Experian Credit Score

Experian is one of the leading Australian credit reporting agencies, along with Equifax and illion.

It offers free credit reports and credit scores to consumers, as well as corporate credit services to businesses.

How to get your free Experian credit score

You can get your Experian credit report and score for free every month with Finder. You'll need to create a Finder account and provide some personal details to get your free credit score.

With Finder, you'll get your credit report for free every month, along with access to your full credit file. You'll also be able to see your chance of getting a loan or credit card before you apply.

You can also request your free Experian credit report once every 3 months via the Experian website. You'll need to provide your personal details and sign up to receive your credit report.

Experian credit score ranges

How Experian credit reports work

Credit reports

You can order your free credit report online from Experian.

• What is it? Your credit report includes information such as the types of credit accounts, current balances, payment history and any negative listings you may have.
• Use it to determine your financial history and identify any areas you may need to improve before you apply for a new line of credit.
• Receive alerts any time something changes on your report, so you can remain up to date.

Credit score

You can also order your credit score through Experian.

• What is it? Your score is an indication of your credit worthiness and is used by lenders when assessing your application.
• If you order your credit report through Finder, you'll receive your credit report for free.

Fraud and identity management

Experian can provide help with online fraud management.

• This includes account takeover, eCommerce fraud, credit card verification, digital risk management, identity proofing and more.

Corrections Exchange

• What is it? Corrections Exchange from Experian helps simplify the process for managing correction requests, reducing compliance risk and increasing operational efficiency. This is an important service that helps lenders comply with new credit reporting obligations in Australia while ensuring credit reports are relevant and accurate.
• Use it to resolve credit correct requests quickly and safely.

Get your free Experian credit report through Finder

How can you read an Experian credit report?

Lenders use your credit report to determine if you're a low or high risk applicant before approving your application for credit. Your personal credit report will contain the following information:

Personal details

This will include your name, address, employment history, date of birth and driver's licence information.

Public record information

Any credit information that is held on the public record. This can include court judgments, writs and bankruptcy notes, personal insolvency notes and debt agreements.

Current and previous credit provider details

Information about credit accounts you currently hold and have held with banks and other lenders for the past five years. This includes the type of account, credit limit, repayment information and dates the accounts were opened and closed will be included.

Defaults

Your Experian credit report will also list all credit infringements in your credit history, such as missed loan repayments, missed utility payments, unpaid debts etc.

This will include your name, address, employment history, date of birth and driver's licence information.

Enquiries

Each time you make a credit inquiry, that information is noted in your credit report. Many credit enquiries in your report over a short period usually looks unattractive to lenders.

What other services does Experian provide?

• Credit risk management. Experian can help you make better financial decisions by providing you with customer credit scores and helping you identify liens and bankruptcies that could increase the risk of incurring debt. It can also help with debt collection and recovery strategies and offer consultations on how to limit losses in lending.
• Strategy management. Businesses can contact Experian for assistance with strategy design and execution through PowerCurve strategy management.
• Fraud prevention and identification. Experian helps lenders build lasting relationships with customers by providing analytics, consumer behaviour information and verification. It also offers identification services that ensure that only legitimate customers get access to credit. These services can help reduce false positives during credit application approvals, cutting losses caused by fraud and identity theft.
• Customer management. Your organisation can depend on Experian for more in-depth insight into customers so you can develop better relations, assess risk metrics, determine profitability potential from various clients and even enrich the profile of existing customers. Information on propensity to pay will also help your organisation limit the risk of defaults from customers.
• Cross-channel marketing. Bring your brands and customer base closer together by utilising the Experian marketing platform that is flexible in integrating various brands and customer insights.
• Online intelligence. Get reliable online intelligence about customer interaction online and review browsing trends on smartphones and tablets using the Experian Hitwise service.
• Originations. You can use the Experian identification authentication service to track customer identities and minimise the risk of identity theft and credit fraud in your organisation.

Written by

Jeremy Cabral

Founder

Jeremy Cabral is the chief operating officer and global head of publishing for Finder. He has written hundreds of comparisons covering everything from credit cards to travel money to Netflix TV shows. Jeremy has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from the University of Western Sydney. See full bio