Identity theft and credit improvement

Your credit rating matters- and you should take careful steps to safeguard it, and repair it if you feel it does not fairly represent your circumstances. This pack contains documents for you to start the repair process, and to report to credit card companies if you feel your account has been accessed without your permission.
See the individual information associated with each document in this pack for a full description of their use.

This document helps you to improve your credit rating by removing incorrect information from your credit files and adding explanations (where appropriate) as to why your credit history was bad. You can also use this document if you wish to “freeze” your credit to prevent fraudsters from opening accounts on your behalf. You should use our "Request for credit files" document before this one. YOU CANNOT USE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT YOUR STATUTORY CREDIT REPORTS. Please note that this document should not be used in cases of identity theft, where our "Identity recovery" document should be used instead. If there are credit agreements in your Statutory Credit Reports which you did not sign, you have been a victim of identity theft.

If there is an error on your credit card statement, you should notify your credit card company as soon as possible and can use this document to do so. This letter is only appropriate for use where your card is still in your possession, i.e. it hasn't been lost or stolen, but there are unknown charges on your account. It is good practice to send this letter by recorded delivery post and keep a copy for your records, so that you have evidence of your correspondence with the credit card company.

This letter should be sent to an organisation which has refused you credit, requesting them to review their decision and/or to tell you their main reason for refusing you credit and to send you the details of the Credit Reference Agency they used to justify the rejection. The lender may be persuaded to change its mind if you are able to provide additional relevant information that would not otherwise have been known to the lender, for example, that since you applied for credit you have obtained a better higher paid job. It may also indicate to you that there is something wrong with your credit rating; in which case, you can take further steps to rectify the problem.

Use this letter to inform your bank of an unauthorised cashpoint withdrawal that you have noticed when looking at your bank statement. The letter requests the bank to refund the money to your account.

This is a package of letters that is designed to help a user take appropriate action to correct bad data in their credit files following on from an identity theft. Before using this document you need to use our "Request for credit files" document to produce the letters to credit reference agencies to obtain your Statutory Credit Reports. YOU CANNOT USE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT YOUR STATUTORY CREDIT REPORTS. In your Statutory Credit Report, there should have been credit agreement(s) in your name which you yourself did not sign, otherwise, you should use the document "Credit rating repair".

If your identity has been used fraudulently to create a contract in your name, you can use this letter to reject any liability for that contract and (if applicable) to notify the company involved that you have reported the matter to the police. The letter will seek confirmation that the contract will be cancelled and that no payment will be taken from your bank account in respect of it. The document also seeks further information as to the circumstances in which the contract was made, so that the matter can be investigated further.

You should use this document to obtain a copy of your Statutory Credit Files to find out if there is incorrect information in your files, whether this is due to identity theft or error. The document will create the 3 letters you need to send to the three main credit reference agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion (formerly Callcredit). When you receive your files, you should use our "Credit rating repair" and "Identity recovery" documents, as appropriate, to fix your credit rating.

This document will allow you to change your name by one of two methods – deed poll or statutory declaration. You may have been using your new name for some time, but wish now to formally acknowledge your change of name, or you may wish to be known by your new name from this day forward. Guidance is included to help you choose which method is right for you.

If you choose the deed poll option, you can choose to register (‘enrol’) this document with the Royal Courts of Justice. This document will provide the necessary documentation and guidance you need to do this.

You can only use this document if you are 16 years or older.