Australians, no matter who they bank with, can now access their credit report and score for free with NAB.
NAB Chief Customer Experience Officer Rachel Slade said the initiative, a first by an Australian bank, would empower consumers to better understand their financial position and start a healthy conversation about money.
“For many people, logging on to see their credit score can be overwhelming and daunting as they don’t know where to start or what their score means,” Ms Slade said.
“At NAB, we wanted to remove the fear factor and have created a solution that will not only give Australians access to their score for free, but also provide tailored insights on how to improve it.
“This is all about changing the way we feel about our finances and making checking your credit score something that is positive and empowering.”
Ms Slade said the bank did not want to limit this to NAB customers and had joined forces with illion-owned business Credit Simple to provide the service to all at nab.com.au/credithealth
“No matter who you bank with, you can jump on the secure website today and check your score as often as you want, free of charge and see it change in real time,” Ms Slade said.
“Our hope is this will help Australians no matter their circumstances. From those saving for a home to wanting to borrow for the dream family holiday or just wanting to know where they stand with their finances - this is a gamechanger.”
Creditsimple.com.au CEO David Scognamiglio said it was pleased to partner with NAB on this important initiative and was excited for more Australians to know just how easy it was to check and improve their credit score.
“The good thing about knowing your credit score is that you can actively work to improve it, but the first step is knowing what it is, and then knowing how to change it,” Mr Scognamiglio said.
“Paying your accounts on time might seem obvious, but it’s important to understand that missing a payment can impact your record and hold you back from achieving your financial goals.”
Mr Scognamiglio said credit scores became increasingly important following the expansion of Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) in September this year.
“Until the take-up of CCR, banks could only judge how much to lend based on their ‘negative’ credit score - for things like missing a credit card repayment. Being on top of your finances by paying credit cards or car loans on time were never included, but they have been from September,” Mr Scognamiglio said.
“NAB’s Credit Health Tool will give consumers the power to change this and we congratulate NAB on becoming the first major bank to roll this out nationally - it’s a big deal.
“Australians can be assured that accessing NAB Credit Health won’t negatively impact their credit score, that signing up won’t provide NAB access to their credit information and that all data is protected using industry best practice technology and processes.”