What is a Credit Report and what information does it hold?

A Credit Report is a snapshot of your credit file, which holds information about you and your finances. Everyone who uses financial products has a credit file which typically has the following information on it

• A list of your credit accounts including bank and credit card accounts as well as outstanding loan agreements or utility company debts. They will show whether you have made repayments on time and in full. Items such as missed or late payments or defaults will stay on your credit report for at least six years.
• Details of any people who are financially linked to you, for example, because you've taken out joint credit.
• Public record information such as County Court Judgments (CCJs) 'Decrees' in Scotland), house repossessions, bankruptcies and individual voluntary arrangements. These stay on your report for at least six years.
• Your current account provider, but only details of overdrafts.
• Whether you are on the electoral register.
• Your name date of birth. current and previous addresses.
• If you've committed fraud, or someone has stolen your identity and committed fraud, this will also be held on your file under the CIFAS section.

Your credit report doesn't carry other personal information i.e. salary, religion or any criminal record.

Credit reports also contain details of searches made about you, typically when you've asked for online quotes for financial products such as insurance or credit.

How and why we use your Credit Reports

We need to understand your financial situation, which then helps us to provide the best advice for you, We normally request Credit Reports on your behalf from the three main providers: Experian, TransUnion (CallCredit), and Equifax. We use all three because they all contain slightly different information, as some credit companies use only one or two of the services.

We will only use this information for the sole purpose of providing you with debt advice.

How we access your Credit Reports

Equifax is normally requested via a paper form, or by you online.

We can access Experian and TransUnion reports online via the Trustfolio Debt Adviser Support Portal (TDASP). They provide a free credit report service to not-for-profit debt advice agencies like West Lancashire Debt Advice.

We will ask for your permission each time we access this service on your behalf. If you don't wish us to access the service online in this way, we can provide you with alternative means:

1. Paper request forms
2. Alternative access carried out by you, such as using the Credit Karma (TransUnion) service online, or the Money Saving Expert Credit Club (Experian), or Equifax Personal Solutions online. For Credit Karma or Equifax Personal Solutions, you may be asked to provide credit card details for identification purposes only.

Additional Terms for Experian and TransUnion (CallCredit) can be provided on request

We need you to understand any requests to access your credit file may leave a footprint on your credit file, which is not visible to lenders, but would be visible to you. It will not affect your credit rating in any way

I hereby authorise West Lancashire Debt Advice to access my Experian & TransUnion Credit files via TDASP.

A Copy is to be retained by the client

Here is the additional information you have requested

The terms for each provider are as follows:

Experian

On each and every occasion we request Experian Data we will inform you and gain your consent as follows: "In order to decide which is the best debt solution for you (the Client) we will use information held at Credit Reference Agency Experian. This information will include electoral roll and financial data they hold about you and any other financial associations. By confirming your agreement to proceed you are agreeing that this data about you can be released by Experian to us, in order to proceed we need your consent to do so. A record of this check will be shown at Experian but will not affect your credit rating in any way".

TransUnion (CallCredit)

Certain elements of our Services utilise data provided by TransUnion ("TransUnion Provided Data") and that as such, we will need to share data collected from you with TransUnion (and its subcontractors) in order to provide the TransUnion Provided Data. The source of the LSAR Data utilised in the provision of our Services is TransUnion.

In the event of a query or dispute in connection with our Services you should contact West Lancashire Debt Advice in the first instance; and that if your query or complaint relates to the data that TransUnion holds and we are not able to resolve such query or dispute, we may refer the query or dispute to TransUnion.

You will be required to successfully pass an authentication process before West Lancashire Debt Advice will be provided with the TransUnion Provided Data. Not all Consumers will successfully pass authentication and neither West Lancashire Debt Advice nor TransUnion are required to notify the Consumer why it has not been successfully authenticated, but one reason for this may be that, at the time our requests the TransUnion Provided Data, TransUnion has been unable to match the Consumer's personal details to the correct credit profile in its database; our will only be provided with TransUnion Provided Data in respect of Customers that are over 18 years of age and who live in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

TransUnion shall use its reasonable efforts to verify the accuracy of the information provided as part of TransUnion Provided Data. However, TransUnion cannot guarantee that it is completely accurate as some of this information comes from other businesses, which get the information from other sources themselves such as the electoral register, insurance companies or financial institutions. Neither TransUnion, nor any other third parties used to provide the TransUnion Provided Data have any control over the content of such information and are not responsible if it turns out to be inaccurate; any TransUnion Provided Data, or information derived from the TransUnion Provided

Data, that is provided to you is provided for guidance and information only. The fact that a Consumer has a good credit score does not mean that a lender, credit card company or other provider of financial services products will accept their application, and they have their own acceptance criteria. Also, a credit score does not take into consideration affordability issues which are also considered by financial services/credit providers.

West Lancashire Debt Advice reserves the right to suspend access to our Services, any TransUnion Provided Data or any information derived from the TransUnion Provided Data if at any time TransUnion or Money West Lancashire Debt Advice considers that there is or is likely to be a breach of security; through misusing West Lancashire Debt Advice services, any TransUnion Provided Data or any information derived from the TransUnion Provided Data (meaning use thereof in a way which is not permitted or is fraudulent); or the use of our Services, any TransUnion Provided Data or any information derived from the TransUnion Provided Data is in any way detrimental to West Lancashire Debt Advice or TransUnion; you acknowledges and agree that all intellectual property rights in the TransUnion Provided Data or any information derived from the TransUnion Provided Data and all aspects of them shall be owned by TransUnion and/or its licensors.