The thought of their name appearing on a credit blacklist worries a lot of people so let's put your mind at rest immediately.

There is no such thing as a credit blacklist.

Instead, credit reference agencies hold information about people, most of which is provided by lenders or sourced from public records.

The agencies do not decide whether you are credit worthy or not - lenders and other companies offering you a loan or credit will decide that for themselves using information provided by credit agencies together with information you may have supplied yourself.

Every company has its own way of deciding whether to extend credit to you or not based on what is called Credit Scoring. This involves building a credit score based on the information provided by one or more credit agency and the information you provide when applying for a loan or credit. That's why your application may be accepted by one by one company after being declined by another.

So there is no credit blacklist as such - just agencies that compile information relating to your credit history which they sell to companies who lend money and extend credit.

If you are ever declined credit or a loan, the lender should tell you the main reason for this and whether their decision was based upon a credit score, information on your credit file, or because of their own policy (it could simply be that you didn't fit their credit profile).

If the decision to refuse you was based on a credit report, the lender should tell you the name and address of the credit reference agency they used.

How to obtain a copy of your credit rating file from credit reference agencies