Credit Check

A credit check, credit enquiry or credit review is a process where your broker or lender access a potential client’s credit report to evaluate their creditworthiness.

A soft credit check is for information purposes only. Your broker will confirm all the information you have provided is correct and reflected in your credit report. Soft enquiries do not affect your credit score.

A hard credit checks is when a lender assesses your credit report as part of the decision-making procedure when you have put in an application for a home loan or credit card. These types of enquiries will be added to your credit file and can affect your score temporarily.

Your credit report shows:

• 2-year Payment history – if you have made payments on time, missed and late payments
• Types of credit – will list how many credit cards, personal loans, car loans and mortgages
• Enquiries – new and recent credit enquiries

A higher score means the lender will consider you less risky. A lower score will affect your ability to get a loan or credit. 

It is important that you understand your own credit report and know how to maintain a good credit score, this is also a great chance for you to stamp out identity theft, by making sure all credit enquires have been yours. There are sites where you can check the report for free once every three months, these are a soft check and don’t affect your score.

The three credit reporting bodies in Australia are: Equifax, Esperian and Illion.