My Credit Report Sent Me To Spain!

Guest written by James Cook

I bet you’re thinking how can anyone’s credit report take them on holiday? Well mine did. Up until a few months ago my family & I hadn’t been on holiday for 5 years. After Christmas last year I decided that I’d had enough of the short-lived English summers and decided to take my wife & two kids for a much needed week in the sun.

I did a bit of research and decided on a great hotel in Majorca that had loads to do for the kids so that my wife could relax, not having to worry about keeping them entertained.

When it comes to money I’ve always had a good credit history, never missing a payment & always getting offered various credit cards by my bank. Which is why, when I finally decided to take out a small loan to cover the cost of the holiday, I was so surprised to be declined!

I had absolutely no idea why I’d been declined for a loan given my seemingly spotless track record, so I decided I’d take a look at my credit report to find out why. I searched around the internet for the best service I could find.

In the end I ended up using the comparison site Top5CreditReports.co.uk which gave me a run-down of best 5 on the market and started a free trial with UK Credit Ratings.

Once I filled in a few of my details I was able to see my complete credit report, which had a much lower score than I expected. On closer inspection I noticed that I had a few missed payments for a loan I hadn’t even taken out.

I contacted the company through the details on my report and realised that my identity had been stolen & used to take out a loan under my name. I then made a complaint to the Financial Ombursman Service to get this mark removed from my credit report, which took me several of weeks.

Fortunately I was able to check my credit report again and confirm that the marks had been removed. I was then finally able to reapply for a loan and book my family the holiday they deserved.

And that’s how my credit report took me to Spain. Had I not have bothered to check my credit report I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to go and my family would have gone yet another year without a holiday.