There is a variety of information held on your credit report from a variety of sources. If any of it is wrong, it could affect your ability to get credit.

The Electoral Roll
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 or visit www.aboutmyvote.co.uk. If you move home, you can tell your local authority, who will tell credit reference agencies about your change of registration in the course of the year.

Court judgments
If you believe a County Court judgment has been recorded incorrectly, you should contact the County Court, quoting the case number included on your report. If the judgment was recorded incorrectly, the County Court will alter its 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 change their records sooner if necessary.

If you have paid a Scottish decree, you should send Registry Trust (address below) 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 report, asking for an entry to be changed, you should send a cheque for £4.50 to cover a search fee. It will then tell the credit reference agencies about any change to your report.

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 report, contact the court concerned. Registry Trust Ltd 173-175 Cleveland Street London W1P 5PE

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 report. If your bankruptcy has been discharged, a record of it will be kept on your report, but it will show that it has been discharged.

Voluntary arrangements
If you have any questions about a record of a voluntary arrangement, you should contact the supervisor who dealt with your case. If you send documents from the supervisor to confirm that the information on your report needs to be changed, the agencies will change their records.

Credit accounts
After carefully studying the credit account details (credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc), on your file, if you believe any information needs to be changed you should write to the lender concerned and ask them to give the correct information to the credit reference agencies.

Searches
Credit reference agencies will delete searches only when they are instructed to do so by the company that searched your report. If you are concerned about the accuracy of a record of a search, you should contact the company which carried out that search.

Linked addresses
Links between your previous addresses, or any addresses you may use for correspondence, may be listed on your credit report. The link will only be broken when the reference agencies are asked to do so by the organisation that created the link.

CIFAS
If you have any questions about a CIFAS record, write to the organisation concerned. If you disagree with that organisation over the information on your report, ask the organisation for details of the scheme for settling disputes.

Associations
A record of an association shows a financial link you have with someone. These links are created by joint judgements, 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.

Aliases
If any names are shown on your credit report that you have never used, you should contact the company listed as providing the other name, or write to the credit reference agency and they will investigate the matter and make any necessary changes to your report.

Information about other people
Your credit report does not include financial information about a partner or family member, but it will list the names of anyone you are financially linked to (such as people you have joint accounts with). In the past, when you applied for your credit report you saw all the information that might be seen by lenders, including information about family members who live, or used to live, at the same address. Now lenders only see information about other family members who are financially linked to you.

Furthermore, the credit reference agencies have removed all family financial information from the credit reports they send to people. If you believe that information about someone you are financially linked to is the reason for your being refused credit, you might want to ask them to apply for their own credit report. Of course, they do not have to order their report or show it to you.

To view your personal credit information that lenders are currently basing their credit decisions on, apply online for a credit report from Experian, the UK’s largest credit reference agency, now. You will also receive a 30-day free trial to the CreditExpert Monitoring Service from Experian.

Get a free 30-day trial and a free copy of your Experian credit report.

Credit reference agencies
Experian Consumer Help Service
Experian Ltd
PO Box 8000
Nottingham NG80 7WF
0870 241 6212

Equifax Plc
Credit Report Advice Centre
PO Box 3001
Glasgow G81 2DT

Call Credit
Consumer Service Dept
Park Row House
Leeds LS1 5JF