Credit reports
How to get your free credit report in South Africa
Yes, you can get your credit report for free. The National Credit Act gives you one free report from each registered credit bureau every 12 months, so between the main bureaus you can pull several free reports a year. Pulling your own report is a soft check on your own record: it is recorded, but it is not treated as a loan application and it does not lower your score, so it is not the same as a lender's hard enquiry. This guide shows you which bureaus to ask, how to request from each, and what to do once you have it.
Your free report is a right, once per bureau per year
Under the National Credit Act you have the right to one free credit report from each registered credit bureau in any 12-month period, so you can get more than one free report a year by asking each bureau in turn.
The free report is a legal entitlement, not a favour. The National Credit Act gives every person one free credit report from each registered bureau in any 12-month period. Because there are several bureaus, that means several free reports a year across all of them, not a single national allowance.
There is no one national credit report and no single national score. Each bureau holds its own record on you, and the records are not always identical, because lenders do not report to every bureau. If you have only ever checked one, another bureau may be holding something you have not seen. Our guide to the credit bureaus that operate in South Africa explains who they are and how they differ.
One thing to be clear on before you start: pulling your own report is a soft, own check. It is logged on your record, but it is not counted as a credit application and it does not reduce your score. That is different from a lender's hard enquiry, which is the search a lender runs when you actually apply. If you want the mechanics, see what a hard credit check is and the role a soft check plays.
Decide which bureaus to ask
Because you get one free report from each registered bureau, it is worth asking more than one, and the main consumer-facing bureaus in South Africa are TransUnion, Experian, XDS and VeriCred.
You do not have to choose just one. Since the free entitlement is per bureau, checking two or three gives you a fuller picture and costs nothing. Different lenders report to different bureaus, so a listing on one record may not show on another.
The main consumer-facing bureaus are:
- TransUnion
- Experian
- XDS
- VeriCred
A quick note that saves confusion: Compuscan and its old My Credit Check site are no longer a separate route. Experian now owns Compuscan, and the old mycreditcheck.co.za address sends you to Experian's own consumer platform. So you do not need to look for Compuscan separately, checking Experian covers it.
If you are wondering which bureau a particular lender reports to, you usually cannot know in advance, which is another reason to check more than one. If you are only going to check one to start with, any of the four is a reasonable place to begin, and you can always come back for the others later in the year.
Request your report from each bureau
Each bureau has its own free channel: Experian through its Up web app, XDS through Splendi, TransUnion usually once a year through its consumer portal, and VeriCred through the threesixty.me platform. Register on the one you want, verify your identity, and download the report.
The steps below are the same idea for every bureau: go to the bureau's own consumer platform, register with your identity details, and pull the free report. Follow them in order.
- Choose a bureau and open its consumer platform. Experian delivers your free report and score through its Up web app at up.experian.co.za. XDS uses Splendi at splendi.co.za. TransUnion usually gives one free report a year through its own consumer portal at transunion.co.za. VeriCred provides a free report through the threesixty.me platform.
- Register and verify who you are. You will need your South African ID number, and the bureau will ask for details to confirm your identity. Experian's Up, for example, asks you to register with your ID and to submit proof of residence not older than three months.
- Request the free report. Look for the free statutory report or free credit check, not a paid monthly plan. A page asking for card details to start a subscription is not the free report you are entitled to.
- Receive it. The report is delivered online through the bureau's platform once your identity is confirmed. Delivery is not always immediate, so if it does not appear straight away, give it a little time rather than assuming something went wrong.
- Read it. Once you have the report in front of you, go through it properly. If something on it looks wrong, our guide to disputing a mistake on your credit report walks through how to challenge it and get it fixed.
If a bureau's platform has changed since this was written, use the bureau's own official site as the starting point, and never a third party that asks for payment to hand you a report you are entitled to for free.
What you will find inside the report
A credit report typically lists your credit accounts, your payment history on them, who has searched your record, and any adverse listings such as defaults or judgments, though the exact layout varies by bureau.
You do not need to become an expert to make use of your report. In broad terms, a report usually shows your credit accounts and their balances, your payment history, a record of who has enquired about you, and any adverse information such as defaults or court judgments. The precise sections differ from one bureau to another, so do not worry if two reports are laid out differently.
The point of reading it is to sanity-check it against what you know: accounts you recognise, balances that look about right, enquiries you can account for, and no listing for something you never took out. Read it slowly the first time. For a fuller walkthrough of each part, our guide on checking your personal credit record covers what each section means.
Your report also feeds into how a lender sees you. If you want to understand what actually moves your standing, read what influences your credit score.
Free report versus paid monitoring
The statutory free credit report is your right and you never have to pay for it, so treat any product that charges a monthly fee as an optional extra, not the report you are entitled to.
Bureaus also sell paid products alongside the free report, such as ongoing monitoring or alerts. Those can be useful to some people, but they are optional. They are not the free statutory report, and you should never feel pushed into a subscription to see your own record.
A useful distinction: the item you are guaranteed for free is your credit *report*. A credit *score* may be shown alongside it, but on some platforms a live or updated score can be part of a paid add-on rather than the free report itself. [VERIFY: whether the free statutory item always includes a score, or only the report, per bureau]
The safe rule is simple. If a page asks for card details before it will show you anything, that is not the free report the law gives you. Step back and start again from the bureau's free option.
Once you have looked at your report and you know where you stand, you can check your options with our NCR-registered lending partners with no obligation. If you do apply and a lending partner takes you on, that partner pays us once your application is completed. You never pay us, and it changes nothing about your rate or what we publish here.