By law every South African can get one free credit report a year from each registered bureau. Here is how to draw it, what is in it, how the score is built and how to dispute an error before you apply for a card or a loan.
Before a bank looks at your application it looks at your bureau file, so you should look first. The National Credit Act gives every consumer the right to one free credit report a year from each registered credit bureau, and the four main bureaus all provide it online. Drawing your own report is a soft enquiry: it does not lower your score.
Where to get it
The bureaus that South African lenders use most are TransUnion, Experian (which absorbed Compuscan), XDS and VeriCred. Each has a website where you register with your ID number, answer verification questions and download the free annual report; TransUnion and Experian also sell monthly subscriptions and paid score updates, which you do not need. Because lenders do not all report to every bureau, it is worth drawing the free report from at least TransUnion and Experian, since the files can differ.
What the report contains
Your identity details and addresses; every credit account reported by lenders with its limit, balance and 24 months of payment history; enquiries made by lenders; and any adverse listings: defaults, judgments, notices of debt review or administration. A default stays on the file for one to two years after it is settled, a judgment for five years or until it is rescinded, and a paid-up default must be removed when the creditor confirms payment. Debt review is flagged until a clearance certificate is issued.
How the score is built
Each bureau calculates its own score, so the number differs between them. The inputs are broadly the same: payment history has the biggest weight, followed by utilisation (how much of your available credit you are using), the age of your accounts, the mix of credit types and the number of recent enquiries. A missed payment, a card sitting at its limit or a burst of applications in one month all pull the score down; a long history of full, on-time payments pushes it up. Lenders use the score together with their own affordability assessment, so a good score is necessary but not sufficient.
Disputing an error
If you find an account you do not recognise, a balance that is wrong or a paid default still showing, lodge a dispute with the bureau. The NCA gives the bureau 20 business days to investigate and either correct the entry or provide proof. If the bureau does not resolve it, the Credit Ombud handles bureau complaints free of charge, and the National Credit Regulator oversees the bureaus. Keep the paid-up letters from creditors; they are the evidence that clears a listing quickly.
Soft enquiries, hard enquiries and identity theft
Bureaus record two kinds of enquiry. When you draw your own report, or a lender pre-screens you for an offer, the enquiry is “soft” and invisible to other lenders. When you submit an application, the enquiry is “hard”, stays visible for about a year and is counted against you if there are many of them. The free annual report is also the cheapest fraud check available: an account, address or enquiry you do not recognise is often the first sign that someone has used your ID number. Report it to the bureau, the lender and the South African Fraud Prevention Service, which can place a protective marker on your file at no cost.
Before you apply
Draw the reports two or three months before a large application. That leaves time to dispute errors, pay down a maxed card to below 30% utilisation and avoid new enquiries. A clean, accurate file does not guarantee approval, but a messy one almost guarantees a worse rate.
