WTF telco has rejected me but I've never had a bad credit history

I applied for a home phone/internet bundle with a regional based tel co (Southernphone) the other day and I was declined due to unsatisfactory credit history. I have never ever defaulted on any loan or bill so I don't understand why this has happened. They refered me to their credit check company Veda. The catch is, Veda wont discuss why my history is unsatisfactory until I pay $85 to get a copy of my credit report from them first. I refuse to pay this when I know I have not defaulted on anything, but a teeny bit of me is worried that someone has stolen my identity and racked up debt in my name. Has anyhone else had this situation and what did you do? is there any way of accessing my credit report for free?

Once you pay you get your credit history plus a yearly subscription where you get an email if there are any changes.

Has there been any court actions against you? They appear on the history too. And it's astounding how many can come up that you aren't responsible for. DH had one put on by Telstra that didn't belong to him - it was his name but they admitted it was one of many fraudulent cases where phones were given out by one of their stores. They couldn't produce a contract. They had his date of birth wrong and his name spelling wrong but were still able to list it, go figure. Getting them removed though is incredibly difficult. We just subscribe to Veda now so we can stay on top of things before we get a nasty surprise.

You can get your credit report for free by mail. It takes a few days. The details are on the Veda website.

There is also a online place you can get credit checks done. Takes 10days to receive for free

Thanks, I will look into it more I think. From what I saw on the Veda website the one you pay for comes by mail so I guess I will just have to pay. I am really quite concerned now :/

Try Dun & Bradstreet. I got one for free from them online. It took 2 weeks. It was about a year ago so it might have changed.

People getting it free through Veda - is this recent? Both DH and I tried and they originally said yes but when it never arrived, we queried it and they said it was because we hadn't paid.

Oh I've just found where I can get it for free in 10 days. Thanks!

It might not be a default too. You can get knocked back by having a lot of enquiries on your account. So if you have (or have applied for) a lot of credit (cards plans foxtell etc anything that does a credit check) then it will flag you and knock u back even if all those accts are paid up to date.

You can definitely get it for free from Veda, did it just a couple of weeks ago. Google free credit report and the Veda link should come up. Also some things may be listed on Veda and not D&B or vice versa, but if they've told you to speak to Veda then you should be right going to Veda only.

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Try Dun & Bradstreet. I got one for free from them online. It took 2 weeks. It was about a year ago so it might have changed.

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I did this as well

Pac, I just found a link for Veda where you can get it free, within ten days. It's not on the Veda website but a different one. When I googled, there was a link to an information page on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC - Gov't) and they explain how to get it for free. Apparently it is our legal right to obtain it for free.

Thanks everyone, I did find where you can get it fror free but didnt want to wait the 10 days so I just paid for it. My history is fine and my rating is classed as "good" I can only assume I was knocked back based on previous enquiries because yes in the last few years I have gotten a mortgage, credit card, personal loan, changed energy companies, refinanced credit card. Doesn't seem fair to me though to be knocked back based on number of enquiries. I am looking at changing energy companies again to find a more competative one but now that will just add another "enquiry" to my name :(

Wow that does seem harsh... A bank will give you a mortgage but the phone company say no? Seems strange. At least your know your rating is good.

Try again and take your report to prove you've got good credit history.

wow, how annoying. We got knocked back when we first moved back to Australia because we had nothing on record! Can't win.

That's frustrating! It can also be if you are a sahm that they won't put it into your name too.

I got knocked back by Telstra for a mobile because of an issue with my home phone at my address 6 years prior. But it was while I was renting the house out and living somewhere else so it wasn't even in my name. The supervisor overwrote it and it was fine but there are just so many weird reasons that individual companies may put a black mark against your name.

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Try again and take your report to prove you've got good credit history.

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This would likely leave another credit check footprint though..... you may not want that

There are lots of different criteria that a telco may for their credit check to be passed, no telco will tell you exactly what the problem is - unless its something obvious like an unpaid default. Things like long tenure in jobs and homes help - show stability etc, too many credit check footprints can indicate that a person is credit shopping (and potentially getting knocked back by lots of creditors, so they can then be viewed as a credit risk. If it is a smaller telco, they may have tighter guidelines as they dont have the profit margins to take risk on potential bad debt, its just business so dont take it personally :)

ooops, double