Getting your credit report for free

AC.1When a copy costs nothing

• Every 3 monthsA credit reporting body must give you access to your report free once every 3 months.
• Refused creditYou can ask for a free copy if you were refused credit within the past 90 days.
• After a correctionYou can ask for a free copy if your credit-related personal information has been corrected.
• Any other timeA credit reporting body may charge a fee, but the fee mustn’t be excessive.

Moneysmart suggests getting a copy at least once a year. If you have ever applied for credit or a loan, there will be a report about you to ask for.

AC.2Who to ask

The OAIC defines a credit reporting body as “an organisation whose business involves handling personal information to give another organisation information about the creditworthiness of an individual.” On its page about getting your report, the OAIC lists two you can request a copy from, each linked to its own request page:

• Equifax (its page also offers paid plans; the free copy doesn’t need one)
• Experian

The OAIC’s page about fraud names three credit reporting bodies, adding illion, and suggests asking all three for a ban in case each holds a report about you.

Because credit reporting bodies may hold different information about you, you may need to ask each one for a copy. One way to know where your information has gone: when you apply for credit, your credit provider must tell you which credit reporting bodies it shares your personal information with.

AC.3What to check when it arrives

Moneysmart’s two checks come first:

• Every loan and debt on the report belongs to you.
• Your personal details are right, including your name and date of birth.

Then the parts of the file worth reading line by line, using what Moneysmart lists for each credit product held in the last two years:

• The provider, type, limit, and opening and closing dates of each account.
• Whether each payment was made by its due date, and any missed payment, meaning one not made within 14 days of the due date.
• The credit applications you’ve made, and any loan you’ve guaranteed.
• The requests for your report made by credit providers. Your report keeps a log of who has accessed it, which other credit providers can’t generally see.

AC.4If you find credit you never applied for

Loans or debts on your report that you know nothing about could mean someone has stolen your identity, and Moneysmart has a page on what to do about identity theft.

If you’ve been, or are likely to be, the victim of fraud, you can ask a credit reporting body to ban the use or disclosure of your report in credit checks. What the OAIC says about a ban:

• It lasts 21 days from your first request, and the body must tell you at least 5 business days before it ends.
• You can ask for an extension, and there is no limit on how many times it can be extended.
• You can ask one credit reporting body to pass your request to the other two.
• Asking for a ban or an extension is free.
• While a ban is in place, applying for credit may be harder.

AC.5Who else may ask for it

Your report is not open to anyone who asks. A credit reporting body may give it only to a credit provider, a mortgage or trade insurer, another Australian credit reporting body, or a debt collector working for a credit provider, and only for set purposes.

Real estate agents, landlords and employers sometimes ask for a credit report, but the OAIC says they are not permitted to obtain one. If someone outside that list asks for yours, the OAIC’s page on third-party access sets out the rule.

AC.6The report and the score

Your report includes a credit rating, the band your score sits in, and may include the score itself, though not every credit reporting body includes it. Some bodies may give you a score for free if you ask. What the number means, and why it differs between bodies, is in what a credit score is.