Equifax: credit reports, scores and monitoring

Equifax is one of the three credit reference agencies in the UK, alongside Experian and TransUnion. It keeps a credit file on you, sells access to your credit report and score, and runs paid subscriptions that watch your file for changes. It is also a fraud prevention agency, which means it holds data used to check identities and spot fraud as well as data used to assess creditworthiness¹.

You have a legal right to a free copy of your Equifax credit report, called a statutory credit report, and you can get it for life without paying anything¹. Equifax also sells a paid service that adds daily score updates, alerts and identity monitoring, with a 30 day free trial and a monthly fee after that².

This page covers what Equifax does with your data, how its score works, what is free and what is paid, how to cancel a subscription, how to correct your file, and how to complain.

What Equifax is and what it does with your credit data

Equifax is one of the three credit reference agencies in the UK, alongside Experian and TransUnion, and it holds information about your credit history². It provides reports you can use to understand, manage and control your credit score, and it also offers a membership service giving access to your credit report and score, which may start with a 30-day free trial³. Lenders use it too: some, such as Moray Firth Credit Union, use Equifax to carry out a credit search when deciding on a loan application⁶.

Its main consumer business is holding and selling access to credit information. There are three credit reference agencies in the UK that store information about your credit history: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion⁷. Lenders report your accounts, balances, payment history and applications to one or more of them, and the agencies assemble that into a credit file that lenders search when you apply for credit.

Equifax also acts as a fraud prevention agency⁸. That means it holds data used to verify identities and detect fraud, not just data used to score credit applications. If false or inaccurate information is given and fraud is identified, Equifax states that details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies, and that law enforcement agencies may access the information³.

The practical point for a consumer is that your Equifax file is one of three separate records about you, and it may not match the other two. Not every lender reports to every agency, so the picture each one holds can differ. Checking all three is the only way to see the whole of what lenders can see.

How the Equifax credit score and its bands work

Equifax calculates a credit score from the information in your credit report. Its own scale runs from 0 to 1,000². The score is updated daily when you log in on the paid product, and monthly on the free basic product².

The bands published for that scale differ between sources, and Equifax's own published bandings have changed over time. Independent guidance puts 531 to 670 as good and 811 to 1,000 as excellent⁹. The same guidance describes the full set as 0 to 438 poor, 439 to 530 fair, 531 to 670 good, 671 to 810 very good and 811 to 1,000 excellent⁶. Another source describes excellent as above 800¹⁰. A separate published table gives different figures again, with excellent at 961 to 999, good at 881 to 960, fair at 721 to 880, poor at 561 to 720 and very poor at 0 to 560¹¹.

What matters more is that each lender applies its own criteria to your full file, and a score band is not a decision.

Your free statutory credit report from Equifax

You have a statutory, meaning legal, right to a free copy of your credit report¹. Making the request is free of charge¹². This is not a trial and it does not expire: Equifax describes it as a free statutory credit report for life¹.

The statutory report shows the full credit history Equifax holds on your file, and it is updated daily when you log in¹. You can view it online by registering for any Equifax product, including the free one, or you can request a paper copy by post using a downloadable application form sent to Equifax, Customer Service Centre, PO Box 10036, Leicester LE3 4FS¹.

Requesting it creates a search record on your file, but Equifax states that the search will not impact your credit score and will not be visible to other companies who may access your credit report for lending purposes³.

The free basic product includes the statutory credit report and a credit score updated monthly². The paid product adds a score updated daily on login, daily alerts and identity monitoring tools².

Seeing your Equifax report free through ClearScore

You can also see your Equifax report and score free through ClearScore, which makes its money from commissions on products taken out through its website¹³. ClearScore is powered by Equifax data¹⁵.

This route gives you ongoing free access rather than a one-off report, but it is a commercial service funded by commission, so the products it shows you are influenced by that. Other free services exist: free credit reports and scores are available online at ClearScore, Credit Karma and Money Saving Expert Credit Club¹⁷. CheckMyFile offers a 30 day free trial giving access to information held by TransUnion, Experian and Equifax together¹⁸.

If you want to see all three files side by side, a service that covers all three agencies is the only way to do it in one place. Otherwise you request a statutory report from each agency separately, which is free from any of the three main credit agencies²⁰.

Equifax credit monitoring: how the paid subscription and free trial work

The paid service is a monthly subscription that starts with a 30 day free trial³. Independent guidance confirms Equifax offers a free 30 day trial of its full credit monitoring service¹³. The trial is followed by a monthly subscription which you can cancel at any time³.

What the paid product includes, according to Equifax: unlimited online access to your credit report, a credit score updated daily on login, custom daily alerts when changes occur to your credit report, and tools that monitor the dark web 24 hours a day for personal and financial information that may have been stolen². The CreditWatch product adds access to WebDetect and SocialScan, and Open Banking Finance Monitor⁴.

The free basic product gives you the statutory credit report and a score updated monthly, with alerts once a month rather than daily².

Cancelling an Equifax subscription and your cooling-off rights

You can cancel at any time¹. Equifax states that you need to give your cancellation request at least 24 hours prior to the next renewal date³. You can cancel by phone on 0800 014 2955 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, excluding 25 and 26 December, or online through MyEquifax using the Cancel Subscription option⁴.

Separately from cancellation, you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days after the date you order the product, with a refund of amounts paid³. This is the cooling-off right. Under the subscription contract rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, a consumer has the right to cancel a subscription contract during the initial cooling-off period and any renewal cooling-off period, in any circumstances and without conditions other than those in the chapter, and no penalty or charge may be imposed for cancelling during a cooling-off period²². A related provision on renewal cooling-off periods was not in force at Royal Assent²³.

If a payment fails, Equifax states that it will continue to give you access to your product and will try to take the monies owed for a total of 45 days³. After that, access is cancelled and the outstanding subscription charges are not required to be paid³. Equifax must give you at least 30 days' notice before any material change to the terms comes into force, and at least 30 days before the next renewal date by email if it changes the monthly subscription price³. Prices for its products include VAT³.

Searches on your Equifax file and how long they stay

Equifax holds search entries on your credit report for 12 months, while TransUnion holds them for up to 24 months²⁴. Equifax keeps most search footprints for one year from the date of the search, although it keeps debt collection searches for up to two years⁸.

Hard searches, the ones created when you apply for credit, normally stay on the respective credit files for two years, creating a clear trail of when an application was made²⁷. That is longer than the 12 month figure for search entries generally, and the difference matters: a lender looking at your file can see a run of recent applications.

Checking your own report does not create a search that lenders see. Equifax states that the search record created when you request your report will not impact your credit score and will not be visible to other companies who may access your credit report for lending purposes³. Equifax also states plainly that checking your credit score will not harm it².

If you suspect a county court judgment has been made against you, check your credit report with Experian, Equifax or TransUnion²⁸. A CCJ can affect your credit score, your ability to borrow, your ability to rent and employment opportunities²⁹.

Correcting your file and how Equifax uses data for fraud prevention

If something on your Equifax file is wrong, the correction usually has to come from the lender that supplied it, because the agency records what it is told. Equifax's own terms set out how it handles data and what happens if false or inaccurate information is given: details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies, and law enforcement agencies may access the information³.

Equifax runs identity monitoring tools as part of its paid products. WebDetect monitors the dark web 24 hours a day for personal and financial information that may have been stolen². The Car Finance Checker includes most car finance records back to 2007³⁰.

If your data has been exposed in a breach, official guidance suggests reporting lost or stolen documents such as passports, driving licences, credit cards and cheque books to the issuer, checking bank statements and your credit report, watching out for phishing, using strong passwords and multifactor authentication, and applying for Cifas protective registration³¹. Protective registration places a warning flag against your name and other personal details on the National Fraud Database³².

Complaints about Equifax and where to take them

Equifax states that you have the right to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service³. You can complain by post to Equifax, PO Box 10036, Leicester LE3 4FS, or by email to complaints@equifax.com⁸.

The usual route is to raise the complaint with Equifax first and give it a chance to respond. If you are not happy with the response, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at it. You can visit the ombudsman's website to make a complaint or call 0300 123 9123³³. If more than 8 weeks have passed without a final response, or you remain dissatisfied, you can write to the Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR³⁴.

For data protection complaints rather than service complaints, the Information Commissioner's Office is the UK regulator of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and of e-privacy law³⁵. The ICO handles predatory and nuisance marketing calls, and uses the information you provide to identify, investigate and take action against organisations that are not following the rules around direct marketing³⁶.

If you are struggling with debt and your credit file is part of the problem, free and impartial help is available from MoneyHelper and from debt advice charities such as StepChange and National Debtline. National Debtline publishes guidance on credit reference agencies for England and Wales²⁴, and Business Debtline covers Scotland separately²⁶.

How Equifax is regulated and what the ICO found about its marketing data

Equifax is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority³. Credit reference agencies are licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority³⁸. Equifax's terms are governed by English law, and wherever you live you can bring claims against it in the English courts³.

The Information Commissioner's Office has examined how credit reference agencies handle data for marketing. In a 2020 policy statement on its investigation into data protection compliance in the direct marketing data broking sector, the ICO said that between the credit reference agencies, the data of almost every adult in the UK was, in some way, screened, traded, profiled, enriched or enhanced for direct marketing services³⁵. The same statement records that the ICO was conducting a major criminal investigation into the trade of personal data obtained unlawfully from the motor accident repair sector and sold on to claims management companies³⁵.

That finding is about marketing data rather than credit scoring, but it is the reason the distinction matters to a consumer: the same agencies hold data used to assess you for credit and data used to market to you, and the rules governing each are different. If you are worried about how an organisation has handled your information, the ICO publishes steps you can take³¹.