Credit reference agencies act like data libraries, receiving information from your lenders and the public bodies (such as the electoral register).

In the UK, there are three main credit reference agencies: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. We partner with TransUnion to provide you with your TotallyMoney Credit Report.

The role of a credit reference agency is to collect information over the last six years from public bodies and lenders. This information is then used to create your credit report which can be viewed by lenders to help them make decisions on applications.

Lenders will view this information as it can help lenders to make more confident decisions. This is because they can see if a customer is using credit sensibly and making all their payments on time or highlighting if a customer might be struggling, such as missing payments on the debt they already have.

Customers are also able to view the information held by the credit reference agencies to check the information being provided by their lenders is correct.

This provides you with a chance to review the information and, if required, dispute the data in your credit report before making any applications for credit, this may help an application to be accepted where it may have been declined.