Five things your credit file can tell you (that might surprise you)

A financial survey conducted by the FCA in 2024 found that only 34% of UK adults had checked their credit report or credit score in the 12 months leading up to May 2024.

Your credit file contains the information that lenders can see when you apply for credit, and you might be surprised by some of what's in there. Checking your own credit file regularly helps you to spot and correct errors in your data, protect yourself from fraud and prepare for big credit applications like mortgages or loans.

In this guide by Checkmyfile, we explain what a credit file is, what’s included and what lenders can see. 

What is a credit file?

A credit file is a detailed record of your borrowing history and financial behaviour over the last six years, including how well you have managed credit.

Credit reference agencies (CRAs) are companies that collect information from lenders, banks, building societies, service providers, courts, and other public records, to create a comprehensive picture of your financial activity over the past six years.

The three main CRAs that operate in the UK are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Because many lenders only report their data to one or two of these agencies, your information can look pretty different from one agency to another.

 That's why it's a good idea to check your report with all three CRAs to make sure you aren't missing any important pieces of  information.

Lenders use credit files to help determine whether to approve applications for mortgages, credit cards, loans and other credit and insurance products. A credit file isn't the same as a credit score. Your credit score is calculated using your credit report information and is designed to help you to better understand your credit health.

What is typically in a credit file?

Your credit file typically contains:

• Personal details: Your name, current and previous addresses, and any previous names connected to your credit history or Electoral Roll listing.

• Credit accounts: This can include credit cards, loans, mortgages, overdrafts, and some mobile phone or utility accounts. This can also include active and closed accounts, which typically stay on your report for six years from the date of closure.

• Payment information: You'll typically see a detailed record of how you've managed your repayments. This includes whether an account has been in arrears or defaulted..

• Electoral Roll information: When you register to vote, your local authority adds your name to the Electoral Roll. This information helps lenders verify your details, so it’s well worth checking that you are registered to vote, and that your listing shows on your credit file. Keep in mind it can take up to three months for changes to your Electoral Roll listing to reflect on your credit report. 

• Financial associations: If you're financially linked to anyone through joint borrowing, such as a mortgage, you and the other person will see each other's names listed as financial associates on your credit files. Their credit report won’t impact yours, but it could influence a credit application. 

A credit file won't include your salary, savings, employment history, day-to-day spending, or normal bank account balance.

Five things your credit file can tell you

As mentioned, your credit file might look slightly different, depending on the CRA you use. But, at Checkmyfile, we provide the only credit score and report that uses data from all three agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – so you get the full picture of your credit health. Here’s what your credit file can tell you:

1. Your borrowing history

Your credit accounts make up the Payments & Borrowing section of your credit report. This is where you’ll see any loans, credit cards, mortgages, or other credit accounts you've had in the past six years. Available information can include when you opened the account, whether it's active or closed, the lender's name, and relevant credit limits or balances.

It may come as a surprise that closed accounts generally stay on your credit report for six years after you close them, and they can show up to the last six years of their payment history for that time. This means that  your report can display payment activity from more than six years ago when it's part of a closed account's retained history.

2. Your payment history

On each account, you should see an associated payment history that shows if you've made repayments on time and in full. You'll also see whether any accounts are in arrears or in default, which is adverse credit history caused by missed or late payments.

It's not just credit card or mortgage payments that matter. Surprisingly for some, missed payments on any account in your credit file, including phone contracts, insurance and car finance, utility bills and even certain Buy Now, Pay Later products, can show up in a credit check and affect your chances of approval.

At Checkmyfile, we use the following payment markers to help you understand account statuses:

• OK = payment was made on time.

• 1–6 = increasing months of arrears.

• AR = you've made an arrangement to pay with the lender.

• D = an account is in default.

• S = an account is settled or closed.

• SF = a default has been satisfied.

Missed payments can remain visible in your credit history for years, and a default usually stays on your credit report for six years from the default date.

3. Your current debts

Your credit file can show account balances for loans, mortgages, overdrafts, or any recorded line of credit, and it can also show credit limits, allowing lenders to understand how much credit you've used compared with what's available. This is called credit utilisation. For example, using £1,500 of a £3,000 credit limit means you're using 50% of your available credit.

What you might not know is that your credit file isn't necessarily an up-to-the-minute picture of what you owe. Lenders typically report updates to the CRAs monthly, so new  information could take approximately four to six weeks to appear.

It might surprise you that the credit utilisation visible on your report can impact your chances of being approved for new credit. While using some credit can help to build up your payment history, lenders might be hesitant to offer more credit to someone who's already using quite a lot of what they already have available. This is because they may assume you’ll struggle to pay more debt back.

Your credit report also doesn't show student loans.

4. Credit applications

Your credit file also shows searches on your credit report that have been made when companies assess your credit health as part of an application, known as ‘hard searches’.

Hard searches appear when you formally apply for a mortgage, loan, credit card, or another credit product, whereas soft searches (which aren’t visible to lenders) appear when you check your own credit report, use an eligibility checker, or request certain quotations, either directly with a lender or through a price comparison service. 

Lenders can see where you’ve applied for credit, but they can't see if the applications were accepted or rejected. Hard searches can stay on your credit report for up to two years and they influence your credit score – this is because making too many in a short period can be interpreted as a sign you’re taking on a lot of debt at once and may struggle to take on any more. 

5. Public financial information

Credit reports can contain public financial records, which include:

• County Court Judgments (CCJs)

• Bankruptcies

• Debt Relief Orders (DROs)

• Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs)

Even if you fully repay a CCJ, the record generally remains for six years unless you pay it in full within one month of the date your case is heard. If you pay within this period, you can apply to have the judgment removed from the register. If you pay later, it can be marked as satisfied to reflect this, but will remain on your report for the original six-year period.

Bankruptcy, DROs and IVAs are all kinds of insolvency. This means that you've been unable to keep up with your credit commitments, so have entered a formal agreement to pay your creditors back, either in part or in full, over a set period of time.

These show on your report for six years from the date of issue, so long as you've been discharged. If you've not been discharged from your insolvency after six years, they can remain on your report indefinitely until you are.

What can a lender see on your credit file?

When a lender checks your credit file, they can see your public legal records, past credit applications and your borrowing history over a rolling six-year period. They can’t see bank account balances, savings amounts, or your income.

They’ll then use the information they see, alongside the rest of their affordability criteria (such as your income and expenses), to make a lending decision. The information on your credit file may also influence the interest rate and terms offered.

How to check your credit file

You can monitor your data from all three agencies in one place with Checkmyfile. It’s an easy way to see everything a lender could see without having to update multiple reports. 

And the good news is, checking your own credit file won't lower your credit score, no matter how often you check it.

Once you get hold of your credit report, it’s worth looking for:

• Incorrect personal information

• Unfamiliar accounts

• Unexpected credit applications

• Payment errors

• Financial associations that are no longer relevant

If you find something that doesn’t look right, contact the lender or organisation reporting it. You can also raise a dispute with the relevant credit reference agency (something Checkmyfile can help you with).

Get started with Checkmyfile

Your credit file is an excellent tool that gives you insight into your overall financial health and what lenders might see.

We've made it easier to understand exactly what's on your report by pulling data from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion into a simple-to-use dashboard.

Avoid any future surprises and get a complete overview of your credit health with Checkmyfile.

Sign up today and start with a 7-day free trial. It’s then just £14.99 a month and you can cancel online anytime.