If you are about to apply for a mortgage, loan, new credit card or any other form of credit, then you might have sensibly decided that it is time to apply for your free credit report. With credit so difficult to come by at present, this certainly is a good and recommended move and could potentially avert the disaster of being declined in error.

But do you know how to check credit reports online and realise it is very easy and free? If you have been refused for further credit then the first step is to write to the credit reference agency that they used asking for a copy of your report. Then check the report and have any errors corrected.

It is far better though to do the check before applying for the credit – close the stable door before the horse bolts! Credit reference agencies make it possible for you to check your report online and there are many systems about that will give you regular updates as things change on your report. Usually there is a free trial, or so much of the information is free, followed by a paid membership or payments for extra facilities.

If you are ready to check you report in advance of taking out credit, then the free trials are usually enough. Quite quickly you can have access to your credit file and see the data that the lenders will be looking at as part of their vetting process. Some reports will even give you an approximate indication of your credit status.

On top of the report, the potential lender will also request your income, which the credit report will not include. This means that it is only an approximation, but it will show you any nasty surprises, such as loans that you forgot you had missed last year.

Once you have gained and checked your credit file report, you might have found slight errors in the report. In this case you must write to the lender that provided the invalid data and ask them to amend their records. Once they have done this, they will then update your credit report.

It can also be possible that there are searches recorded on your credit report you do not relate to credit requests. These are recorded every time a potential lender refers to your report in order to decide whether to lend you money. If a few of these are not initiated by you, it is worth checking them out. If there are a number of these, or for high sums of money, then be very careful with your checking as it can be a sign of identity theft.

P.S. Learn also how to save money with the help of car finance calculator.

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