High Credit Score service gets low marks
I tried to get my credit rating from High Credit Score but my password didn’t work. Now it won’t refund my £19.95
In January I decided to find out my credit rating on a website called High Credit Score. I filled in all the boxes including, foolishly, my credit card number. I got as far as the password but it did not accept the one I gave and, after a couple of tries, gave up.
When I got my credit card bill they had taken £19.95. I tried phoning, but could not get through as I had no membership number and the system did not recognise my phone number. I emailed and asked for my £19.95. They cancelled my membership but refused to give me my money back, insisting I had completed the form. I hope you can help as I’m a pensioner and cannot afford to give money away. PF, Glastonbury, Somerset
A little research online revealed an awful lot about High Credit Score. The company is owned by Adaptive Affinity which, in June last year, was reprimanded by the Office of Fair Trading over another web-based membership business it runs called High Street Max. The company was ticked off because its advertising and sign-up process was not clear to consumers and, as a result, a number of people had inadvertently entered into a financial agreement with Adaptive Affinity.
Our research also threw up a number of web links to discussions about High Credit Score by others who, like you, claim they have had money debited from their account, often monthly, without permission.
We sent copies of these web forum discussions, as well as your letter, to High Credit Score and asked it to comment. It claimed: “Less than one half a percent of consumers marketed to, and the many thousands of members enrolled in, Adaptive’s membership programs complain about their memberships.”
As for your specific case, the company still insists you were in the wrong because, it says, its membership application process is in two stages, the first requiring you to give your personal and credit card details and the second, following receipt of a confirmation email, asking you to submit a password.
The company claims its records show you received the confirmation email but you insist it only sent this once you had complained and that it then cancelled the membership without refund. As a “gesture of goodwill” it is repaying your £19.95.
You are legally entitled to your credit report by post, online or by phone for £2 from established credit reference agencies Experian, Equifax and CallCredit.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@guardian.co.uk or write to Bachelor & Brignall, Money, The Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number.
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