I, like a lot of people, presumed that you would only need to look into having a credit check if you were in debt and needed to obtain a loan, of some kind. But, this actually isn’t the case. Did you know that even if you have a great financial history, errors could have been made that are possibly costing you hundreds of pounds a year? If you don’t run a credit check on yourself, you’d never notice any errors that would mean you could be paying higher insurances or interest rates when you absolutely don’t need to be.
You should be looking at running a credit check annually; this way you can discover any errors that could be preventing you from the best finance deals and also ensure that the details are all up-to-date and accurate. You can find what your credit check is by looking here: http://www.creditexpert.co.uk/experian-credit-check.aspx.
You should also run a credit check:
- You’re planning a large purchase which may involve a loan, like a car or a house
- Prior to applying for a job. This is because many employers will look into the credit history of potential employees.
- To protect yourself against identity theft, according to Action Fraud there are currently 4 million cases of identity theft just in the UK.
Identity theft is surprisingly easy for someone to do; they could then acquire many debts in your name that will obviously affect your credit rating. Without you keeping on top of regular credit checks, you could wait years to discover the full effects of what someone’s done on your behalf and in your name. By this time the consequences would be much more extreme and to prove the culprit wasn’t you would be a more timely exercise. You may even be pursued for debts by creditors that are simply not yours, and by simply saying it wasn’t you, wouldn’t have any effect. This is something they likely hear often from people trying to get out of repayments, and so your statement would be nothing new to them.
Fix the Errors Without Delay
All the details held on your credit check will affect your future. They will affect your ability to get a loan and also things like the interest rate and overall cost of the loan. It will also affect any future hiring decisions that any potential companies could make about you. So, it is important that if you do find any errors through your credit check that you report and dispute them immediately.
Whether it is credit cards or loans listed that you never obtained, misspelled names or incorrect addresses. You are able to file a dispute with both the entity that provided the information as well as the consumer credit reporting agency.