How to Check Your Credit Report Free (UK, 2026)

Request your statutory credit report from each agency. By law it is free. You can ask verbally or in writing, and the agencies usually have an online form. Unless the agency needs more information from you, it has one month to reply. Checking your own report is a soft search, so you can do it as often as you like.

If you write to the agency, include:

• Your full name, and any other names you have used in the last six years, such as a maiden name
• Your full address including postcode, and any other addresses you have lived at in the last six years
• Your date of birth

If you write, keep a copy of your letter. You may want to send it by recorded delivery to show it was sent and received. The agency may ask for proof of your name and address, such as a utility bill or bank statement, and it does not have to send your file until it has that. It can take up to two more months if it tells you within the first month why it needs the time.

Four agencies hold credit files in the UK: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. Each has to give you a free statutory report, and the information each holds can differ. Some services also give free regular access to your score or report, but you do not have to use them.

No. Checking your own report is a soft search, which only you and the agency can see, so it does not affect your score. A hard search happens when you apply for credit, such as a loan or mobile phone contract, and lenders can see it. Many hard searches in a short time can make you look riskier.

Your credit report is the record lenders use, not just the headline score. It lists your credit accounts and whether you paid on time, your electoral roll registration, searches, public records such as court judgments and bankruptcies, and anyone you are financially linked to. It does not hold your salary, religion or any criminal record.

• ✓Yes: Your credit accounts, cards, loans, mortgages, overdrafts and mobile contracts, with payment history
• ✓Yes: Whether you have paid on time, or missed payments, month by month
• ✓Yes: Electoral roll registration at your address
• ✓Yes: Searches: a record of each search on your file, showing the organisation, the date and the type of search
• ✓Yes: Public records, County Court Judgments (called decrees in Scotland), bankruptcies, Debt Relief Orders and Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs)
• ✓Yes: Financial associations, anyone you share credit with, such as a joint account holder

Go through it account by account instead of looking only at the score. Check every account is yours, the balances and payment history match what you remember, and any default or CCJ has the right date, because that date sets how long it stays. Then check the searches and the financial associations.

• Personal details and addresses: even a typo in your address can affect an application
• Accounts: every one is yours, with the right balance and payment history
• Defaults and CCJs: the right dates, since each date sets how long the entry stays
• Searches: each organisation that searched your file, and when
• Financial associations: anyone you are still linked to who you should not be
• Electoral roll: you are registered at your current address

Most negative information stays for six years: defaults from the date of default, court judgments from the judgment date, and bankruptcies and IVAs from the date they begin. Searches are kept for one or two years, depending on the agency. An accurate entry normally cannot be taken off early.

If you spot a mistake, report it to the agency so it can investigate. The Information Commission recommends contacting the agency or the lender in writing, so there is a clear trail of correspondence. If you give the agency notice that an entry is wrong and likely to prejudice you, section 159 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 says it must tell you within 28 days whether it has removed the entry, amended it or taken no action. While it investigates, the entry is marked as disputed.

• As a general rule, the company named on an entry is responsible for it, and the agency cannot change it without that company's permission
• The Commission says contacting the lender directly can be quicker, because the agency normally has to ask the lender to investigate
• A lender has one calendar month to respond to a request to correct information, and in certain circumstances can take up to two more months
• Unless the agency has told you it has removed the entry, you can ask it to add a notice of correction: a statement of up to 200 words that anyone looking at the entry will see
• Section 159 gives you 28 days from the agency's reply to ask for one or, if there is no reply, 28 days from the end of the agency's own 28 days
• MoneyHelper says you can add a note to explain reasons why you fell behind with payments that no longer apply. You need to raise it with each agency, and it might slow down an application because lenders have to read your note by hand
• Ask for a notice of disassociation when a financial link, such as a closed joint account, should end

If neither the lender nor the agency will correct an obvious error, you can complain to the Information Commission. It says it is not its role to decide financial disputes.

Check and fix your report first: the Information Commission says you may be able to improve your credit score by correcting anything that is wrong on your credit reference file. After that, MoneyHelper lists paying bills on time, being registered to vote at your current address and avoiding too many applications for credit as steps that help, which our improving your credit score guide explains.