What CheckMyFile is — and what the report shows

Established in 2000 as the UK’s first online multi-agency credit report, CheckMyFile pulls your files from the three main credit reference agencies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — plus Crediva, a fourth agency specialising in alternative data (court proceedings, and flags like being reported deceased or missing — rare, but catastrophic to an application if wrong), and lays them out line by line for comparison. What you’ll see: every credit account and its payment history as each agency records it, searches, electoral roll status, financial associations (the joint-account links our partner credit guide explains), public records, and each agency’s score. One orientation note the score-bands searches ask about: the agencies score on different scales (Experian out of 999, TransUnion out of 710, Equifax on its own range), so identical financial behaviour produces three different numbers — the report’s value is the underlying data matching or mismatching across agencies, not the scores themselves, which no lender uses directly anyway (the full score-vs-file distinction is our credit score guide). The company’s other differentiator, worth crediting: no product marketing and no data selling — it’s a subscription, not a lead-generation front.

Why multi-agency matters for a mortgage (the part that justifies the fee)

Here’s the mechanism most people discover only after a decline: mortgage lenders don’t all check the same agency — one high-street bank runs Experian, another Equifax, a third TransUnion, and some check two. The agencies’ data genuinely differs: a phone-contract blip might sit on Experian and not TransUnion; an old default might be recorded with different dates or amounts; a satisfied CCJ might show cleared on one file and open on another. The consequence: you can check your file free, see it clean, apply — and be declined on the file you never saw. Multi-agency checking closes that blind spot, which is why it’s become standard broker advice before applications — and why the fix-it path matters as much as the find-it: CheckMyFile routes disputes to all agencies through one contact, versus fighting three separate correction processes. If something surfaces, our guides cover the repair playbook by issue — defaults, CCJs, the wider adverse map — and if a decline already happened, the recovery sequence starts with exactly this kind of full-file check.

The free trial and pricing, honestly

The current deal: a 7-day free trial, then £14.99 a month until cancelled. Three straight-talking notes. First, the trial shortened — it was 30 days for years, many articles still say so, and sign-up terms are what count on the day: read them, not reviews (including this one). Second, your card is taken at sign-up and charged the moment the trial lapses — the standard subscription-trial mechanic, so the calendar reminder to cancel is part of the sign-up process for anyone wanting the free look only. Third, the value framing: £14.99 is at the top of the credit-monitoring market, and as a rolling subscription most mortgage-preppers don’t need it — but as a one-or-two-month tool before an application, it’s trivially cheap against the stakes (a missed file error can cost a decline, a worse rate band, or months of delay). Use it like a survey, not a gym membership: sign up 3–6 months out, audit everything, dispute what’s wrong, cancel when done.

How to cancel CheckMyFile

Since half the people researching this service are really researching the exit, here it is plainly — and to the company’s credit, cancellation is genuinely straightforward (it’s a recurring theme in their 4.8-star Trustpilot record):

1. Online (fastest): log in → Expert Help → “I need help with my account” → “I would like to cancel my subscription” — done in a couple of minutes, confirmation by email.
2. Freephone: call their support line, Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm (excluding bank holidays) — UK-based team, no retention gauntlet by reputation.
3. Email/secure message: request cancellation through your account’s messaging — slower, but written.

The timing rules: cancel before the trial’s final day and you pay nothing; cancel mid-subscription and access typically runs to the end of the paid period. Keep the confirmation email, as with any subscription. And a genuinely useful reframe: cancelling isn’t failing to use the tool — the audit-then-cancel cycle is the tool, used correctly.

CheckMyFile vs the free alternatives

The honest decision rule: signing up to all three free services covers the same three agencies for nothing — a perfectly legitimate route for the patient — while CheckMyFile’s case is the one-report comparison view (mismatches jump out when the lines sit adjacent), the Crediva layer, single-contact disputes, and simple time-efficiency in the pre-application window. Budget route: the free trio. Convenience-at-stakes route: a month of CheckMyFile. Either beats the genuinely bad option, which is checking one file and assuming it speaks for three.

The pre-application checklist (whichever route you choose)

1. Check 3–6 months before applying — disputes and fixes need runway, and quick wins (electoral roll registration) need time to report.
2. Audit all three files for: accounts you don’t recognise, wrong dates or amounts on any adverse markers, satisfied debts showing open, stale addresses, dead financial associations to ex-partners (disassociation is a form, not a negotiation), and — increasingly — BNPL accounts you’d forgotten existed.
3. Dispute errors immediately — through CheckMyFile’s single contact or directly with each agency; corrections typically land within 28 days.
4. Fix the fixable — the improvement playbook is our credit score guide; the timeline mechanics of old issues are in the adverse guides.
5. Then apply properly: a soft-search decision in principle first, the full application sequence after — aimed, via whole-of-market comparison, at the lender whose criteria (and whose agency choice) suit the file you now actually know.

CheckMyFile: FAQs

Last updated: July 2026. Service terms verified at the time of writing and subject to change.