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How do we get your credit report?

ClearScore shows you your Equifax credit score and report - here's everything you need to know.

06 February 2017Lucy Burgess 1 min read

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Equifax is a credit reference agency. It’s one of three agencies in the UK that is licensed to collect information about your borrowing habits, and put it into a credit report. When you apply for credit, you give lenders permission to check your credit report. This helps them decide whether to lend to you.

The other two credit reference agencies in the UK are Experian and Callcredit.

ClearScore is not a credit reference agency itself: it gives you access to the data that Equifax holds on you. We do this for free, because we don’t think people should have to pay to access their own information.

Because ClearScore shows you your Equifax credit report, we can’t change any of the information ourselves. We simply show you the information Equifax currently hold about you. You can raise a dispute with Equifax through ClearScore.

If there is a mistake on your report, you can tell Equifax using our official disputes process. Equifax will then look into your dispute, and will contact you once they have a resolution. This can take up to 28 days, but it’s usually much quicker.

You can log in to your Equifax support account to track the progress and outcome of your dispute. Your login details will be emailed to you by Equifax when you raise a dispute through our website.

If you need any help with your dispute you can contact our customer services team using our Help section.

Lenders can’t see your ClearScore account, and your ClearScore report won't directly affect your credit worthiness. However, your ClearScore account shows Equifax data, which lenders do look at.

For example, lenders can’t see the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ factors in your ClearScore account in the exact way we have written them. When you apply for credit, such as a credit card or loan, lenders will go directly to Equifax to look at your data rather than looking at how it appears in your ClearScore account. Bear in mind that your credit report is only one factor in a lender’s decision. They also look at the information on your application (e.g. job, salary, whether you’re a home owner) and any past dealings you’ve had with them.

Key highlights

  1. Equifax is a credit reference agency. ClearScore let's you see your Equifax credit report for free.
  2. ClearScore can’t change the information on your report itself: it has to be changed by Equifax. You can tell Equifax what’s wrong using our official disputes process.
  3. Lenders can’t see your ClearScore account directly. They can only look at your Equifax data.

Lucy Burgess Image

Written by Lucy Burgess

Global Content Manager

Lucy has a wealth of personal finance knowledge, and is one of our in-house experts.