If you have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), you can ask the credit reference agencies to sever the connection between your current and former identity in your credit report. This means that people who look up your current credit report will no longer see your dead-name. And people who look up the credit report associated with your dead name will no longer see your current name and details.
I recently did this, and am documenting my process here because some of it is hidden or non-obvious.
In summary:
- Start with Experian - they were generally helpful and responsive
- Move on to Equifax - they were very slow
- Good luck with TransUnion - they didn’t respond, but did all the updates for me anyway
1. Experian
I started with Experian since they have a useful web page explaining the process.
To start, download and fill in the advice pack linked on that page and email it to the address also linked on that page. You’ll also need to include completed statutory application forms in both your old and new names. For all of the forms, you don’t need to print them out - you can fill them all in electronicly and that’s fine.
If you give Experian your consent (I did), they’ll share this application with the other two agencies who ought to act on it. I recommmend this, because it was very helpful for TransUnion.
2. Equifax
Once Experian had started processing my application, they send a copy to Equifax. Equifax chose to post (!) me a copy of their application pack, completely ignoring everything they got from Experian.
I sent an email to graadvicelineuk@equifax.com (linked from the Experian page) asking them for a digital copy of their application pack. I had to chase them - making it explicit that this was a GDPR data correction request, which meant they had to answer within one month.
They eventually sent me a digital copy of their GRA Information Pack, which I filled in and sent back. They acted on this fairly quickly.
My advice would be to fill in and send the GRA information pack to Equifax at the same time as doing the equivalent for Experian - you’ll have to do it all eventually and this will speed things up.
3. TransUnion
TransUnion were rubbish at communication. Experian sent them a copy of my application, and it appears they acted on it at some point in the following ~50 days without bothering to communicate this to me. They only eventually responded to me after they’d already updated my reports.
So my advice would be to wait for them to act on the pack that Experian will send them. You can check the status of your credit report by viewing your online statutory credit report.
The alternative is to send an email to ukspecialistservices@transunion.com. Their advice pack is very unhelpful, unclear and missing some of the forms you’ll need to fill in, but lists most of what they want from you.