With the utter turmoil of the current worldwide financial climate, applying for difficult to come by. But many people don't realise the importance of why to check a free credit report from one of the major credit reference agencies. Without realising it, your credit report might be presenting information that may hinder your ability to take out more credit. Some of this may not even be down to you. Worse still, it may even uncover that you have been the victim of identity theft! Those people that have been rejected for credit that they have applied for should definitely review their credit report data from at least one of the major credit reference agencies, such as Equifax. If you have been declined credit, ask the lender who refused you which of the agencies they were using when they credit vetted you and their contact details. Then write to them asking for a copy of your credit file. It is also well worth asking for a copy of your credit file before applying for a loan so that any errors, or omissions, can be amended before you apply. This could prevent a rejection, which would also be recorded on your credit file and might count against you in future application. If you don't already know how to check a credit report for yourself, then it is very easy to do. The major credit reference agencies will offer a free service if you write to them and ask them for the details and there are many online services doing the same. As an early identity theft detection method, you can also join schemes whereby you are notified when certain changes happen on your credit reference file. This would warn you to sudden huge loan applications if someone was trying to clone your identity. The free credit reports don't tell you exactly how the lenders will score you, but they give you a good basis for understanding what they are likely to be looking at. In addition, lenders will also score you on other questions that they ask, such as your history with that lender, your annual household income and other details they ask you to include. Your credit report shouldn't have information for anyone else residing within your house, but it will have details of who the credit reference agency assumes are financially related to you, for example a spouse. If this information is wrong, then it can be worth getting it corrected. For example, if your wife doesn't go under the same surname as you, but has a better credit rating than you, then you might improve your credit rating by identifying yourselves as being financially related. Conversely, if parent and non-dependent child, or others sharing a surname, reside together and aren't financially related, it is worth ensuring that this information is correctly shown, in case they have a poorer credit rating. Access practical points of view for how do I get out of debt - your own knowledge base.