Comprehensive Credit Reporting

"Credit" is a term used to describe any money on loan, or products or services before payment. 

Examples of "credit" include:

• Home Loans
• Credit Cards / store Cards
• Hire Purchases
• Accounts with phone companies, power companies and some other utilities.

Credit reporting is the process of gathering information about your credit history to create an overall picture of how well you look after credit. This is done by regulated credit reporting agencies and is sometimes called a credit report or credit file.

Prior to 1 April 2012, your credit report only took into account “negative” information, such as someone having to take formal steps to recover a debt from you. 

Now, under changes to the Credit Reporting Privacy Code, eligible credit providers (like banks, finance companies and some utility companies) can share more information with credit reporting agencies on an ongoing basis, such as the type and amount of credit you have and whether you make your repayments on time.

TSB recognises the positive benefits of Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) and will be participating in CCR from 28 May 2020. This means TSB can provide credit reporting agencies with additional credit account information such as:

• Type of account, for example, a credit card or home loan
• Amount of credit extended, for example the current limit on your credit card or your home loan
• Status of the account, for example, whether the credit account is currently open
• Details of the credit provider, for example TSB
• Monthly reporting of repayment history, i.e. whether a required repayment was made on time.

The Credit Reporting Privacy Code is essentially New Zealand's law around Credit Reporting. It's a code of practice issued under the Privacy Act 1993. It applies to all credit reporting agencies and is legally enforceable in the same way as the Privacy Act.

You can find more information on the Privacy Commissioner's website or at one of the three registered credit reporting agencies: 

• Centrix 
• Equifax
• Illion