll, please contact your local council who will be able to inform you. Alternatively, visit the About My Vote website.
Credit reference agencies are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide credit references. They collect data and perform identity and fraud checks on individuals to allow others to assess how likely that person is to pay back credit.
CRAs do not make decisions on the authenticity of an individual’s identity, nor do they recommend whether an organisation should grant credit to an applicant.
A CRA merely provides data so the organisation can make a balanced, informed risk decision about the applicant.
You can contact us …
By phone: 0808 129 3210
By post: Crediva Ltd, Global Reach, Dunleavy Drive, Cardiff, CF11 0SN
Our opening hours are 9.00am-5.00pm Monday-Friday.