The credit reporting industry was initially created to assist lenders make sure that they did not lend to people deemed to be a bad credit risk.
In the early days, if you didn't apply for credit, you would have no credit profile at all. You would never need to see your credit file.
However, successive governments have allowed more and more sectors to use the service, especially utility and mobile phone companies.
So even if you are from the "old school" and have never borrowed a penny in your life, nor have you ever had a mobile phone because you don't approve of them, "Big Brother" out there still has information about you on its system courtesy of your gas, electricity and water suppliers.
One of the biggest problems with the utility and mobile phone companies is the appalling lack of customer service. If you call them, you can often wait as long as an hour to get through, if indeed you get through at all. They also have an uncanny ability to rip you off for various things and then don't or won't do anything about it when you complain. So when you do the only thing you can do in some circumstances and withhold payment, they then threaten to put a default on your credit file whilst cockily telling you that it will make it difficult for you to get credit in future. Effectively, they are blackmailing customers into paying when they may have perfectly valid grounds for not doing so.
I really do think that the time has come when this entire industry needs clamping down on. I do not think that mobile phone companies or the utilities industry should be allowed to use credit reporting.
It should revert back to what is was first intended, which is for the finance and banking industries to make decisions on lending.
In the early days, if you didn't apply for credit, you would have no credit profile at all. You would never need to see your credit file.
However, successive governments have allowed more and more sectors to use the service, especially utility and mobile phone companies.
So even if you are from the "old school" and have never borrowed a penny in your life, nor have you ever had a mobile phone because you don't approve of them, "Big Brother" out there still has information about you on its system courtesy of your gas, electricity and water suppliers.
One of the biggest problems with the utility and mobile phone companies is the appalling lack of customer service. If you call them, you can often wait as long as an hour to get through, if indeed you get through at all. They also have an uncanny ability to rip you off for various things and then don't or won't do anything about it when you complain. So when you do the only thing you can do in some circumstances and withhold payment, they then threaten to put a default on your credit file whilst cockily telling you that it will make it difficult for you to get credit in future. Effectively, they are blackmailing customers into paying when they may have perfectly valid grounds for not doing so.
I really do think that the time has come when this entire industry needs clamping down on. I do not think that mobile phone companies or the utilities industry should be allowed to use credit reporting.
It should revert back to what is was first intended, which is for the finance and banking industries to make decisions on lending.