What is a credit report?

A credit report is a document a credit reporting body produces using your information supplied by credit providers and other sources.

You’ll have a consumer credit report if you’ve applied for or received consumer credit. If you’ve applied for or received commercial credit your credit report may also include commercial credit information.

Consumer credit report

Your consumer credit report includes information to identify you such as your name, date of birth, address and employer. It also includes certain information about how you’ve handled any past or current consumer loans or debts, and your repayment history.

Your consumer credit report may also contain information about any instances in which you have failed to meet your repayment obligations, such as defaults, court judgments or bankruptcies.

You can get a free copy of your consumer credit report once every 3 months to make sure it’s correct. You can also receive a free copy if you’ve been refused credit within the past 90 days, or your credit reporting information has been corrected.

What laws apply to the handling of the information on your consumer credit report?

Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 (Part IIIA), the Privacy Regulation 2013 and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 (CR Code) state how a credit reporting body and credit providers must handle the personal information in your consumer credit report or any personal information, such as a credit score, which is derived from the personal information in the report.

A credit reporting body or credit provider that is an APP entity must also comply with the APPs when handling personal information more generally.

Other rules apply to commercial credit information.

For other third parties

Credit reporting bodies are prohibited from disclosing your credit reporting information to third parties, except to particular entities for the particular purposes prescribed by Part IIIA.

A third party that is permitted to receive credit reporting information from a credit reporting body must comply with any relevant obligations set out in Part IIIA.

An entity commits an offence if the entity obtains credit reporting information from a credit reporting body; and the entity is not an entity to which the body is permitted to disclose the information, or an access seeker for the information.

More information about third party access to your credit reporting information is available here.