Is your Credit Report missing an Electoral Roll entry at your current address? An active Electoral Roll listing is important for a healthy Credit Report, so you’ll want to take steps to put it right.

If you’re planning on applying for a mortgage, a credit card, or even a place to rent, an active Electoral Roll listing will help your chances of being successful, so it’s worth checking that your Credit Report accurately shows correct information.

If you’re not sure how your Electoral Roll listing appears on your Credit Report, you can check it for yourself with checkmyfile. Our Multi Agency Credit Report gathers your complete information from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – making it quick and easy to see everything you need.

You can try us free for 30 days, then for just £14.99 per month. Cancel online at any time.

I’m On The Electoral Roll, So Why Doesn’t It Appear On My Credit Report

Assuming you’ve already applied to be included on the Electoral Register, there are two main reasons for a missing entry on your Credit Report: the time it takes for your information to be updated; and a possible mismatch in name or address compared to the formats held by your local council.

How Long Does It Take For My Electoral Roll Information To Be Updated?

Once you’ve registered to join the Electoral Roll, your local council will then inform the UK’s Credit Reference Agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), and the new listing will be recorded on your Credit Report at each of them.

Councils across the UK all have different frequencies at which they share data with the Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), but typically it takes up to three months for a new Electoral Roll entry to appear on your Credit Report.

That means if you’ve applied to the Electoral Register less than three months ago, you should see your information appear on your Credit Report automatically as each of the CRAs receive the updates from your local council.

I’ve Been On The Electoral Roll For Ages And It Still Isn’t Showing On My Credit Report

If you registered on the Electoral Roll over three months ago, but it still doesn’t appear on your Credit Report, often the cause will be a mismatch between the name and address as held by your local council and the name and address you’ve used to generate your Credit Report.

The only way to check this for certain is to contact your local council and have them confirm the name and address they hold for you. You can then compare that information against the name and address you used to obtain your Credit Report.

For example, if your local council has your address registered as ‘Flat 1’, but you’ve searched the CRAs with the address ‘Apartment 1’, you might struggle to match your Electoral Roll listing to your Credit Report. This problem is even more common among those with longer addresses or addresses that can be written in various ways.

The same is true for your name; a mismatch in first or surname can make it difficult for lenders – and yourself – to find your Electoral Roll listing at the CRAs. Name mismatching is especially common among newlyweds who’ve changed their surname but not yet updated their local council with the new name.

If you find that your local council holds your name or address differently to the formats you’ve used to get your Credit Report, you should try obtaining a Credit Report again using the name and address exactly as it’s held by your local council. This should prevent any problems with matching your Electoral Roll listing to your Credit Report.

It’s also important to use a single format of your name and address consistently for all credit accounts, applications, and Electoral Roll listings to ensure your information is returned in full whenever your details are searched at a Credit Reference Agency.

I’ve Been On The Electoral Roll For Ages And My Local Council Holds My Information Correctly

If you’re in the rare position of missing an Electoral Roll listing on your Credit Report despite having been on the Electoral Register for a while, and you’re using the correct name and address format, you can request for the CRAs to manually amend your record.

To manually update your Electoral Roll information, the Credit Reference Agencies require an official letter of confirmation from your local council, detailing your full name, address, elector number, and the date that your Electoral Roll listing started.

Using this letter as evidence, you can contact each of the CRAs to request your records are updated.

Contacting all three CRAs individually can be time consuming. checkmyfile makes this process quick and easy by liaising with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion on your behalf.

It then often takes up to six weeks for the amended entry to appear on your Credit Report. This route isn’t a way of fast tracking changes; rather, it’s a useful last resort if the CRAs have a genuine need to update your information.

Can You Get A Mortgage Without Being On The Electoral Roll?

All mortgage lenders have unique acceptance criteria, so it’s certainly possible to get a mortgage without being on the Electoral Roll. However, as an active Electoral Roll entry is so beneficial to your Credit Report, you can expect it to help your chances of approval (the longer the duration, the better).

This is true for more than just mortgages, too. The credit checks for credit cards, loans, car finance, mobile phone contracts, and even jobs are all made easier should you have an active Electoral Roll entry on your Credit Report.

Why Is The Electoral Roll So Important?

Being registered on the Electoral Roll at your current address can be the deciding factor for your credit application being accepted or declined by a lender. The Electoral Roll is so important because it is used to verify your identity and to measure stability at your current address. Additionally, if the lender can successfully locate your Electoral Roll listing, they can assess the Credit Report with confidence that it contains your full information and that nothing has been missed, under other addresses or names, for instance.

How Do I Check My Electoral Roll Information?

You can see how a lender will see your Electoral Roll information by checking your Credit Report for yourself.

You can use checkmyfile to quickly and easily see your complete information from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion all on a single, easy-to-use platform.

View our Multi Agency Credit Report free for 30 days, then for just £14.99 per month.

Updated by Sam Griffin on 21 December 2021