What information is on my credit report?

Your personal credit report supplies factual information on your past financial / credit history. This information is used by lenders (those offering credit facilities) to assist them in making credit decisions. By checking your credit details, lenders are able to ascertain what level of confidence they have in you repaying the amount that has been lent to you, and to ascertain how likely it is that they’ll be able to make contact with you should they need to (either to contact you regarding outstanding debts, or to up sell credit facilities to you).

Information displayed on your credit report includes:

Credit Account Information: The major credit grantors share information with the credit reference agencies regarding their customers credit agreements. Some lenders may share with one credit reference agency, some may use two credit reference agencies, and a handful of credit grantors will use all three credit reference agencies. See which lenders use which credit reference agencies here.

The credit account information databases for each of the credit reference agencies are named as follows:

Experian's database is called CAIS (pronounced 'keys')
Equifax's database is called Insight
Callcredit’s database is called SHARE

The information shown on these databases indicates how you have repaid previous or existing credit commitments. This helps them to decide whether you can afford to take on any new credit.

It’s important to note that credit reference agencies do not own this credit account information. This information belongs to the credit grantor that filed the information. Credit reference agencies cannot change these details without the lender’s permission. Each month, lenders provide details of any changes to the credit account information.

Previous search information: This is a record of organisations which have searched your report to check your identity or to assess your application for credit. The search imprint does not indicate whether or not credit facilities were granted to you.

Electoral Roll Details: The Electoral Roll lists the name and address of everyone who is registered to vote. This information is available to credit granting organisations on a database, and gives them the opportunity to confirm that you do in fact reside at the premises stated on your credit application. This information is particularly useful in preventing fraud.

CCJ’s: If a CCJ hasn’t been paid within a month of the judgement being issued, then the CCJ will show on your credit report. This information is provided to the credit reference agencies by Registry Trust Ltd, which is an independent organisation set up and controlled by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. (Any CCJ’s paid within one month will automatically be removed from your credit report).

Bankruptcy Details: This information is provided by the Insolvency service. If your bankruptcy order has ended, then you can send a bankruptcy discharge certificate to the credit reference agencies to update your credit file, although the insolvency service will normally update this detail automatically on your behalf.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA’s): IVA’s are formal agreements between you and your creditors where you agree to make reduced payments towards the total amount of your debt in order to pay off a percentage of what you owe. IVA’s are setup through an Insolvency Practitioner.

Linked addresses: A linked address enables lenders to track your account when it moves between addresses, such as when you move house.

CIFAS Marker: CIFAS is the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service. If a lender detects a real or attempted fraud, it may place a CIFAS marker on your credit reference report to warn future lenders and protect innocent customers.

GAIN (Gone Away Information Network): This service enables lenders to pass information on to the credit reference agencies when customers haven’t kept their account repayments up to date and then move without giving notice of their new address.

Council of Mortgage Lenders’ repossession register: The CML keeps a register of people who have had a property repossessed or have given it up voluntarily. Only CML members are permitted to see this information.

Alias Information: This is a list of any other names the customer has used in the past - including those adopted to conceal one’s identity. However, you might have a record on your report for more innocent reasons - for example, a married woman may have her maiden name listed.

Financial Associations: If you are/have been married or ‘financially linked’ to another person for any other reason that entails sharing a joint account or making a joint application, there is something else you need to be aware of. The details of the person(s) you are financially connected to, the name of the organisation which created the link and the date the link was created will appear on your credit report. This means that any application you make may be assessed with reference to these “associated” records.
The financial information about any associates will not appear on your credit report, so they will need to apply for their credit report separately.

If you are no longer financially connected to another person(s), you can write to the credit reference agencies to explain the situation and they can remove any link. This is called a disassociation.

Notice of Correction: This is a statement of up to 200 words written by the individual that explains why they think an entry on their credit file is wrong, or perhaps the circumstances surrounding the debt. The individual can also write a statement if the information is factually correct but they think it creates a misleading impression. Note that by adding a notice of correction, credit grantors are prevented from automatically processing your credit applications due to legislation. This means that they must manually assess your credit applications, which means that you need to be careful who you apply for credit with, as it could create lots of extra ‘footprints’ of credit searches on your credit report – this doesn’t look favourable with lenders.

To view your FREE PERSONAL CREDIT REPORT FROM EXPERIAN, click this link. You will also receive a 30-day free trial to their CreditExpert Monitoring Service.

It's important to note that the credit information that each credit reference agency holds could differ from one credit reference agency to another. Therefore, it may be wise to purchase a 3 in 1 CREDIT REPORT, which contains credit information from all 3 credit reference agencies (Callcredit, Equifax & Experian). You can also sign up for a paid for credit monitoring service from this link.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at: info@thecreditagency.co.uk