Credit problems and the Electoral Register

The electoral register is often used for credit referencing purposes to confirm identity and counteract fraud. You may be denied credit if your details cannot be confirmed on the register.

Credit reference agencies

The full register of electors can legally be sold on to registered credit reference agencies (CRAs) who use it to update information held on individuals' credit reference files. The full register is not the same as the open register, which can be bought by any person, company or organisation.

Your inclusion in/exclusion from the open register has no bearing on a CRA's ability to see if you are registered at your address.

Register updates

The register is updated on a monthly basis. Any newly added electors or changes to an existing elector's details made in a particular month's register are then sent to the following CRAs: Experian, Equifax, Callcredit and Crediva.

If you have told us about a change of circumstances, you can view the statutory registration timetable to check when your updated details will be included in the register.

Disputes

If you find that your electoral register information is inaccurate or missing from your credit file, the first thing you should do is raise this as a dispute with the CRA that you obtained your credit file from, by contacting them directly. In the first instance, they can try to match you to the correct information. There are 'easy' mistakes to identify such as an obvious mis-keying of a house number or misspelling of a name, and in these cases the correct information can be merged or separated as appropriate. The CRA should reply to let you know that they have resolved the issue or, if they are unable to, explain why.

Further information about credit referencing is available on the Information Commissioner’s website.

Find out if you are on the electoral register

You can find out from us whether you are on the register by making a subject access request to apply for a certificate of registration. If registered, we can supply you with a copy of your record.

If you have already provided confirmation that you are registered to your bank or credit reference agency, any further problems will have to be taken up with them.

If the record of a person who used to live at your property is preventing you from obtaining credit, you should contact the credit reference agencies to ask for a 'disassociation'.

Credit history enquiries

The Information Commissioner’s website has details on how to check your credit reference file.

If you are enquiring about your credit history, the credit reference agencies are entitled to apply for the new electoral register, but it is up to them to do so and to then update their records, which can take some time.

Exclusions

Being 'excluded from version for sale' simply means that details of those residents are not available to purchase for marketing purposes. It does not affect credit rating as credit reference agencies are sent the full register (which is simply a list of names and addresses, no other information such as contact details appear).