Check Your Credit Report Free Online

There is often a lot of misinformation surrounding how people see credit reports

It’s very common to hear people saying such phrases as “I’m on the blacklist”, “I’ve definitely got a bad credit record”, or “my credit file is really poor”. When the reality is that not one of these statements has any truth in them.

The truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as a ‘credit blacklist’, and as a rule people don’t get bad or poor credit.

Here is how the system works. Everyone has a credit history, whether the individuals credit history is seen as negative or positive is down to the judgment of the company assessing the credit application – the is no universal rule.

Your credit history will include all the information and details on all the lines of credit and credit agreements you have had in the past, along with how you’ve managed the debts and operated within the credit agreements.

The details will include your history of whether or not you made regular minimum payments on the account, or if you were late paying and by how many months. Other details will include the amounts currently owed along with information on if you’ve ever defaulted on an agreement, or have an county court judgments (CCJ’s) against you.

It is the job of the credit card company to then asses your credit application based on the findings and information in your credit report history. Credit card companies have a minimum criteria in place for new applications, often the people who fail to meet this criteria are those who have a credit history or missing minimum payments or perhaps have county court judgments against.

This can leave applicants feeling that they’ve been put on some kind of credit blacklist, but infact they have just failed to meet the specific entry criteria of the credit card company they applied to.

It is possible to check your credit history yourself, this is an invaluable way to check your history before applying for a credit card, loan or mortgage.

If you’ve been refused credit in the past the information provided in your free online credit report will let you know exactly what information companies have used and give you an idea of what needs to be done to improve your credit rating. It will also give you the chance to correct any erroneous information on your file.

You can get a free online credit check from Experian called Credit Expert which will allow you to check your credit history free online for 30 days.

You can find more information about how credit scoring and credit reports work over at CreditReport.org.uk