Urgent: Check your Experian credit report now

Soon you won’t be able to get free digital access

Changes are coming in the next few weeks to Money Saving Expert’s Credit Club – here’s what you need to do.

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What’s happening

Right now, the only way you can get free and immediate access to your Experian credit report is via Money Saving Expert’s Credit Club. But as we reported last November, Experian is ending this partnership.

We now know, thanks to an email from MSE to customers on 14 March 2024, that this will be “in the next few weeks”. When this happens, MSE will instead use customer data from a different credit reference agency (CRA) called TransUnion.

Right now Experian tell me they have no plans for an alternative direct to customer product that will provide you with their information in a similar way.

Why this matters

There are three different CRAs, and each of them hold information on you, known as your credit report or credit file. They all share this with different companies and lenders to help them decide whether you’ll get the product you’ve applied for, from credit cards to mortgages to mobile phone contracts.

However, they might not all have the exact same details. It could be some banks don’t share information with all three, or they don’t report all the same data. And since you don’t know which of the three your lender will go to for your credit file, it’s helpful to check all three of those reports to ensure they’re up to date and accurate.

That’s particularly the case with Experian, since this is the largest of the three in the UK, so more likely to be one that lenders use when making those decision.

Though there are multiple ways to easily see your full report from Equifax and TransUnion, the change to the MSE Credit Club means that won’t be the case for Experian.

What you need to do

With the clock already ticking, it’s really important that any existing users log into to MSE’s Credit Club and look over your latest Experian report. Sadly MSE has paused registrations for newbies.

Go over the personal information and active accounts and check for errors or anything missing. Keep an eye too for any joint products you had with people that you’re no longer involved with. These reports are updated every 30 days so it could be the most recent products you’ve applied for aren’t showing.

If there are any things you need fixing or changing, then you’ll need to contact the bank or company itself for any mistakes. If that doesn’t get it sorted, you can go to Experian to add a notice of correction, or for things like wanting a “financial disassociation” from people you are no longer connected to or they’ve missed that you’re registered to vote.

What happens once Experian’s not available via MSE?

Once the change to TransUnion takes place you won’t be able to see your Experian credit report as easily.

You can join Experian’s own CreditExpert service, but that costs £14.99 a month (you can cancel at any time). You are able to get a 30-day free trial, but that’s obviously just once. This is actually slightly better than the MSE version as it’s real time.

Another service, CheckMyFile does the same for the same £14.99 a month cost. Again this has a 30-day free trial. You’ll also be able to see your Equifax and TransUnion reports too.

It’s worth saving up these free trials for when you’re about to make a major credit application, such as a mortgage.

Alternatively, it’ll still be available for free as a “statutory report”, which contains all the same information, but in a far less easy way to read and assess. This is the big issue really. When I ordered mine, even I found certain parts confusing.

These reports can also take a week or so to order, and involve you requesting a code that’ll be sent in the post to allow you to download it, or filling in an application form to get the report sent in the mail. The report you receive will be for that fixed moment. If you want to check it again, you’ll need to repeat the process.

This doesn’t include your Experian credit score, though that’s available for free if you get an account with Experian itself.

Will MSE’s credit club still be worth it?

When MSE moves over to TransUnion, it’ll still give you access to one of your credit scores and reports. However you can also get this for free from TransUnion’s own Credit Karma service.

MSE have promised new features to their own version when the change happens, so it’ll one to keep an eye on and see if it offers the same or anything more than going direct.