Credit references

Banks, loan and credit card companies and other financial organisations will consult your credit reference file before deciding whether or not to lend you money.

Almost every adult will have credit reference files kept on them – without one, it would be very difficult to get credit or even to open a savings account.
They contain:

• information taken from the electoral roll,

• information about your bank accounts and loans, and whether you are up to date with payments on your credit card, mortgage, etc,

• a note of any credit checks made over the past year, (this means that if you apply for several loans, each enquiry is recorded, even if you don’t go ahead with it),

• information about the finances of anyone who lives with you or who is involved with you financially (by having a joint account, for example),

• any court judgments against you if you have been taken to court recently for debts or non-payments.

Increasingly, financial organisations are also giving details of customers who are running their money affairs well.

You can now obtain an online credit report for free from annualcreditreport.co.uk. You have to wait for a few days the first time that you do this, as they have to send you a password in the post before you can access your file (without paying a fee). Alternatively, you can still order a paper copy of your credit reference file from each of the other agencies for £2 a piece. We've given you contact details of ways you can order your file - online, over the phone, or by post according to the company.

To obtain your file, you will need to supply your full name (and also say if you have recently changed your name), your full current address and postcode, any other addresses you have lived at for the past six years, and your date of birth. Any fee is payable by cheque or postal order, or deducted electronically on-line.

You also have legal rights if you think the information on your file is wrong or misleading. These rights are overseen by the Information Commissioner, and full information is given in a booklet from the Information Commissioner called “Credit Explained”. (This is also on the Information Commissioner’s website).

It is a good idea to ask to see your credit references regularly. This will help you check whether there are unexplained transactions which might suggest that you have suffered from identify theft. If you are particularly worried that you could be a victim (for example, if you have had personal documents stolen), you can arrange for an alert to be posted on your reference files; this is called ‘protective registration’ and is coordinated by the anti-fraud body Cifas. Details are available at www.cifas.org.uk, or ring 0870 010 2091. Protective registration will mean, however, that your own requests for credit will probably take longer to process.

May 2007