Your Credit Reference file
Your credit reference file, often called a credit history file or simply a credit file, is held (in some form or another) by several agencies. The main agencies are Experian and Equifax.

You have some control over your credit file, but generally it is created without your consent, and often without your knowledge. It details each and every instance that you borrowed money in the last 6 years, together with a fair bit of detailed information on how well or how badly you faired when it came to you paying them back. Furthermore, your credit file also contains a fair large amount of public record information such as county court judgments (CCJ's), bankruptcy orders, collection activities, repossessions, and electoral roll and even some fraud information. Other hidden information exists too including links with people who may have shared an address with you, or who may have lived at your current address previously.

If this sounds rather frightening and an intrusion of your privacy, then it would be worth mentioning that there was considerable debate in parliament some years ago about regulation of this sort of data, and whilst few people seemed that interested at the time, personal data of this nature has become a big issue of late. Lenders and agencies now sell your personal data to each other as a valuable commodity!

Credit file: Scoring
When you apply for credit, the lender will score your application form, and then obtain a copy of your credit file from the credit reference agencies. It is therefore important to ensure that your credit files hold the correct information about you and where you may have had credit problems in the past it is possible in many cases to repair your credit file and improve your chances of getting credit.

For more on how credit files are viewed by lenders and how to improve your credit file at Experian UK or Equifax, the Complete UK Credit Repair Guide provides valuable information to help you get credit and improve your credit rating. For details about the guide please click here