As part of the mortgage application process, your lender will ask your permission to check your credit report with at least one Credit Reference Agency (CRA), to help assess your suitability.

In the UK there are three Credit Reference Agencies:

• Equifax
• Experian
• Call Credit

Your report will show any credit accounts you have used over the past six years, and how you have managed them. By law this information should be accurate and up to date. If you get your report and spot an error, you should alert the Reference Agency immediately, so it can investigate and amend.

Your credit information is combined with data from public registers, such as the electoral roll, court judgments and insolvencies, to produce your overall credit report. Some agencies now are more comprehensive, with additional data such as rent payments, utility bills, general insurances and payday loans being added to ensure your report accurately reflects your current financial situation.

If you do not use much credit, then your credit report can understandably become a little thin. So it will help your cause if you can maintain a few lines of credit, such as a bank account, credit card or a mail order account, just so that you have some recent credit history available on your report.

How can you maintain a healthy looking credit report? Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.

• Use credit sensibly. Don't take on more than you can afford, stay within agreed credit limits, and make agreed payments on time. Lenders will usually turn down applicants with a string of maxed our credit cards, and people with a history of missed or late payments.
• Plan and space out any credit applications. Multiple applications can suggest fraud or desperation and will affect your credit score.
• Register to vote. Lenders use the voters roll to help confirm your name, address and residential history.
• If you have taken on more debt than you can afford, or your circumstances suddenly change, seek help quickly by contacting your lenders and, if necessary, a provider of free debt advice such as Citizen Advice Bureau.
• Review financial links to other people (such as an ex partner) and ask the CRA for any outdated links to be broken.
• Look at accounts you no longer use, and arrange to close them.
• Arrange to explain any past missed payments by sending a 'notice of correction' to the CRA, if you think it may help the lender to understand the background

The law allows you low cost access to your credit report, and you can get a one-off credit report from each of the Credit Report Agencies websites for around £2.00. The agencies do have more detailed online services for additional fees.

Call Credit do offer a 'free for life' comprehensive credit report at www.noddle.co.uk  So see your credit report within minutes.