Help! I want to delete my credit history

We got an email the other day from a guy who wanted his account deleted. He’d registered for Credit Simple, discovered his credit score was in the 200s, and decided the best thing was to just wipe it all off the history of the world, immediately and forever.

Great idea in theory. And many people point to other parts of the world where there’s such a thing as “the right to be forgotten”, where you can apply to have things wiped. 

So here’s a few key facts on deleting your credit info:

• You can terminate your Credit Simple account by emailing us.
• Terminating your Credit Simple account means you won’t be able to access your account via the Credit Simple website, and we won’t contact you or send you birthday cakes*.
• We pull our credit information from illion. It’s a leading credit reporting agency, which means it’s allowed by law to collect information on people applying for credit (more on that in a bit).
• When you apply for credit (such as a phone or power account, a credit card, loan or mortgage), you give permission for that company to do a credit check on you – it’s in the terms and conditions. That also gives them permission to share your information with credit reporting agencies. In the same way, when you use Credit Simple to request your credit score, you give Credit Simple permission to share your information with illion.
• You can’t get your credit history deleted, because you gave the company and the credit reporting agencies permission to collect, share, and hold your information.
• However, you can access your private information held about you at any time, as well as ask for it to be corrected. Credit reporting agencies (and Credit Simple) have to adhere to the Privacy Act and credit reporting agencies also have to adhere to the Credit Reporting Privacy Code. If you think we’ve been naughty, you can complain directly to us, and also to the Privacy Commissioner.
• Information you provide to get your credit score from Credit Simple won’t be disclosed for debt collection purposes.

Finally, remember that a credit history can actually be a really good thing to have. It can show you can be financially responsible and handle your money. Companies looking to lend to you want to know if you’ll pay your bills on time  –  imagine having several hundred thousand customers who all paid a day late, for example! And they want to know you’ve got a track record for taking care of business.

You can check your credit score and credit information here. Got questions? Just email us, or get in touch at our social pages, below.

*We don’t usually send you birthday cakes, just saying.