What is a statutory credit report? What to know and how to request yours

Put simply, a statutory credit report is a document with information about your financial history. It contains the information lenders look at when they’re processing your application for something like a new credit card or car loan.

Your credit report can offer some answers when you want to understand more about how likely you are to get new credit, why your application was rejected, or why your credit score is what it is.

Let’s take a look at the basics of statutory credit reports – what they contain, what they don’t, and how you can access yours.

What does ‘statutory credit report’ mean?

The ‘statutory’ in ‘statutory credit report’ means you have the legal right to view the information about your financial history. The laws that give you this right include the Consumer Credit Act of 1974 and the Data Protection Act, which came into force in 2018.

In the UK, your credit report is recorded by three different credit reference agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). Each of these CRAs is also legally obligated to show you the basic information in your credit report – for free – whenever you request it. They can charge a monthly fee for services like calculating your credit score and explaining the data, but the basic information in the statutory report must be free for life.

Although you’re entitled to see your credit report, it’s worth bearing in mind that it contains sensitive information.

Each CRA has strict data protection measures to prevent fraud and identity theft. The data is only accessible to around 200 authorised lenders in the UK, and the lender will have to obtain your permission to check your credit record every time they search it.

These security measures also mean that CRAs will confirm your identity before they show you your credit report. You might not get instant access to the information, especially if you’re checking it for the first time.

When do you need your statutory credit report?

There are times when it’s especially beneficial to know what’s in your credit report. These include:

• Before applying for new credit, especially ahead of major decisions like getting a mortgage. Your credit report can give you an idea of how likely you are to be accepted and can help you choose which lenders to contact.

• After being rejected for credit, for example, after having a credit card application declined or being denied the most competitive interest rate. Here, your credit report can shed some light on the lender’s decision by showing events in your financial history that might have counted against you.

• If you want to cross-reference the data on your credit report, particularly if your credit score has changed or if there are significant differences between the credit scores you get from different credit reference agencies.

Even if you’re not planning to make big changes to your finances, it can be a good idea to view your statutory credit report regularly. It’s essentially a tool you can use to understand how lenders might view you as a potential customer, which can help you make informed decisions about your credit use.

What information does your credit report include?

It has information about your last six years of credit history. This includes private information that’s only accessible to authorised lenders as part of the ‘hard credit check’ they do when you apply for a new product.

• Credit accounts. This means the payment history for any form of credit you’ve used, including personal loans, mortgages, credit cards, or overdrafts. The data will include the dates when you made your repayments, as well as the limits and balances on the accounts.

• Financial associations. If you have a joint credit card or mortgage, the name of the individual you hold the account with will also appear on your statutory credit report. If you act as a guarantor, it will occasionally be reported too, depending on the lender.

• Credit applications. When financial institutions do a hard credit check, a record of this appears on your credit report. Too many checks can suggest you’ve been rejected repeatedly or tried to borrow a lot of money in a short time, which can make lenders see your application as more of a risk.

• Notices of Correction. These are short notes you can leave on your credit report for fraud prevention, or to explain information like why you’re not eligible to be on the Electoral Roll.

Your report also includes some information that’s available on the public record. This is the personal information that people like landlords or employers can view if you give them permission to do a ‘soft’ credit check. For example, it will show:

• Electoral Roll records, including the addresses where you were registered to vote.

• Insolvency events like bankruptcies or Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVAs).

• County Court Judgments, which you might know as CCJs. These show that a creditor took a borrower to court over an unpaid debt, and the court ruled in the creditor’s favour.

What’s not on a statutory credit report?

Although your statutory credit report is a detailed record of your financial data, there are some things it won’t tell you:

• Your credit score. This is a number calculated from your credit record that provides an indication of your general financial health.

• Supporting information to help you understand or interpret your credit report.

• Explanations of the impact each item on your credit report might have had on your ability to borrow money.

• Tracking tools, for example, a graph to help you compare your current financial situation with your position a year ago.

• Advice on what you could do to improve your credit report or manage your personal finances.

Keep in mind that your most recent financial activity might not appear on your statutory credit report as the information can take a few weeks to update.

Your lender has to report the information to the CRA, and then the CRA has to process it. So it can take 4-6 weeks for new information to appear on your credit report.

How to get your statutory credit report

You can access your basic report by contacting any of the three credit reference agencies online or by post.

It’s helpful to be as detailed as possible when filling out your request. For example, if personal details are missing, the CRA might have to contact you to ask for additional information before they can issue your report.

There are fields in the application for your middle names, as well as an exhaustive list of titles to choose from. It’s also a good idea to have your address history for the past six years to hand when you fill in the request form, including your old postcodes.

Although they ask for similar information, there are some differences between the request processes at each CRA.

Experian

To view your statutory credit report from Experian online, you’ll need to request a passkey, which they post to you. You then use the passkey to log on to the website and access your report.

You can get a paper copy of your credit file by downloading and printing an application form, which needs to be sent to Experian’s support centre in Nottingham.

Order your Experian statutory credit report here.

Equifax

You’ll need to register online with your address history. Equifax will also ask for your credit or debit card details, but they won’t charge you to view your statutory credit report.

Once registered, you can view your report online or download it as a PDF.

You can also download an application form from Equifax’s website and post it to their customer service centre in Leicester. If your request is successful, they’ll send a copy of your credit report within a month.

Order your Equifax statutory credit report here.

TransUnion

For TransUnion, you need to enter your details and address history into an online form. If you’re unable to complete the form or would rather apply by post, you can send a request to their team in Hull to be processed by one of their customer service agents.

Order your TransUnion statutory credit report here.

Why is information missing from my credit report?

Remember, your credit report won’t be universal. You’ll often see differences between the reports generated by each of the three CRAs, and some of your repayments might be missing from one or two of the reports.

This is because different lenders work with different credit reference agencies. For example, if you have a hire purchase agreement with a business that only works with Experian and TransUnion, it won’t show up on a statutory credit report generated by Equifax.

It’s useful to know what your credit reports from all three CRAs look like – especially before you apply for new credit. This can give you an idea of how easy it will be to find a lender that offers you a competitive rate.

Keep in mind that there can sometimes be errors on your credit report. For example, a lender could mistakenly report that you missed a payment when your bank statement shows you made it on time. If you view all of your credit reports regularly, you’ll be able to spot errors and start the process of correcting them.

And don’t forget, you can view your credit report as often as you need to without impacting your credit score.

To recap:

Knowing what appears in your statutory credit report shows you what lenders see when they consider your application. It can help you set your expectations, alert you to errors that might negatively affect your ability to get new credit, and help you make plans to improve your credit rating going forward.

You can contact Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to view your statutory credit report, or if you want to view your credit score and more, you can use Checkmyfile – the most detailed credit report you can get, with the most recent data from all three credit reference agencies in one place.

We break down up to six years of credit history into one simple-to-use, independent and highly confidential review. Here, you can understand your habits, pinpoint patterns and spot any errors that could be impacting your overall credit health — without affecting your score. Get started now