Financial accounts
First, check if the account could be yours:
• Search the company name online. Lenders sometimes report to Equifax under a different trading name.
• Check the opening date and payment history. Old or dormant accounts can appear and look new. See if the dates or payments match something you recognise.
• Compare the account number. The number on your report might not match your card or account exactly. Some lenders encrypt or mask numbers for security.
• Contact the company. If you’re still unsure, ask them to investigate and confirm the details.
Unrecognised searches
ClearScore gets your report from Equifax once a week. As part of this process, you may see a soft search from CLEARSCORE TECHNOLOGY LTD on your report.
If you’ve been browsing the Offers section of your ClearScore account, you may see quotation (soft) searches from our partners. These are only visible to you and don’t affect your score. They appear because eligibility tools run soft checks to personalise your offers.
Examples include:
• HDD-PRICE COMPARISON-BARCLAYCARD for Credit File Request
• CAPITAL ONE (EUROPE) PLC for Credit Quotation
• CLEARSCORE SEARCH POWERED BY CAPITAL ONE for Credit Quotation
• OAKBROOK FINANCE LTD for Credit Quotation
• CARFINANCE247 LTD for Credit Quotation
• AVANTCREDIT for Id Check To Comply With ML Regs
• LIVELEND (also known as BetterBorrow) for Credit Quotation
You might see similar searches if you’ve used a price comparison site to look for insurance or other financial products.
Still unsure about a search?
Contact the company and ask them for more information about the search. If you still need more help, fill in our form to raise a dispute with Equifax via ClearScore and we’ll pass it to them to investigate.
If you think it’s fraud
• Contact the bank or lender straight away. Ask them to stop any transactions and start a fraud investigation.
• Need more fraud help? Read our guide: Steps to take if you’ve been a victim of fraud.