Guidelines and templates

CAIS guidelines

CAIS membership guide

A good starting point, this document talks through the onboarding process, CAIS access levels, industry regulations and membership requirements.
Download >

Experian credit report guide

This consumer-facing guide shows you how your customers will interpret the data you hold on them.
Download >

CAIS 2007 file specification

All CAIS members agreed to supply monthly updates to their data file. This document outlines the correct format, helping you to ensure data files are complete, fair and accurate.
Download >

British Forces postal address (BFPO) guidance

Some extra guidance for reporting CAIS data for customers with a British Forces Post Office (BFPO) address.
Download >

Debt sale guidance

Some extra guidance for reporting CAIS data if you’ve sold on a customer record to another company or Debt Collections Agency (DCA).
Download >

CAIS testing process flow

All new CAIS members must load a test file of data within three months of joining. This diagram shows the process for submitting a test data file.
Download >

Active Without Updates (AWU)

An Active Without Update (also referred to as AWU) is an open record that has not received an update on the most recent input file and has not been correctly closed. Please download our guide to AWUs here.
Download >

CAIS templates

Example CAIS test report

Before your data goes live, as a new CAIS member you'll need to go through a test process to pick up on any potential issues with the data and formatting. This is an example of the test report.
Download >

Additional resources

Principles of Reciprocity

Produced by Steering Committee on Reciprocity (SCOR), these guidelines give best-practice for the provision and quality of shared data.
Download >

Principles for the Reporting of Arrears, Arrangements and Defaults at Credit Reference Agencies

Produced by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in collaboration with the credit industry, these principles set out which information about arrears, arrangements and defaults are filed with the CRAs.
Download >

Contact Us

Consumer

Data Processing & Loading:

  • If you need to contact us urgently or if your enquiry is related to the loading of Consumer CAIS data, please call the team on 0115 9768933
  • For non-urgent queries please email Cais.Control@experian.com
  • If your enquiry relates to consumer data amendments, please email Database.amendments@uk.experian.com


Data Quality:

Commercial

Data Processing & Loading:

  • If you need to contact us urgently or if your enquiry is related to the loading of Commercial CAIS data, please call the team on 0115 9768311 (option 3)
  • For non-urgent commercial CAIS queries, please email commercialcais@uk.experian.com
  • If your enquiry relates to commercial data amendments, please email CommercialCAIS.Amendments@experian.com

Data Quality:

Can't find what you need?

If you can't find what you need, please get in touch via email at Cais.Control@experian.com

Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN)

Experian working with UK Finance, have made changes to the fair processing notices that will be used for credit account information sharing. This can be seen in the CRAIN notification document that can be found below.

Contact us