Credit Score Basics > Do credit card applications check with HMRC?

Do credit card applications check with HMRC?

Wollit Team2 minute read · Updated 16th September 2024

No, credit card applications do not usually check directly with HMRC. Instead, lenders rely on credit reference agencies (CRAs) to gather information about your credit history and financial behavior. The main CRAs in the UK are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Here's how the process works.

Do lenders contact HMRC if I’m employed full-time?

If you are working as an employee, lenders usually just ask for your payslips and sometimes P60 to verify your income. They might also ask for a reference from your employer.

In most cases you’ll be asked to provide this yourself – the lender won’t check your HMRC personal tax account.

Do lenders contact HMRC if I’m self-employed?

If you are self-employed, lenders may request additional documentation to verify your income, such as your tax returns or SA302 forms. Sometimes you might also be asked to provide a reference from your accountant.

However, this information will come from you, not from HMRC.

What do lenders actually check?

When you apply for a credit card, the lender looks at your creditworthiness to determine whether to approve your application.

Here is what they check:

Income: lenders may ask for information about how much you earn to make sure that you can actually afford repayments.
Personal information: you will need to provide personal details, like your name, address, date of birth, and employment or self-employment status.
Financial history: lenders will also ask about your financial history, like existing debts and how big they are, whether you’ve ever been declared bankrupt, and so on.
Credit history: lenders run a credit check to see your credit history and score, and how you’ve been handling debts in the past.

As you see, at no point do lenders check your tax information. Lenders don’t verify your employment or financial situation with HMRC.

However, lenders do care quite a bit about your ability to repay your debt – and also want to see how you’ve managed debt in the past. This is why it’s so important to build a solid credit history.

One of the ways to do this is by downloading a credit-building app like Wollit.

Wollit works by reporting a fixed fee monthly subscription as a loan repayment to the credit reference agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). This helps you build or rebuild your credit history by showing that you can pay debt on time. It can even report your monthly rent payment to Experian, adding another line in your credit report that shows lenders you're responsible and pay your bills when they’re due.

In time, this will help you improve your credit score so you won’t need to be worried about any credit check ever again.