www.TheCreditAgency.co.uk: Online Credit Report

Summary: This article looks at the importance of checking your credit report online. We look at issues such as getting credit facilities such as loans, mortgages and credit cards and identify how a good credit rating can help. We also look at how checking your credit report (and the use of a credit monitoring service) can protect you from identity fraud. Finally, we provide links to resources (courtesy of www.TheCreditAgency.co.uk) so that you can check your credit report online with all of the major credit reference agencies, use a credit monitoring service, or insure your identity.

WHY CHECK YOUR CREDIT REPORT? If anything in your report is out of date or gives a misleading picture of your willingness or ability to repay a loan, mortgage or credit card, it can affect your chances of getting the best deals. It can even lead to outright rejection by lenders. For example, you may have separated from a partner who has since run up debts but, because you have still got a joint account, his or her payment behaviour could be affecting you. You won't see their credit data on your report but you will find a note of any financial association. Or you may have shopped around for the best offer, without realising your enquiries have been registered as multiple applications. These should show as quotation searches. If they are down as applications, lenders could think you are desperate for money, have over-extended yourself or even that a fraud is being planned. You could even discover applications and credit accounts in your name that you did not ask for. In that case, your identity may have been used fraudulently. A range of behaviours can have an effect on your credit file. Issues such as late payments or missed payments, applying for a number of credit facilities (loans, credit cards etc.) in a short space of time, moving address regularly, or not appearing on the electoral roll will have a NEGATIVE effect on your credit file. On the other hand, if you stick to managing your existing credit facilities well, you register on the electoral roll and stay at the same address for a period of time, then you will POSITIVELY effect your credit report. With a better credit record, you will be able to access cheaper sources of finance (lower APR's on loans) and will be able to obtain credit from a greater number of resources (prime lenders favour good credit scores). With access to credit becoming increasingly more difficult to many people, managing a clean credit file is increasingly beneficial. Two categories of people are going to be really affected by their credit reports following the impact of the credit crunch. 1) Home Owners: Anyone with a variable rate mortgage will have already seen interest rates rise, thus pushing up the sum of their monthly repayment. Those on a fixed rate mortgage will have thus far been untouched. However, it is the fixed rate mortgage holders that need to be most careful about managing their credit score. When their mortgage comes to an end, they are going to need to find another mortgage deal. Whatever mortgage they go for, fixed rate mortgage holders are going to find that their monthly repayments will have vastly increased. Therefore, the only way to minimise the effect of the credit crunch is to increase your appeal to lenders by enhancing your credit score. This will help widen the number of lenders happy to offer mortgage facilities, whilst also lowering the APR's on offer to you. 2) Sub Prime & Near Prime Borrowers: Anyone that has had to borrow money with high APR's (typically in excess of 35%) is now going to find funding sources more difficult to access, as many lenders have moved out of the sub prime lending market. Interest rates in the sub prime and near prime lending market have also increased. This can have a particularly harsh impact on borrowers - especially those with low incomes, as individuals may struggle to keep up with repayments. If you fall into the sub-prime category, you'll need to keep an even closer eye on your credit report so as to ensure that you can still get access to credit (some lenders are already pulling credit facilities away from non-prime borrowers). By accessing your credit file online, you'll be able to see that every aspect of your credit report is in order, thus ensuring that you can still gain access to credit. The easiest way to check your credit report is to get your credit report online. By visiting www.TheCreditAgency.co.uk you will be able to discover which credit report is best for you and then gain Free access to it, along with identity insurance and credit monitoring facilities. Use any of the web address details provided and enter them into your web browser to access your credit report.