What’s currently in your credit file report
Your credit file report contains information about your credit history. The information is collected from credit providers, courts and other organisations by credit reporting agencies.
This is the type of information you will find in your report.
Principal
This is the name of the person who applied for the loan and whose name appears on the contract.
Personal details
Personal details will be listed such as your name, date of birth, current and past addresses, employment and driver’s licence number.
Joint applicant
A joint applicant’s name will appear if you applied with another person and both your names appear on the contract.
Continuing credit account
A credit card is a type of continuing credit contract that will appear on your file if you have one.
Arrears brought up to date
Any debts that were unpaid and overdue and have now been paid or settled.
Defaults
Defaults and any other infringements are also listed. These could be utility bills or loan payments which are 60 days or more overdue and where debt collection activity has started. See more details about defaults.
Credit applications
Any credit you’ve applied for.
Debt agreements
Any bankruptcies, court judgements, debt agreements or personal insolvency agreements in your name.
Comprehensive Reporting
New laws passed by the Federal Parliament on 29 November 2012 mean that additional information will soon be available on consumer credit reports.
Until now a consumer credit file report in Australia has only been allowed to include identity details, credit enquiries and negative data such as defaults, court judgments and bankruptcies.
However from March 2014, when the Privacy Amendment is due to come into effect, your report could contain additional information that can be viewed by credit providers when you apply for credit, this will be known as repayment history information.
What is repayment history information (RHI)?
RHI is information about whether you have met your consumer credit payment obligations. Consumer credit is credit that is intended to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes.
RHI credit report includes information about whether you have made a payment on time or whether you have missed a payment. If you only pay part of the amount owing, you are taken to have missed a payment on your credit file.
RHI includes the day on which a payment is due, and if you made a payment after that day, the date on which you paid. Therefore, RHI can include both positive and negative information about your credit history.
It does not include the amount of any missed payment — only the fact that you have made or missed a payment.
What types of payments could be included in my RHI?
RHI can include information about any consumer credit payments that you make, or fail to make, to a credit provider that holds an ACL.
This means that RHI will usually reflect made or missed payments on a loan or credit card.
When can credit providers begin collecting RHI?
RHI can only relate to payments that you have made or missed from December 2012. Then from March 2014 licensed providers can pass your RHI on to reporting bodies.
How will my RHI affect my ability to obtain credit?
From March 2014, credit reporting bodies can disclose your RHI, along with other credit-related personal information, to licensed finance providers. Those providers may use this information to help determine your eligibility to be provided with finance.
This means that if you fail to make the full amount of a payment on time from December 2012 it may affect your ability to obtain finance in the future.
How far back will my RHI go?
Information about any particular payment cannot be held for more than two years from the date it was due.
However, RHI credit report will not include information about any payment that was due before December 2012.