I am writing to you today because I need some advice on my credit report. I think it is in a bad way and I don’t know how to repair it.

I believe it’s like that because of my old address. The credit report details my family's expenses which have nothing to do with me. My mum got into a lot of debt, which is being dealt with by an IVA, so I think that affects me when a search is done.

In March 2008 I finally closed my account (or so I was led to believe) with a certain building society/bank which I will leave nameless. To my disbelief, however, I have not been told the truth. Eight weeks later the company wrote to my uncle's address (I was getting ready to move to Ireland) saying I owed them money. After investigating this, I found out that upon closing the account the bank wrongly credited some money to my account. Now they are demanding it back or they will stick a default on my file. I don’t think this is fair. I have tried the Financial Ombudsman and have written numerous letters to complaint departments but to no avail. Do you know the next move?

Also I believe I may have been hit with identity fraud and I don’t know how to resolve this.

Andrew James Walker

First things first: your credit report is only linked to someone else’s if you share a financial connection, such as a joint loan or joint credit application. In the past, families living at the same address were automatically linked on their credit reports, so I suspect you last checked your report before this changed (at the end of 2004). Start by checking your credit report today – you can do this for free by taking a free trial of Experian’s credit report monitoring service CreditExpert. If your mum is linked to your report and if you do not have a financial connection with her, you can simply ask us to remove the link.

Turning to your dispute with the bank; if they credited money to your account that wasn’t yours I think they can reasonably expect you to repay it. Given that you say you’ve contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service without success, I suspect they are of the same opinion. If you are unable to repay the full amount straight away, I expect your bank would be willing to let you repay it in affordable instalments. Under the circumstances I think it would be unfair of them to record negative information on your credit report, as long as you agree to repay the money, so ask them to agree to this as a concession.

Finally, your credit report will confirm if you have been a victim of identity fraud, in which case you should contact our Victims of Fraud team. They will help you set the record straight as quickly as possibly and will give you advice on protecting your identity in the future. Good luck.