checkmycredit.com.auPrivacy Act 1988, Part IIIA, read from your side

Credit reporting law, plainly

Check my credit: the law around your credit file

A guide to the Privacy Act’s credit reporting rules in plain words, published by Dotto from the official sources linked on each page. It reads the law from the side of the person a credit file is about: who may hold the file, what may go in it, and what the law lets you do about it.

General information only, not legal or financial advice. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) explains these rules on its credit reporting pages, and those pages are the place to check before you rely on anything here.

Credit provider supplies information Credit reporting body compiles the report credit information a copy of your report Your rights reach both Access free every 3 months Correction 30 days, or longer if agreed Ban period 21 days, for fraud Complaint a decision within 30 days
How the file moves, in the OAIC’s words: a credit provider discloses your credit-related information to credit reporting bodies, each body compiles it into a credit report and a credit score, and a credit provider may get a copy of the report to help decide whether to give you credit. The four figures, as the OAIC gives them: free access every 3 months, correction within 30 days, or a longer period you agree to, once the information is found to be incorrect, a 21-day ban if you have been or are likely to be the victim of fraud, and a decision on a complaint within 30 days unless you agree to an extension.

Part ATwo holders, two roles

OAIC: credit reporting terms

The law names two kinds of organisation and gives them different jobs. A credit reporting body is, in the OAIC’s words, “an organisation whose business involves handling personal information to give another organisation information about the creditworthiness of an individual”. When you apply for credit, your credit provider must, under the credit reporting laws, name the credit reporting bodies it shares your personal information with.

A credit provider is the organisation on the other side of your credit. Among the organisations the Privacy Act defines as a credit provider, the OAIC lists “an organisation or small business operator that supplies goods and services where payment is deferred for 7 days or more (for example, a telecommunications carrier, an energy utility or a water utility)”. Real estate agents and employers, by contrast, are kept outside that definition, and the OAIC says they may not obtain credit reports.

Part BFive guides to the file

Each guide takes one question about the file and answers it from the law and the OAIC’s guidance, in the order a person usually meets them.

  • 1 · The holders

    Who holds your credit information

    Credit providers and credit reporting bodies side by side, how information reaches your file, and the duties the Privacy Act puts on a credit reporting body.

  • 2 · The contents

    What may be listed, and for how long

    The closed list of what can go in a consumer credit report, the five conditions before a default is listed, and the clock on each kind of entry.

  • 3 · Other readers

    Who else may see your credit report

    The organisations a credit reporting body may give your report to, why each may ask, who may not, and the log of who looked.

  • 4 · Ban period

    A ban period if you suspect fraud

    The 21 days in which a credit reporting body mustn’t use or disclose your report, how the ban is extended, and what it changes.

  • 5 · Complaints

    Complaints about credit reporting

    The three places a complaint can go, and the conditions and time limits the OAIC gives.

Part CThe law, by name

Privacy Act 1988, Part IIIA

The rules for consumer credit reporting are in Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988, the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2025 and the Privacy Regulation 2013. The code is a written code of practice that supplements Part IIIA, and the OAIC notes that “a breach of the code is a breach of the Privacy Act”.

OAIC: commercial credit information

These rules are about consumer credit. Commercial credit is any credit you have applied for that is not for personal, household or family purposes, such as a business loan. The credit reporting requirements generally apply only to the consumer credit information on your report, not to commercial credit information; the Australian Privacy Principles cover that instead, where the organisation handling it must also follow them.

Part DWhere to check for yourself

Official pages

  • The OAIC’s pages on access, correction, fraud and complaints. Access and correction have no guide here, so the OAIC’s own pages are the place to read those rules in full.
  • Moneysmart’s page on credit scores and credit reports, which says you have a right to a free copy of your credit report every 3 months.
  • The National Debt Helpline, whose financial counsellors provide free and confidential services, as the OAIC describes them.

Part EAbout this guide

Published by Dotto

Check my credit is a guide published by Dotto. It explains what the Privacy Act and the OAIC say about credit reporting, from the sources listed at the foot of each page. It is general information, not legal or financial advice, and it describes the rules rather than any one person’s file.

Where a rule has a number in it, such as a number of days, the guide gives it as the source gave it on 8 October 2026, with the source linked.