Credit Score Basics > How to check your Experian credit report for free

How to check your Experian credit report for free

Wollit Team3 minute read · Updated 1st July 2024

Checking your credit report regularly is crucial if you want to make sure that its content is accurate, free of fraud, and gives lenders a correct picture of your credit history.

In the UK, there are three main credit reference agencies (CRAs) that hold your credit report data: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Here's a short and clear guide on how to check your credit report for free with the largest one of them – Experian.

How can I check my Experian credit report for free?

First, sign up for a free Experian account. While this doesn’t give you access to your credit report just yet, it will give you access to your Experian credit score for free, updated monthly.

Next, to see your full Experian credit report with all the details, you have two options:

Get your statutory credit report. It’s a free, basic version of your credit report, which you have to request from Experian. They will send it to you either via post or online.
Or sign up for a free 30-day trial of Experian CreditExpert, which includes your full credit report, credit score, and other features like identity fraud protection. Just make a note to cancel before the trial ends if you don't want or can’t afford to pay the monthly £14.99 fee.

These two aren’t your only options. You have another one: to sign up for a free trial with CheckMyFile. This is a website that gives you access to your credit reports from all three credit reference agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) in one place.

Just like with Experian, make sure to cancel before the 30 days are over if you don’t want to keep paying its subscription fee of £14.99 a month.

Whichever service you end up using, you should know that it’s completely safe. Checking your own credit report is considered a "soft search", is not visible to lenders, and has no impact on your credit score.

What’s included in my Experian credit report?

Your Experian credit report contains details that lenders need when they look at your loan application. As a result, you'll see a mix of credit accounts, payment history, financial associations, and even address history.

Here’s what your Experian credit reports show:

Personal details: Your name, address, date of birth, and whether you’re registered to vote.
Credit accounts: Your credit cards, loans, mortgages, and any other credit agreements. This includes account numbers, credit limits, balances, and payment history.
Credit inquiries: A record of every time you applied for credit and when lenders checked your credit report. You’llsee both the inquiries made by lenders (hard checks) and yourself (soft checks).
Public records: Information about any county court judgments (CCJs), individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), bankruptcies, or debt relief orders that have been registered against you in the past six years.
Financial associations: Any financial connections you might have with other people, for example through joint accounts or shared credit agreements.

Your Experian credit report does not include information like:

Whether you’re employed and what your job is;
If you’re self-employed;
How much money you have;
The value of your savings and investments accounts;
Your criminal history;
Who you voted for;
Or your medical history.

Some of these things might be asked as part of your loan application (for example, your employment history) but they're not recorded on your credit file. Only your credit history and address history (needed for identity verification) go in there.

Does my Experian credit report also include my credit score?

No, however, once you sign up for an Experian free account you’ll have free access to your Experian credit score anyway.

So even if the report and score are technically separate, you can get them from the same website.

Why should I check my Experian credit report?

Checking your Experian credit report regularly can help you spot errors or signs of fraud. If you find anything that looks out of place, you can dispute it directly with Experian to get it corrected.

This is one of the many things you can do to improve your credit report – removing errors that are accidentally damaging it.

However, the most important thing you should do is keep building your credit history. One of the tools that lets you do this is Wollit.

Wollit works by reporting a fixed fee monthly subscription as a loan repayment to credit reference agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). This helps you build or rebuild your credit history by showing that you can pay the debt on time, which is the most important factor in how these agencies calculate your credit score.

On top of this, Wollit can also 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 Experian credit score and help you become eligible for the financial products you want.