Get your credit report for just £2

I recently decided to check out my credit reports, and so I popped over to Equifax and Experian’s websites. Both websites heavily plug their monthly online reporting services which will give you regular online reports for about £15 a month. Considering all I wanted to do was check that there wasn’t anything wrong on it in preparation for getting a mortgage, this seemed very steep.

I was sure there must be a way to get a one off report so I did some digging around their websites and discovered that the magic words are “Statutory Report”, the reports that both are legally obliged to give you for a reasonable fee.

Even when I knew what I was looking for, they don’t make it easy. While Equifax has a link it’s front page which will take you to a page where you can order the report online, Experian’s website implies that you have to download a PDF application form and post it to them. I eventually found the online application form through a link in an FAQ answer.

As far as I’m concerned, this is despicable behaviour on the part of both these organisations. The data they hold about you can make or break your financial health, and to hide the cheap reports behind lots of marketing for their expensive monthly reports is close to extortion. Given that they make their money mainly for financial services companies who need your data, and the importance of that data, I personally think that individuals should be able to see their credit reports for free.

Well, that isn’t going to happen any time soon, so in the mean-time, here are the links to the cheap reports…

• Experian
• Equifax