There are I believe three credit agencies in the UK. You can use a combination of the free sites such as Credit Karma, TotallyMoney etc to get all three scores.
However, when applying for credit, especially for big ticket items such as mortgages, each lender will use their own calculations, of which credit reports only form a part.
It's useful to look at at least one credit report every month just to check no-one's opened an account in your name, likewise to ensure that there's no incorrect information on your account such as addresses you've never lived at, financial connections to other people that no longer exist, etc etc.
However, similar to PC virus checkers, there is no need at all to pay for a service.
I've spent 6 years re-building my credit rating after a couple of CCJs and now have a mortgage. However credit ratings are strange things - having no credit card debt is actually "worse" on scoring than having some debt, for example - so don't get too wrapped up in them.
Even when I had a poor score I was able to get a monthly contract mobile phone, for example.
The best thing for your credit rating is to have some access to credit, to pay off your bills every month and obviously no "black marks" such as CCJs etc. Also, never pay to have your credit rating "repaired", those factors I've just listed can't be repaired, however if data on you is erroneous, you can try and get it amended. |  |
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