Report finds credit score dashboards can encourage overborrowing

The Centre for Responsible Credit published a report, "Good Score, Empty Cupboard", on 19 January 2026, finding that credit score dashboards can encourage overborrowing and deter help-seeking among low-to-middle income households¹.

The report draws on a survey of 3,400 households and 30 interviews¹. It says many low-to-middle income households see maintaining a "good" credit score as vital, often sacrificing essentials to protect it, and that credit score apps and dashboards can amplify this pressure¹. The report also states that the cost-of-living crisis has exposed a credit reporting system favouring lender interests over borrower welfare, and that reform is urgently needed¹.

The Centre for Responsible Credit is an independent organisation; its website lists company registration number 12488846 and charity registration number 1199945, with a registered address in Leicester¹. The report page carries a reading time of 50 minutes and offers the full document as a PDF download¹. No further breakdown of the survey findings, such as figures by income band, age or nation, appears on the page¹.

The same page notes the organisation's earlier work on cost caps for payday lenders and rent-to-own firms, which it says has saved borrowers an estimated £150 million per year since 2015¹.

Why it matters for households

The report concerns how people read and react to the credit information shown in credit scores and credit reports apps and dashboards, and whether that information changes borrowing behaviour. Its stated finding is that these tools can push households towards borrowing they would not otherwise take on, and can put people off seeking help when debts become difficult¹.

The households described in the report are low-to-middle income, and the report says some sacrifice essentials to protect a score¹. That connects to how credit utilisation is calculated and reported, and to the wider question of whether checking your credit report changes what lenders see. The report also raises the question of whether debt advice affects a credit score, since it says dashboards can deter help-seeking¹.

The report does not set out any change to the rules governing credit reference agencies, lenders or dashboard providers, and no regulator response is reported on the page¹. Nothing in the report as published alters what appears on an individual credit file or how a lender assesses an application¹.

What happens next

No next steps, consultation dates or implementation timetable are given on the report page¹. The page lists other Centre for Responsible Credit publications with later dates, including a response to a Treasury Committee call for evidence on the Financial Inclusion Strategy and a response to CP26/15 on financial promotions and representative APR¹.