Sign-up now to see your credit history within minutes. Take control of your own credit report, and get the credit you deserve at the best APR!
Sign Up to Credit Expert
- Free 30-day trial
- Free Experian Credit Scores
- CCJ's, Defaults, Bankruptcy
- Free Identity Theft Alerts
- ID Protection Insurance
- Customer Support
- £14.99 Per month
Sign Up to Checkmyfile
- FREE 30 DAY TRIAL
- Info from All 3 Bureaus
- 7 Free Credit Scores
- CCJ's, Defaults, Bankruptcy
- Identity Theft Assistance
- Customer Support
- £7.99 Per Month
Sign Up to Equifax
- FREE 30-day Trial
- Free Equifax Credit Scores
- CCJ's, Defaults, Bankruptcy
- Free Identity Theft Alerts
- Mobile App
- Customer Support
- £14.99 Per Month
If you only sign up to one service, we'd have to recommend Check My File- purely on a bang-for-buck basis. You also get info from all three UK credit bureaus, so not bad all-in.
How do free online credit reports work in the UK?
The way the three credit report agencies start you off is with a free 30 day trial period where you gain access to your whole credit report online. During this time you get access to all of the functionality of the reports, and all of the information. They take your credit or debit card details, but they won't bill you until the first month is up, consumers can access their credit report and then cancel within this period. The alternative to pay monthly credit reports is access to your credit report on a one off basis, your statutory credit report for £2, If you want absolutely free credit reports, you will need to sign up and cancel all three credit reports in the 30 day free trial period!
Are credit scores included?
Credit Scores are now part of the monthly cost for Experian credit reports, and most recently for Equifax also, your credit score is not important until you've cleaned up your credit report. You might like to know it anyway, just to have a benchmark, but it is your credit score when your report is all up to date and accurate that you should be really interested in.
Each credit reference agency provides a view as to what a high credit score is, and what isn't when you're logged in. The aim of course is to have the best credit score you possibly can. Each agency has their own scale so it is really worth reading up on these when you log in. It is also well worth saying that each report will look a little different, and your scores will definitely be different to each other. This is normal as they each do things in their own way. What is important is that everything on there is up to date and accurate in your UK free credit report. There are some key areas to check to make sure they are right:
- Linked Addresses
- Linked Financial Relationships
- Debtor History
- Payment History
If there is anything that you are certain is incorrect, get onto the agency straight away. Some things you can have removed or corrected. For others you are only allowed to add a statement of correction, which is effectively a note that is made public to outline the situation.
Staying in contact with the credit agencies
Agency contact is probably the most useful tool available to you by joining. It is not something that is available to you via multi-agency products, although contact is still possible. Our 'advice' for want of a better word, is that:
- if when you first sign up, you find that you have a pretty strong credit score and your report is in good order, then we'd recommend you use Check My File to stay on top of things ongoing.
- If your report and credit score are poor, we'd suggest subscribing to both Experian and Equifax and make sure you are in regular contact with them with regard to corrections and amendments. Stay on top of them and get it all sorted.
Most important, if you are not already - get yourself on the electoral roll immediately!
Credit Geeks wants to Help!
Finally, we have heaps of content on http://www.creditgeeks.co.uk to help you set your credit history right. Get into it and really make every effort to understand how it all works, and how you can ensure you are not making silly mistakes. This is one of those unknown areas that really costs consumers if it is not monitoried closely.
All the best!
The Credit Geeks Team
