If you need your credit reports regularly

innovate

Anyone who feels the need to check their credit files very regularly and doesn't want to order the £2 versions all the time:

If you subscribe to CheckMyFile (reports for all three CRAs) via TopCashBack, an annual subscription can cost you in effect only £46.61. So checking all 3 agencies is approx £1.30 a month per agency.

A couple of 'warnings', though:

• Clean your cookies before you start the order - otherwise TopCashBack might not track it properly
  
  
• TopCashBack only pays once you have earned £25. The credit for CheckMyFile is only £11.34, so you need to earn some other cash before you get the money. Check out the merchants on TopCashBack first to figure out whether you are likely to make £25 (I found it easy, since I needed to renew my home insurance)
  
  
• The CheckMyFile subscription renews automatically after 12 months, so record yourself a reminder to check whether you want to continue with the subscription

EDITED

I have now got my checkmyfile report. It is absolutely useless when it comes to Experian because "it is based on public information only" and contains no information at all about accounts. The CallCredit and the Equifax information is more comprehensive, and tallies with the information I can obtain from these agencies directly.

charlie12

Interesting. Far better value than getting separate subs with each company! (though it's not quite as detailed and only updates once a month).

I order around 6-8 £2 reports a year so it would work out cheaper for me to stick with that, but I may go for this if it ever becomes cheaper (£25 / year I think is fair ).

innovate

charlie12 wrote:

only updates once a month

That is true - but then the lenders only provide their data to the CRAs once a month (I don't know which lender provides which CRA with their data on what date). If you order your £2 report, you also get a 'pot luck' snapshot, not dissimilar to what you can get via CheckMyFile.

Though you could argue that with the "£2 approach" you have a little bit more 'control' because you know (approximately) when the report was pulled, and if you apply for a card shortly after having received your report(s), there is probably a higher chance that the lender sees the same data as you do. You have no guarantee for this, however, with either approach.

Should have said in my original post: I think most people will do better to stick with their £2 reports - but the very serious stoozer might want to splash out on the subscription, if only for convenience.