As a consumer, you have the right to get a copy of your credit report from the credit bureau every three months without a charge. You should check it out at least once a year.
Your report will include your credit rating – the band such as low, fair, good, very good, excellent – assigned to you by the credit reporting bureau.
A number of websites — like ours — let you check your credit score for free. Read on to find out what your options are and how it works.
Inside this guide
The fastest way to check your credit score
Checking your credit score online is the fastest way to find out what your credit score is.
There are a number of free services where you can get your credit score, including here at Finty. Other options include Credit Simple, Credit Savvy, and Clearscore.
After you've registered, you will have immediate access to your score.
These services work with a credit reporting bureau to provide you with your score and report.
| Credit check service | Credit reporting bureau used |
|---|---|
| Finty | Experian |
| Canstar | Equifax |
| Credit Simple | As part of the illion group, we can assume their primary source is illion |
| Finder | Finder mostly uses Experian |
| GetCreditScore | Equifax since they are featuring the Equifax Score on their site |
Getting your credit score from the reporting bureau
You can get your full credit report from any of the credit reporting agencies. Getting a copy delivered by mail or email may take longer, sometimes as much as up to 10 days.
Here are the contacts for the main credit reporting bodies in Australia:
FAQs
Should you check your credit score with different reporting agencies?
Checking with different agencies is worthwhile since each may hold different information about you. It may not be the case that every financial institution reports to every credit reporting bureau.
Knowing what your credit report contains at each bureau can make a big difference when applying for a credit product, especially a home loan. This is because banks may perform what's known as a "waterfall" of checks during a credit application where they check with their preferred bureau first, then the next, and so on.
Does checking your credit score hurt it?
Checking your credit score does not hurt it. This is because checking your credit score uses a "soft" credit check, which has no bearing on your score. Banks checking your score while processing a credit application use a "hard" credit check, which is recorded on your credit report and can affect it.
How can a website provide a free credit report?
You may be wondering how you can get your credit score for free with a website but have to pay the credit bureau to get it from them directly.
Websites provide free access to credit reports in order to build their traffic. They can let you know when your credit score has changed, which means more visits to their website where they make money from advertising. The website pays the credit bureau for secure access to their data.
