I moved house and closed my OVO account but my details have been found through 'trace and search' - how can I stop the debt collectors contacting me?

Hey there @ambr2307 !

I’m really sorry for the delay. I was out all day and only just checked in. Please allow me to introduce myself real quick. I’m Blastoise186, one of the trusted forum volunteers on here. I can’t make changes to accounts or access your information, but I can offer advice completely free of charge and can often help you solve tricky puzzles. As this is a public forum, please make sure to avoid posting personal info, just in case.

What I can say is that if you are NOT liable for the debt in question because it was racked up by someone completely unrelated to you, then you are NOT LIABLE for the debt at all. Even if you just so happen to have picked up that persons old phone number, that alone is not good enough to actually link you to them. If you have made any payments to the debt collectors, you will be entitled to a full refund of every penny you have paid them on the basis they’re not supposed to have taken it from you at all.

I’ll let @Tim_OVO and @Jess_OVO know about this thread when they check in on Monday morning. But if the debt collectors call again, tell them that they are committing harassment and are attempting to enforce invalid debts against the wrong person. Citizens Advice can also help out here. You can’t be expected to know who the debtor is as GDPR means you can’t find that out. The debt collectors need to understand that a phone number alone does not guarantee finding the actual debtor because numbers can and do get recycled.

I’ll be here if you need more advice, so please ask me for as much help as you need. We’ll do what we can to help you get this cleared up.

I have had this phone number for about 20years. I can understand if it might have automatically come to me as the previous owner - however it has my number registered with a different name so I can’t find out anymore information to try and chase this due to GDPR. My account for the address has zero balance.
Surely having purchased another house the trace and search would have placed me and my number there. A document to show where I was living won’t prove anything different than what they have as the name on the account isn’t mine hence why I can’t get any information, just calls and messages saying I owe money.

I really appreciate the frustration, @ambr2307. I’ve checked in with the Trace and Search experts who have shed some more light on how your contact number may have been located. We use information that is provided to us by Experian, so the fact that your number was located and attached to someone else’s name suggests that these details have been used together at some point to apply for credit (such as setting up a phone contact or internet plan). This may just be as simple as a friend or family member using your phone number when completing a sign-up.

In your case, as you have confirmed the number belongs to you, we will remove it from the account so you should stop receiving contact in relation to the erroneous debt. Please be aware that you may still receive contact in the next 7 days whilst this is fully updated. It might also be worth contacting Experian to ensure that the information that is held on your phone number is up to date.

Hope this helps.

The other thing that may also be worth doing as well, would be to get Experian to run a credit report and credit score check - but I’d recommend waiting at least seven to 14 days from today first to allow OVO to sort things out. If all goes well, the Collections Team (I think that’s the right one for this process) will zap any black marks within the next few days or so. If you want to play it super safe, I’d also recommend running the numbers with Equifax, TransUnion (formerly Callcredit) and Crediva as well.

OVO’s team should make sure that any black marks on your credit record from this issue are either completely struck off and wiped out completely, or at very least have some kind of ignore flag set to tell everyone else to disregard the mark. If you still see any traces after 14 days, please feel free to get in touch with OVO’s Support Team and mention that you’ve had help from me and Jess here on the Forum. If you provide a link to this thread, that’ll also help too. The Support Team will then make sure the records are repaired and that you’re credit files are restored to what they would have been in had this issue not occurred.

If you need anything else, we’ll be here for you. :)

Thank you 😊

No worries!

We’re really sorry for any trouble there too. If you still get any calls from the debt collectors or the Collections Team in the meantime, please let them know that enforcement of the debt against you has been terminated and that (if it’s the debt collector) they need to check in with their client to get the corrected case details. Seven days should be long enough to have all further enforcement stop, but if you get lucky it might be faster.

However, if you still have any trouble beyond that, please let us know! If needed, I can ask Jess to reach out to the Collections Team again and ask for them to force the process to stop.

This is a great suggestion from our ever helpful community volunteer, @Blastoise186. It’s worth mentioning here that as this erroneous debt has only been linked to your phone number and not your name, it should have any negative impact on your personal credit score, @ambr2307.

In cases where there is an negative mark reported in error our Collections team can, of course, correct this. However we as we only report to Experian monthly, it’s worth bearing in mind that it could take up to a month for this correction to be applied.

Hope this helps set things straight.   

I am leaving in the “A”  and not leaving in the said “B” flat. Both these flat has same post code. New tenant come in the “B” in April/22 and I came in “A”  in Aug/22.

OVO energy made a search on credit score firm and sending me bill for the flat “B” from April/22 onward where i have no connection. I called them many times to make a complaint that remove my name from the bill but they are not doing it and not listening to me. Even i said to them this will affect my credit score and some agent said it wont but actually it is showing debt in my credit report. 

Now, should i go to ombudsman or police for this matter as OVO customer support is useless.

Well… The police won’t accept the case as it’s not a criminal matter, so good luck with that route, and the ombudsman won’t bite if you didn’t give the supplier a chance to resolve it first.

Try using the form at https://ovoenergy.com/feedback .