What Exactly is My Credit Report / File / Record?

Your credit report is your financial ‘track record’, made up of information collected about you by the UK’s Credit Reference Agencies (Equifax, Experian and Callcredit).

When you apply for credit, the lender will probably check your report to help them decide whether or not to approve the application – and how much to charge you if they do.

Your report contains information on things like:

• What you owe
• What applications you’ve made for credit, whether successful or not
• What payments you’ve missed / paid late
• Any County Court Judgments (CCJs) against you
• Whether you’ve entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)
• Whether you’ve been declared bankrupt

Different lenders have different criteria, but in general, the more negative entries you have on your report, the harder (and more expensive) it’ll be to get credit.

Entries will stay on your report for 6 years. If you deal with them (e.g. you pay everything you owe for a CCJ), you can have them marked as ‘satisfied’ – creditors will still see that you’ve had financial problems in the past, but at least they’ll know that you’ve now addressed them.

You can see your report to find out if there’s any incorrect information about you, and if there’s anything you need to do, whether that means getting mistakes corrected or sorting out genuine problems.

Each Credit Reference Agency can hold different information about you, so it’s best to check all 3 reports. You can do this online, but it’s normally cheaper to do it by post – they’ll charge £2 each.