Different Agencies Hold Different Data About You

People often assume the agencies hold the same data and differ only in how they present it. They hold overlapping but distinct sets of accounts, and that difference does most of the work.

Membership is commercial, not universal

Agencies obtain data by signing lenders up as members. A lender contributes data to the agencies it has agreements with, and there is no obligation to supply all of them.

Where several agencies operate in a market, coverage is therefore uneven. An account can appear at one agency, at two, or at none, depending on the lender's arrangements.

Reciprocity rules typically mean a lender can only see the data it contributes to, which gives firms a reason to join more than one but not necessarily all.

Non-account data varies as well

Beyond accounts, agencies gather public records, electoral or residency information, search histories and, in some markets, current account behaviour or rental payment data.

Which of those sources an agency has, and how far back it holds them, is a matter of that agency's own contracts and investment rather than a shared standard.

Two files can therefore differ not only in which loans appear but in whether an address is recognised or a public record is attached at all.

Scores are not comparable across agencies

Each agency publishes a consumer score on its own scale using its own model. The scales differ in range, and the models weigh the data each agency actually has.

Comparing a number from one agency with a number from another is meaningless without knowing both scales, and even then the underlying data differs.

Lenders do not generally use those consumer-facing numbers. They build or buy models that read the raw data supplied by whichever agency they subscribe to.

A lender usually sees only part of the picture

Most lenders search one agency, sometimes two. The decision is made on the data that agency holds, so an account invisible there plays no part in the assessment.

This cuts both ways. A helpful history sitting only at an unchecked agency does not help, and adverse data sitting there does not hurt, for that particular application.

It also explains why an applicant can be declined by one lender and accepted by another on the same day, without either file having changed.

Checking one agency is checking one version

Because coverage differs, reviewing a single file confirms only what that agency holds. Errors, missing accounts and stale addresses can sit undisturbed elsewhere.

Access rights to the data held about you exist in most jurisdictions, though the mechanism, the cost and the format differ considerably from one country to another.

The practical point is that the file is not a single authoritative document. It is several partial documents maintained by competing organisations.