What records are kept?

You can request information held about you from “Credit Reference Agencies” there is usually a small fee to pay and this will give you a detailed report of what credit you have taken out.The three main credit reference agencies are Experian, Equifax and Callcredit.  

A credit record is, as the name suggests, a record of your credit. Whenever you take credit out an entry is made in a file kept by a number of credit reference agencies. The status of your credit record is dependent on whether you maintain repayments within the agreed terms.The reference will also contain names of persons who have taken out credit agreements from the address on your request and any credit agreements taken out at other addresses you may or they may have been linked to in the recent past. There are usually a series of codes for each credit item which will show either a 0 or a 1 each month, 0 means full payment made on time and 1 means late or missed payment. Potential lenders will be looking for 0s obviously. You may find that you do not recognize some names or linked addresses on your file. It is important that you question any such discrepancies and ask for them to be removed or for you to be disassociated from them. Provided you can prove they shouldn't be on your record the credit reference agencies are obliged to remove them. Even if you have a good record of repayment you may well find it difficult to obtain additional credit if the potential lender looking at your file deems you already have to much commitment to other financial institutions.