All major lenders in the UK have an agreement to share details of their customer's credit agreements. They do this by storing the information with one or more of the three credit agencies. When you submit an application for credit a lender will ask for your permission to check your credit report. They do this to see how you have managed repayments to previous lenders in the past.

They will use the information on your credit report to decide whether you can afford to take on new credit and if you are likely to make the required repayments.

Who Owns the Information on Your Credit Report?

Information of any credit accounts you have belong to the lender, who simply store that information with one of the three credit agencies. Therefore the credit reference agencies cannot change any information on your credit file without the permission of the lender who submitted that information.

Lenders usually update the information they store with the credit agencies on a monthly basis.

Credit Report Status Coding

All credit account entries on your credit report include a list of figures known as "Status Codes". These simply show whether you have kept up with repayments in the past. Payments histories on account usually go back as far as 36 months.

The status codes not only show if a repayment was made or not, but also any delays in payments. (For example, paid on time - 1 month overdue - 2 months overdue etc, etc).

Defaults On Your Credit Report

A default will appear on your credit report if you failed to keep to your credit agreement and the lender believes that you also failed to respond satisfactorily to their request to bring your payments up to date.

I Do Not Agree With A Status Code On My Credit Report

In this case contact the lender with which the credit agreement was taken out. Voice your case and request that the information on your credit report be updated.