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
Experian credit score rating | Experian credit score range |
---|---|
Excellent | 800-1000 |
Very good | 700-799 |
Good | 625-699 |
Fair | 550-624 |
Below average | 0-549 |
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.
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Ask an Expert
My credit score is not 100% can you tell me why ? I have no defaults bad repayments and only a couple of inquiries over the past five years, some of which I did not take up.
Hi,
Thanks for contacting Finder.
The way your score is computed is based on the types of credit you’ve applied for, the number of inquiries you’ve made, and your repayment history. Please review the factors that can impact your score.
I hope that helps.
Kind Regards,
Faye
My credit score is 762 with Experian and 460 with equifax. Can you explain the difference?
Hi Antony,
Thank you for getting in touch with Finder.
The credit score range for Experian is 0 to 1,000 while Equifaxis between 0 and 1200.
Experian and Equifax have five credit score bands and your score with Experian at 762 is at band ‘Very good’ while with Equifax is below average to average. Please note that your credit score is calculated using the information on your credit report. This information affects your score in different ways. For example, a credit report that has a long history may result in your credit score being higher than one with a shorter history. And there are a number of factors that take into account your risk as a borrower like default, repayments etc. It is best to compare both credit reports to see which info is missing.
I hope this helps.
Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any other enquiries.
Thank you and have a wonderful day!
Cheers,
Jeni
Which lenders use Experian only
Hi Karly,
Thanks for leaving a question on finder.
Lenders will not disclose how they do a credit check but most of them will do a credit check with multiple credit bureaus to get a more reliable report. I hope I answered your question.
Cheers,
Joel