Money News

New free credit report service launched

By Martin Fagan - news@consumerchoices.co.uk

Genuinely free credit report allows consumers to see which products they’ll be accepted for before they even apply.

More than 750,000 Brits have unwittingly signed up for a 'free credit report' only to discover they have been charged a fee once the free trial period has ended, according to an online study by credit reference agency Callcredit.

Discovering they had paid only when they checked their bank statements, the study revealed people had spent more than £22million on 'rolling' monthly subscriptions for credit reports they thought were free.

73% of Brits are calling for an end to this practice believing that, in the credit report market, "free should mean free".

The online study was commissioned by Callcredit to mark the launch of a new service, Noddle, which plans to give over 40 million people in the UK free access to their full monthly credit report for life.

Working with an unidentified price comparison site, Noddle will use a customer’s credit rating to search out a shortlist of money saving deals on financial products the customer is most likely to qualify for.

Every time a consumer uses the site to apply for credit cards or other, the company will earn commission and it is this that keeps the service free.

Callcredit says Noddle will not only help consumers - it reduces potentially embarrassing declines for lending – but also helps lenders, as it increases the chance of them only receiving applications that will be successful.

"A credit report is like your financial passport," said Tom Ilube, managing director of Callcredit Consumer Markets.

"Companies look at your credit report all the time and make decisions about you based on this information. We believe consumers need to get into the habit of doing the same and think it only right they have ready access to the personal information these important decisions are based on."

Callcredit is the smallest of the three large credit reference agencies in the UK, the other two being Equifax and Experian. Noddle is being trialled with 10,000 consumers and will be publicly launched in the autumn.

For more information or to pre-register for the service, visit www.noddle.co.uk.