We gather data from a huge range of sources, including banks, building societies, financial service companies, utility and telecoms providers, government departments and agencies, public bodies and local authorities.
A lot of the data we hold is shared by organisations and consumers themselves, including personal credit account information, current account turnover, credit applications, rental payment information, fraud records, and insurance claims. This helps us build up a consumer’s credit file and give organisations a complete picture of their customers so they can lend more responsibly, avoid over-commitment and bad debt, prevent fraud and money laundering and recover debts.
Some data is taken from data published by government departments and agencies, public bodies and local authorities. This includes the electoral register, county court and other judgements, bankruptcies and sanctions.
Private data is sourced directly from the organisations who own it, including the companies the provide the UK’s leading telephone, address, identity card and deceased databases, as well as organisations in the property and vehicle markets.
In the process of matching data to an individual we may learn more about them, such as previous addresses, aliases or financial associations. Extra data also comes to us when consumers give different information, or their details change and they pass that information on – for example, if they get married and use a new surname in a credit application.