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Credit reporting is the sharing of information between credit providers and credit reporting bodies about the lending products you have. When you apply for a loan or a product like a credit card, credit providers will check your credit report. Changes to legislation aim to make this reporting more balanced, through Comprehensive Credit Reporting.
Learn more about credit history.
What is Comprehensive Credit Reporting?
After recent government legislative changes to credit reporting, your credit report will now show both positive and negative aspects of your credit reporting history. This is called Comprehensive Credit Reporting.
Before the credit reporting changes, your credit report only showed negative information such as defaults and bankruptcies. Now, comprehensive credit reporting makes your repayment history viewable to potential credit providers to give them a clearer picture of your credit health.
This means if your credit report shows that you manage your debt well and make payments on time, potential lenders can view this when deciding whether to offer you credit, how much they will lend, on what terms, and whether or not the product is right for you.
What’s the link between Comprehensive Credit Reporting and financial hardship arrangements?
Another change with the comprehensive reporting is that from 1 July 2022 potential lenders will also be able to see if you have a financial hardship agreement with your current lender.
A financial hardship arrangement is used to adjust your repayments if you are experiencing hardship or an unexpected change to your circumstances that might impact your ability to make your repayments.
This will make your credit report more representative of your current financial situation and your unique circumstances. Before these changes, even if you had an agreement with your lender to make reduced payments for a short period of time, this would not be reflected in your credit report and may have shown that payments were late or missed.
This change has been made to protect borrowers from potentially being unable to secure credit with providers due to circumstances out of their control.
What is a credit score and how can I see my credit report?
In some cases, your credit report will be condensed into a 'credit score' which is used to compare you to other borrowers and helps lenders get a better idea of your overall credit health.
Your credit report isn't only for potential lenders. You can request a copy of your credit report so you can decide on whether or not a product is right for you based on your credit history. Knowing your credit health also empowers you to make changes to how you manage your debt to improve your credit rating and overall credit score.
Your comprehensive credit report will include:
- Personal information
- Credit enquiries (made in the last five years)
- Credit account information
- Credit provider
- Account type
- Account number
- Date opened/closed
- Credit limit
- Repayment history (Information over 24 months from the following account)
- Credit cards
- Home loans
- Vehicle finance
- Personal loans
- Financial hardship arrangements
- Defaults
- Bankruptcies
- Judgements
To get a copy of your credit report free of charge you can contact the following authorised credit reporting bodies:
