Getting your free credit report
Every South African is entitled to one free credit report a year from each registered credit bureau. It costs nothing, takes minutes, and is the only way to see what lenders actually see about you — including errors and any credit taken out in your name.
What you need to know
Read the account list first, and confirm every entry is yours. An account you do not recognise is the earliest sign of identity fraud, and the earlier it is caught the easier it is to unwind.
Then read the payment profile on each account — the month-by-month record of how you paid. This carries the most weight in any assessment, and recent months carry more than old ones.
Then check the adverse information: defaults, judgments and adverse classifications, each with a date. Anything past its statutory retention period must be removed, and you can require the bureau to do so.
Then check the enquiries. A cluster from a period when you were shopping for credit is visible to the next lender and is read as distress. It is also a reason to space out applications.
Dispute anything wrong, in writing, with the bureau. The investigation is free and the bureau must either correct the entry or explain why it stands. Nobody needs to be paid to do this for you.
Related
Sources and last checked
- National Credit Regulator — register of credit providers — Regulator, as at 10 August 2026.
- NCR Credit Bureau Monitor, Q2 2025 — Regulator report, as at 30 June 2025.
Page last checked 10 August 2026. Statutory caps and lender terms change — confirm anything you intend to rely on with the provider or the National Credit Regulator. Found something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.