Irish Credit Bureau (ICB)
This informative article deals with the standard rules, rates and norms of applications to the Irish Credit Bureau.
The Irish Credit Bureau (ICB) is owned and financed by its thirty eight members – the financial institutions. The ICB is a credit-referencing agency and the biggest in Ireland. The foundation of the ICB is the electronic library consisting of all relevant details of credit agreements between its founders and the borrowers in a database form. A credit agreement means credit cards, mortgages, HP agreements, auto finances, personal loans, leasing and all other asset products sold by the members of the ICB. The only exception is the overdraft agreements which are subject to law. They are not monitored by the ICB.
The information is registered or updated with ICB at monthly intervals. Every time an applicant applies for a credit product with any of the member institutions, his or her credit rating in checked against their credit file regarding performance. The scrutiny is usually for the preceding 24 months although records are kept for five years. Any missed payments or other irregularities might result the application being rejected. Credit records can be viewed on the Data Protection Commissioner’s website.
It is not ICB’s jobs to analyze information. It only stores information and passes it on to lenders to make their own judgments or credit assessment based on this information. The ICB board formally agreed to requests by all credit unions in Ireland to become members. This results in ICB getting more information to fill its database, only the consent of the credit union customers would be required to pass it on to ICB.
July 2004 saw credit card companies getting the nod to pass on more information to the ICB. Until then they passed on information only related to credit cards cancelled or revoked; now they have the full freedom of passing on information regarding opening and closing balances to the ICB. Now an individual’s card performance can be monitored on a monthly basis by the ICB an the individual has an option of receiving information 30 days before the credit rating takes a nose dive.
ICB keeps data on a credit agreement for the full term of the agreement and the members have an access to the same. Reciprocally the members pass on the repayment information to ICB to be recorded along with a performance report of the customer.
The 5 year longevity of data on ICB database starts when the loan or credit agreement ends, which means an individual has to reap the fruits of his repayment performance, good or bad, for the next five years from the date the loan or credit is written off.
ICB membership is consisted of ACC Bank, GE Capital, HFC Bank, AIB Bank, ICS Building Society, AIB Finance and Leasing, IIB Finance, AIB Credit Cards, Ford Credit Europe, IIB Homeloans, Fiat Auto Financial Services, Irish Nationwide Building Society, The Associates, Lucan District Credit Union Ltd., Bank of Ireland Bank, Lombard and Ulster Banking, BOI Direct, MBNA Europe Bank, Roscrea Credit Union Ltd., Banking 365, National Credit Finance, Bank of Ireland Finance, National Irish Bank, EBS Building Society, Bank of Ireland Credit Cards, Open + Direct, Bank of Scotland (Ireland),, Woodchester Bank, Permanent TSB, Anglo Irish Bank Corporation, Barclaycard, Permanent, Everyday Finance, TSB Finance, BNP Capital Finance, POS Finance, Bord Gais Finance, Premier Bank, Caterpillar Financial Services, City Financial, Tesco Personal Finance, Tipperary Credit Union Ltd., Tullamore Credit Union Ltd., Ulster Bank, First Active, Ulster Bank Credit Cards, Waterford Credit Union Ltd., Friends First Finance, Waterford (St. Dominics) Credit Union Ltd. and Western Finance.
Under any circumstances if you feel that your credit records are incorrect or have not been updated, you have every right to inspect the data under the Data Protection Act 1988. You may have the information corrected and under certain conditions have it removed form your credit file. If you are restricted in any way to inspect or amend your credit file, you may complain to the Data Protection commissioner who has the legal powers to protect your rights. In case you suffer any damages caused by mishandling or misuse of information held on your file, you have a right to claim compensation through the court of law.
This is not an opportunity for you to erase bad credit records from your file. You can erase or amend only those records which are incorrect, either good or bad. You should be aware that the initial credit application for any kind of credit in Ireland contains a consent form stating your awareness of the fact that your repayments on that credit will form a part of your credit rating and history, which you are bound to sign.
The details of any credit transactions between you and your lender are confidential. If your credit record in the past has been bad but has been rectified now, the bad records can be removed form your file, provided the lender agrees to do so. However the lender is not obliged to do this for you, they can do so only by using discretionary powers.
Inspection of your credit data costs 6 Euro in fee, which should be enclosed with the application form. Only one search can be done per application. Anyone can access their credit records by completing the application form at ICB. The form can also be downloaded and sent to The Irish Credit Bureau, ICB House, Newstead, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14. Tel: (01) 260 0388, along with the prescribed fee. ICB takes 3-4 days to process your application, despite having 40 days at their disposal to do so. Your ICB report contains a unique reference number which should be used to communicate further with ICB.