FAQ

A Credit Reference Agency is a company that collects and stores data from different sources (including local authorities, courts, banks and building societies, credit card providers, and utilities and telecoms companies) to compile credit reports on individuals. Credit reports can then be used for various purposes such as responsible lending, and money laundering and fraud prevention. TransUnion is one of the three main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK.

In the UK there are three main credit reference agencies – TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

They work with building societies, banks, mobile phone companies and other major retailers to help those businesses make a quick and accurate decision about whether the person applying for credit is likely to pay it back.

No – Credit Reference Agencies do not decide whether you are to be given credit. That is the lender’s decision.

Credit Reference Agencies are independent organisations who are data custodians for credit referencing purposes, they play no part in the actual decision-making process and the information they hold is entirely factual – with no opinions about it expressed.

Your credit report contains information TransUnion holds on you concerning your identity and financial standing. This information is shared with TransUnion from local authorities, courts, banks and building societies, credit card providers, and utilities and telecoms companies. It is used for a range of purposes including fraud prevention, anti-money laundering, and preventing over commitment to credit; support debt recovery; and promote responsible lending.

Your NatWest Know Your Credit Score report provides you with online visibility of the credit report held on you by TransUnion. This includes:

- Any financial account performance information TransUnion holds on you over a 6-year period; this includes closed accounts

- Your presence on the Electoral Register

- Any financial connections; such as the names of the associates you share finances with, and other names or addresses you’ve used to take out financial products against.

- Cifas data; Cifas are a not-for-profit organisation which helps to protect its members from the actions of criminals by informing Credit Reference Agencies of any fraudulent activity, which in turn prompts additional security checks.

- Notices of Correction: This is a statement of your choosing which can be added to your credit file to explain your financial situation. It can be no longer than 200 words, must be relevant to the information on your credit report, must not be frivolous, defamatory, or libellous, can’t name a third party, can’t apportion blame, and can’t contain confidential information.

- Notices of dispute: If you are disputing the accuracy of some information within your credit report a notice of dispute will appear next to the relevant area.

There are many factors that determine your result when attempting to get the best credit deals and offers. So, if you want to improve you credit rating and score, learning what factors affect it is a good place to start.

With the above in mind, please see below details of areas which could be having the biggest impact on your overall score:

- Your financial account performance history

By ensuring that you maintain your payments and keep your credit card balances below 25% of their limits, you can start to build up a good credit history. This will demonstrate to a potential credit provider that you can responsibly borrow money and afford to pay it back.

- Judgments, bankruptcies and insolvencies

Records of judgments and insolvencies stay on your credit file for up to 6 years (and in some instances longer!).

Lenders will consider you a higher risk as you’ve been unable to meet your past credit commitments in the past. If you have been unable to repay your debts once, you may be unable to repay them again.

- People you are financially linked to

Whilst people you’re financially connected to won’t have an impact on your credit score, they can have an influence on your ability to obtain credit if their connection to you leads to negative information.

Make sure you regularly check your credit report to ensure all your financial associates are still relevant, and if not please raise a dispute to disassociate from them to avoid their influence on any credit applications you make in the future.

Rest assured, just living with someone doesn’t create a financial connection. You need to have a joint loan, mortgage or bank account to create financial links.

- Being on the Electoral Register

Being on the Electoral Register is an easy way to make lenders aware that you are at a stable address history and can therefore be contacted for any money owed. If you are not already on the Electoral Register, you can be added via: www.yourvotematters.co.uk

Your TransUnion credit score is a 3 digit sum calculated using the information in your credit report. It is TransUnion’s interpretation of how well you have managed your history with credit. Each credit reference agency has a different version of a credit score and most lenders generate their own score based on the information in your credit report and their lending criteria. Typically, a high score means you’re more likely to be accepted for credit.

NatWest Know Your Credit Score will monitor your Credit report each month and alert you via email to any changes which have had a significant impact to your credit score.

Your Credit report is refreshed every 28 days to display any new information TransUnion have received from your lenders, local authority, and courts (which TransUnion receive every 4-6 weeks).

With some exceptions:

• Your report will also refresh when you log in after receiving one of our Alert notifications that a change has occurred.
• If you have raised a dispute and is completed successfully or the information attached to the dispute has been suppressed, your report will refresh automatically to display the changes for your reference.

Searches are like footprints which have been left either by yourself viewing a copy of your credit report or by organisations who have visited your credit report. A search footprint will show you who, what, when, and why your credit report was viewed. A search will stay on your credit report for 2 years.

There are lots of different reasons why your credit report may have been viewed; such as assessing your credit worthiness following an application for credit you’ve made, performing anti-fraud checks as well as verifying you are who you say you are or providing you with quotes for the best deals.

If you do not recognise the name of an organisation who has performed a search on your credit file, the organisation in question might be part of a wider business group and therefore displays a different company name to the one you are expecting to see (e.g. a credit search performed for an ‘Argos’ store card would show up on your search history as ‘Home Retail Group’, as it is this company who would supply the credit. Likewise, if you searched for an insurance quote using a comparison site, the search may show a Group or partner company name.

The length of time information is retained on your report can vary depending on what type of data it is, for example:

- Account performance data (Credit cards, mortgages, loans etc.) will stay on your credit file for 6 years from the date they are closed and settled. Or, where an account has fallen into default, 6 years from the date of default.

- Judgments, bankruptcies and insolvencies will show on your credit file for 6 years from the date of order, with some exceptions:

- Judgments that are paid off within 1 month of order will be ‘set aside’, this means they will no longer appear on your credit file.

- If you have a Bankruptcy Restriction Order (BRO) or a Bankruptcy Restriction Undertaking (BRU) then these can stay on your credit file for up to 15 years.

- If you have an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) where the criteria of your IVA have not been met, then this could stay on your credit file for up to 15 years.

- Searches only stay on your credit report for two years.

- Address links, Alias links, and Electoral Register data will remain on your report indefinitely, as this form a vital part in displaying who you are. Please note, whilst a more historic record of your Electoral Register history will be visible to anyone reviewing your credit history, your credit report will only show your most recent unbroken stretch of data; such as the time since you last moved or amended your name on the register.

- Associate information will stay on your credit report until you request to be disassociated from this individual. You would do this if you were no longer financially linked to them. To apply for dissociation, you will need to raise a dispute against this area of your credit report.

- Cifas data will stay on your credit file for as long as is necessary to protect and prevent fraud.

- Notices of Correction will be on your credit report for as long as the data item it is attached to appears on your report, or until you request for it to be removed.

- Notices of Dispute will be on your credit report for up to 28 days whilst the information we’re investigating is being looked into by our team of data dispute specialists.

The data retention rules that credit referencing agencies abide by are in accordance with current data protection regulation and regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

NatWest Know Your Credit Score will alert you to any factors which are having an impact on your score, so you can see the types of actions you can take that might help to improve your score if needed.

If you see that there is room for score improvement, there are some actions that you can take to help address this, e.g.

- Make all your regular payments on time

- Check that you’re on the Electoral Register at your current address

- Close any accounts you no longer use

- Avoid multiple credit applications in a short space of time

If you see something that is incorrect on your report, then please raise a Notice of Dispute with TransUnion so that we can work with your lenders on your behalf to correct any irregularities where a genuine error was found. To raise a dispute please click on the dispute icon next to the information you wish TransUnion to investigate on your credit report.

Each credit reference agency has its own way of calculating a credit score based on the information it holds and when it receives it. Therefore, the credit score is not directly comparable across agencies. Your NatWest Know Your Credit Score score is provided by TransUnion which has a maximum score of 710.

Only credit products are shown on your credit report, so savings accounts or current accounts without an overdraft facility will not be present, as they do not represent your credit history.

If you have opened a new account, it could be that Lenders have not provided this information to TransUnion as yet. Lenders share account performance data with credit referencing agencies every 4 - 6 weeks at which point it is loaded into the TransUnion database. Due to the data update frequency plus your monthly NatWest Know Your Credit Score report refresh, the data turnaround time could be up to 10 weeks before it is visible to you.

If an account you opened 15 or more years ago is not showing on your credit report, it could be that you weren’t notified at the time of opening the account that data would be shared for credit referencing purposes, so it is therefore not permitted. To change this, please contact your Lender directly and speak to them about sharing your data with TransUnion.

Check your credit report and dispute any activity you don’t recognise. To raise a dispute please click on the dispute icon next to the information you wish TransUnion to investigate on your credit report. Their team of data dispute specialists will raise your concerns with the organisation who provided the data to TransUnion to make them aware that the data is possibly fraudulent. The organisation will then perform a fraud investigation and remove any data they’ve shared which they find evidence fraud has occurred. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can contact the organisations directly with your concerns.

If you have reason to believe that you are particularly vulnerable to fraud, you may wish to add a password to your credit report in the form of a notice of correction; this is a 200-word statement which can be applied to your credit report for the attention of anyone performing a credit search against you.

This is free to do and has absolutely no impact on your credit score. Please be mindful however that a notice of correction will mean that any applications you make will take longer than usual, because your application will need to be manually processed, in order to read your notice and action your request.

To add a password to your credit file please email your chosen wording to:

Or alternatively, you can write to TransUnion at

• TransUnion Consumer Services Team,
  PO BOX 647,
  Unit 4,
  HULL,
  HU9 9QZ

Please bear in mind, Notice of Correction data is not shared across the Credit Reference Agencies and so you should also request a Notice of Correction to be raised with the other credit agencies too. Please see their contact information below:

• Experian Ltd: 0344 481 0800.
• Equifax: 0800 014 2955 / 0333 321 4043 .

You may wish to apply for ‘Protective Registration’, this is a cautionary Cifas marker which you can request to be added to your credit file to notify lenders and others that they should take special precautions to ensure your identity before extending credit.

Registration costs £20 and lasts for around 2 years. All applications for Protective Registration are made directly to Cifas. For more information, please see the link below:

https://www.cifas.org.uk/services/identity-protection/protective-registration

Why is buy now, pay later information being added to credit reports?

TransUnion is including buy now, pay later data in credit reports to support consumers in managing their finances and to ensure payment behaviour on buy now, pay later agreements are visible. Buy now, pay later agreements can be found in the Other accounts section of your credit report with a Deferred Payment account type.

*Does not reflect the NatWest Buy Now Pay Later card available to existing customers, which is already included in Credit Reports. The NW BNPL is reported differently so any missed payments are likely to affect your credit score.

How will this affect my credit score?

There will be no immediate effect on TransUnion credit scores. However, as the data becomes more widely used, we will be updating our credit scoring as appropriate.

Why are things changing?

People need as much choice as possible when it comes to finding finance that’s right for their needs, and on terms they can afford. Including buy now, pay later data in credit reports will support consumers and help lenders make informed credit decisions.

Will buy now, pay later purchases made in the past be visible on credit reports?

Providers will let customers know their data is being shared with TransUnion before it appears on their credit report and can confirm the dates it will apply from.

Will a credit search be carried out every time a buy now, pay later purchase is made?

This will depend on the provider and whether another search has recently been carried out. The product you’re applying for will also determine the search type.

Will a good payment history with buy now, pay later be recognised in credit scores?

Payment behaviour will be visible to lenders, so it could be taken into account in lending decisions but won’t have an immediate effect on credit scores.

If I miss a buy now, pay later payment, will it affect my credit score?

Credit scores won’t be impacted initially but missing payments would be visible to lenders and could affect your ability to borrow, so it’s really important to keep up repayments as agreed.

Does not reflect the NatWest Buy Now Pay Later card available to existing customers, which is already included in Credit Reports. The NW BNPL is reported differently so any missed payments are likely to affect your credit score.

Will hard credit checks now be recorded when I am taking out buy now, pay later finance?

Buy now, pay later finance checks will be recorded on your TransUnion credit report, and will be visible to other lenders. However, these checks will be shown to lenders in a different way to traditional hard searches, typically used for things like mortgages, credit cards and loans, or soft searches, often used for quotations and eligibility checks before credit is provided. It will be up to individual finance providers to decide how they use these new checks in lending decisions.

If you wish to find out more about Buy Now Pay Later then please click here to view our corporate BNPL FAQs.