In South Africa, credit bureaus acquire credit information on credit consumers from credit providers and then provide it to consumers as credit reports. Although credit departments acquire credit information, they are not involved in the decision-making process that determines if you are eligible for a credit or loan.

Annually, every South African is legally qualified for one free credit report which can be gotten from any credit bureau operating in South Africa.

Presently, 25.10 million South African are functional credit consumers and each of them has a credit outline with a credit bureau. Transunion and Experian are the two prominent credit bureaus in South Africa.

What is a Free Credit Report?

A free credit report in South Africa is a free thorough document of your monetary history that provides explicit information on your financial behavior and contact details.

It can also be referred to as a free report of your credit history and monetary management in the past.

Your free credit report trails every account you operate, every money you owe your credit providers, every appraisal that has been taken against you, and every payment you omit.

All you need to know about Free Credit Report in South Africa

Your free credit report consists of your personal information, loan details, credit profile, and dispute information.

Although you are legally qualified to receive one free sample of your credit report from each credit bureau annually, you will be charged a fee ranging from R20 to R40 if you need subsequent samples within the year.

Your loan application grants your creditor access to your credit report. The information extracted from your credit report is then used to determine your eligibility to access a loan or credit.

You must run a review on your credit report frequently to confirm that the credit bureaus have the right credit information about you. You could also use your free credit report to discover any dishonest action against your record or personality heist.

Your free credit report aids you to apply for credit with assurance. However, if you are refused credit, unoccupied or you have an incorrect report, you have the right to view your credit report within the subsequent 60 days.

It is necessary to identify which of your credit accounts is having an unfavorable impact on your credit score so that you can increase the payment of the identified accounts.

It is possible to request a credit report from each of the operating credit bureaus to carefully examine each to discover incorrect data.

If you discover any incorrect data in your free credit report, then you can challenge your credit report with the affected credit bureau by requesting a dispute form within 30 days of receiving your report.

However, your challenge will be scrutinized and if it is established to be true, the credit bureau will either appropriate it or discard the incorrect information. Nevertheless, this protocol could require 20 working days.