Freedom of Information: Credit

I've worked out how to get a copy of my credit rating and I'm pretty chuffed. It's geeky, I know, but I have a good reason. If you go here, the good people at Dun and Bradstreet let you print an application and send it to them for a free copy of your credit file (unlike the bad people at Baycorp Advantage who try to push a $23 fee on you for the same info which the Privacy Commissioner says "are generally required to be given free of charge".

And my good reason? I decided I needed a credit card, especially since I'm heading overseas, so I tried the tetchy people at Virgin and was rudely declined (well it felt pretty rude). I called them up and asked why and the call centre dude refused to give any details basically acting as though The Computer's wisdom and experience in judging character was the decisive factor. I suspect they're scared of getting sued so they don't tell you the basis of their credit judgments, and the Virgin card was supposedly so good... maybe they only really offer it to really rich people.

Anyway, having - perhaps foolishly - helped one of the guys out with ID to borrow a couple of hundred from a pawn brokers I began to wonder whether there was anything on my credit rating I might want to know about. And now I can find out.

YAY!

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