Ex Husband Account is showing on my credit report

[Beckyd1]

Can someone advise which team I need to speak to at BT to get my ex-husbands new BT account off my credit report? I raised a dispute with Equifax but they had a rejection from BT. I'm not associated with his new account as BT have confirmed, I haven't lived at the same address for 20 months, and I cancelled the previous contract that I had at the address. Equifax have said I need to get BT, to contact them to get it removed, which seems easier said that done!!!!

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Beckyd1 

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators. I have asked one of them to post advice here.

[Beckyd1]

Thanks Keith sorry I should have worded it to see if anyone else had had this experience and how they resolved it. Appreciate you asking the moderators.

[Keith_Beddoe · Accepted solution]

Every circumstance is different.

Advice posted here in the past, by a moderator, has been this...

The first thing you need to do is raise a dispute with either Equifax or Experian, depending on who the debt is with. You can do that at 

• Online at www.equifax.co.uk/ask
• Call 0800 014 2955
• Address – Equifax Ltd
  • Customer Service Centre
  • PO Box 10036
  • Leicester
  • LE3 4FS

or 

• Online at www.experian.co.uk
• Call 0344 481 8000
• Address - Experian Headquarters Talbot House
  • Talbot Street
  • Nottingham
  • N80 1TH

Or if it's with TransUnion 

https://www.transunion.co.uk/consumer/consumer-enquiries

They'll then liaise with BT for you.

[rbz5416]

Could there be an old dormant joint account of some sort lingering somewhere that's still creating a financial association with your ex? If not you should ensure that the old link is broken.

https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/guides/financial-association.html

[Beckyd1]

That could be the reason, I had the BT account at the address, previously in my name, I then closed the account and he reopened another one. Would that associate it because of the address? Is that the link I need to break?

[rbz5416]

A link should only be created by joint financial liability, like a bank/savings account, loan, mortgage, etc. That's why I suggested having a think about old accounts you may have forgotten about. Simply sharing an address, even when married, doesn't create that link.

I guess you need to verify with the agency whether the entry on your file has been created because of a financial link or simply an error by BT. Always assuming that the ex hasn't used your name when signing up to a new contract!

[Beckyd1]

Ah then no, it must be an error made by BT. I'll contact customer service again and see if they can sort it, at least I have a bit more knowledge to be armed with.

[pottyperson]

Based on personal experience (admittedly many years ago) a link by marriage is not automatically cancelled by divorce. We discovered this when a previous partner's appalling record caused a loan application to be refused. It was necessary to through a process with the reference company to remove the sod from the record.

This might or might not apply to you but it's worth knowing that a former relationship rather than a particular item can be a problem.

[Beckyd1]

Thank you, I have managed to speak to someone sensible this morning ( some of the call handlers I don't find very helpful) but the person this morning was and I've got an email address to help me sort it.