Who Can See My Credit Report in Canada?
Who Can See My Credit Report in Canada?
Posted on February 23, 2023
If you’re considering a car loan in Dundas, or read our blog regularly, you will often see us talking about credit reports and how important they are. Your credit report has a huge influence over whether you can access credit or not and at what rate. But who actually gets to see it?
We know that Dundas car loan companies get to see your report, but who else can view it?
Viewing your credit report
There are two main types of organization who can access your credit report. They are organizations with ‘permissible purpose’ and those you give specific consent to.
Permissible purpose – Any organization with a reasonable purpose for checking your credit report could be counted in this section. That would be banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, car loan companies and so on.
Any organization with good cause to view your credit report will be counted here.
Other organizations with permissible purpose include law enforcement, the courts, debt collection agencies, car leasing or rental companies and similar organizations.
Organizations with consent – Sometimes, you may be asked to provide consent for an organization to check your credit report. That can include employers, home or car leasing companies, your landlord and other organizations.
They cannot view your credit report without your express permission.
As you can see, there is a little crossover with some organizations with permissible purpose and those that require consent. It isn’t always clear which is which so keep an eye on who requests to see your report.
The crossover happens because some organizations have permissible purpose but require permission to access your report. Employers for example are one such organization that has crossover.
Monitoring access to your credit report
All companies who have accessed your credit report will be recorded and listed on that report. For Equifax, it will be listed in the ‘Inquiries’ section of the report. This shows a list of who requested your report and when.
If you see an entry you didn’t authorize or don’t recognize, follow it up. It could be an organization you had dealings with who used a third party to check you out.
It could also be something more nefarious. It is unlikely that an organization would just look at your credit report just for the sake of it but it isn’t unheard of.
If you see something you don’t recognize, check the rest of the report for other entries around that date. It could be an insurance company using a third party to check your creditworthiness or something else entirely.
You can follow up with the organization in question if you don’t find immediate answers. They should be able to clue you in as to why they accessed your file.
If you need help or advice on anything to do with car loans in Dundas, contact Car Nation Canada today, we can help!