Moolr.co.uk | Short term loans

Credit Reports & Cifas Markers

Even if you are familiar with credit reports, credit scores and more, you may not have heard of Cifas. That is understandable, as not many have! With that in mind, Moolr thought it would be a good idea to take a brief look at credit reports & Cifas markers.

What Is It?

Cifas is a national fraud prevention service. It can place warnings on your credit file. This sounds like bad news for anyone who has such warnings, but they can be of great use for the individual. These warnings are named ‘Protective registration’ and ‘Victim of impersonation’.

Protective registration is a paid service which protects your identity from misuse. It stays on your credit report for two years. You can apply for this service on the Cifas website.

Victim of impersonation is filed by your lender for your own protection if you’ve been the victim of identity fraud. This warning on your report for 13 months.

If one of these is on your credit report, it gives potential lenders a fraud warning, telling them that in the past you’ve been a victim of fraud, or could be particularly vulnerable to fraud in the future. It does not mean lenders will run a mile should you want to borrow money. However…

What does this mean when I apply for credit?

Any application for credit may be subject to further checks to prove your identity. As this is often a manual check, if you apply for credit your application could be delayed.

Having a marker under this section will not automatically mean your application will be rejected. It’s there to protect you from being a victim of fraud.

What if the Cifas marker is there by mistake?

If you think that a Cifas warning is on your credit file mistakenly, you can get in touch with the lender who put it there to see if they’ll remove it.

Keep in mind though that they’re unlikely to remove any entry on your report if they believe the reason the marker was put on your credit file was justified. Lenders are legally obliged to report any fraudulent attempt on your account to the credit reference 

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