What’s in a credit report can be daunting…
For your convenience we have provided a description of some of the information elements used within credit reports. Credit providers and credit reporting bodies are both required to make sure what’s on your credit report is right. However, things can go wrong. If that happens on your credit report, you have the right to get it corrected free of charge.
It’s a good idea to get a copy of your credit report – it’s FREE!
Detailed explanation of 7 terms used in your credit report
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Consumer credit liability information
This just refers to the basic information about the loans you’ve taken out and the things you’ve bought on credit. It includes information about the type of debt. (e.g. a home loan; electricity account), the credit limit of the account (but not the actual balance of what you owe) and what type of payments that you’re making.
Credit providers and other businesses can use this information to make sure they know how much debt you already have. This helps them to understand whether you can afford the new debt.
This information will stay on your credit report while the product is open and for 2 years after it’s closed.
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Application information
This shows the types of loan you’ve applied for, and the types of things you’ve tried to buy on credit, in the last 5 years. These will be shown whether or not you were actually approved for the loan or bought the things on credit.
This can be important information for credit provider or business offering to sell something to you on credit. If there are a lot of applications on your report the credit provider or business may worry that you are trying to get too many loans or buy too many things on credit (particularly if the applications are very recent).
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Repayment history information
This shows – on a month by month basis – whether you’ve made your loan payments on time. Other credit providers will see a 24-month history of your payments (after 24 months, the information falls off your credit report).
If you’ve been up to date with your repayments and then miss one, a credit provider will only report that you missed the payment if you’re at least 14 days late. This means that if you forget to make the payment but catch up within a couple of days, your credit report will show that you’ve made the payment on time.
If you make your existing payments on time, when you apply for a new loan, the new credit provider will see that and it will help show that you’re likely to repay the new loan.
You don’t need to worry too much if you miss the occasional payment as it’s unlikely to have much impact when you apply for a new loan (particularly if the new credit provider can see you’ve otherwise making your payments on time).
If you’ve fallen behind by a few payments, or you miss payments on a number of loans, this may make the new credit provider worried that you won’t able to repay the new loan. But this can be improved by making sure you get back on track with your payments. Each month that you are able to make your payments on time will give a new credit provider more confidence that you’re going to be able to repay the new loan.
Your repayment history information is a very important part of your credit report.
Only banks and some other types of credit providers are able to report or access repayment history information. Phone, gas and electricity providers are not able to report or access this information. This means that your credit report will not show whether or not you’ve paid your phone, gas or electricity bill on a month-by-month basis (but those businesses can report if you don’t pay for at least 60 days; see Default Information)
What will repayment history information look like?
Whether you’ve made your payments on time is represented by a number. A ‘0’ means that you made the payment on time (or, up to 14 days after it was due). A ‘1’ means that in that month you were one payment behind. A ‘2’ means that you were two payments behind and so on.
You’ll see a history of up to 24 months (depending on how long your account has been opened and when the credit provider started to report your payments).
If your credit report shows 24 ‘0s’ in a row, this means that you haven’t missed a payment over the last two years.
Check out the sample credit report to see what this will look like.
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Default information
This is a record that you haven’t met your repayments for quite a while. In fact, you have to have missed your payments by at least 60 days and the credit provider or business that sold you things on credit has to have made efforts to get the payments from you.
Having a default on your credit report is serious and will make it much harder for you to get a loan or buy things on credit for 5 years. After 5 years, the default will fall off your credit report.
If you have had a default listed, you can still improve your credit report a little bit by making sure the debt is paid or settled. If that happens, the credit provider or other business has to update your credit report to say that the debt is no longer owed by you. Also, if you have other loans and are able to continue paying your repayments on time for those loans, that good repayment history information may help to reduce the impact of the default on your credit report and credit score.
However, it’s important to know that once a default has been correctly recorded on your credit report, it won’t come off for 5 years, even if you pay the debt owed.
There are rules that credit providers and other businesses have to follow before listing a default (including sending you at least two written notifications about the debt and not listing any overdue payments less than $150 or that are statute barred).
If you think that a default has been listed on your credit report incorrectly, or if you don’t even owe the money being claimed, you can dispute the information with the credit reporting bodies.
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Court proceedings information (i.e. court judgements)
Your credit report will show if a court has made a judgment against you in relation to any unpaid loans or credit to buy things. This will stay on your credit report for 5 years from the date the judgement was given.
This could happen if, for example, you don’t pay your credit card for a long time and the credit provider thinks the only way to get their money back is to take you to court. Another example is if you don’t pay your home loan and the credit provider goes to court to take possession of the house that was given as security.
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Personal insolvency information (e.g. bankruptcy)
Your credit report will include information about your personal insolvency, including if you have been gone bankrupt. However, it also includes other insolvency information such as debt agreements or personal insolvency agreements.
These will stay on your credit report for at least 5 years.
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Serious credit infringement
As suggested by the name, this type of information is very serious. It means that the credit provider or other business thinks that you either obtained the credit on a fraudulent basis or are now trying to avoid paying back the money owed (this doesn’t apply if you want to pay back the debt but just don’t have the money).
A serious credit infringement will stay on your credit report for 7 years and, during that time, will make it very hard to get a loan or buy things on credit.
You can make sure a serious credit infringement isn’t recorded on your credit report by always letting your credit providers know your up-to-date contact information. If you’re having difficulty paying your loan, make sure you keep in regular contact with your credit provider.
View sample credit report