Who Can View your Credit Report & what Can they See?

Who Can View your Credit Report & what Can they See?

Posted on September 7, 2021

Your credit report contains a lot of personal information about your financial position, levels of debt and a whole raft of identifiable information. Which begs the question, who can view your credit report and what can they see?

We asked our Vineland auto loans team to outline who can see your credit report and what they see when they get there.

This is what they said.

Who can view your credit report?

Many organizations can view your credit report but they need what Equifax refers to as ‘permissible purpose’. That means a legitimate reason to be accessing your report such as an auto loan application or an application for a new credit card.

Typically, an organization can access your credit report for some of the following reasons:

• Lenders when you’re applying for credit. That can include any type of credit, for any amount.
• Existing organizations you have financial links with such as current credit card company, bank, auto loans company, leasing company and so on.
• Debt collection agencies, credit counselors and other organizations with a legitimate need to know your situation.
• Insurance companies underwriting policies or checking creditworthiness in advance of monthly payments
• Utility companies, phone companies and others who offer consumer credit services.
• Employers can ask you if they can check your credit report but need permission beforehand.
• Government agencies in relation to benefits applications or other financial assistance
• Courts and law enforcement agencies when there’s a court order.

You can see who has requested to see your credit report in the ‘Inquiries’ part of your report.

You will see all inquiries on your credit report, both soft and hard.

External organizations will only be able to see hard inquiries, such as mortgage applications, auto loan preapprovals and applications and actions that can result in the providing of finance or credit.

Soft inquiries, like for insurance quotes and auto loan prequalification will be visible to you but not to other organizations.

What can be seen on your credit report?

Your credit report includes a lot of financial information on your dealings.

Information also includes your name, address, date of birth, presence on voting registers (where relevant), people you are financially linked to and other related information.

The bulk of the credit report concentrates on how many and what credit cards you have, personal loan information, auto loans, rent or mortgage information, amount owed on all accounts, payment history, credit account age, number and type of credit accounts and other pertinent data.

Credit reports only concern themselves with your financial dealings, mainly around credit and borrowing.

It does not include any criminal record, student loans, medical information, salary, where you work, your children or more personal information.

A partner will only be mentioned if you have a joint account, joint auto loan, mortgage or other financial link. Children or other family will only be mentioned if you are a cosigner on a loan for them.

Contact Unique Chrysler for help, advice and competitive Vineland car finance and leasing.

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