The first Credit Reference Service!
Society of Guardians for the Protection of Tradesmen against Swindlers,
Sharpers and other Fraudulent Persons.
It’s 1826, and Manchester’s innkeepers, drapers, chandlers and hatters have decided to team up to tackle the problem of customers who don’t pay their debts. They form the Society of Guardians for the Protection of Tradesmen against Swindlers, Sharpers and other Fraudulent Persons, which issues a monthly circular to its members sharing information about these unreliable characters. Fast–forward almost 200 years, and what began as a way for tradesmen to protect their pockets is now a thriving industry that plays a crucial role in lending decisions and fraud prevention across the world.
While it’s not up to credit reference agencies which financial products you can access, or on what terms, they hold the information that other companies use as part if their decision making. So, this information needs to be reliable. But this isn’t a given. We’ve heard from people who have been chased for debts they don’t ow and locked out of the products they want all because of erroneous entries on their credit report.
The Financial Conduct Authority is looking at the accuracy of the information held by credit reference agencies as part of its market study – the initial findings of which are due in early 2022. But you just need to worry about the information held about you.
Source: Jenny Ross, editor: December 2021 Which? Money