Free Credit Report

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

We live in a credit oriented world. We all get credit at some point, so it's hardly surprising to learn that we all have a credit history. If you are curious about your credit rating, and you should be, you can obtain a free credit report from a number of sources. This will let you see what the credit companies see when you apply for a loan or a mortgage.

Applying for a free credit report can actually save you money, if used properly. It is important that your electoral role details are up to date, for example. There are other public re\cord that will be compiled to create your credit history, any CCJ's against you, for example. You can also discover who has been conducting credit searches on you. In short, a free credit report will let you know everything a lender will discover about you if you apply for credit of any kind.

Whenever you apply for credit that information is passed to a credit agency and kept in your personal credit file. That becomes a kind of footprint that other credit lenders can check up on to see how many others you have sought credit from. If you have made a lot of applications in a short period of time, it will look bad for you; especially if there have been an equally high amount of refusals.

The advantage of this system is that credit lenders can access your entire credit history with one single request. They do not have to ask several different places for the information. There are advantages to you to. You can also apply for a free credit report from a single agency, rather than having to chase all over the place to try and find out what information is kept on your credit history.

The information you will receive in your free credit report includes things like, who is living in your home in addition to you, if you have any financial affiliation with them, or they with you. Because of this, another person's past credit history may affect your present credit standing. For this reason you should be very careful whom you do business with, or have a financial link with.

If you want to have a free credit report of your own credit history, court history and government agency involvement, you can apply through the terms laid down in the Data Protection Act. This states the terms under which the free credit report reference agencies can supply you with a copy. There will be probably be an administrative fee, but it should be quite small and only necessary to cover their costs.

There are many agencies willing to supply you with a free credit report. A search in any of the major Internet search engines will yield positive results. You should be careful, however, as there are always identity fraudsters who are out to take your personal details and use them to your detriment wherever they can get the chance.