What a pre-approval leaves on your credit file

A · In order

The check, in four entries

What the law says happens on your file, in the order it happens. Each entry links to the guide that goes deeper.

1. Before the check

   You are told who will be asked

   At or before the time a credit provider collects information it is likely to pass to a credit reporting body, it must tell you that body’s name and contact details, plus the other matters the credit reporting code lists. It doesn’t need your consent to ask for your report when you apply: the requirement is notice. What the notice must cover.

2. The request

   An enquiry is written to the file

   When a credit provider asks for your report to assess an application, the request is recorded as a credit enquiry, together with the type and amount of credit you sought. How an enquiry is recorded.

3. Afterwards

   The entry stays five years

   The Act counts the five years from the day the request was made.

4. If the answer is no

   A written notice names the body

   If the lender refuses a consumer credit application wholly or partly because of information from a credit reporting body, it must tell you in writing, and name the body if the information was about you. A credit reporting body must then give you your report free of charge if you show it that a credit provider refused your application within the past 90 days. The refusal notice.

B · The files

Seven guides

Each one takes a single part of the check and reads it from the Act, the code and the regulator’s own pages.

• AWhat a pre-approval is, and what it isn’tHow long it lasts, what it commits you to, and where the credit file comes in.
• BA credit enquiry, line by lineWhat one entry records, when its five years start, and who may ask.
• CThe notice that comes before the checkThe matters a lender must tell you, and when it needs your consent instead.
• DIf the answer is no: the refusal noticeWhat it must say, the 10 business days, and the free report after it.
• EA ban on your file after identity theftThe 21 days, extensions, the ban notification service, and applying during a ban.
• FRepayment history: who may report it, and who mustThe licence rule, and the large lenders required to supply it.
• GPre-screening: when your file sorts a mailing listThe one marketing use the law allows, and how to ask a body to stop it.

C · Words

Four words this guide uses

Credit reporting body

An organisation whose business involves handling personal information to tell other organisations how creditworthy a person is. The OAIC lists Equifax and Experian as the bodies you can ask for a copy of your report, and names a third, Illion, when it explains bans after fraud.

Credit provider

Banks, and businesses for which supplying credit is a substantial part of what they do, but also retailers that issue credit cards, and businesses that let you pay for goods or services 7 days or more later, such as phone, energy and water companies. A real estate agent, a general insurer and an employer are not credit providers.

Credit enquiry

The everyday name for what the law calls an information request: a record that a credit provider asked for your report in connection with an application you made.

Credit eligibility information

What the credit reporting body sent the lender, plus anything the lender worked out from it. It matters if you are refused, because you can ask the lender for it.

D · Checking

Where the rules are kept

The credit reporting laws are Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988, the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2025 and the Privacy Regulation 2013. Breaking the code counts as breaking the Privacy Act itself. The OAIC’s credit reporting pages explain them in plain words, and every guide here lists the pages it was written from at its foot.