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Study More About Everyone Should Be Asking For Your Free Credit Report When You Are Requesting New Credit

In Credit Reporting of CreditGuru (December 21, 2023 4:07 am)

With the current worldwide financial climate being in such turmoil, finding difficult to come by. But many people don’t realise the importance of why to check free credit reports from one of the major credit reference agencies.

Without realising it, your credit report might be presenting information that may hinder your ability to take out further credit. Some of this may not even be down to you. Worse still, it may even show that you have been the victim of identity theft!

Those people that have been rejected for credit that they have applied for should definitely request their credit report data from at least one of the major credit reference agencies, such as Equifax. If you have been declined credit, ask the lender who refused you which of the agencies they were using to make their decision and their contact details. Then write to them requesting a copy of your credit file.

It is also well worth asking for a copy of your credit file before applying for a loan so that any errors, or omissions, can be amended before you apply. This could prevent a denial, which would also be recorded on your credit file and might count against you in future application.

If you don’t already know how to check a credit report for yourself, then it is very easy to do. The major credit reference agencies will offer a free service if you write to them and ask them for the file information and there are many online services doing the same. As an early identity theft detection method, you can also join schemes whereby you are notified when certain changes take place on your credit reference file. This would alert you to sudden huge loan applications if someone was trying to steal your identity.

The free credit reports don’t tell you exactly how the lenders will score you, but they give you a good basis for understanding what they are likely to be looking at. In addition, lenders will take into account other questions that they ask, such as your history with that lender, your annual household earnings and other details they ask you to tell them.

Your credit report won’t reveal information for anyone else living within your house, but it will show details of who the credit reference agency assumes are financially related to you, for example a spouse. If this information is incorrect, then it can be worth getting it corrected.

As an example, if your partner doesn’t go under the same surname as you, but has a better credit rating than you, then you may improve your credit rating by including yourselves as being financially related.

Conversely, if two siblings, or others sharing a surname, live under the same roof and aren’t financially related, it is worth checking that you are not being marked as having a financial relationship, in case they have a poorer credit rating.