Comprehensive Credit Reporting is here! What are the changes?
In March 2014, the Privacy Act 1988 was changed to allow for Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR). These changes allow credit providers to report more information about your credit history to the credit reporting bodies in Australia. Previously, the credit reporting system was largely “negative”, with the information mostly focused on credit enquiries and black marks such as defaults and bankruptcies.
Under CCR, your credit file can now include information about your repayment history and consumer credit liability information.
Your repayment history includes whether or not you made a payment or minimum payment required on your credit accounts and whether the repayment was made on time or not. This is kept on your credit file for two years and only licenced credit providers that hold an Australian Credit Licence can report this information. This means that your repayment history for your telco and utility accounts are not reported.
Your consumer credit liability information includes:
- The type of credit account opened
- The date the credit account was opened and/or closed
- The name of the credit provider and whether they are a licensee
- The current limit on the credit account
Your consumer credit liability information is kept on your file for as long as the account is open and an additional 2 years after the account is closed.
With all this extra information being reported about you, credit providers will have a more complete picture of your credit profile when assessing your credit file. It is also likely that your credit score will change, so it’s more important than ever to check and monitor your credit score.
If you don’t know your score yet, you can check and monitor your Experian credit score for free at Credit Savvy!
Want to learn more about CCR and how it could affect you? Head over to the Learning Hub to get the latest information today.
