Credit history

If you want to open a bank account, take out a credit card or borrow money in general, the company you borrow from will want to know a bit about you so they can decide if they should lend to you or not. To make this decision, they look at your credit history. This is made up of information about money you have borrowed and how you have paid accounts in the past. It usually includes information from the past six years and is held by companies called credit reference agencies. The agencies get this information from a number of places, including:

• public records such as the electoral roll or listings of bankruptcies and court judgements
• financial information supplied by banks, credit card companies and so on.

Looking at your own credit reference file

Your credit reference file is made up of important information about you and, by law, a company has to ask your permission to look at it. They usually do this on the application form when you are applying for a card, account or loan. You are also allowed to see your file. To do this, you need to write to the credit reference agencies asking for what is known as your ‘statutory credit report’.
Some agencies charge about £2.00 for this service.

You can have your own credit report sent to you direct. There are a number of companies who offer a free service and some offer a service that offenders can access whilst serving their sentence – speak to the Citizens Advice advisers, personal or probation officers about this.

Why would I want to see my file?

There are a number of reasons why people ask to see their files.

• If you are thinking of applying for something like a loan or credit card, it can be helpful to know what your file says about you.

• If you have applied for some sort of credit and been turned down, your credit reference file will help you understand why.

• By knowing what your file says about you, you can start to take any necessary steps to repair your financial record, for example, by paying back debts. This is a useful review process for all adults, but it would give you the offender the opportunity of getting your financial ‘store’ in order before release, as debts don’t disappear while you are in prison.

• Information held by credit reference agencies can sometimes be wrong. By looking at your file, you can make sure that companies are basing their decisions on the right information.

You can contact the three main credit reference agencies at:

Equifax Plc
Credit File Advice Centre
PO Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US
www.equifax.co.uk

Call Credit Plc
Consumer Services Team
PO Box 491
Leeds
LS3 1WZ
Telephone 0870 060 1414
www.callcredit.co.uk

Experian Ltd Customer Support Centre
PO Box 8000
Nottingham
NG80 7WF
Telephone 0844 481 8000
www.experian.co.uk