What doesn’t affect your credit score?

You may be surprised by the information in your credit history that goes towards calculating your credit score. You may be even more surprised by what personal information about you does not affect your credit rating whatsoever.

While credit reporting bureaus collect information regarding your history of borrowing and repaying money, they do not record information regarding your:

• Political, social or religious beliefs or affiliations
• Sexual preference or practices
• Criminal record (that does not relate to any credit provided to you)
• Lifestyle, character or reputation
• Medical history or physical handicap
• Income and bank balances
• Race, ethnic origins or national origins
• Dependants

Because only information recorded in your credit history can be used to generate a credit score, this means that the above factors play no meaningful role in determining whether you have good or bad credit.

What information IS recorded in your credit report?

According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), your credit report includes:

• your full name
• your date of birth
• your sex
• your current (or last known) address and previous 2 addresses
• the name of your current (or last known) employer
• your driver’s licence number
• the names of any credit providers that have provided you with consumer credit, and whether they are licenced by ASIC
• the type of consumer credit provided by those credit providers
• the day on which that consumer credit was made available to you and (if relevant) terminated
• the limit on that consumer credit
• certain terms and conditions of that consumer credit, including limited information about your repayment and interest obligations
• repayment history information, which is information about whether you have made a consumer credit payment on time, or whether you have missed a payment
• financial hardship information, which is reported against your repayment history information
• that a credit provider has requested access to information held in your consumer credit report in connection with an application that you have made to that credit provider for consumer or commercial credit
• the type and amount of consumer or commercial credit that you sought in that application
• that you have defaulted on a consumer credit payment of $150 or more (this means that you are at least 60 days overdue in making the payment)
• a statement that you have since paid an amount that was recorded as default in your consumer credit report
• the fact that, as a result of a default, you have agreed to a variation in the terms and conditions of consumer credit, or you are provided with new consumer credit
• any court judgements made against you that relate to credit provided to, or applied for by, you
• certain information about you that is recorded on the National Personal Insolvency Index, including information that relates to bankruptcy and debt agreements.
• certain publicly available information that relates to your activities in Australia and your creditworthiness. A credit reporting body (CRB) can only collect this information where it is generally available to members of the public and where the CRB collects the information from an agency or a state or territory authority
• the opinion of a credit provider that you have committed a serious credit infringement.

Credit bureaus use the information recorded in your credit report to generate your credit score. Successfully applying for credit and repaying loans and bills on time can help you build a good credit score and/or improve a poor score, while missing and defaulting on repayments will generally lead to a poor credit score.

Does checking your credit score affect your credit score?

You may have heard how when banks or other credit providers conduct a credit check, this can affect your credit score. Multiple credit checks over a short period are notorious for torpedoing credit scores, as multiple applications could indicate to lenders that a borrower is desperate for credit, and may be at higher risk of defaulting on their repayments.

However, checking your own credit score does not affect your credit score. That’s because when you check your credit score with RateCity or another similar service, we conduct a “soft” credit check. Because this isn’t a formal application for credit (a “hard” credit check), this enquiry isn’t recorded in your credit history, and thus doesn’t go towards calculating your credit score.

It’s often worth checking your own credit score regularly, as this can help keep you up to date with how lenders see you. You may also discover whether any inaccurate information is recorded in your credit file, or if you’ve been the unfortunate victim of identity theft – getting the facts straight may help to improve your credit score in the future.