United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the three credit reference agencies are Experian, Equifax and Callcredit, which was established in 2001 and is now working closely in association with its American counterpart, TransUnion.

Most banks and other credit-granting organisations subscribe to one or more of these organisations to ensure the quality of their lending. This includes companies who sell goods or services on credit such as credit card issuers, utility companies and store card issuers. Subscribing organisations are expected to provide relevant data to maintain the common data pool.

Credit reference agencies are bound by the Data Protection Act, which requires that data relating to identifiable individuals must be accurate, relevant, held for a proper purpose and not out-of-date. Individuals have a legal right to access data held on them.

The activities of Credit Reference Agencies are governed under UK law by the Consumer Credit Act 1974.