There are three main credit reference agencies (CRAs) in the UK - TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. They collect information about you from your financial accounts and public bodies to create your credit report and credit score. Each of the CRAs use their own calculations to create your credit score, this means that you may see a different credit score depending on which service you’re using.

As lenders are not required to provide updates to all three CRAs, so you may find that some information is only held by one CRA rather than all three. This can impact your credit score as the CRAs are only able to calculate your score based on the information that they hold.

When applying for credit, lenders will often calculate their own score based on the information provided by the CRA. As the lender may choose to get their information from any CRA, you may want to check the information held by all three is correct before making an application.