I had an interesting chat with a colleague today, and it’s not the first time this subject has arisen. He was in the process of completing a mortgage application for a regular client of his, he knew the client well and both the adviser and the client were confident of a clean credit report. On this occasion, it was far from reality. The mortgage was declined due to adverse credit.
Upon further investigation and review of the credit report the issue was clear. The client had a £7000 County Court Judgement against him! This was clearly an act of fraud and was removed after a lengthy process and proving the debt was not his.
The point however is that credit files play such an important part of our lives it’s really important to keep a health check of yours.
Where to check your credit file?
There are a couple I regularly recommend and they are as follows.
www.noddle.co.uk – Noddle offers a completely free service and uses data from TransUnion.
www.checkmyfile.com – Check My File is a paid for service but uses data from 4 credit referencing agencies and produces one report.
Having a credit report also helps with a mortgage application.
Having a copy of a credit report can also assist your mortgage adviser when giving you advice and applying for a mortgage. It’s an ideal way for the adviser to check balances of loans and credit cards etc. reporting these accurately to the lender. Also, if you have had adverse credit, having an up to date report helps with identifying an appropriate lender.