When might my credit file be accessed & who else can see this information?

1. Credit providers  (these include: banks, finance companies, electricity retailers, gas retailers or telecommunications service providers) can access your credit file for the following purpose:

• Opening a new loan/account. We call this access: Account origination
• Managing your account (i.e. an increase to a loan or when reviewing your current credit card limit etc.). We call this access: Account management Access.
• When you haven’t met your payment obligation. We call this access: Account Management Collections.

2. A prospective insurer that is a registered insurer may access your credit file for the purpose of a decision on the underwriting or continuation of insurance in respect of a credit related transaction relating to an individual. They will see positive and negative data (even if they do not supply any positive data).

3. An example of what these other companies would be able to see is as follows:

Let’s say you have the following accounts:

• A credit card with Bank A (who supplies positive data)

• A home loan with Finance Company B (who does NOT supply positive data)

• A phone account with Company X (who supplies positive data)

In this example, Bank A will be able to see the positive CR data Company X have supplied & vice versa.

Finance Company B however will only be able to see negative information and none of the positive CR data Company X and Bank A have reported.

Effectively what this means is: if the company provides positive data, they will see negative & positive data in return. If the company does not provide positive data, they will only see negative information when viewing your credit file.