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Credit providers including lenders, banks & non-banks, as well as telecommunication & utility companies all subscribe to Veda so that they can conduct a credit history check on potential borrowers and consumers.

Subscribers to Veda can both receive information about your credit file as well as make new notations on your credit file.

Now, your credit file is actually created when you first apply for credit. So, obviously not everyone will have a credit history file.  But once established, information from subsequent credit providers feeds into your record, keeping it updated.  Every time you apply for a home loan, personal loan, credit card or enter into a contract even with an interest free period, the Credit Provider makes an enquiry with Veda as to what credit application history you have made over the last 5 years.

Credit files typically include the following information:

1. Basic identification information. This will include your name, address (both past and present), date of birth, your current and previous employer/s as well as your driver’s licence number.

2. Details of any credit applications you have made in the past five years, including the amount and the type of credit.  These enquiries may include finance related credit enquiries as well as enquiries from other companies who subscribe to Veda such as utility and telecommunications companies.

3. Any history of credit defaults recorded by credit providers will show on your credit file. Any repayments more than $100 that are overdue for sixty days or more can be listed on your file for five years. Payment defaults can only be included on your credit file if the credit provider has tried to recover some or all of the overdue amount.  This means that they must have sent you a notice in writing to your last known address that the amount was overdue and requested payment.  If you subsequently repay the credit defaults, it will be noted on your credit bureau record as paid however the default listing won’t be removed for 5 years. If they remain unpaid, they will stay on your credit file for 7 years.

4. Credit infringements. If a creditor has been unable to contact you and has reported you as a ‘missing debtor’, it is recorded on your file for seven years as a “Clearout”.  A credit provider must make reasonable effort to contact you, before they can list you as a Clearout.

5. Public record information that includes court judgements and court writs, directorship details, proprietorship details and any bankruptcy information.