Credit reporting

If you've ever applied for credit, you'll have a credit history or credit report.

Credit providers may use this information to understand your financial obligations and behaviours and decide whether to give you a loan or service.

When you need legal advice

Get legal advice if:

  • there is a mistake on your credit report
  • you want to complain about your credit provider or credit reporting agency
  • you think you have been the victim of identity theft
  • you are applying for financial hardship and want to know if that impacts your credit report
  • if you have missed payments on a loan and it has affected your Repayment History Information (RHI), which is on your credit report.

How to get legal advice

What is a credit report?

Credit reports contain information about your identity and credit history, including:

  • current loans, credit cards, utilities accounts and any other credit obligations
  • credit limits
  • credit defaults and serious infringements
  • court judgments against you
  • repayment history information on some credit
  • bankruptcies
  • hardship arrangements with lenders after 1 July 2022.

Credit providers may use this information to understand your financial obligations and behaviours and decide whether to give you a loan or service. Credit providers will also look at things like how many Buy Now Pay Later contracts you have when making a decision about whether to give you a loan or not.

Several credit reporting agencies collect credit information, including:

Important: Paying off a debt default will not remove a default listing from your credit report. Instead, it will show the debt as paid.

Default listings can only be removed from a credit report if:

  • the information is inaccurate
  • the retention period has ended.

There are companies that advertise they can fix your credit report for a fee. Unless the information is inaccurate or incorrectly listed, these companies can't ask to fix a credit report.

Who can access my credit report?

Only licensed credit providers like banks can access specific credit report information, such as repayment history.

Unlicensed credit providers have access to limited credit information. They include:

  • mobile phone operators
  • internet providers
  • utility organisations.

Companies with no access to your credit report include:

  • insurance companies, excluding mortgage and trade insurers
  • real estate agents
  • your employer.

If someone has wrongly accessed your credit report, you can complain to:

  • your credit provider
  • the credit reporting agency.

If you are unhappy with the response to your complaint, you can complain to the relevant authority, such as:

  • Australian Financial Complaints Authority
  • Energy and Water Ombudsman
  • Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman
  • Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

You should get legal advice before lodging a complaint.

Personal access

You can access your credit report for free once a year by contacting any credit reporting agency. You can also get a free credit report if you have applied for credit and been refused in the past 3 months.

Credit reporting agencies must give you a copy of your credit report within 10 days of your request.

Fees may apply for more frequent reports or express services.

You can't request a copy of another person’s credit report.

Credit report retention periods

By law, credit reporting agencies must destroy your credit information after a set time, known as a ‘retention period’. This must happen within 1 month of the retention period ending, unless you have made a complaint and are waiting for the outcome.

Certain credit information will be kept for a specific period, for example:

Information Retention period
Hardship arrangements after 1 July 2022 1 year
Payment history information 2 years
Credit defaults 5 years
Court notice judgment (money order) 5 years
Bankruptcies 5 years or 2 years from discharge of bankruptcy, whichever is later
Debt agreements 5 years
Serious credit infringements 7 years

Mistakes on your credit report

A mistake on your credit report is any information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

If you find a mistake on your credit report, you should contact the credit provider or the credit reporting agency that told you about the problem or was responsible for the incorrect entry and ask them to correct the information. Credit providers and credit reporting agencies must correct any error you bring to their attention within 30 days.

If the credit reporting agency decides not to correct the information, they must tell you the reasons why the correction hasn't been made.

If you are unhappy with the response of the credit provider or the credit reporting agency, you can make a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Paying someone to fix your credit report

Some companies known as ‘credit repair’ or ‘debt solution’ companies may claim to be able to ‘fix’ your credit report for you for a fee. These services are often very expensive and not needed.

Identity theft

Unauthorised credit report information, such as loan or credit applications, may mean someone has stolen your identity.

What to do if you think your identity has been stolen

How to get legal advice

We may give legal advice about consumer credit issues and consumer credit reports.

Contact us

Other places to get legal advice:

Who else can help?

Related information

Disclaimer: This content is for general purposes only and not legal advice. If you have a legal problem, please contact us or speak to a lawyer. View our full disclaimer.

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