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Almost any company that provides secured loans or other forms of credit will supply information about you to one or more credit reference agencies. There are two major credit reference agencies in the UK - Equifax and Experian. They maintain credit files on virtually every adult in the country.

Your credit record will normally contain information on all your existing credit agreements and loans - such as your bank accounts, mortgage, secured loans, unsecured personal loans, credit and store cards, etc. Your credit file will also contain information on any missed or late payments and a note of how much of the original debt is still to be repaid.

Credit files also show electoral roll information for your address and court records relating to you. This means any lender who you want to get credit from can confirm your address and also see if you have any outstanding CCJs.

Your credit file will also show details about other people who live at your address if they are financially linked to you, or if the credit reference agencies think they are financially linked to you. In this way, another person's bad credit history can sometimes lower your credit score. But if you find you are wrongly linked to another individual, you can write to the credit reference agencies and ask them to correct the mistake.

Whenever a secured loan lender is assessing an application for a secured loan, they will check the details held on your credit record by Equifax and/or Experian. This is because legislation prevents them from requesting any information about you from any other companies with whom you have a credit agreement. Also, by contacting one of these two agencies they can gain access to your entire credit history with just one request rather than having to gather information from several different sources.

Whenever a secured loan lender (or other financial institution) makes a search of your credit file, that search is recorded on your credit file, leaving what's called a credit check "footprint". This means that whenever you apply for credit, it is easy for the lender to see if you have been "shopping around" for credit. If you have applied for credit from lots of lenders in a short space of time, this in itself could be a deciding factor in whether or not the current lender will agree to give you a secured loan.

A lot of people think that there is a credit "blacklist" you can end up on if you have a particularly bad credit history, and that if you are on this credit blacklist then you will automatically be refused credit.

This is simply not true - there is no such thing as a credit blacklist. If you have been refused a secured loan or other form of credit, the reason will be because your credit score was not high enough.

When a lender requests information about you from a credit reference agency, they apply a mathematical formula to that information in order to give you a credit score. Different lenders will use slightly different factors to come up with a credit score for you. Also, the definition and thresholds of a good or acceptable score will vary from one secured loan lender to another. Therefore, it is quite possible to be turned down by one secured loan lender but be accepted for a secured loan by another.

Under the terms of the Data Protection Act, the credit reference agencies must give you a copy of the information in your credit record in return for a small administration fee. There are also online services where you can order a copy of your credit file.

Your credit file details are supplied by post, but you can contact the credit reference agencies by telephone, post or email to request a copy of your credit file. Details or how to apply can be found on the Equifax and Experian websites. Remember that because some companies supply information to Equifax, some to Experian, and some to both, you will need to order copies of your file from both agencies in order to get a complete picture of your credit record.

Alternatively, the online credit report services available from companies such as checkmyfile.com will allow you to undergo a free credit score check, as well as download (for a fee) a copy of your full credit report.

If you find that your credit report contains any mistakes, you can ask Equifax and/or Experian to correct the errors. Full details of how to correct mistakes on your credit file are available from the credit reference agencies.

Each time you approach a lender about a secured loan and they run a credit check on you, you are potentially worsening your credit score due to the footprints this will leave on your credit record. And given that different lenders will have different criteria for assessing your credit worthiness, it makes sense to take expert advice right from the start if you are looking to take out a secured loan but suspect you may be hampered by a poor credit rating.

So if you're worried that a poor credit record may affect your ability to obtain a secured loan or secured loan, use our online enquiry form to get in touch with a specialist secured loan adviser who understands the issues surrounding credit ratings.