The system says I've failed verification. Help!

Credit Club has been built in partnership with Experian and data analysis firm HD Decisions (part of Experian).

Unfortunately there are instances where this tool won’t be able to match you with your Experian Credit Report and we won’t be able to provide your Credit Club results. We are constantly working to improve this. We can suggest that you try the following:

Check you entered your personal details correctly

- Have you entered your full name, and not a nickname (eg, Tom instead of Thomas)?

- Make sure you’ve put in at least six years’ worth of address history.

- Is your date of birth correct?

- Is your current address correct?

- Have you checked previous addresses are entered correctly, and that the dates you moved in and out are accurate?

- Have you added a full six years of address history? This is optional after the first two addresses, but the more detail you can supply, the better your chances of getting verified.

- Are all other personal details correct?

What if all my details are correct?

We’re sorry. We know how frustrating it is that you haven’t been able to access Credit Club so we want to give you a little more information to explain why.

Due to the sensitive nature of the information that Experian holds about you, it goes through a number of rigorous identity checks when you apply to see your Experian Credit Score. This helps to stop fraudsters gaining access to your personal financial information.

There are a few reasons which may stop Experian from being able to verify your identity. For example, there may be too little information held about you. You may also have moved house recently – if this is the case, it can take a while for electoral roll records to be updated and for lenders and utility providers to update Experian with your new details. It may also be that you’ve answered the verification questions incorrectly.

Or, your postal address may be incorrectly formatted with some organisations, and when the address is then passed on to Experian it may then not match the address you’ve entered in Credit Club. Check your address reads correctly when you look online and on any statements you receive. If it looks incorrect, then contact the organisation that holds the address and ask them to correct it to be as near as possible to what the Royal Mail recommends. You can always check how your address comes up with Royal Mail here. If an organisation updates your address, it could take four to eight weeks for this to be passed through to Experian, so please wait a while before you attempt to verify with Experian within Credit Club again.

Older accounts can also cause verification issues...

- Was your account opened recently? If so, it might take a few months for it to be reported by your provider to Experian.

- Was your account opened before 1998? If so, your bank may not be sharing the account details with Experian as it was opened before the Data Protection Act came into force. To remedy this, you can contact your bank and ask that it applies a marker to ensure your account details are shared with the credit reference agencies.

The process for doing this differs from provider to provider, but once amended, the account should show on your credit report within a couple of months, so you could try again then. Read more on how this works at Experian.

In some cases, there could be other issues that mean you can’t get through Experian’s rigorous identity checking process. Experian does not disclose full details of the process used to verify your identity in order to guard against fraud.

Unfortunately, if you are unable to get beyond this step, you will not be able to complete registration.