With most finance, insurance and loan application you are asked to sign a "Privacy Act" Declaration. If you read the fine print before you sign, you will realise that you are providing the lender with authorisation to check your Credit rating as per CRAA.

A credit check is often one of the first things a lender, an insurer or a credit card company will do to determine what kinds of loan products you, the consumer, can receive from them. They may even base your interest rate off of the numerical score you receive after the credit check.

A credit check is fairly straightforward. With your permission, after you sign the waiver so that the one performing your credit check can view your information (as per the Privacy Act), research is done on your financial background. You yourself may not even be aware of the information on your credit report.

We would strongly suggest that if you are intending to borrow some money or apply for a new loan that you obtain a copy of your own CRAA report to make sure that the information on the report is correct. If you find any credit defaults, it is best to know about them sooner so that action can be taken to clear your credit record.

You are able to get a copy of your own credit report through Baycorp Advantage
( www.mycreditfile.com.au ) for $23.00

This is the same credit report that lenders, mortgage brokers, and issuers of credit cards will look at before agreeing to lend you money.