Credit

When a credit provider makes an enquiry about you to a credit reporting agency, the enquiry gets listed on your file. Credit providers are only allowed to make an enquiry about you to a credit reporting agency in certain strictly limited circumstances. The two most common are:

• if you have made an application for credit to the credit provider and the credit provider told you beforehand that they would seek a credit report

• if you are in default to the credit provider.

Credit providers are not allowed to make an enquiry if you haven't made an application to them for credit. You should be careful to read the fine print in any documentation supplied to you by a credit provider and ask the credit provider whether they will access your credit file. This is particularly the case with telephone applications for credit. Some credit providers may be unwilling to give you a general indication of how much they are prepared to loan you if they can't also look at your credit file. You may not think you are making 'an application for credit' by making general enquiries, but the credit provider could see things differently. If the credit provider asks for your personal particulars, such as your date of birth, address, driver's licence number, then there is a fair chance they intend to do a credit check. If in doubt, ask.