The basic credit check

The fundamental components of a basic check are identification of any court enforced actions against the individual or data subject. These will cover:

• County Court Judgements (CCJs) detailing the date of the judgement, the amount of the award made, and the court reference. If the CCJ has been satisfied, that is debt repaid, then this will also be recorded along with the date satisfied.
• Bankruptcy order detailing the date of the order, the amount awarded, and the court reference. Unlike CCJs a bankruptcy order will not always have an amount of award associated with it. If the court records show that the bankruptcy has been satisfied then a date will also be given for this event.
• IVAs, these are voluntary agreements for insolvency. Similar to the bankruptcy order there will again be dates and court references.

Additional areas a credit check can cover.

• Risk scores identifying the potential risk of default on financial payments.
• Corrections recorded against an individual’s credit file. For example, someone may feel that a CCJ was incorrectly recorded or that there we other related factors they wish to be recorded.
• Credit searches, normally relating to applications for credit. When someone applies for a financial loan or credit agreement such as a mobile phone account, a search is normally conducted and a record of the event is recorded on the individual’s credit file.
• A summary of financial accounts maintained by an individual at their address, this is sometimes used to confirm an individual’s identity and address history.
• CIFAS records. This is available to members of CIFAS only. The database will record instances of employee fraud and related events.
• HM Treasury and OFAC sanctions lists. These lists maintain details of individuals and sometimes organsiations convicted of fraud, or banned from investment, or suspected of involvement with terrorism (as recorded in the OFAC list).

Personal details on the individual’s credit file not revealed.
Due to data protection requirements details such as whether an individual has missed financial payments, the total amount of credit, and the specific companies providing credit, will not be revealed for the purpose of a tenant or employee credit check. Such details can only be provided in very specific circumstances.

Who should undertake a credit check?
A short answer is any landlord or employer who feels that an individual with adverse financial history will be a risk to their business or customers. There are also regulations that apply to certain areas of employment such as within the financial services sector and security sector.

How often should a credit check be undertaken?
This really depends on the business and the degree of risk mitigation required. It should be noted that a credit check can only ever provide a view for a specific point in time. Adverse financial data is normally removed from an individual’s credit file after 6 years. Additionally a CCJ or bankruptcy order may be pending and could show up against an individual a few months after a report has been provided. It is quite common for businesses to request a credit check annually but in some cases they are conducted every 3 to 4 months.

Impact of a credit check on an individual’s credit file
Every search carried out will leave a record, so whether a search is for employment screening, tenant checks, utility services, or loan application, there will be a record kept. When an individual applies for a loan the lender will normally take into account other credit applications when determining the level of risk. A credit check (as conducted by Credit Check Services) for purpose of employment screening or tenant checks will not affect the individual’s personal credit score or their ability to obtain credit.

For more information on tenant or employee credit checks visit Credit Check Services.

The actual figure for court proceedings initiated (all claims including money, land, and goods) show the following:

2008 (Q1 to Q3)                 1.562 million

2009 (Q1 to Q3)                 1.439 million

2010 (Q1 to Q3)                 1.222 million

In percentage terms there was a fall of 21.8% in proceedings initiated through civil courts.  The fall is slightly more when looking at money claims only which fell from 1.192 to 0.928 million, a fall of 22.2%.

At first glance the figures seem at odds with the current economic climate which would suggest that more people are experiencing financial hardship post “credit crunch”, in which case it may seem reasonable to expect an increase in claims made via the civil courts.

The probable explanation for the sharp fall in court proceedings could be partly explained by the more prudent lending in the last 2 years which will have resulted in less people taking on financial commitments that they are unable to afford.

That said with claims still averaging over 135,000 per month for 2010 (January to October) it is still around 1 civil court proceeding for every 20 adults each year.  Over a 6 year period (the life of the credit file data stored against individuals) this would equate to 1 civil court proceeding for every 3 adults in the England & Wales jurisdiction.

Credit Check Services specilaises in background screening of individuals, if you would like to find out more visit the main website at credit-check-services.co.uk

The Quality Management System (QMS ) is at the core of Credit Check Services, it defines everything from our business planning and performance metrics through to individual work instructions, internal audit programmes, and very importantly our customer survey programme.

Every month Credit Check Services conducts up to 50 customer surveys to help assess customer satisfaction and fundamentally any opportunity to improve the services we offer.

If you have received a call from our offices to take part in the survey we would like to again say thank you for your feedback.  However please feel free to call at anytime during office hours with suggestions, we are always seeking feedback on developing our services to ensure ongoing satisfaction.

Gordon Marchant, Managing Director

• Customer user account storing up to 500 archived reports at any one time
• Status updates on report progress (applies to employment screening reports and multi-order reports)
• Uploading multiple attachments containing order details
• Downloading of completed reports
• Multiple accounts per company, providing flexibility to manage orders by employee type or department
• Secure server hosting with full encryption between customer PC and our hosting platform,

If you would like to know more about our managed account services call us now on 01992 719 234

Employment screening, standard reports, will change to £19 + VAT

Level 2 security screening £79 + VAT

Tenant screening, Gold report, will change to £18.00 + VAT

Consumer screening, standard reports, will change to £19 + VAT

All new pricing will apply to pay-as-you go services.  All monthly invoiced account pricing will be maintained as per individual agreements.

As always we are willing to agree discounted pricing for large volume orders, please call us for a quotation.