Electoral roll
On your credit file, electoral roll entries will show the name of your local
authority, the address the local authority holds for you or held in the past
and the dates you were registered. Lenders use the electoral roll to check
the identity of the people applying for credit and to make sure the
addresses provided on application forms are correct.
The electoral roll is published each December using information the public
has supplied to local authorities. Experian updates its records every year,
but if you move home in the course of the year, your local authority will
tell Experian about your change of registration.
If you have registered to vote and your credit report does not show this,
please contact the credit reference agencies listed at the bottom of this
article and they will investigate the matter. If you have not registered to
vote, you may want to contact your local authority about filling in an
electoral registration form.
Court judgments
Court judgments are held on your credit report for six years from the date of
the judgment. Experian receives the information from Registry Trust, an
independent organisation set up by the Lord Chancellor's Department.
Judgments that are paid within one month are removed from your records as
long as a Certificate of Satisfaction has been issued by the court.
Judgments paid after one month are kept on file but marked as "satisfied"
once a Certificate has been issued by the court.
If you have been declared bankrupt, credit reference agencies will obtain
this information from the official gazettes. It is kept on your file for six
years after the date of the bankruptcy order.
If you believe a county court judgment, or CCJ, has been recorded
incorrectly, you should contact the county court, quoting the case number
included on your file. If the judgment was recorded incorrectly, the county
court will alter their records. Credit reference agencies are told about any
such changes within four weeks, but if you give them original court
documents, in the form of a Certificate of Satisfaction or Cancellation,
they may be able to make the changes sooner if necessary.
If you have paid a Scottish Decree, you should send Registry Trust a receipt
or a letter from your creditor (known as the pursuer) to confirm your
payment.
If you write to Registry Trust Ltd questioning the accuracy of a judgment
recorded on your file and asking for an entry to be changed, you should send
a cheque for £4.50 to cover the search fee. They will then tell the credit
reference agencies about any change to your file.
For judgments made in Northern Ireland, if you provide documents from a
plaintiff to confirm a payment, the agencies will change their records. If
you have any questions about the accuracy of a judgment recorded on your
file, contact the court concerned.
Registry Trust Ltd can be contacted at: 173-175 Cleveland Street, London W1P
5PE
Information from lenders
Experian also holds information about credit accounts provided by lenders over
the last six years.
Some lenders provide information only on customers who have failed to keep to
the terms of their credit agreements. However, most lenders provide
information throughout the life of every credit account. Lenders can use the
information to identify good payers as well as bad payers and those who
already have several credit accounts.
Credit accounts can be classed as settled, active, defaulted, or
delinquent.
A settled account is one where you have repaid your credit.
Credit agencies keep a record of settled accounts for six years from the
date you paid off all amounts owed to that account. The payment history
shown on your file will relate to the period before you repaid your credit.
An active account is one which you are still using. Agencies
keep a record of these accounts until they are settled and then for six
years afterwards.
A defaulted account is one where you have not kept to a
credit agreement. Agencies keep a record of these accounts for six years
from the date you broke the relevant term of the credit agreement. The
record will show how much money you still owe (the default). If you have
paid off everything you owe since you broke the credit agreement, the
account will be shown to be satisfied at the balance.
A delinquent account is one where your repayments have been
at least three months in arrears for two or more consecutive months or have
been late for more than three months over the past year.
Every record of a credit account will include a status history showing
whether or not payments have been made on time. Credit accounts can include
your payment record over up to 36 months. The most recent payment is shown
as the first entry.
The last 12 months' payments are shown, and underneath there is a summary of
the payment history over a period of up to 36 months (unless the status
history shown is 8). In the summary, the entries for "number of status
1-2" and "number of status 3+" identify how many times
payments been up to two months late, or three or more months late, within
the last 36 months (or since the account was opened).
Members of the Council of Mortgage Lenders record information on customers
who have given up their homes or had them repossessed. The information may
include the address of that home, the address from which the mortgage
application was originally made and the address the customer has moved to.
Bankruptcies
If a bankruptcy order against you is annulled (cancelled) or discharged (that
is, you have met all terms), you should send a copy of the Annulment
Certificate or Order of Discharge to the credit reference agencies. They
will then update their records.
If your bankruptcy has been annulled they should completely remove any record
of it from your file. If your bankruptcy has been discharged, a record of it
will be kept on your file but it will show that it has been discharged.
Other information
A record of lenders who have searched your file as a result of you applying
for credit will be shown for 12 months. This information can help lenders
identify any unusual credit activity or over-commitment.
If your file specifies "unrecorded enquiries", this shows that a
company has searched your file for non-lending purposes. However, this
information is shown only to you, not to lenders searching your file in
order to make a lending decision.
Lenders may also search your file to give you a credit quotation. These are
recorded as quotation searches so other lenders do not mistake them for
credit applications.
Agencies make a record (known as a "footprint") on your report to
show that a file has been applied for in your name and address, but this
will be shown only to you and not to lenders.
Your previous addresses, or any addresses you may use for correspondence, may
be listed on your credit file. These links are created by account
information moving between addresses, as a result of lenders checking your
records at previous addresses, or as a result of information you give to the
credit reference agency.
Your credit file will show the two addresses that are linked, how the link
was created, and the date and source of the link. The link will only be
broken when agencies are asked to do so by the organisation that created the
link.
Other organisations
CIFAS is a system developed in consultation with the Office
of Fair Trading and the Office of the Information Commissioner. It aims to
detect and prevent fraud, and so protect innocent people whose names,
addresses or other details are used fraudulently by others in order to get
credit.
A CIFAS warning on your file does not mean you are being accused of fraud.
Organisations who are members of CIFAS examine credit applications very
carefully and may contact you to make sure you have applied for the credit.
They will not automatically refuse applications from people with warnings on
their file.
GAIN - Gone Away Information Network: Credit reference
agencies are members of GAIN, a network through which lenders share
information on customers with debts who have moved home without telling
their lenders of a forwarding address. The information may include both the
address the customer moved from and any address the customer has since been
recorded as living at.
If you share a financial responsibility with someone else, for example a
joint court judgment, a joint account or a joint application for credit,
this will be shown on your credit file together with who you share the
responsibility with and when the connection was created.
Agencies may be told about any other names you have been known by and your
file will show who gave them the information.
Associations: A record of an association shows a financial
link you have with someone. These links are created by joint judgments,
joint accounts and joint credit applications, or from information you gave
to credit reference agencies or lenders.
Associations are not created between business partners.
The information you see will include the details of the person you are
financially connected to (the associate), the name of the company which
created the link, and the date the link was created. Lenders may also see
the financial information relating to the associate.This allows lenders to
view all the information that may be relevant to your credit application.
Information about an association is held on record indefinitely. If your
associate needs to see their credit report, they will need to apply
separately.
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Advice offered here is of a general nature and is intended for guidance only.
It is offered without any legal responsibility. You should always consult
your own independent professional adviser - such as an accountant, solicitor
or money adviser (at your local citizens advice bureau, for example) - about
your specific situation.
