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Understanding Your Credit Report and Credit Score
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Understanding your credit report

* What is a credit report?
* Who can see your credit report?
* What kind of information does your credit report contain?
* How does the credit-reporting agency describe the history of your credit payments?
* What does a credit report look like?

What is a credit report?

Along with the credit histories of millions of other people, your credit history is recorded in files maintained by at least one of Canada's three major credit-reporting agencies: Equifax, TransUnion and Northern Credit Bureaus. These files are called credit reports.

A credit report is a "snapshot" of your credit history. It is one of the main tools lenders use to decide whether or not to give you credit.

Who can see your credit report?

You have the right to see your credit report. No one else can have access to the information in your report unless you allow it.

Usually, when you sign documents such as a loan or a credit card application, you are allowing the organization that is giving you credit to check your credit history. Credit-reporting agencies will only give information from your credit report to someone else when you have given permission, and when the request is related to credit, collection of a debt, rental of a house or an apartment, or an application for employment or insurance.