How They Work: Your Credit Report by James Miller

Prior to reading this article, here is a number of definitions you could very well find valuable. Equifax is a major credit referencing agencies in the UK. Equifax collects all your financial statistics from various places to come up with a report that details your personal financial history – i.e. your credit file. Should you request for any credit, lenders will examine your credit file to see your credit history. You can apply for a duplicate of your credit file anytime you like so that you can confirm that everything is correct. The Equifax internet website has a lot of valuable suggestions on how to make financial decisions and protecting yourself from fraud.

Experian is a major credit referencing agencies in the UK. Loan companies will go to a credit reference agency to find out about the qualifications of a potential borrower derived from their credit record. This is referred to as a credit report. As a borrower, you might apply for a duplicate of your file from Experian so that you can confirm that all the information on it is accurate and that your personal information have not been used fraudulently.

A credit check is an type of search executed by a prospective lender to evaluate how eligible you are for a loan. Loan providers will check your credit record to get a sense of your present and past financial responsibilities. Loan providers can then give you a credit score to see if the way that you manage your money matters meets their requisites for being granted credit.

A credit report is basically financial data about you held by a credit reference agency (such as Experian, Equifax or CallCredit plc). The data is used by potential lenders, landlords and employers to help them make a decision as to whether approve your application for a loan or other credit; or for a job or as a tenant.
The information on your credit file is updated on an ongoing basis, and is provided by companies who have given you credit in the past and currently. The data on your file includes:

1. Personal information such as your name and any previous names you have been known by, date of birth, current and recent addresses, current and previous employers.
2. Your financial credit history. This details current and previous credit from the last six years, including amounts currently owed; details of credit accounts that were opened in your name (or ones where you are an authorised user); whether payments have been kept up to date or missed; any bankruptcies, County Court Judgements (CCJs) or arrears etc

Information about your current or savings accounts, or bankruptcies, CCJs that are more than 6 years old are not shown on your credit file, nor your political affiliation, medical history, ethnicity, religion, nor criminal records.
Provided they have your consent, your report can be viewed by anyone with an acceptable purpose. These include: potential lenders; landlords; any Government Agency; employers and potential employers and an individual or organisation that has your written authorisation to obtain your credit report

James Miller has several interesting and useful articles written not only about consolidation unsecured loans but also about lloyds personal loan or fixed rate secured loans.

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