‘Credit Rating Gone Wrong’
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Loading ...October 5, 2008 by admin
Hi David,
My partner and I have recently moved in together in a rental property. We are very interested in hearing about owning our own home. I have thoroughly looked into it and keep getting told no. My partner has recently gone onto wages in the last couple of months and usually brings home approx. $1100 per week whilst I have always been on wages and bring home $539 per week.
My partner has a bad credit rating from a phone bill through Telstra which we believe not to be his. It is to the value of approx. $2500. We have tried and tried to get to the bottom of this with no avail. We have repeatedly requested a copy of the bill and all we get is a print out from Alliance Factoring with a $0 balance at the top of every page. This bad credit rating will be gone by Christmas 2008.
We are at the end of our tether and didn’t want to rent at all but had no choice. I am 31 and he is 29 and we want to start a family and have a home of our own. Who would have thought that was too much too ask.
Is there any advice you can give us to help us out of this horrible situation. My credit rating is clear, I have no defaults. I have a car loan with a balance of $2800. Thank-you for your time David,
Kind Regards,
Clarissa
Clarissa,
This is very disturbing information. If it was not your partner’s phone bill that has caused all the problems we should all be pretty concerned about the possible implications this has for everyone! It is quite possible that identity fraud is the cause of this dilemma. Someone else has used your partners identity details to obtain phone services and has then disappeared.
I wonder how often something like this happens to other innocent people.
The people who are responsible for keeping credit file records that you need to talk to are at ‘Veda Advantage’ (was Baycorp) on 1300 762 207 (Australia).
Ask to speak to the investigation team.
You could also go to their web-site at www.mycreditfile.com.au and http://www.vedaadvantage.com
Veda Advantage have a monitoring service for $40 a year. Every time something changes on your Credit Report they notify you of the change. This would have allowed you to know the moment the above problem occurred. You could have gotten on to it straight away rather than now going through the problems you have had.
There is another avenue you can try as well. A company called Credit Repair will help get to the bottom of the problem and remove any incorrect information from your file. However you need to be aware that it will cost you money to get them to look into this, but it might be money well spent if you can turn your rent payments into mortgage repayments.
‘Credit Repair’ 1300 349 273 www.creditrepairaustralia.com
I hope this information helps.
Regards
David Wright
I received the following information from one of my readers after first publishing the information above.
Hi David,
I read the story “credit rating gone wrong” (above) with interest as I work as a Telstra fraud investigator and deal with people having stolen Id and investigating wrong default listing. I agree, it can be hell when one is a victim of identity theft. It’s very rare we find the perpetrators, but we offer to help the victim as best we can. People are very quick to place blame with Telstra but more than often Telstra is also the victim.
In this day and age everyone should be security conscience and aware who they give out their personal information too.
Beat regards….
Joanne
I too have had problems with Telstra. You must formally complain to the Telecommunications Ombudsman. This is free. Do this online. Insist all communications are in writing. Keep copies.
They will give you a telstra complaints number to call. Do not necessarily believe anything the Telstra complaints employee tells you. Request names. Log the exact time the conversation began and log the time it ended. Independently verify everything. It is best to put the person from Telstra on loudspeaker and have a number of witnesses in the room during the call. (Advise Telstra the call may be monitored for training or other purposes.) The Telstra complaints employee may use a number of devlishly devious ‘complaint avoidance’ tactics (eg, you may be told it is your fault, it is your responsibility, the call will be terminated because you are arguing or ‘abusive’, sometimes the call may conveniently ‘drop out’ and you will be cut off, you may be told you have phoned the wrong number, they cannot connect you to the right number etc etc.
Ask for copies of all correspondence pertaining to this outstanding account. Ask for copies of all calls made pertaining to the outstanding account etc. Telstra is legally required to send a formal letter of demand to your last known place of residence advising you the amount is outstanding and will be placed in the hands of a collection agency. Ask for a copy of this letter. Ask for an email address whereby you can send a formal account of the conversation, with whom it was conducted and what (you believe) was resolved.
The TIO will ask for an account of what happened. Give it to them in writing and keep copies.
Get a copy (this too is free) of your credit report from Veda Advantage. I found my credit report impossible to understand and evidently nowhere near as comprehensive as information available to credit providers.
If you see ‘telstra credit’ or some such, you must keep lobbying both Telstra and the Telecommunications Ombudsman’s Office until this has disappeared.
good luck. you will need it.
I had the exact same problem, however not only did I have a Telstra black mark but I also had one from Alliance Factoring. It is unbeleivable how such large companies can make so many mistakes. Mine weren’t due to come off until April 2010 however I contacted credit repair australia as you mentioned above and they got them off for more in a few weeks. I did have to pay a fee but as you said David it’s money well spent. Even if you can somehow get a homeloan you can still be paying thousands every year in unessesary interest. If anyone else feels they are in a simlar situation I strongly suggest they contact credit repair australia as well.