Free credit report to help deal with debt

Equifax said that the move is to help people face up to their personal debt problems so that they can act, the Mail on Sunday reports.

“People in serious debt often have difficulty in understanding the full extent of the agreements to which they are committed,” Equifax’s Neil Munroe told the newspaper.

“We believe providing free access to credit files, via the debt advice organisations, is a crucial step in their grasping of the problems they must tackle.”

The move follows the report from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service which last week warned that cases of extreme debt had near-doubled over the past two years.

To obtain the report, applicants need to fill in a request form and have a supporting letter from a Citizens Advice Bureau or debt-management charity.