A credit score is a number that helps credit providers know how responsible you are to lend to. It’s between 0 and 1200, where a higher number means you are more likely to be able to repay the loan. The score comes from your credit report which looks at your situation and your past behaviour.

An Equifax Score is the credit score we provide you – Equifax (formerly known as Veda) is Australia’s leading credit reporting body, and has credit information on 18 million Australians, and is used by most lenders and credit providers.

There could be several reasons why we may be unable to provide you with a credit score. It may mean that you don't have an active credit report in the Equifax database or it may simply mean that you have insufficient information on your credit report.

It also could be the information provided to us didn’t match the information held by Equifax – it may be worth reviewing the information in your profile, and trying again, ensuring you populate any middle names, previous addresses and driver license numbers exactly as they appear on your documents. You can review & update your member profile here.

If this is still not successful, you can request your credit report from Equifax, ensuring the details on this report match those that you entered into your GetCreditScore member profile. 

Your personal details and driver’s licence are the simplest and quickest way for us to accurately identify you. Both the connections and database are protected by encryption and our systems are protected further from fraud and malicious requests by specific threat detection software.

By subscribing for free to GetCreditScore, you’ll have access to your personal credit dashboard and each month, we'll send you a reminder to log in to your dashboard and check your credit score.

Here, you will be able to see your current credit score, score history, get tips on how to improve your credit score, and see what’s helping improve your score and what’s holding it back. This information will change over time as your score changes.

Login to your dashboard here or get started with GetCreditScore today by joining for free.

Your credit score on GetCreditScore is powered by Equifax Australia, who has recently launched a new generation of credit scores. The new Equifax Score aims to provide a fairer and more transparent credit score for all consumers.

If your credit score has changed, please don’t be alarmed. This reflects more granular information that is being used in our new generation of credit scores, which can also help you have greater control and improve your score faster.

The introduction of Comprehensive Credit Reporting in 2017 has allowed additional data, including your repayment history, to be displayed in credit scores and reporting. This ensures positive credit behaviours are also considered, alongside negative ones, when calculating your score.

The new Equifax Score will more effectively use your repayment history to assess your ability to pay back credit. Any arrears or defaults will continue to have a negative impact on your score, but adopting positive credit behaviours will have a positive impact on improving your score. Positive credit behaviours include paying your bills on time, avoiding short term unsecured loans, and using larger, more reputable lenders.

Your credit report is made up of your credit history and behaviour that credit providers send to Equifax, including:

Personal Information

• Your age
• Your employment history
• Your current and previous addresses
• Your current credit accounts and credit limits

Consumer Credit Information

• The number and type of lenders you have applied for credit with
• The kinds of loans or credit you’ve applied for and the amount of credit requested
• Monthly repayment history
• Any defaults
• Any financial hardship arrangements in relation to your accounts (Note: these do not impact your credit score)

Publicly available Consumer Information

• Bankruptcies
• Any court judgements against you

Commercial Credit Information

• Commercial credit enquiries
• Active commercial credit accounts
• Overdue commercial credit accounts

Perhaps you are looking to apply for credit, or you’ve recently been declined for credit and are looking for credit repair advice. Or you might just be worried about keeping your identity safe. Getting your credit report will give you a full overview of the information creditors can access on you.

To get a copy of your credit report, get in touch with Equifax.

You can request your credit report (including a free option) from Equifax. 

To get a free copy of your Equifax credit report, get in touch with here.

Perhaps you are looking to apply for credit, or you’ve recently been declined for credit and are looking for credit repair advice. Or you might just be worried about keeping your identity safe. Getting your credit report will give you a full overview of the information creditors can access on you.

A credit enquiry is when a credit provider such as a bank performs a credit check on you as part of an application for credit. For example, this could be when you apply for a home loan or credit card. It may be added to your credit report and will be listed as a ‘credit enquiry’. 

Details of a credit check may include the date, the type of credit you have applied for, such as a mortgage, credit card, personal loan, utility and/or telco accounts as well as the amount you applied for. Your credit report doesn’t show the outcome of your application, only that an application has been made.

The process of a credit application involves a check into your credit history which will appear on your credit report. The lender looks to learn how you've handled your debts, the number of accounts you have open, whether you've paid on time, and the balance you're carrying across your credit products such as a home loan or credit card.

If credit providers enquire about your credit history on the back of multiple applications for credit, it can give the impression that you're taking on too many accounts in a short period of time, a move that could impact your credit worthiness.

As GetCreditScore is an Access Seeker requesting for your credit score and credit information from Equifax on your behalf, it doesn’t negatively impact your credit score or credit worthiness. 

Reporting on Account Information is part of Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) which was introduced in 2017.  For your accounts to show on your report, your financial institution must be participating in CCR. 

It can also take a while for new credit accounts to appear on your credit report, as credit providers go through different reporting processes to update a credit reporting bureau. Furthermore, credit providers may not submit information to every credit reporting bureau, so there may be instances where it is visible on some credit reports and not others.

Personal identity information (PII) including your name, date of birth, gender, driver’s licence, and address history is held for the life of the report unless updated by information supplied from recent credit activity. For other information it depends on the type of data, but this may be up to: 

12 months

• Financial hardship arrangements

Two years

• Repayment history information

Five years

• Any credit enquiry
• Overdue accounts listed as a payment default
• Overdue accounts listed as clearouts
• Writs and summons
• Court actions

Seven years

•  Overdue accounts listed as serious credit infringements. 

Information about credit accounts that you have such as mortgages and credit cards will appear on your credit report for the length of the loan or credit facility. It will also be held for an additional two years after the account has been closed.

Any credit provider can access your credit report. That is, a business offering you loans, such as banks, or a business offering you goods and services before you pay, such as telco companies or utility providers. Their access is recorded and can be seen by other credit providers.

You or someone you appoint (such as GetCreditScore) can also access your credit report, but when we do it, this is not visible to anyone but yourself and the credit reporting bureau we use, being Equifax. It’s important to note that accessing your credit score and report through GetCreditScore does not negatively impact your credit score and how lenders may view your credit worthiness.

Bankruptcy is a legal process where you’re declared unable to pay your debts.

The listing of a bankruptcy may appear on your credit report for up to seven years based on whichever of the following ends later. It can be listed for: 

• A period of five years from the day you become bankrupt, or 
• A period of two years from the day your bankruptcy ends

A bankruptcy listing can severely impact your credit worthiness when you apply for credit. To reduce the amount of time a bankruptcy appears on your credit report, ensure you meet your commitments as part of being bankrupt, so you can be discharged from the bankruptcy as soon as possible. 

Repayment history is simply a record of your minimum monthly repayments on your loans such as mortgages and/or credit cards that appear on your credit report. 

Your repayment history information is recorded on your credit report for a period of two years. 

It’s important to know that regularly making your minimum repayments on time is a great way to demonstrate good credit behaviour and improve your credit worthiness.

As of 1st July 2022, we are required to also provide additional information in relation to any financial hardship arrangements that might be associated with your accounts.

Temporary relief / deferral Financial Hardship Arrangement (FHA) Payment obligations are temporarily reduced or deferred as a result of a financial hardship Variation Financial Hardship Arrangement (FHA).

Variation Financial Hardship Arrangement (VHA) A variation made to the terms or conditions as a result of a financial hardship arrangement. The repayment history will be measured against the new payment going forward.

Please note that these arrangements do not impact your credit score.

A non-payment of a debt of $150 or more that has been overdue for at least 60 days can be listed as a ‘default’ on your credit report by a credit provider such as a bank or utility company. 

Defaults will remain on your credit report for a period of five years. Once you have paid the default, the status of your default will be updated to ‘paid’.

Defaults are looked upon unfavourably by credit providers, so, it’s a good idea to contact your credit provider early, if you are having trouble meeting your repayments on time.

If there is a new arrangement in place that is wholly and partially related to any of your defaults, this will also be displayed under the status of the debt.

A court action is an order by a court that requires you to pay the credit provider with whom you have an outstanding debt with and includes any fees and interest.

A court action on your credit report can severely impact your credit worthiness. This is because it indicates that you haven’t been able to pay off your debt and requires legal action to reach an acceptable agreement.  

A court action remains on your credit report for up to five years. 

Increasingly, financial services providers, telco's and even utility companies that access your credit report are also requesting your credit score. Banks, lenders and other credit providers may take this score into account when deciding whether to extend you credit.

Knowledge is power and proactively managing your credit is a good way to stay on top of your financial position. You may have to improve your score, which can be useful to do before you apply for credit.

Your score relates to your creditworthiness, based on information held in your credit report at a given point in time. Different credit organisations may use different scoring methodologies. The Equifax credit score is from 0 to 1200; the higher your score, the better your creditworthiness is likely to be.

Actually, credit reports often do not contain credit scores. This information is often provided separately.  To obtain your free credit report, contact Equifax.

Equifax, previously known as Veda, operates as the leading credit bureau in Australia. A credit bureau is a company that collects and maintains people’s credit information and provides it to lenders, creditors, and consumers in the form of a credit report.

Credit bureaus like Equifax exist to report on the credit worthiness of an individual which is valuable to credit providers such as banks, utility providers and other lenders. Equifax does not approve or deny credit - the decision to grant credit is at the discretion of the credit provider.

As the leading credit bureau in Australia, Equifax have been the trusted custodian of Australians' credit histories since 1967.

Globally, Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading provider of insights and knowledge that helps its customers make informed decisions. The company organises, assimilates and analyses data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its database includes employee data contributed from more than 7,100 employers.

A Credit Provider is a business that offers loans or goods and services before payment. Obvious examples are banks, and credit unions, but phone, internet companies, electricity, gas companies and stores offering finance are also credit providers.

Not all credit scores are the same. Every credit score relies on different data, and lenders don’t all use the same score.  Credit bureaus can receive different information from lenders in Australia resulting in some bureaus calculating & providing a different score based on more or less reported data than other bureaus.

Yes, it’s how we keep this service free. From time to time, we may use your information in marketing for Equifax and our partners, but no other third parties without your consent. You can opt-out from our or our partner marketing at any time by contacting us and/or our partners.

Use the “unsubscribe” link in any email you receive to opt-out of direct marketing. Otherwise you can contact us or any of our partners directly.

If you opt-out of marketing, we may still contact you via email for administrative purposes, credit score or GetCreditScore updates or upon your request.

A credit report is a record of your credit history. It may include information on applications for credit that you have made in the past; repayment history information (including any associated financial hardship arrangements) on credit cards, personal loans and mortgages, as well as other publicly available information such as court writs and judgements relating to credit and bankruptcies.

Credit reports are available to all consumers that have a credit history and are built using information provided by credit providers and public record information.

Your Credit Report Overview is strictly an overview only and does not provide all the available information that you will find on your comprehensive Equifax credit report that you can request by clicking here.

Once verified, you can access your Credit Report Overview by logging in to GetCreditScore and clicking on the Credit Report Overview tab at the top of the screen. 

No, it doesn’t cost you anything to get your Credit Report Overview. 

The Credit Report Overview on GetCreditScore is an overview of the information available on your full credit report. This new feature will help you understand the key factors that can have the biggest impact on the outcome of your score. If you’d also like access to your full credit report, you can request it here. 

You can access your Credit Report Overview through GetCreditScore, at any time. 

We’ll email you updates of your Credit Report Overview each month, and if there has not been any activity on your report in the past month, you will not see any changes made to your report. 

Your personal information reflected on your report will not always include the most up-to-date information as this information is only submitted in conjunction with past credit reporting activities from credit providers, utility, and telco companies. For example, your current address recorded on your file will be your address at the time you last made a request for a credit application.

No, GetCreditScore is an Access Seeker who is assisting you in obtaining your credit information from Equifax, and therefore does not negatively impact your credit profile regardless of how frequently you access this information.

Your credit score on GetCreditScore is powered by Equifax Australia who has launched a new generation of credit scores. 

The new Equifax Score aims to provide a fairer and more transparent credit score for all consumers.

If your credit score has changed, please don’t be alarmed. This reflects more granular information that is being used in our new generation of credit scores, which can also help you have greater control and improve your score faster.

The introduction of Comprehensive Credit Reporting in 2017 has allowed additional data, including your repayment history, to be displayed in credit scores and reporting. This ensures positive credit behaviours are also considered, alongside negative ones, when calculating your score. 

The new Equifax Score will more effectively use your repayment history to assess your ability to pay back credit. Any arrears or defaults will continue to have a negative impact on your score but adopting positive credit behaviours will have a positive impact on improving your score. Positive credit behaviours include paying your bills on time, avoiding short term unsecured loans, and using larger, more reputable lenders.

Your new credit score gives you access to the key factors that influence your score. This information helps you identify what factors you need to focus on to improve your score. You can find these factors on the dashboard in your GetCreditScore account when you log in.

Here are some general steps to help improve your score: 

• Avoid arrears and defaults as they can have a big impact in decreasing your score. Also ensure that you always pay your minimum repayments due on-time.
• Try to limit the number of short-term unsecured loans you have including Buy Now Pay Later services as this may be an indicator of financial stress.
• It’s ok to have credit cards if you’re paying back debt on time, but if you have too many, it can also appear like you’re undergoing financial stress. It’s best to cancel and close any credit card accounts that are not of use anymore, which can help to improve your credit score, rather than hurt it.
• Also make sure you choose more reputable lenders when seeking credit.

Your credit score on GetCreditScore is powered by Equifax Australia, who has launched a new generation of credit scores. The Equifax Score aims to provide a fairer and more transparent credit score for all consumers. Your new credit score reflects more positive credit behaviours on your part. Positive credit behaviours are among the key factors that can help push your score up.

It’s important to keep on top of your repayments to help improve your score, but there are other factors to consider as well.

Some types of data may be removed much faster from your credit file, which can help get your score back up sooner, however others may take a lot longer. This can influence the length of time it takes for your score to be updated based on the financial improvements you make. For example, making your repayments on time will help to increase your score much faster, as repayment history information is only stored on your credit file for up to 2 years. But credit enquiries and defaults remain on your credit file for a period of 5 years, so it’s important to allow time for this data to be removed once it expires from your credit file and for your score to increase.

Other factors to consider and help improve your score overtime include: 

• Avoiding short term unsecured loans such as Buy Now Pay Later services.
• Cancelling and closing any open accounts that you do not use anymore, such as credit cards. 
• Trying to only get credit from large reputable lenders and avoiding smaller lenders and non-banks if possible.

Equifax Australia has launched a new generation of credit scores to drive a new industry standard for fairer, more transparent credit reporting for consumers, so you can better manage your financial wellbeing.

Equifax has made it easier to understand what key factors drive your credit score and how you can improve it. This gives you greater ability to manage your financial wellbeing, as you can easily see the relationship between positive credit behaviours and better financial outcomes.

Your credit score is only ONE element that lenders may use to assess your credit application. Depending on the lender and type of loan, they will also review your income, assets, spending habits, debts, and their own lending criteria to help determine the outcome of your credit application.

Your credit score is only ONE element lenders may use to assess your credit application. Depending on the lender and type of loan you apply for, your income, repayment history, assets, spending habits and debts will all be taken into account. Whilst it is important to maintain a healthy credit score and credit history, such other factors will also be considered by lenders when assessing your creditworthiness.

Open credit accounts and repayment history information are some key factors that can have an impact on the outcome of your score. But if you do not have any new accounts listed on your credit file, then previous credit enquiries might be a major or even the biggest factor impacting your score. The types of credit applications you have applied for in the past, the lenders that you have applied to, and the pattern of your credit applications could also determine your worthiness for credit.

You cannot challenge your current score, as it is based on a robust statistical model built on hundreds and thousands of credit files containing application histories, any defaulted loans, as well as current loan(s) and repayment history information. 

Instead, we recommend ensuring that the data on your credit file is up-to-date and that you understand the key factors influencing your score. For example, if you’ve missed payments, make your repayments on time in the future, pay off any outstanding debt, and immerse yourself in becoming more financially literate, so that you can increase your chances of being approved for credit in the future.

The Equifax Score is a new generation of scores, recalibrated and unrelated to Equifax’s previous generation of scores. Due to the new information and methods used to calculate your score, comparing it to the old score is no longer appropriate or accurate. Your score history graph will therefore be progressively built with the new Equifax Score. 

There are several factors that can influence your Equifax Score, for example:

• The number and type of credit applications you have made in the last 5 years.
• The types of credit accounts you hold in Australia with different lenders, the open date, type of facility, credit limit, whether it is secured, term of the loan and so forth.
• Repayment History Information - determines whether the account has overdue payments each month for up to 24 months.
• Adverse Events - are any payment defaults or disqualified directorships that you may have.
• Credit Report Age - refers to the length of time that you have had a credit file for. Other information such as company directorships, address changes and employer changes can also influence your score.
• Geo-demographic Data - your score may also be influenced by the area you live in. This type of data will be used only where there is little or no credit data available.

Why is my Equifax credit score in my dashboard at times different to the credit score I get from Equifax directly?

At GetCreditScore, we source the latest credit information available each month at the time when you login to your account. This score is then updated the next time you login in a later month. Depending on the date that you request your credit information from Equifax, there may be a difference in the credit information being used to calculate your credit score. It would not be expected to be significantly different but the date and time when the scores are requested can result in small differences in scores compared to what you see in GetCreditScore.

Why is my credit score at times different from the score shown by other providers

Different providers may source their credit scores from different credit bureaus within Australia. Scores from each bureau are calculated based on their own data, which could vary between the different bureaus.