History you say? Boring! All that stuff happened ages ago! Who cares? Look to the future, man! Well, just like actual world history affects many aspects of how we live today, your past behaviour with money can affect your future.
Your credit history is...
A record of what you’ve been up to regarding money. It’s stored by a credit reporting body in your credit file and can be used by banks and other lenders to assess your ability to pay back a loan. Your credit file is opened if you apply for a loan or credit card and may be opened as a result of a mobile contract or gym membership.
Here’s what your credit file includes:
- Your full name
- Date of birth
- Driver’s licence details
- Gender
- Residential address
- Employer information
- Any credit or loans you have applied for
- Any defaults (you get a default if a company starts collection procedures because you are 60 days or more overdue with a repayment or bill payment)
- Any other credit infringements
- It also keeps a record of bankruptcies, debt agreements and more.
Most of this information is kept on file for 5 years. Bankruptcy info is kept for 7 years.
Your credit file can then be accessed by a bank or lender when you apply for credit, so it’s important to keep it squeaky clean if you ever want to apply for a loan or a credit card.
You can also access your credit history – the Privacy Act says so. It can be a good idea to check what’s in there regularly so you can correct any wrong information.
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