Ways to Get Your Credit Score

Today one of the first things a lender will look at after receiving your application is your recent financial history.

Unsuccessful applications do not look good on your file and can actually reduce your credit score.

So before submitting any applications it is well worth doing some homework to see exactly what information any lenders may be able to access and what role this will play in their decision.

Ways of getting a the right information

Your recent financial history can be accessed through:

(1) each of the UK three major credit referencing agencies (which all hold slightly different information about you)

or

(2) a multi-agency report, where a third party organisation collates all information from the three major agencies

The 3 Major CRAs

Equifax’s Credit Report

Equifax offer a 30 day free trial membership, and then its £9.95 per month thereafter. So to get a free credit score and report you need to make sure you cancel you membership at least 24 hours before your 30day trial us up.

Experian Credit Expert

Like Equifax, Experian offers a free 30 day trial and then its £19.99 per month. Again to make sure your credit report is free you need to cancel you membership within 30 days.

Call Credits Noddle

Call Credit is the only provider to offer a truly free credit report and it is genuinely free for life.

Call Credit is not though used by as many off the major lenders as Experian or Equifax, so the usefulness of this credit score in our opinion is limited (unless you specifically know that the lender to whom you are applying too uses Call Credit as their CRA?).

Multi Agency report

Check My File Multi Agency Report

The other option is to get ALL the information ALL the CRAs hold on you, and get a multi-agency report.

Check My File offer a free 30 day trial period and £7.99 per month thereafter, but as long as you cancel within 30 days there is nothing to pay.

Why we recommend buying a full multi-agency report

Each of the referencing agencies hold slightly different information about you; plus not all the lenders use the same agency.

So unless you know specifically which lender you are applying to and what referencing agency they use, we recommend getting a multi-agency report, for then you have all the information that have been held on you.

Our view is that the more information you have on your file is, and what the lenders could be looking at, the better position you are in to be applying only for suitable financial options.