I recently signed up for a Barclaycard, was accepted and was given the product I asked for which was this Flexi-Rate Platinum card. The limit I was initially given was £4000.00. Some three weeks later the amount was abruptly reduced to £900.00 and a letter was sent out saying that the matter was "non-negotiable" for the next six months. The reason being that all new customers were subject to these new lending rules and I was not unduly being singled out; a lot of customers are aparently getting their limits reduced.

Anyway, what with various email questioning this decision, I got through to some credit account manager and lo and behold my limit was increased to £3000.00 which I was really pleased about. It would appear that Barclaycard do in fact listen when you persevere.

I digress. Whilst speaking to this manager I mentioned to him that I have inserted three "Notices of Correction" on my credit file with Equifax to explain to potential lenders the reasons why I had "not so great" credit. To my shock I was told that Barclaycard and other lenders don't actually get to see this information, they only see a note to say that the Notice of Correction has been added to the file. They then assume that since I had added this information myself, this must mean that I had something dreadfully wrong with my credit worthiness and thus they marked "you down" and refuse you various products.

I explained that I thought the reverse would be true and that it would be a good thing to explain to lenders about my previous financial history and to let them know that I was in-touch with how my accounts are run; it should also show them that I am a good credit risk.

It just goes to show that some lenders see a Notice of Correction as being a flag which would indicate that you are likely to be a problem borrower.

The only thing I can suggest is that before making an application with a potential creditor, you should contact their credit department and ask them how they view Notices of Correction.

Trossachs ,

Thanks for this valuable information, will contact my mate about it , she just added a notice of correction recently to her file.

This is why I thought I would alert everyone here. I also thought that it was a good thing, obviously not!

This is a brilliant piece of info and I wanted to thank you for sharing this. I, like yourself, have also taken time to check my accounts, improve my credit rating, raised notices of dispute and I have added a Notice of Correction on 3 occasions in relation to faulse or misleading information held on my accounts. I have been mislead once again for believing that I was effectively managing and repairing my file. During typing this response to you I have just taken a call in relation to a store card that I have never posessed, infact the credit collection agency have no information on the amount, the date, infact they have nothing other than my name and date of birth. They have also just informed me that a certain person, who is unknown to me was found to be using my details and identity 4 years ago at an address that I have not lived at for around 11 years. This is the first I have been told.

What next!!!!!!!!!

Thank you once again for the valuable info.

NOC's can be useful but they would rarely help improve your credit file. Companies must read this information but do not have to do anything about it.

The usefulness comes from the fact that after credit scoring your application they see you have bad credit but also that there is a NOC on file. They then read this and can take these reasons into account - from my experience I have seen ones explaining that sudden reduncy or family problems have caused credit problems - and instead of the application being declined the companies would ask for further info or decide to proceed.

HTH

Well I think you all have just provided me with an answer to my original forum headed 'CREDIT HISTORY!!!". I have a notice of correction on my two credit files which state that I am not responsibile for any of my ex husbands financial dealings and that I am totally independant from him. He has an IVA and had money problems when he left me. I had to buy the house from him and was advised to make these notices of correction to me credit reports. This could be the reason why, even though my personal credit rating and history are excellent without any anomolies, that I have been refused a credit card and a loan. Thank you I will remove them now.

This is terrible.

What is a Notice of Correction?

This is a 200 word statement that you can add to your credit file, to explain any entry on it. If you add a Notice of Correction to your credit file any organisation accessing your credit file through Callcredit will have access to your Notice of Correction. Please bear in mind that if you add a Notice of Correction to your credit file, lenders searching our database for information we hold about you are obliged under the Guide to Credit Scoring to read your Notice of Correction. This may slow down their decision of whether to offer you the product/service you have applied for.

A Notice of Correction cannot be longer than 200 words long. Any statement we believe to be defamatory, libellous, incorrect or frivolous may be referred to the Information Commissioner for arbitration.

This is from Call Credits website please see underlined.  So lenders should read the correction notice.

Cheers

G

lender have to read it, but they do not have to do anything about it.

I'm just glad that by bringing my experiences to light, it may help those of you who read this post.

I am amazed though that there would even be a 'slight' chance of it affecting any decsion that a potential lender would have made. We never really know what goes on behind these institutions do we and are really at the mercy of their individual and inconsistent decisions of that particular day or moment. Again its extremely annoying that people who genuinely keep up payments and remain within the terms of any credit agreement are treated sometimes like some people who have extreme debt and financial problems. Anyway this string of posts have opened my eyes, taught me some things and made me even more determined now to get to the bottom of my rejections. I will keep you all posted. Thanks.

Tracey.

Its more that a company will use this information to possibly overturn a declined application - although companies are cautious when it comes to the information written there as it comes from the individual, they would prefer proof of what has occured - if you can supply this state it on the NOC.

 A NOC will not be detrimental to your credit file as your file already shows the bad credit you have - it just gives the reason for this bad credit. Without this your application could be declined outright because it fails their credit score, but if you have a NOC due to something that happened, your application will probably be refered for further investigation. The lender then reads the info on the NOC and will then make a decision whether to lend or not.

 Usually the application would still be declined, but I know of cases where the information in an NOC has allowed the lender to proceed with the application as the poor credit was an exceptional circumstance.