I am currently in the process of buying a house via a mortgage and around 2 weeks ago I failed a credit check with certain vendors because of my Equifax Credit Rating. Upon further investigation of this credit file, we noticed there is an account with Virgin Mobile from 2013 which is in arrears of £19 and this is severely affecting my credit score. This was strange because I have never had a Virgin Mobile account, I only have a Virgin Media account for Home broadband. However I do remember being the victim of fraud in 2013 where some of my identification was compromised and the police were notified.
So I called Equifax and told them I'd like this to be removed from my credit file as this is a fraudulent account and it should not belong on there. Equifax told me the information on it's files are provided and owned by it's lenders, therefore any information on there would need to be changed by Virgin Mobile directly.
So I called Virgin Mobile. I spoke to an Agent by the name of Sarah who tried her best to grasp what I was saying but then proceeded to ask me for my password to the account so she could take a closer look. I politely reminded Sarah that this account was opened fraudulently in my name so I would not have any access details to it. She then said she would need to progress it through to the "back office" and they would take a look, I would be notified in 14 days. She also told me to email CreditFileAmendments@VirginMedia.co.uk which I have done.
On 20th April I had still not been notified by Virgin Mobile "Back Office" or Credit File Amendments so I rang Virgin again. I spoke to another agent and immediately asked to be put through to a manager. I spoke to a Virgin Mobile Manager who told me his name was Oscar. I again explained my entire situation to him and he told me he would do the same as what Sarah was going to do. I expressed my frustration that this was already supposedly being done. He then came up with the idea that if I pay the £19 in arrears, it would settle my account with Equifax but at the same time I would still process my fraud case with Virgin and be refunded the money. I went along with this and gave my card details but no money has left my account yet.
Today, 24th April, I spoke to Romeo from online support and
AGAIN explained to him my entire situation. He told me that paying the £19 would mean I might be liable to being the legitimate account holder. Even though this is what the
MANAGER had told me to do so on the call before!! Now Romeo has told me to email
FRAUDRISKTEAM2@virginmedia.co.uk.....
I am at a complete loss at this whole situation and I'm sure you can understand the complete stress I am under. I'm trying to buy my first house with my wife and a stupid thing like this is getting in the way of it all.
I'd like to know what you can do to help?
