Free Credit Report and Credit Score – Is it really Free and Which UK Credit Report is Most Important

Knowing your credit score or rating is important. This is a number value provided which indicates a person’s past performance with applying and paying for credits. These scores will also serve as a way to judge the person’s level of worthiness with handling financial responsibilities for getting new credit opportunities. In general, this value is obtained by statistical analysis by credit agencies of the overall credit report from credit card companies.

To obtain a copy, a request must be submitted to the credit reference agencies and there are 3 main credit reference agencies in UK. These are Equifax, Experian and Callcredit. Each will have a different way of computing for credit rating but and therefore, there are 3 different credit ratings for each person. These 3 agencies are required because of various credit reports and information regarding UK card holders. While there are reports that these are free, there are loopholes in the system.

To keep credit information alone for one person will cost £70 annually for every credit rating agency. This does not include the service for making the analysis. For people who have never gotten credit reports and monitoring services, there will initially be a 30 day trial where everything will be free. However, before this is activated, a Direct Debit or regular Credit Card payment account will be required to be setup. Once the free credit report period is over, charges will start pouring on. They are allowed to cancel the service though and the 30 day trial is just a way to attract clients.

With Equifax Credit Rating, the charge is £6.99 per month plus an additional authorization fee of £1 when signing up. Experian’s on the other hand is a lot pricier with £14.99 per month. Callcredit is perhaps your best option which will be changed to Noddle later this year on the month of September. In addition to this news, the Callcredit management has announced that free credit report will be offered but details regarding it have not yet been disclosed. If all that you are after is a free credit report to use for new credit applications, you can request a report immediately and terminate the account as soon as the first week to ensure that you will not be obliged to pay nay fee.

Credit rating from each UK reporting agency will have different ranges—Equifax credit scores are 0 to 900, Experian and Callcredit credit scores are 0 to 1500 with 900, 1500 and 5 stars being the highest possible rating respectively for each agency. There is a difference with Callcredit however in that reports provide a rating of 1 to 5 stars. All of these 3 different credit score and rating work in a similar manner and for a similar purpose which is to provide banks, credit card and insurance companies, mobile phone providers, financers and other creditors a means of reliable criteria for eligibility. Some organizations require scores from all three while some from a single source. Debtors are not aware of which will be chosen as a basis for the decision and which credit report will be reviewed. According to these organizations which use credit score and rating, there is no single most important agency and are generally randomly chosen. Instead, of a single agency, what is being used today is a tri-merged report in UK with all 3 agencies to provide more critical basis in a tight financial position for personal and business finances.

Best Solution – 3 Credit Reports For The Price of 1

However, if you would really like to avoid these unnecessary charges yet still obtain unlimited access service for all credit reports from Equifax, Experian and Callcredit, Checkmyfile is the best option. With a cheap monthly fee of only £6.99 per month, all three reports will be available for your access anytime in a similar easy-to-understand format. This is the only option that offers all three reports every month in a low cost fee for your convenience.

This article was written by credit expert on June 23, 2011