Credit Reporting Bodies
Frequently Asked Questions
A credit reporting body (CRB) is an organisation whose business involves handling personal information in order to provide another entity with information about the credit worthiness of an individual.
This section includes information on the most common queries relating to credit reporting bodies, also known as credit bureaus. View the detail on your topic of interest below.
There are three main credit reporting bodies in Australia: Equifax, Illion and Experian.
For more information about Credit Reporting Bodies please visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
When a credit provider discloses your personal information and details about your credit accounts to credit reporting bodies, each credit reporting body then compiles this information into a credit report and uses it to derive a credit score to show your creditworthiness.
A credit provider may obtain a copy of your credit file from a credit reporting body to help decide whether to grant you credit or manage the credit already given to you. In certain situations, they may also disclose this information to other credit providers or third parties. It is important to note that the credit score Experian creates is not always used by credit providers and that some credit providers derive their own scores from the information provided to them.
Outside of the largest financial institutions, credit providers in Australia are not under legal obligation to share the same credit information about you to all the credit reporting bodies in Australia. This means that the credit information Experian receives for you is potentially different to the information another credit reporting body holds on you. Each credit reporting bureau has their own methodology in the way in which their credit score is calculated, therefore your credit score may differ between each credit reporting body.